Hi all,
You might have noticed that we have begun posting more and more GPU-related content in the past few months, and that's for a reason... people love them! All of the GPU reviews we've posted have performed well, and it's apparent that consumers love to peruse them to help with their purchasing decision. We will continue to publish more GPU-related content as time goes on (and it's about time, I admit).
In the past few GPU reviews, I've neglected to include overclocking information in any real depth. I'll mention the most successful overclock I could reach, but that doesn't tell the reader much, understandably.
From now on, our GPU reviews will include a dedicated page for overclocking success (if the card could overclock at all, that is), which will detail not only the successful overclock in some detail, but also show off real-world performance differences in order to show you exactly what benefit the overclocked setting provided.
That said, once our max stable overclock has been found, we'll run the card once again through four select titles: Call of Duty 4, Crysis, Half-Life 2: Episode Two and Unreal Tournament III - all at the 4.1 megapixel resolution of 2560x1600. Lastly, we will also include 3DMark 2006 score increases, since our readers still have a tendency to follow them. I'll also include results in the graph from a stock-clocked GPU that is one-step above the one being reviewed, to show comparisons that way also.
There are two reasons for including more detailed overclocking information. The first is the fact that different makes of the same model could overclock differently, so performance increases from one brand to another could be far different (especially if one cooler is better than another). The second is the fact that some readers may want to know the real-world benefit of an overclock in order to help them with a purchasing decision. Someone might have their eye on a 9600 GT and 8800 GT, but if they see that an overclocked 9600 GT has the ability to almost hit 8800 GT performance for a bit less cash, the decision will be a lot easier.
If you've read my processor reviews, one thing you will notice is that I tend to shy away from talking about overclocks that are not stable. To be frank, I could care less if a processor can reach 4.0GHz if it's not stable. Sure, it may give a +1 to your e-Peen, but who cares if it's flaccid all the time?
In order to verify that our GPU overclock is stable, we will first hit a setting and then test it our in a few game titles to make sure that there are no artifacts. If there are, we'll alter the overclock until we reach a sweet spot. Once we do find one, we will run a 3DMark 2006 loop for 4 - 8 hours. If it's still stable after that, the PC is reboot and allowed to sit for 10 minutes, and then the overclocked-related performance testing commences.
This is just one feature we'll begin to include in our GPU reviews, to help improve them all-around and deliver information that is of value to our readers. I should mention that I chose 2560x1600 as our overclocked setting not due to the fact that it's a popular resolution, but rather because it's the most strenuous out there, and it's one resolution that could truly benefit from a performance boost. Below, I have included the results from the upcoming Gigabyte 9600 GT review, to give an example of what I just explained.
Of course, we value reader input like there is no tomorrow, so if you think we could further improve our GPU or other reviews, please feel free to let us know and we will contemplate your suggestions and concerns.
Thanks all,
You might have noticed that we have begun posting more and more GPU-related content in the past few months, and that's for a reason... people love them! All of the GPU reviews we've posted have performed well, and it's apparent that consumers love to peruse them to help with their purchasing decision. We will continue to publish more GPU-related content as time goes on (and it's about time, I admit).
In the past few GPU reviews, I've neglected to include overclocking information in any real depth. I'll mention the most successful overclock I could reach, but that doesn't tell the reader much, understandably.
From now on, our GPU reviews will include a dedicated page for overclocking success (if the card could overclock at all, that is), which will detail not only the successful overclock in some detail, but also show off real-world performance differences in order to show you exactly what benefit the overclocked setting provided.
That said, once our max stable overclock has been found, we'll run the card once again through four select titles: Call of Duty 4, Crysis, Half-Life 2: Episode Two and Unreal Tournament III - all at the 4.1 megapixel resolution of 2560x1600. Lastly, we will also include 3DMark 2006 score increases, since our readers still have a tendency to follow them. I'll also include results in the graph from a stock-clocked GPU that is one-step above the one being reviewed, to show comparisons that way also.
There are two reasons for including more detailed overclocking information. The first is the fact that different makes of the same model could overclock differently, so performance increases from one brand to another could be far different (especially if one cooler is better than another). The second is the fact that some readers may want to know the real-world benefit of an overclock in order to help them with a purchasing decision. Someone might have their eye on a 9600 GT and 8800 GT, but if they see that an overclocked 9600 GT has the ability to almost hit 8800 GT performance for a bit less cash, the decision will be a lot easier.
If you've read my processor reviews, one thing you will notice is that I tend to shy away from talking about overclocks that are not stable. To be frank, I could care less if a processor can reach 4.0GHz if it's not stable. Sure, it may give a +1 to your e-Peen, but who cares if it's flaccid all the time?
In order to verify that our GPU overclock is stable, we will first hit a setting and then test it our in a few game titles to make sure that there are no artifacts. If there are, we'll alter the overclock until we reach a sweet spot. Once we do find one, we will run a 3DMark 2006 loop for 4 - 8 hours. If it's still stable after that, the PC is reboot and allowed to sit for 10 minutes, and then the overclocked-related performance testing commences.
This is just one feature we'll begin to include in our GPU reviews, to help improve them all-around and deliver information that is of value to our readers. I should mention that I chose 2560x1600 as our overclocked setting not due to the fact that it's a popular resolution, but rather because it's the most strenuous out there, and it's one resolution that could truly benefit from a performance boost. Below, I have included the results from the upcoming Gigabyte 9600 GT review, to give an example of what I just explained.
Of course, we value reader input like there is no tomorrow, so if you think we could further improve our GPU or other reviews, please feel free to let us know and we will contemplate your suggestions and concerns.
Thanks all,