Welcome, Adam! 18 years of experience in graphics card testing

Join us in welcoming Adam Vágner on board HWC today. Of the authors I know, he’s the most experienced with graphics cards. That’s what he’ll be covering. Thus, graphics card testing will be taken over by a tester who’s been doing it for a long time (and intensively). This is the approach we pride ourselves on and will continue to do so. There are plenty of “experts in everything”, but true specialists are slowly disappearing from the map. Read more “Welcome, Adam! 18 years of experience in graphics card testing” »

“All” graphics cards in in-depth coil whine analysis

The number of graphics cards tested over the recent period has reached a number after which we can pause a bit and specifically focus on the noise level of their coils. The latter has always been recorded in standard measurements, but in large tests with lots of other information, this unique data was getting lost. That is why it will now, within the scope of this article, be limited to these only. So which of the modern graphics cards has the quieter coils? Read more ““All” graphics cards in in-depth coil whine analysis” »

Gigabyte RX 7900 GRE Gaming OC 16G in test of 30 graphics cards

The most “lightweight” AMD Navi 31 (XL) GPU, the slowest memory subsystem, but also the lowest price. That’s the RX 7900 GRE compared to the RX 7900 XT. This Radeon is also noticeably cheaper compared to the RTX 4070 Super, although the GeForce’s power efficiency is more favorable. The gaming performance of the RX 7900 GRE (RTX 4070S), meanwhile, is comparable. That is, as long as you won’t miss ray-tracing graphics. Read more “Gigabyte RX 7900 GRE Gaming OC 16G in test of 30 graphics cards” »

Nvidia DLSS (3.5) in Alan Wake II. When does the game run best?

Alan Wake II is the first game to support Nvidia DLSS 3.5 from the start. In addition to the technological aspect, there is also the high popularity among gamers. This gives us the basic reasons to take a close look at the performance under different settings. In diving in with the gaming performance, we will be interested not only in the visual side, but also the power consumption. Not just of the graphics card, but the CPU as well. Read more “Nvidia DLSS (3.5) in Alan Wake II. When does the game run best?” »

Minitest: Cheap PSUs vs. graphics cards coils whine

You’ve already read the extensive analysis of graphics card coil whine changes depending on the PSU used. One last thing is missing for it to be complete. And that is to add the behavior of cheap PSUs with lower quality components. Otherwise, one could still speculate that across classes the situation could be significantly different. Could it? This is what we will focus on in the measurements with “80 Plus” PSUs, one of which is also already quite old. Read more “Minitest: Cheap PSUs vs. graphics cards coils whine” »

The Ventus 3X (RTX 4070 TiS) case: Final vs. original VBIOS

The GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Super Ventus 3X graphics card came out with a BIOS that MSI (and even Nvidia) wasn’t happy with. After the second revision, there is the third, the last revision of the BIOS. This one increases the power limit to allow higher GPU clock speeds to be achieved. However, this comes at the cost of a bit lower power efficiency. To update or not to update? That’s for everyone to decide for themselves, if they get the chance. Read more “The Ventus 3X (RTX 4070 TiS) case: Final vs. original VBIOS” »

Arc A580’s “Power Saving Mode” doesn’t bring only benefits

One of the negatives of Intel Arc graphics cards is their high idle power consumption. Competing solutions from a similar class are, in short, significantly less power hungry. To some extent, the consumption of Arc graphics cards can also be reduced in a very simple way. However, the latter also brings unwanted side effects that are not convenient in common practice and the whole thing is likely to be discarded because of them. Read more “Arc A580’s “Power Saving Mode” doesn’t bring only benefits” »

Best price/gaming performance ratio? Sparkle Arc A580 Orc

AMD and Nvidia let the cheap graphics card segment “deteriorate” so much that Intel took advantage of it quite elegantly. The latest Arc A580 in the Sparkle (Orc) design has a lot of imperfections that you might not get over, but at the same time it has settled into the top spot when it comes to price/performance ratio in gaming. With this primacy, it profiles itself as one of the leading adepts into low-budget builds. Read more “Best price/gaming performance ratio? Sparkle Arc A580 Orc” »

Aorus RTX 4080 Super Master 16G: A problem for the RX 7900 XTX

The new RTX 4080 in the Super variant attacks the competing Radeon (RX 7900 XTX) fiercely in every way. Their advance is not only due to faster GPUs (versus the non-Super RTX 4080), but also for higher memory bandwidth. Of all the GeForces built on Nvidia’s Ada Lovelace architecture, the latter is the highest on the RTX 4080 Super. On top of that, the RTX 4080 Super in the tested Aorus Master 16G variant is a truly extreme graphics card. Read more “Aorus RTX 4080 Super Master 16G: A problem for the RX 7900 XTX” »

Sapphire RX 7600 XT Pulse or the cheapest 16 GB graphics card

Higher GPU clock speeds and double the memory. These are the parameters that characterize the Radeon RX 7600 XT compared to the non-XT model (RX 7600). At the same time, it is a very affordable solution attractive for users prioritizing large video memory, even with a relatively weaker GPU (it doesn’t matter that much…). In our tests, we’ll break down how Sapphire’s design – the RX 7600 XT Pulse – fares in games and beyond. Read more “Sapphire RX 7600 XT Pulse or the cheapest 16 GB graphics card” »

MSI RTX 4070 Ti Super 16G Ventus 3X: Big cooler w/o a markup

The biggest hardware changes compared to non-Super cards concern the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Super. What’s different is the GPU, the amount of GDDR6X memory or the width of the memory bus. We have the RTX 4070 Ti Super in one of the cheapest non-reference designs, the Ventus 3X, for analysis and it will be about “reputation repair” as well. MSI has tarnished it a bit in this line of graphics cards in the past, but now it’s a very attractive solution. Read more “MSI RTX 4070 Ti Super 16G Ventus 3X: Big cooler w/o a markup” »

RTX 4070 Super FE gigatest: RX 7800 XT challenged at its own game

The cheapest of the new GeForce RTX 4000 Super graphics cards – the RTX 4070 Super – has the biggest increase in SM blocks compared to the non-Super variants (i.e. to the RTX 4070), yet the price, at least on paper, doesn’t increase too much. The price-performance ratio is thus very attractive and attacks the competing Radeon (RX 7800 XT) even if you disregard the typical Nvidia “premium” stuff, such as significantly faster ray tracing, DLSS 3 or CUDA. Read more “RTX 4070 Super FE gigatest: RX 7800 XT challenged at its own game” »

Fractal Design Flex 2 for free. First to write wins

Since we have no use for the Flex 2 holders from our recent review and also, FD doesn’t want them back, we’re giving them away. To readers who can take advantage of vertical mounting of the graphics card. There are only two available (black and white), so speed is of the essence. The first person to respond to this challenge gets to pick the colour, the second person will be sent the one left if they wish, and the third person in row is already writing late. Read more “Fractal Design Flex 2 for free. First to write wins” »

Graphics card vertically. We tried the Fractal Design Flex 2

You might have thought about vertical mounting of your graphics card, which many modern cases allow. You can’t do it without the right adapter, though. This usually has to be purchased as an optional accessory. We tested one such PCI Express ×16 adapter with three differently performing graphics cards. Does it or does it not affect their performance? The bottom line with the insertion of such intermediate adapters is always that “it” works at all. Read more “Graphics card vertically. We tried the Fractal Design Flex 2” »

AI performance in “DaVinci”: NVIDIA can be 100× faster than iGPU

From the last article, you already know what tasks are acceleratable by powerful NVIDIA graphics cards in DaVinci Resolve Studio. Now we have a speed comparison for you against simpler, integrated GPUs. Specifically confronting the RTX 4090 and RTX 4060 with the solution that Intel’s latest Raptor Lake Refresh processors have. The difference in favor of GeForce graphics cards is immense. Read more “AI performance in “DaVinci”: NVIDIA can be 100× faster than iGPU” »

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