MaximumPC 2008 08

84 |MAMAMAXIMXIMXIMXIMUUUUMMPPPCC|AUG 08 |www.maximumpc.com

LAB NOTESLAB NOTES

The GeForce GTX 200 SeriesThe GeForce GTX 200 Series

LAB NOTES

The GeForce GTX 200 Series

LAB NOTESLAB NOTES

The GeForce GTX 200 Series

LAB NOTES

IN THE LAB^

HANDS ON WITH THE LATEST GEAR AND SOFTWARE

Nvidia: Kicking ass or kicking the can down the road?

R

umor has it the GeForce GTX 280 and

GeForce GTX 260, as powerful as they

seem to be, won’t be long for this world.

Several aspects of the new chips’ design lend

credence to that bit of gossip. Building a chip

with 1.4 billion transistors using a 65nm manu-

facturing process, aft er all, will result in a mas-

sively large die. The bigger the die, the lower the

yield and the higher the manufacturing cost. The

large die size might also explain why the GTX

280’s core is clocked at just 602MHz—running

faster would require a larger and more expensive cooling apparatus.

Size isn’t everything, of course: AMD’s move to a 55nm process last

year didn’t help the Radeon 3800 series catch up with Nvidia, and the

GTX 200 series will only widen the performance gap. We can’t make a

purchase recommendation until we’ve tested a shipping product, but we

suspect this might be one of those times it’s worth waiting a month or two

to see what happens next.

MICHAEL BROWN

EDITOR-AT-LARGE

KATHERINE STEVENSON

DEPUTY EDITOR

WILL SMITH

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

I got to spend some

quality time with

the new Astro Gam-

ing headset this

month. I’ll post a full

write-up online, but

I’m impressed with

both the quality and

the convenience of

this headset on ste-

roids; it’s designed

for folks who play

on consoles and the

PC. It’s too bad it’s so

goofy looking.

DAVID MURPHY

ASSOCIATE EDITOR

I’ve been testing the

eff ects of XP’s new

SP3 service pack

and Vista SP1 on our

benchmarks. I’ve

also been testing the

eff ects of a Necroman-

cer on the monsters

inside Age of Conan’s

Aquilonia. Each is as

time-consuming (and

awesome) as the other,

although I’m pretty

confi dent that the for-

mer have fewer bugs

than the latter.

TOM EDWARDS

MANAGING EDITOR

While my coworkers

may say otherwise,

the truth is the entire

staff has devoted all

of their time in the

Lab to playing Age

of Conan. In fact, it’s

a miracle this issue

was even completed

considering the

hours spent creating

characters and level-

ing up. Expect much

more of the same

next month.

GORDON MAH UNG

SENIOR EDITOR

The MSI mobo I

reviewed in this is-

sue provided the best

experience I’ve ever

had with a combo

board. Even so, I

think most people

should just suck it

down and either

adopt DDR3 or stick

with DDR2. These

half-step boards

make you feel better

but rarely pay off in

the long run.

Aft er getting a

new computer, I

became determined

to organize all my

digital photos before

moving them to their

new digs. What a

massive undertaking

that’s been! Inconsis-

tent labeling habits,

a penchant for stor-

ing duplicate photos

in multiple places,

and other acts of

storage shortsighted-

ness are all coming

home to roost.