Reviewed on March 19, 2009Apple's new eight-core Mac Pro demonstrates marked improvements over the older model in high-intensity digital media and multitasking scenarios. We also love the design tweaks that improve on Apple's already industry-leading sensibilities. Any Apple-bound design professional would welcome this new tool in his or her arsenal.TAGS:tray, Apple Macintosh, digital media, Apple Computer, CPU, memory, motherboard, card, NVidia, video card, hard drive, Microsoft Windows
Reviewed on November 21, 2007Despite the usual caveats of an ever-fluctuating 3D market, for the moment, at least, ATI's new Radeon HD 3850 graphics card delivers the best bang-for-the buck in PC graphics hardware. Until now we haven't had an acceptable sub-$200 option for PC gaming this year. Thanks to AMD, now we do.TAGS:Radeon, DirectX, ATI Technologies, card, Nvidia GeForce, NVidia, motherboard, video card, games, PC
Reviewed on August 2, 2007If you're looking to build a home theater PC, we recommend ATI's Radeon HD 2600 XT as the midrange card to use, thanks to its nearly perfect HD video image and its no-fuss installation. But for 3D gaming, you'd be much better off looking for a good deal on a faster, older graphics card.TAGS:Radeon, ATI Technologies, ATI Radeon, NVidia, Nvidia GeForce, DirectX, card, 3D, generation, video card, games
Reviewed on February 12, 2007No other 3D graphics card comes close to this bang for the buck, making the 320MB XFX GeForce 8800 GTS mostly an easy decision if you need a midrange upgrade. Nvidia still has to polish off its Vista software, and the sooner-or-later arrival of competing cards muddies the waters a bit, but if you need a midprice graphics card today, this should be your pick.TAGS:XFX Inc, Nvidia GeForce, card, 3D, clock speed, NVidia, Radeon, DirectX, ATI Technologies, AMD, Microsoft Windows Vista, video card, games, Microsoft Windows
Reviewed on April 26, 2006The GeForce 7900 GTX offers excellent visual quality and lets you crank the settings on just about any game. Though it's expensive, it costs significantly less than the previous generation of top-end 3D cards.TAGS:Nvidia GeForce, Half-Life 2, card, NVidia, GPU, power supply, 3D, video card, memory, games
Reviewed on June 16, 2008Nvidia's new GTX280 graphics chip brings fast 3D performance and exciting new possibilities for speeding up certain kinds of multimedia applications. We'd be more enthusiastic about this card if the software was available to take advantage of the new features.TAGS:Crysis, NVidia, Nvidia GeForce, ASUS, card, GPU, 3D, video card
Reviewed on January 30, 2008The 3D graphics card market changes too rapidly for us to get bullish about a card with premature driver software. The ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 shows promise, even outscoring Nvidia on many PC games, but we would still wait until AMD works out the kinks before handing over your $450.TAGS:Call of Duty, Radeon, ATI Radeon, ATI Technologies, Nvidia GeForce, NVidia, AMD, Unreal Tournament, DirectX, games, card, video card, PC
Reviewed on March 18, 2008Nvidia's new flagship 3D card delivers almost all the performance we expect for its price. If you can live with "almost," at this price range, then this is a solid PC gaming option. We also wouldn't blame you Crysis fans for waiting to see what's in store later this year.TAGS:Nvidia GeForce, power supply, ASUS, NVidia, card, Radeon, ATI Technologies, video card, PC