ZOTAC launches G.ONE signature edition graphics cards

Everywhere you look; you can’t help but spot a poster of Ra.One, supposedly Bollywood’s most expensive film yet. Now, how about a G.ONE inspired graphics card? At last Friday’sGeForce LAN party, organised by Nvidia, ZOTAC unveiled two signature edition graphics cards based on the movie Ra.One. The two cards include the GT 520 and the GTX 560 Ti, which come in a special signature edition packaging featuring none other than, Shah Rukh Khan on the box. The GTX 560 Ti is priced at Rs.15,999  while the GT 520 is priced at Rs.3,390. The pricing includes all the taxes and levies and will be available throughout the country.

Any takers?

The GTX 560 Ti in question features the same stock speeds as the reference Nvidia card but ZOTAC says that it can easily be overclocked to the levels of their Amp Edition card using Firestorm software. The core clock is set to 822MHz while the memory runs at 4000MHz. The GT 520 on the other hand has been overclocked a bit out of the box. The core speed is set to 835MHz from the stock 810MHz while the DDR3 memory is clocked at 2200MHz (effective speed). The card uses the reference design itself and is a single slot, low profile graphics card designed for HTPCs. Other than the new ‘fancy’ packaging, the cards are no different from the standard edition cards that are available for less.

Budget graphics card comparison tesT

One thing we’ve all been noticing is that the system requirements of games have been slowly going down. The best example of this is the upcoming id Software RAGE game title. Any gaming enthusiast will tell you that id Software makes some really intensive games and Doom 3 pushed the boundaries when it came out back in 2004. RAGE it seems, will be able to run on three year old graphics cards. A mid-range range card today then makes ideal sense for those on a tight budget, but who still want to game. There’s no shortage of these cards, but which one do you buy? To find out, we called up all of the graphic card manufacturers in India, asking them to send us all their budget graphics cards. We’re happy to report we received 19 of them, all priced roughly between the Rs. 6,000 and Rs. 8,000 range.

The cards

We received products across chipsets and features from brands such as ASUS, Galaxy, MSI, Palit, Sapphire, XFX and ZOTAC. There were also some new comers. Forsa, for example, is a relatively new brand and HIS, a brand not so commonly known in India was also present for the test. Chipsets ranging from NVIDIA’s GTS250 to AMD’s Radeon 6790 were all present. The point of the test was to try and pinpoint the best graphics card around in this price range. Users using 22-inch and 24-inch displays and wanting a graphics solution in a somewhat tight budget would find these cards suitable.

Test procedure

Being graphics cards, the key factor that governs the buying decision is the performance. In order to do this, we ran a barrage of benchmarks, which included the synthetic benchmark 3DMark Vantange. Games such as Resident Evil 5, Mafia 2, Far Cry 2, DiRt 2 and Just Cause 2 were also run. This ensured that we covered most popularly used game engines across developers. We ran games at two resolutions - 1280x1024 and 1680x1050. We also wanted to see how well the cooling solution on these cards would perform. Many of the systems running these cards might be run as 24/7 rigs. Temperatures under gaming load also must be under reasonable levels, so we took a separate reading to see how hot the cards would get under load.

Performance

There was one card that stood out across all tests in this comparison and that was the XFX Radeon HD 6790 (HD-679X-ZH). This card, which looked larger than most other cards was the fastest of all by far. It just about managed to make it within our price range for this test. Priced at just under Rs. 8,000 in the market, it manages to be faster than all the other cards by a good bit. The only games where it drops below some of the other cards are Mafia 2 and Far Cry 2. The GeForce GTX550 Ti cards from Sparkle and Galaxy are the ones that rise to the top. One of the surprising scores is from the ASUS GeForce GTS 450 TOP, which with its overclocked core manages to come somewhat close to the GTX 550 Ti cards. 

Dirt 2

Dirt 2 test scores (Click for larger image)

Both the XFX Radeon 6790 and the Sparkle GTX 550 Ti come very close in this test. Between these three chipsets, there’s hardly a 5 percent performance difference. With frame rates touching 70fps at 1680x1050 resolutions, one can easily crank up the resolution to 1920x1080 and notice a small hit in performance. 

Far Cry 2

Far Cry 2 test scores (Click for larger image)

A bigger performance boost can be seen in Far Cry 2, where the GTX 550 Ti cards again, from Sparkle and Galaxy seem to dominate. Some of the slightly older cards such as the MSI GTS450 and the overclocked ASUS ENGTS450 TOP also make an appearance here.

MSI announces the R7970 Lightning Edition with unlocked BIOS and digital PWM

tSI today announced the release of the MSI R7970 Lightning, the new heir to the Lightning series graphics cards. Equipped with AMD's 28nm Radeon HD 7970 GPU, the MSI R7970 Lightning features an all-new Unlocked Digital Power Architecture that incorporates an Unlocked BIOS, Digital PWM Controller, and Enhanced Power Design to boost overclocking potential to new heights and make overclocking easier than ever. In an industry first, the proprietary "GPU Reactor" power supply module reduces power supply noise and also boosts overclocking stability as well.

To keep this beast cool, the MSI R7970 Lightning utilizes the latest Twin Frozr IV Thermal Design, equipped with Dust Removal Technology. The dual 10 cm fans with Propeller Blade Technology generate massive airflow for fast heat dissipation, while remaining whisper silent. The two form-in-one heatsinks improve cooling for memory and the power supply module as well ensure structural integrity. The R7970 Lightning uses Military Class III components, which have passed rigorous third-party testing to meet MIL-STD-810G standards, guaranteeing the card's stability and reliability under actual use conditions. Moreover, the "3X3 OC Kits" are designed to simplify overclocking, which makes it easier than ever for enthusiasts to fine-tune the performance of their graphics cards. 

The R7970 Lightning boasts an all-new Unlocked Digital Power architecture, which involves the Unlocked BIOS, digital PWM chipset, and an improved power supply design. Unlocked BIOS removes CCC overclocking limits, Power Tune limit is increased by 180 percent, and OCP limits are relaxed to completely unleash the graphics card's overclocking potential. The digital power supply signal provides voltage signals that are more stable and accurate, than conventional analog designs, meaning the voltage can be adjusted more quickly and precisely during overclocking. The improved power supply design provides double the power of the reference board and consists of 17 power supply parameters, dual 8-pin power supply connectors, and the Lightning Power Layer (LPL) design.

For the extreme user

Under the aluminum Twin Frozr IV body, you can find a high density fin grid array that provides heat dissipating area that is fed by heat-pipes, featuring MSI’s SuperPipe technology. MSI has also incorporated its exclusive Dust Removal Technology. Fans are running in reverse for 30 seconds after booting to remove dust from the heatsinks and keep the graphics card's cooling performance running at optimum levels. The R7970 Lightning also boasts two form-in-one heatsinks. One heatsink is located on the front of the graphics card to cool the memory and power supply modules, while the second heatsink on the back of the card helps protect and re-inforce the card structure. This extreme cooling design provides the R7970 Lightning with the best cooling performance and the most reliable structure.

For overclocking enthusiasts, MSI has developed the 3X3 OC Kits: V-Check Points enable GPU, Memory and VDDCI voltage to be monitored, while Triple Overvoltage and Triple Temperature Sensor enable overclockers to quickly fine-tune and track the performance of their graphics card using enthusiasts favorite Afterburner overclocking software. The four mini DisplayPorts and 2 DVI ports on the R7970 Lightning enable AMD Eyefinity technology to drive 6 screen output with just one card.