Today we are going to visit an old topic that we seem to have gone over and over again with this latest generation of graphics cards. However today we plan to do things a little differently, at least a little different to how we have done them in the past. Previously these CPU scaling articles have exclusively featured high-end graphics cards such as the Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTX. However, while today’s article will still include the GeForce 8800 GTX, we have also included the 8800 GTS (320MB) and 8600 GTS graphics cards to compare the gaming performance when paired with a range of AMD and Intel processors.

The GeForce 8600 GTS and other graphics cards offering similar performance do not require a processor with much more guts than a Sempron 3600+ or Celeron 440. This was evident in all four games tested, particularly Company of Heroes. Today we still believe it is important to carefully pick the right graphics card and processor combination as it will make for a better all round gaming experience. We still believe graphics cards such as the GeForce 8600 GTS are best paired with E4300 and X2 4000+ processors or anything slower.

Today we piece together a $2500 US gaming system featuring a 24” Samsung LCD and a highly overclockable processor and motherboard combination. The performance results are impressive and through overclocking we have been able to boost system performance even further. With plenty of storage space, memory and a GeForce 8800 GTX (768MB) graphics card, our high-end system offers gamers a serious level of performance!

For $2500 US you would expect something pretty impressive and I think this is what we got! While the motherboard, graphics card and processor configuration is highly recommended for this build, the rest of the hardware can be modified to save money; but we again recommend you use the selected components, particularly the graphics card. The case, power supply, keyboard/mouse and monitor are not as important, but they do help balance the package.

Today we take two budget processors that are priced well under $100 US from the Intel Celeron and AMD Sempron series. The new Conroe-L based Celeron 440 goes to war against the proven Sempron 3600+ to try and claim the budget processor crown. Both processors are clocked at 2.0GHz, but the Celeron has a distinct advantage, featuring twice as much L2 cache. So on paper the Celeron 440 looks to be the more powerful processor, but how will the Celeron stack up again the Sempron when it comes to gaming?

On paper the Celeron 440 looks to be the superior processor and although the Sempron 3600+ dominated the memory bandwidth testing, it was the Celeron that claimed the processor performance testing. The Celeron 440 looked sharp in SiSoft XI, producing impressive single-core results while it was significantly faster at making Super PI calculations and offered more bandwidth in PCmark2005. So as expected, the Celeron 440 fared quite well against the Sempron 3600+ thanks to the much larger 512KB L2 cache.

Today we piece together a $900 US gaming system featuring a 19” Acer LCD and a highly overclockable processor/motherboard combination. The performance results are impressive and through overclocking we have been able to boost performance by more than 20%. With plenty of storage space, memory and a GeForce 7900 GS (256MB) graphics card, our low-end system offers gamers a serious bang for their buck!

With the only weakness being the graphics card, it makes sense to go with the stronger Core 2 Duo E4400 processor as the GeForce 7900 GS can easily be upgraded in the future without having to replace any other components. This seems to be the safest bet really and in the meantime you can still enjoy excellent performance out of the 7900 GS in the majority of today’s games. Furthermore, with the aid of some overclocking we were able to achieve between a 20% and 60% performance gain in the four games that were tested.

Today we are going to provide you with a basic step-by-step guide on how to overclock a graphics card. The GeForce 8600 GT is the test subject and while we do not feel this graphics card is the best gaming solution at its standard clock frequencies, with a little overclocking it can deliver respectful performance. In order to achieve respectful performance the GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) must be bumped up by nearly 30%, while the memory will take a 30% frequency injection.

As you are now aware, overclocking your graphics card can be a quick and easy way to squeeze a bit more performance out of your system without having to spend any more money. In this case we were able to push the GeForce 8600 GT, which costs around $135 US, to rival the more expensive GeForce 8600 GTS graphics cards, which cost roughly $190 US. The advantage to doing this with an 8600 GT graphics card is that it can be powered for a basic 300-400w power supply and there are no additional PCI Express power cables required.

Today we piece together a $1300 US gaming system featuring a 22” Acer LCD and a highly overclockable processor and motherboard combination. The performance results are impressive and through overclocking we have been able to boost performance by more than 20%. With plenty of storage space, memory and a GeForce 8800 GTS (640MB) graphics card, our mid-range system offers gamers a serious bang for their buck!

For $1300 US this is an impressive mid-range gaming system that uses quality components. The motherboard, memory and processor are highly recommended for this build. The rest of the hardware can be modified to save money, but we again recommend you use the selected components, particularly the graphics card. The case, power supply, keyboard/mouse and monitor are not as important, but they do help balance the package. For example, if you were to drop the LCD down to a 19” version, then it would make sense to also reduce the GeForce 8800 GTS from a 640MB to a 320MB graphics card.

Today we have a $240 US motherboard and processor combo for you that can be turned into the basis for a high-end gaming machine. Without having to upgrade the cooling we were easily able to push the Intel Pentium Dual-Core E2160 processor from 1.8GHz to 3.0GHz, though it was the 3.4GHz overclock that produced serious performance gains!

This will be the third and last overclocking article that we are going to publish using the ASUS P5N-E SLI as the test subject. The P5N-E SLI itself has never been reviewed here at Legion Hardware, despite having owned this motherboard for almost six months now ... With the help of our trusty ASUS P5N-E SLI motherboard, the Intel Pentium E2160 processor soared from 1.80GHz to a blistering 3.40GHz! At this frequency the performance limitations of the 1MB L2 cache almost go unnoticed. Realistically most of you are only going to overclock the E2160 to 3.0GHz as this frequency can easily be achieved when using the standard Intel box cooler. Furthermore a 3.0GHz overclock does not require any voltage adjustments.

Lost Planet is the first game to be released that utilizes DirectX 10 and while this has generated a great deal of attention for the 3-person shooter, everything is not all it is cracked up to be! In this article we compare DX9 and DX10 image quality along with performance. The Radeon HD 2900XT has been included and the results were pleasantly surprising. The overrated GeForce 8600 series graphics cards are also included, though their performance numbers were not suprising.

Okay, so there you have it performance, image quality and various graphics card comparisons all in the one article. For the most part what we have learnt from all our Lost Planet testing has been quite disappointing, though there were a few surprises. The biggest surprise was the AMD Radeon HD 2900XT which managed to deliver comparable performance to the GeForce 8800 GTX in a number of tests. The Radeon HD 2900XT was impressive in the DX9 tests, while there is much work to be done before the divers can deliver acceptable DX10 performance.

Today we have a $280 US motherboard and processor combo for you that can be turned into the basis for a high-end gaming machine. Without having to upgrade the cooling we were easily able to push the Core 2 Duo E4400 processor from 2.0GHz to 3.0GHz which significantly boosted performance!

The E4400 is a fantastic Core 2 Duo processor for overclocking as it is essentially an E6700 with just 2MB of L2 cache on an 800MHz FSB. Given both processors share the same clock multiplier, all it takes is for the user to adjust the FSB from 800MHz to 1066MHz and there you have it, a 2MB E6700 for $140 US. Not bad given you would pay much more than twice this dollar amount for a genuine 4MB E6700.

Everyday my inbox is filled with various questions from readers. However recently the majority of these questions have been power supply related and the subject is always about how much power is enough. Many readers are starting to ask if 700 watt and 800 watt units will be enough, which is crazy given that most powerful gaming systems need no more than 600 watts...

Are you currently thinking of building an SLI enabled Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTX gaming system with an Intel quad-core processor and a couple of hard drives in RAID? Well if you are then you need a 1000 watt power supply right? Wrong, but how can this be wrong with so many 1000 watt power supplies becoming available! In fact you don’t even need an 850 or 800 watt power supply to safely operate such a system. After recently building this exact system we discovered that the maximum power demand created by this configuration was just 530 watts.

Using the ASUS P5N-E SLI we have come up with a quick and easy three step method of getting an E6400 from 2.13GHz all the way to 3.50GHz. Furthermore this can be achieved using the standard Intel box cooler and some DDR2-800 memory. There is no need to spend big bucks on motherboards, cooling solutions or high-speed DDR2 memory and we show you why...

The ASUS P5N-E SLI is like a completely new motherboard with this updated BIOS revision. Overclocking has never been easier and the fact that users have the option to run the Core 2 Duo E6400 at 3.50GHz with DDR2-800 memory is impressive! The ASUS P5N-E SLI really is an ideal motherboard for not only the cheaper low-end Core 2 Duo processors, but also the more expensive versions such as the E6700. Given the board can match the $400 US Striker Extreme in terms of performance, there is really no need to spend more than $110 US to receive ultimate performance.

The Command & Conquer 3 demo was finally released this week and boy was it worth the wait! I have to admit I was never expecting much after the second installment of Command & Conquer left me with little faith that there would ever be another version as good as the original. However, if the full version is just as exciting as the demo which I am now confident it will be this could be the best RTS game of 2007. In any case we don’t do game reviews, but we do test them to let you know what hardware you need to run the latest and greatest games! The hardware demands this particular title makes might surprise you...

First of all I was one of the biggest fans of the original Command & Conquer game. This game was the very reason why I developed an interest in computers. So many hours were spent playing C&C Gold online, countless hours. I even started a web site about the game called the “Command & Conquer Legion” which evolved into Legion Hardware as I became more interested in the hardware that ran my games. Anyway, ever since the original there have been almost no RTS games that have captured me quite like C&C did. The Red Alert series were good but I missed GDI and NOD. Having pre-ordered C&C Tiberian Sun and waited for what seemed almost forever, the game disgusted me!

The last Intel vs. AMD comparison was made back in July of 2006 when the Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 was released. Since then it has seemed somewhat pointless to pitch the aging AMD Athlon64 processors against the Core 2 Duo lineup. Today we take two $220 US processors from AMD and Intel being the Athlon64 X2 5200+ and Core 2 Duo E6400. We then pitch them against each other to determine which of the two is the best value solution, read on for all the details...

It is amazing to think that the Athlon64 X2 processors are now 2 years old while the original Athlon64 architecture is 4 years old. For so many years the Athlon64 processors made Intel’s numerous versions of the Pentium 4 and Pentium D processors look somewhat silly. Only in the last 7 months or so has Intel been able to take the performance crown from AMD. Of course, to do so they had to completely redesign the Core 2 architecture from the ground up and while the result is incredibly impressive, it hardly makes the existing AMD processors look silly.

As promised here is the final installment of our Supreme Commander testing. This time we test drove a full version copy of the game with a number of new AMD and Intel processors along with a wider range of graphics cards from both ATI and Nvidia. Unfortunately, the final code is no less demanding than the demo, so if you are going to purchase Supreme Commander be sure to check out what hardware is require to enjoy the game!

Everyone seems to have their own opinion regarding what makes Supreme Commander work best and unlike many games available today, Supreme Commander is dependent on just about everything. The more processing power you throw at this system the better, though I do not agree that multi-core processors ensure excellent performance. I ran a few tests using Core 2 Quad and Duo processors and noticed that the second, third or fourth cores did very little when compared to the first. In the most intense battles the first core would operate at around 90 ~ 100% where as additional cores worked between 20 ~ 50%. Of course this helps, but evidently Supreme Commander is not designed to fully utilize multi-core processors, or at least we have not seen it do so.

In the past we have tested the GeForce 8800 GTX at 1600x1200 in a number of games using a mixture of high-end Intel and AMD processors. However, given the 8800 GTS is a far more popular solution, we felt it would be best to include this graphics card in the article. Therefore, we now have a direct comparison between the GTX and GTS using a range of processors.

Although the GeForce 8800 GTX is best suited to high-end systems, it can be utilized quite well on slightly slower processors. Of course we are not talking about slow processors here, in fact quite the opposite. However, the 1600x1200 resolution showed almost no performance variations between the eleven configurations with the FSAA and Aniso settings enabled. The only game to show noticeable performance differences when using lower clocked or lower performance processors was X3: Reunion.

All those RTS (Real-Time Strategy) fans out there have no doubt heard of “Supreme Commander” and I am sure anyone who enjoyed Total Annihilation has been on the edge of their seats waiting for this one. Supreme Commander is the successor of Total Annihilation and is set to be the next big RTS game. However, after having played the recently released demo I was shocked by how demanding this game is! Therefore I decided to sacrifice a few graphics cards in order to help you determine if you will need to dig deep and upgrade in time for the release of Supreme Commander.

Supreme Commander will be available on the 20th of this month and if you are going to grab yourself a copy, keep in mind that this game is not even half as good with low quality settings as it is with high quality settings. Of course when the game is finally released, the game performance might be a little less taxing than what we have seen here today, though I very much doubt it. In fact I really believe that our results are some what conservative given we were never heavily engaged with the AI (Artificial Intelligence). With a rather limited amount of units on a small map I really do not believe we pushed this game anywhere near its limits.

It is now possible to pick up a Core 2 Duo E4300 and although these new low-end processors are not yet properly priced, they should be very soon. The E4300 is suggested to fall below $130 US by April this year, making it a very affordable Core 2 Duo processor indeed. However, at just 1.80GHz the E4300 is not going to be setting any new speed records; but thanks to a lowly 800MHz FSB and a 9x clock multiplier, it might turn some heads yet!

Prior to the 3.47GHz overclock, the performance of the Core 2 Duo E4300 was quite poor and although it was only slightly slower than the E6300 in a number of tests, it did fall behind the Pentium D 950 in quite a few tests. Nevertheless, for enthusiasts the E4300 is going to be all about overclocking performance and as the E4300 demonstrated here today, it has a lot of it. The E4000 series of processors are really no different to those of the E6000 series, the only difference is the cheaper E4000 processors have the VT technology disabled. This has absolutely no impact on performance and I am sure most users will not miss this technology.

Whenever we review a new graphics card, processor, motherboard or even memory module, the word overclock is bound to pop up more than once. Overclocking has become standard terminology among computer users these days for a good reason. Yet many readers still question whether or not overclocking is worth it. Today, we look into the advantages and disadvantages, to try and determine if overclocking is in fact worth the trouble.

This is a question I am often asked, and to be honest I do not really have a quick one line answer that properly addresses it. Back in the days when overclocking first began to gain popularity, it was certainly worth the effort. I remember overclocking my Celeron 300A from 300MHz to 475MHz, and boy did that make a noticeable difference. This was almost a 60% jump in frequency and at the time this had a huge impact on performance, as my relatively inexpensive Celeron system could now compete with the much more expensive Pentium II systems.

It seems that just about everyone building a new Core 2 Duo system wants to overclock it and why not, these processors scale very well. Unfortunately, given the large amount of e-mails we continue to receive regarding this topic, it would appear that not everyone is sharing in the success that we had with our E6700 many months ago. Therefore, we have completed a basic step by step guide explaining how to overclock the cheapest Core 2 Duo processor there is, the E6300.

Nevertheless, we feel that overclocking a Core 2 Duo processor such as the E6300 really is quite easy. Clocked at 1.86GHz we found that reaching 3.20GHz using the settings illustrated in this review was all too easy! Reaching 3.50GHz may be a little more difficult, but again we are yet to find an E6300 processor that wont go there with this motherboard and memory configuration. That said, most gamers will have no need to go above 3.20GHz any way, as the 3.50GHz configuration offered almost no performance gains at either tested resolution. Given many gamers will go for a Radeon X1950 Pro rather than the X1950XTX used here today, there is even less need to reach 3.50GHz.

The new Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTX has been out and about for a few weeks now, and in this short period it has established itself as the fastest graphics card of all time. The 8800 GTX is in fact significantly faster than any previous generation graphics card. This means while most systems had a hard time harnessing the power of a Radeon X1950XTX, almost all will have trouble dealing with the new 8800 GTX. This article is designed to find out what kind of processor you will need in order to achieve maximum 8800 GTX performance!

Obviously being Nvidia’s most impressive achievement yet, not to mention their front runner, the GeForce 8800 GTX is a seriously powerful graphics card. Designed to meet the most extreme needs of gamers, it also comes with a serious price tag. That said, it is clear the GeForce 8800 GTX is designed purposely to be coupled with the latest and greatest processors. These graphics cards make it very easy to enable maximum FSAA and Aniso settings at high resolutions without sacrificing a great deal of performance. Even with the maximum FSAA and Aniso quality settings enabled, the GeForce 8800 GTX delivered playable performance at 1600x1200, and is capable of going well beyond this resolution.

Normally I never bother writing up on new driver sets as they generally make for a rather boring read. However, when 20~30% performance gains are being claimed I just cannot help myself. ATi made a number of bold performance claims upon releasing the new Catalyst 6.8 drivers so I decided to check them out...

There were also claims that these new drivers would boost performance in DirectX games. The only game that had received optimizations included Call of Duty 2, where gains as large as 30% were said to be possible. While ATi did claim a possible performance increase of 18% in Quake 4, we saw only a 10% increase which was decent nonetheless. Prey was said to improve by 16%, though we only saw a 6% performance gain in this new gaming title.

Remember VIA Technologies, the Taiwanese chipset manufacturer. Although I once found myself reviewing VIA based motherboards on a weekly basis, it has been over a year now since I last touched a retail motherboard that used a VIA chipset. This being the case I was literally stunned when I came across the ASUS P5VD2-MX which is designed for the new Core 2 Duo processors. I was stunned because this affordable little Micro-ATX motherboard not only supports Core 2 Duo processors, but it does so using the VIA P4M890 chipset! This article looks at the performance of the P4M890 when using a Core 2 Duo processor and compares it to high-end products such as the P965 and 975X.

The performance of the VIA P4M890 has amazed me and I cannot help but wonder how well this chipset could perform without certain limitations. For starters the single-channel DDR2-533 memory support is very out dated, as dual-channel DDR2-667 has been a standard for quite some time now. In fact the majority of chipsets that support DDR2 memory these days officially support up to at least DDR2-800 in dual-channel mode. This obviously places the P4M890 and the ASUS P5VD2-MX motherboard at a clear disadvantage when compared to the latest NVIDIA and Intel chipsets. This is quite disappointing as VIA have been known in the past to develop some of the best memory controllers in the business.

NVIDIA has now well and truly broken out as the number one chipset supplier for the AMD platform and they are also making their way onto the Intel scene. They have become so dominate on the AMD platform that they are now able to offer a wide range of supporting chipsets. They plan to offer total support to AM2 users with a range of four different chipsets, being the nForce 590 SLI, 570 SLI, 570 Ultra and 550. These chipsets all range in price and performance, with the features being much the same across the board. Of course the only features that are added to the more esteemed chipsets are performance enhanced features.

The performance of these two chipsets using a single graphics card is almost identical and you can expect SLI performance to be much the same. The nForce 590 SLI chipset does provide slightly more memory bandwidth, though this does not seem to aid its real world performance all that much. The nForce 590 SLI is also a much better chipset for overclocking as I have tested a number of nForce 570 SLI/Ultra motherboards here in the Legion Hardware labs and none of them have cracked a 266MHz FSB without loss of stability. Ideally, for this article I would have preferred to use two motherboards from the same manufacturer. Unfortunately, I did not have time to wait for an ASUS M2N-SLI Deluxe sample.