General Gaming Article

General Gaming Article

EVGA UV Plus 39 Allows You To Add 1080p Displays Using USB 3.0

Posted: 10 Jun 2012 10:43 AM PDT

EVGAUSB display adapters have always been "a thing", but performance over USB 2.0 has always been a bit flaky. The older USB standard just doesn't have the bandwidth needed to support the number of pixels demanded by a modern display. With the wide spread adoption of USB 3.0 by Intel however, EVGA finally saw fit to unveil its UV Plus 39 Display Adapter at this year's Computex. 

The palm sized device will allow any PC to add additional 1080p displays using the DVI or HDMI output ports, and uses a virtual GPU driver in tandem with your CPU to process the video signals. Because of this you'll need a pretty powerful CPU to drive any more than one of these bad boy's, but if you want to add additional displays to a notebook when you dock it at home there is simply no better option.

Ivy Bridge integrated graphics can natively support up to three displays, but unfortunately multi-monitor support just isn't a thing on laptop's or ultrabooks these days. Because of this we expect the UV Plus 39 will satisfy its intended niche. Desktop users of course are always better off just dropping in another GPU or upgrading older hardware for multi-monitor support.  

Sapphire Preparing To Launch Passively Cooled Radeon HD 7770

Posted: 10 Jun 2012 10:13 AM PDT

Sapphire 7770 PassiveWhen it comes to picking a video card these days the number of choices is pretty overwhelming. If on the other hand you are mortally allergic to the sound of fans, your list suddenly shrinks to a pretty pathetic set of offerings. Sapphire saw an opening, and was showing off a passively cooled Radeon HD 7770 at this year's Computex.

The board itself looks like a reference 7770, but with a few key changes. The first is the massive; hard to miss aluminum heat sync mounted to the front of the card. The second is the relocation of the video ram to the back of the board. Perhaps the most impressive accomplishment here is the fact that they managed to keep the GPU fully clocked at 1GHz. Most passively cooled GPU's rely in under clocking to keep the thermals in check.

The Radeon 7770 is pretty far from being AMD's top performer; however it is a decent step up from Ivy Bridge graphics for those looking to play less intensive games such as Diablo 3 at decent frame rates. No release date or pricing was announced, and it goes without saying you'll also need a case with decent ventilation.  

(Image Credit AnandTech)

Chrome for Windows 8 Metro Entering Beta Soon

Posted: 10 Jun 2012 09:36 AM PDT

Chrome MetroIf you are one of the millions of brave souls who downloaded the Windows 8 Release Preview, but are looking for an IE replacement in Metro this PSA is for you. Google apparently began work on a Windows 8 Metro version of Chrome back in March, and the fruits of these labors are getting ready to enter beta. This first release won't be compatible with Windows RT for ARM tablets, but just about any other x86 hardware should be good to go. 

If we've peaked your interest you should keep an eye on the Chrome Developer channel, as we have been told it could appear there any day now. We were also cautioned that this first release will likely be a bit rough around the edges, and users who try it out are encouraged to help the Chrome team out by filling our regular bug reports. 

EVGA Tempts Overclocks With The GeForce GTX 680 Classified

Posted: 10 Jun 2012 09:09 AM PDT

680 ThumbGTX 680's are still all but impossible to find, however that won't stop EVGA from taunting the enthusiast community with something even more lust worthy. The EVGA 680 Classified will feature an optional water-cooling block, 14-phase power design, and voltage control inputs to give power users all the flexibility they need to catapult themselves to the top of the 3D Mark Vantage charts.

As excited as we are to finally start seeing what OEM's can do with such an impressive chip, we'd be even more impressed if you could buy a GTX 680 at all. A quick glance over at Newegg.com shows well over a dozen GTX 680 variants released, but not a single card is in stock. Until supply catches up with demand AMD will continue to run away with the show. The 7970 is no longer the fastest single GPU, but it is the single fastest GPU you can buy. 

(Image Credit AnandTech)
Posted by Shri Krishna

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