Stage Lighting Technician Ebook

directx 12 in-depth report
issue 292/June 2014
JUST IN
No.1 for
reviews
kin
AMD radeon
R9 295 X2
gston Hyp
erx cloud
madcatz f
req
Gamdias h
ades
Asus roG G
750
AMD turns to watercooling

for its new dual-GPU card
GPU SUPERTEST
best ever
graphics
cards
Overclocked or vanilla?
Every major card rated
From 64 to 1,100
Gaming
keyboards
deon
a
R
D
AM 295 X2
R9
Round-up of the latest

macro-sporting boards
record perfect audio
How to ensure your audio is

flawless every time you record
hardcore retro gaming
Make your own arcade machine

powered by a Raspberry Pi
#292/06.14
48 Nvidias
GTC 2014
54 The DirectX
Evolution
Featuring
Hardware reviews
10 Group test
The best graphics cards ever.
28 Solid state RAID
When two become one...
44 Gaming keyboards
Mechanical switches a-go-go.
24
AMD Radeon
R9 295X2
28
Intel SSD 730 / Crucial
M550 RAID 0
30
Gigabyte B85M-D2V
32
Aorus X7
34
Asus G750
36
Lenovo Erazer X510
38
Arctic Accelero
Xtreme IV
39
Kingston HyperX
Cloud Pro
Regulars
46 Rig Builder
50 T
ech Porn: AMD R9 295X2
92 Ask Luis
98 Voice of Reason
4
6 Prize
polygon
pushers
June 2014
40
Mad Catz F.R.E.Q. 4D
41
Mad Catz R.A.T. TE
42
Gamdias Hades
Extension Laser
43
AOC i2472PWHUT
44 Thermaltake TteSPORTS
MEKA G-Unit / Ozone
Strike Pro
45
Cooler Master Trigger-Z /
Razer Blackwidow
Ultimate
e to
Subscrib
NOW!
find
2to
Seepage 5save
outhowto
visual
computing
The eyes have it
when it comes to
modern-day PCs
24
39
64
Diablo III:
Reaper of Souls
70
Improve recordings
86
Fine-tune videos
AMD Radeon R9 295X2
Kingston HyperX Cloud Pro
Hotwired
70
Improve your recordings
Beef up your audio skills with our

guide to clean recordings.
74
Play classic games
ScummVM or MAME, get your

retro gaming head on.
Game
reviews
62
Elder Scrolls
Online
64 Diablo III: Reaper
of Souls
78
Super secure Facebook
66 Age of
Wonders III
82
Protect your IP online
68
Dark Souls II
86
Fine-tune videos
88
Mobile apps in Windows
90
Simple, secure backups
ell, its a bit of a graphics-gasm

this month and no mistake.
That shouldnt really come as
a huge surprise given how
much of what we do with our
PCs is governed by their graphical power.
Whether were manipulating videos or
images, playing games, consuming content or
just browsing the web, the GPU demands we
put on our machines is growing year-on-year.
But its not just our home machines that
rely on graphics processing power, as many of
the top supercomputers in the world depend
on the computational power of the GPU.
Theyre used for such disparate tasks as
seeing into the vast, unimaginable depths of
space or into the tiniest spaces of our brains.
This month weve taken a snapshot of the
best graphics cards, at a variety of prices, to
show whats available right now. But weve
also looked into the future of GPU hardware
at Nvidias GPU Technology Conference and
sat down with some of the brains working
towards the next iteration of DirectX.
Theres also the small matter of the
FASTEST GRAPHICS CARD ON THE
PLANET well, for now anyways. Weve
reviewed the Radeon R9 295X2 dual-GPU
behemoth to see exactly how it stacks up
in liquid-chilled form.
But its not all about graphics, so weve also
got some of the finest new kit available
including an in-depth examination of the
latest SSDs running in RAID 0 arrays, looking
to speeds of 1GB/s and beyond. Theres a host
of laptops, keyboards, mice and headsets,
and a desktop has got me all riled up too.
Weve got a packed tutorial section this
month as well, covering how to get clean,
crisp and clear audio recordings, and how to
fine-tune your videos all for free. If youre
into your retro gaming, and even if youre not,
you should check out Beneath a Steel Sky
well guide you through the possibilities
of free emulation software.
As usual, its a great issue. Gwan, enjoy it.
Dave James
Deputy Editor
dave.james@futurenet.com
June 2014
Prize polygon pushers
Prize
polygon
pushers
Not just any graphics card can expect to get the
prestigious PC Format seal of approval. only the very
best new components can hope to make the grade
hat does the future

hold for graphics
cards? What major
breakthroughs
aregoing to shape
the future and make the games of
tomorrow even more impressive
than they are already?
These may seem like odd
questions to start a group test with
after all, isnt the point of a group
test to highlight the card (or cards)
that offer the best performance
right now? Well, yes it is, but when
you bear in mind the hope that a
graphics card upgrade will generally
last you a couple of years, being
aware of whats around the corner
Diablo III: Reaper of Souls isnt too
demanding, but still looks great
June 2014
isa sensible angle to take. After all,

youwouldnt want your shiny new
investment to be tarnished by a new
release or major shift in the market
just months after youd bought it.
Here, we have some good news:
apart from a few niche releases at
over-the-top enthusiast prices, we
dont expect any new mainstream
graphics processors tobe squeezed
out of the current architectures.
There may be a little shuffling of
prices here and there, but this is a
fairly stable time for the not-sohumble graphics processing unit.
There are several reasons for
things settling down. The release
ofthe Xbox One and PS4 consoles
means that there is now a base GPU

feature set that games developers
are writing to and looking to
squeeze the most out of. Theres
also the fact that we now have a
surfeit of powerful graphics card to
drive 1080p HD screens at 60fps in
the latest games. Indeed, until this
target resolution shifts to 4K (and
itwill, although not for a while for
the mainstream), there just isnt
going to be the push from games
developers to demand more from
AMD and Nvidia.
So what are the driving factors
for the latest graphics cards, and
which ones stand out from the
crowd? Time to investigate...
Graphics cards are like cars in
a metaphorical sense, at least
gear reviewed
AMD
Radeon R7 250 2GB
64
Battlefield 4 was the first released

game to get some Mantle goodness
Nvidia
GeForce GTX 750
86
AMD
Radeon R7 260X 2GB
95
Nvidia
GeForce GTX 750Ti
128
AMD
Radeon R9 270X
165
Thief also boasts a Mantle build, but

it doesnt play well with CrossFire
o, right now the graphics

hardware market is pretty
stable. We may see some
interesting solutions come
from third parties, pushing the
hardware to their limits (smartly
engineered third-party cooling,
dual-GPU cards that sort of
thing), but we dont expect to see
anything fundamentally new from
AMD or Nvidia any time soon. This
issue weve got the hold of AMDs
Radeon R9 295 X2, and Nvidia has
its plain silly Titan Z, but as far as
sensible money goes, things are
looking fairly quiet.
Admittedly we were expecting
more from Nvidia and the roll-out of
its latest architecture, codenamed
Maxwell, but the company is being
very tight-lipped about what were
going to see and when. This is a
shame because there is a lot thats
interesting when it comes to the
first Maxwell cards the budgetfocused GTX 750 and GTX 750 Ti.
The problem is, given the GPUs
thatNvidia already has available, it
hardly feels like theresa pressing
need to get some new silicon out
there, and replace cards that by
allaccounts are selling very well
indeed anyway. In fact, both AMD
and Nvidia are keen to point out
that despite tales of PC doom,
Nvidia
GeForce GTX 760
215
theyre both selling loads and loads

of hardware right now (which is
always good to know).
The question quickly turns to
which graphics card you should buy.
One area that is essential to get
your head around when looking
tobuy a brand new graphics card
isthetarget resolution you want
torun your games on. How big is
your display? Are you planning
onupgrading your display in the
lifetime of your graphics upgrade?
This question is pivotal because the
output resolution has the biggest
impact on performance over the
myriad of graphical settings and
post-processing effects. Answer
honestly and youll have a much
easier time picking a card.
Put another way, if youre looking
to stick with your 1080p screen for
now, then you wont have to spend
quite so much upgrading your
graphics card. As a rule of thumb,
graphics cards that roll in at around
the 100-mark should be capable
ofpowering a sub-20-inch screen
oreven a 21-inch panel, as long as
youre prepared to sacrifice some
image fidelity. Spend 200 and you
should be able to power the latest
games, and plenty of new releases,
at 1080p with everything set high.
Ifyouve got a bigger screen than
Nvidia
GeForce GTX 770
230
AMD
Radeon R9 280X
239
AMD
Radeon R9 290
330
Nvidia
GeForce GTX 780
360
AMD
Radeon R9 290X
454
Nvidia
GeForce GTX 780Ti
500
June 2014
anatomy of a
graphics card
here are several factors that you need

to consider when eyeing up a graphics
card upgrade. From the type of cooler
used to the outputs available, a new
graphics card is much more than just the GPU
youll find beating away at its heart.
video outputs
Modern graphics cards
have multiple outputs,
ranging from the aging
(but still great) DVI
connector through to
DisplayPort and HDMI.
Dual-link DVI maxes out
at 2,560 x 1,600, while
HDMI 1.4 will cope with
1,920 x 1,200. If youre
looking to drive a 4K
screen youre limited to
using DisplayPort.
that, or youre planning to use

multiple monitors, then youve
entered therarified echelons of the
top-tier cards or even multiple-GPU
solutions. And those things cost
serious cash 400 isnt a top-end
price bracket by any means.
Double up
When it comes to SLI and Crossfire,

we have to tip our hats to both
Nvidia and AMD for the advances
theyve made of late. The
performance boost you get from
cooler
A decent cooling array can transform an

otherwise hot and loud-running graphics
card into a silent, cool joy. Third-party
coolers do cost a bit more, but theyre
generally worth it, especially if youre
talking about AMDs R9 290/X. A better
cooler can make overclocking a reality too.
adding a second card isgenerally

atleast 80 per cent, and the
corresponding drivers now
doamuch better job of sorting
everything out in the background
(beyond flicking a switch in the
drivers). This can make adding a
second card to your setup a real
consideration, provided that such a
card is still available. The problem
is, if you havent upgraded for
twoyears, you could well find that
youre limited to scouting eBay for
older cards, and the joys therein.
Silky smooth
framerates can
definitely give you
the edge online
Theres still that nagging doubt

that comes with multiple-GPU
setups though, which is that youre
often unsure of whether both GPUs
are actually being used. You should
be on safe ground with existing
games, but it can take a while for
new titles to be profiled, and even
then a scan of the patch notes for
any new driver release will often
reveal notes such as Call of Duty:
Black Ops may experience a crash
when run in CrossFire mode
hardly encouraging.
Software is becoming a lot more
important to AMD and Nvidia
though, which should see the whole
area of drivers improving for
both.AMD set the ball rolling here
with its announcement that it is
providing games developers closer
access to the hardware with its
Mantle initiative sidestepping
some of the overheads that come
with programming through DirectX
11. So far the actual number of titles
released with Mantle support is
limited to Battlefield 4 and Thief,
but plenty of big names have shown
interest in the concept, and with
decent performance improvements
on offer, were sure therell be more.
Upper crust
Even so, Mantle was a surprising

move one that harks back to
proprietary driver days of yore,
when 3dfx and its glide API
dominated. While wed all prefer
better access to the underlying
8
June 2014
memory
When it comes to pumping out those

beautifully textured polygons to that super
high-resolution screen, it isnt just about
the amount of memory on offer, but the
width of the memory bus is important too.
At the lower end you need to make sure
you go for GDDR5 over the much slower
DDR3 options while youre at it.
gpu
Underneath the cooler youll

find the actual silicon doing
the hard work. The graphics
processing unit is largely
defined by the number of
streaming processors units
at its heart and the speed at
which it runs. Modern GPUs
throttle back clock speed
depending on the thermals
of the card. This is why
cooling is so important.
power
A top-end dual-GPU graphics

card requires a pair of 8-pin
power adapters, while most
mainstream cards only
demand a single 6-pin or even
a 8-pin connector. Check your
PSU is up to the job before
rushing out to upgrade.
Titanfalls textures may not be too

impressive, but the core gameplay
is surprisingly decent
Software is becoming a
lot more important to
AMD and Nvidia
Upgrade your graphics card
wisely and itll last an age
Consoles are still a vital part of PC
gaming, for developers at least
hardware, were not sure we

welcome Nvidia being left behind
(competition being the driving
force in the computer industry).
Itdidnt take long for Microsoft
torespond though, and its answer
is DirectX 12. DX12 is being
developed as a cross-platform
take on the traditional PC gaming
API, giving developers closer
access to the hardware and
ensuring Nvidia isnt left out in
the cold. Weve got an in-depth
report on DX12 on page 54.
Theres another element
to the future of graphics
processing though, and
thatsthe re-emergence of
virtual reality as a feasible
technology for the home.
Spearheaded by Oculus Rift, but
undoubtedly soon to be joined
byother hardware vendors
vying for the your hardearned cash, the initial
development units have
the whole industry

approaching fever
pitch. On the face
ofit they dont
require specialist
hardware, but as
thescreens are so
close to your face, their
native resolutions are a real
issue. The move to 4K is an
inevitable way to improve
the believability of virtual
experiences something
that will require serious
hardware to drive them.
If nothing else, it means
the effort Nvidia (and to a lesser

extent AMD), put into rendering
for3D displays was useful after all.
Whatever your plans though,
youll find the right card for you,
starting over the page. Weve split
the cards into three groups, defined
by their price budget, mainstream
and high-end. The industry is so
granular that no matter how much
money youve got (within reason),
there will be a card for you. But
which cards stand out and punch
above their weight? Which ones
define the market as it currently
stands? Its time to find out
June 2014
Supertest
64 Low-end graphics card
SAPPHIRE Radeon
R7 250 2GB Boost
vital statistics
Price 64
Manufacturer Sapphire
Web www.sapphiretech.com
GPU AMD Oland XT
Shaders 384
Memory bus 128-bit
t the top of the

graphics market,
theres a point beyond
which youd be pretty
potty to spend any more
money because the returns
diminish dramatically. Just as
the two extremes of politics
tend to meet to form a circular
spectrum courtesy of similar
levels of insanity, so really
low-end graphics chips are
just as pointless as the
silly-money cards.
An inauspicious observation
for the Sapphire Radeon R7
250 and its AMD graphics
chipset? Yup. Its the Chairman
Mao to Nvidias Titan Black
General Pinochet. While both
share a certain purity of
purpose, you cant really justify
either. Its a case of diminishing
returns coming full circle to
meet false economy.
For the Titan Black, the
problem is that the extra 300
over a GTX 780Ti or indeed
the extra 500 over an AMD
Radeon R9 290 buys you
10
June 2014
very little from a gaming

experience perspective. Youd
be hard pressed to feel the
difference most of the time.
For the R7 250, the problem
is the lack of a proper gaming
experience. Its not up to the
job of smooth gaming at
1080p, and were not hugely
interested in anything less.
You may be on a tight budget,
but if all you can afford is 64,
youre either better off saving
up a bit longer or dipping into
the second-hand market. This
just isnt a viable gaming card.
Not that any of this is
Sapphires fault weve seen
enough of its boards to know
that it can do a decent graphics
card but theres only so much
you can do with a given
chipset, and since the arrival
of Nvidias staggering new
GM107 GPU, anything with the
Radeon R7 250 kit now looks
seriously sub-standard. n
Features
Performance
Value
If Chairman Mao was a 3D card, hed
be the Radeon R7 250. Kinda. Its a
false economy, anyway.
86 Low-profile graphics card
KFA2 GeForce
GTX 750 OC
vital statistics
Price 86
Manufacturer KFA2
Web www.kfa2.com
GPU Nvidia GM107
Shaders 512
Memory bus 128-bit
his is it. The holy grail

for small-form-factor
PC gaming. What you
want is a low-profile
graphics card that combines
real gaming performance with
properly low power. Low
enough not to require a
supplementary power cable.
Only power from the PCI
Express bus is allowed.
So, were not just talking
about a few watts here or
there were talking about a
step-change in performance
per watt. Were talking about
Nvidias new Maxwell graphics
architecture. Usually, this kind
of leap forward would require
a process shrink, but Nvidia
has done it using the same
28nm transistors as just about
every other graphics card.
Exactly how impressive it
will be when the second-gen
20nm Maxwells rock up, we
can scarcely imagine. But for
now, this low-profile board is
probably as good as it gets for
squeezing something
approaching proper gaming

punch into a really tiny system.
Compared with the full
GM107 chip in the 750Ti, the
750 loses a fifth of the
formers CUDA cores and
texture units and 10 per cent of
the memory clockspeed. The
core clock stays pegged at
1,020MHz nominal, 1,085MHz
Boost for the standard board,
but this factory overclocked
KFA2 card runs to 1,150MHz.
The performance therefore
is not much lower than the GTX
750Ti. Arguably more relevant
is the comparison with AMDs
Radeon R7 260X. The 260X is
a bit pricier and more power
hungry. The 260X and the 750
trade blows at 1080p, but youd
probably call it even. Unless
youre hell-bent on having an
AMD board with GCN
technology, you want to go for
a GeForce GTX 750 as it has
a lower power profile. n
Features
Performance
Value
After a low-profile GPU for a tiny
gaming box? Thanks to Nvidias
Maxwell tech, youre in luck.
Graphics cards
95
Low-end graphics card
71 xxxxxxxxxxx
Sapphire
R7 260X 2GB
vital statistics
Price 95
GPU AMD Bonaire XTX
Shaders 896
Memory bus 128-bit
pare a thought for the

poor old 260X. It was
a contender once, but
now it looks like a bit of
a chump. The reason? Nvidias
pesky new Maxwell graphics
architecture, as found in the
new GeForce GTX 750 and
750Ti boards.
We dont know how big
a blow high-performance
Maxwells may land on AMD
chips, but its looking ugly for
AMD at this end of the market.
The key comparison here is
the transistor count. Maxwell
in GM107 form ( la 750 and
750Ti) is a 1.87 billion
transistor chip, but the AMD
Bonaire GPU inside the Radeon
R7 260X is a 2.08 billion
transistor effort. Not a big
difference, you say? Indeed.
But AMDs on the wrong side
of that difference, given that
the fastest iteration of GM107
blows away the best of the
Bonaire boards.
Performance-wise, this
Radeon R7 260X board mixes
it up with the similarly-priced

basic GeForce GTX 750
alternative. As our numbers
demonstrate, it also just about
gets the job done at 1080p in
terms of running games
reasonably smoothly at
maximum detail. Only Metro:
Last Light is an absolute
non-starter at full graphical
detail. That said, for really
smooth frame rates in most
games, youre going to have
to make a few compromises
on the eye candy.
Whats more, when you look
beyond raw performance, the
750s proposition only gets
stronger. It is much less power
hungry and doesnt require
a supplementary power cable
of any kind. That means this
260X board cant begin to
compete as a 3D accelerator
for small-form-factor rigs or
any installation where noise
or heat are sensitive issues. n
Features
Performance
Value
Nvidias awesome Maxwell tech
makes life almost impossible for
low-end AMD cards like this.
128 Low-end graphics card
EVGA GeForce
GTX 750Ti
vital statistics
Price 128
Manufacturer EVGA
Web www.evga.com
GPU Nvidia GM107
Shaders 640
Memory bus 128-bit
omething weird is
going on with Nvidias
GPU development and
the new GeForce GTX
750Ti is the first really
obvious symptom.
Its the first board to be
based on the new Maxwell
graphics architecture, and yet
its very much a low-end GPU
at heart. At the same time, its
branded within the GeForce
700 series, which is largely
composed of GPUs from the
previous Kepler-generation
of graphics chips.
Whats more, the 750Ti is
a 28nm chip where we were
expecting Maxwell GPUs to be
made on a new 20nm process.
That matters because Maxwell
is supposed to be all about
efficiency, and process shrinks
are usually part of delivering
lower power consumption.
In that context, what Nvidia
has achieved with Maxwell is
all the more impressive. This
card is massively less power
hungry than anything that
comes close to it in pixelpumping terms. Its getting on

for 100 watts less power at the
wall compared with something
like an AMD R7 260X or an
Nvidia GTX 760. Nvidia claims
Maxwell offers double the
performance-per-watt of
Kepler. Incredible.
Performance-wise, its not
quite up with those cards, but
it does very well given that it
sports a modest 640 stream
processors, 16 render outputs
and 40 texture units, not to
mention a 128-bit memory bus.
Maxwell delivers nearly the
same performance from each
new 128-core block as the old
192-core blocks from Kepler.
The result is a low-end board
that feels like a mid-ranger
much of the time, especially
at 1080p. The perfect
pixel-pumping partner for
a cheap living-room Steam
box? In a word, yes. n
Features
Performance
Value
A serious shake-up for the lower
echelons of PC graphics performance.
Very impressive stuff from Nvidia.
June 2014
11
Supertest
165 Mid-range graphics card
Sapphire Vapor-X
R9 270X OC Boost
vital statistics
Price 165
GPU AMD Curacao XT
Shaders 1,280
Memory bus 256-bit
MDs Radeon R9 270X

chipset. Is it a
rebrand? Yes. Does it
matter? Probably not.
Weve gone into detail on this
subject elsewhere (see the
Sapphire R9 280X review), so
well stick to merely pointing
out the simple facts.
The 270Xs Curacao XT is
functionally the same as the
Pitcairn GPU, first seen in the
HD 7800 series. Specs wise,
not much has changed from
the HD 7870. Same 1,280
stream processors, same 32
render outputs, same 256-bit
memory bus. Even the 1GHz
core clock is carried over.
All of which makes the 270X
something of a lonely
specimen in the current
graphics landscape. Its the
previous generation midranger demoted one rung on
the ladder, so it retains some
mid-range vestiges like that
256-bit bus, but the
performance is a little more
low-end. Meanwhile, Nvidias
12
June 2014
700-series rebranding and

product launching has seen a
new low-end part in the GTX
750 and 750Ti shake things up.
At 1080p, maximum-detail
gaming in demanding titles like
Metro: Last Light is a bit iffy
with the R9 270X. Push the
pixel count any higher and
performance suffers even
more. Only fairly undemanding
games like GRID 2 are truly
viable beyond 1080p. That
would be fine if the pricing was
nearer 100, but at 165, you
should be getting a current
mid-range GPU, not one
plucked from the previous gen.
This Sapphire Vapor-X take
on the 270X is super-quiet and
living room friendly, even if
theres not much Sapphire can
do about its inherent powerhungriness. Nvidias insanely
efficient GTX 750Ti is a better
bet where power consumption
is a major limitation. n
Features
Performance
Value
An interesting option at a rather
lonely price point, but youd be better
off spending a little bit more.
MSI GTX 760

HAWK Twin Frozr
vital statistics
Price 215
Manufacturer MSI
Web http://uk.msi.com
GPU Nvidia GK104
Shaders 1,152
Memory bus 256-bit
o fancy-pants
factory-overclocked
cards make sense?
Sometimes. But
theres a danger of overreach,
of running a little close to the
class above. And thats what
undermines the MSI GTX 760
HAWK Twin Frozr.
In stock form, the Nvidia
GeForce GTX 760 chipset has
plenty to offer. Its based on
the tried and tested GK104
chip from Nvidia, which in our
view is perhaps the most
successful graphics chip ever.
That means you get a decent
256-bit memory bus for good
bandwidth, 32 render outputs
and all the tastiness of the
Kepler-generation graphics
from Nvidia for about 45 less
than the GTX 770, which is also
based on the GK104 chip.
Okay, some stream shaders
have been disabled, dropping
the count from 1,536 to 1,152.
The textures have been
chopped, too. Ditto the core
frequency. But theres enough
clear air to the GTX 770s price

for all that to be acceptable
from a standard 760.
This MSI board, on the other
hand, is priced within 15 of
a boggo GTX 770. Yes, MSI has
given it a serious cooling
upgrade and cranked up the
clocks to 1,111MHz. But thats
not nearly enough to close the
gap to the GTX 770.
Take Battlefield 4 at 1080p
and maximum detail. The GTX
770 cranks out an average of
71fps and minimum 42fps. This
chintzed-out 760 manages
59fps and 29fps respectively.
Elsewhere, performance
deltas arent always as big.
And MSI deserves kudos for
coming up with the joint
quietest board on test. In that
context, the Hawk is worth
a look where noise is critical.
But as a pure gaming card, it
just doesnt make much sense
at this price point. n
Features
Performance
Value
Super-quiet and certainly impressive
for a GTX 760, but priced too close to
the 770 for comfort.
Graphics cards
Nvidia
GeForce GTX 770
vital statistics
Price 230
Manufacturer Nvidia
Web www.nvidia.com
GPU Nvidia GK104
Shaders 1,536
Memory bus 256-bit
ime heals all wounds,

they say. It certainly
hasnt done any harm
to our view of Nvidias
legendary GK104 chip. Based
on Nvidias Kepler graphics
architecture, it was launched
in the GeForce GTX 680 card
and it pretty much blew apart
conventional gaming
hardware thinking.
Here was a high-end
graphics card that set new
performance standards, but
was based on what was
ultimately a mid-range GPU.
That made the GTX 680 a little
tricky to get our heads around.
We could hardly deny the
effectiveness of GK104, but
couldnt help feeling a bit
ripped off by the pricing.
Now though, Nvidia has
unleashed the GK110 monster
chip in various gaming-friendly
formats, including the GTX
780 and GTX 780Ti. The
GK104 has therefore been
demoted into what feels like
a more natural position in the
pecking order, and the

second-rung GTX 770 chipset.
With that comes much more
reasonable pricing well under
250. Of course, GK104
always punched above its
weight. The GTX 770 is an
everything-enabled variant,
and therefore delivers some
pretty tasty frame rates.
If youre running a 1080p
screen, few current games will
really trouble the 770. Crank it
up to 1440p and beyond, and
the argument for the 770
becomes a little more tenuous.
Wed also say that the 770s
closest competitor, the AMD
Radeon R9 280X, is a better
bet at this price point for really
high resolutions, but the
competition between the two
remains awfully tight. The final
decision between a GTX 770
and an R9 280X could well be
swung by your take on Nvidia
versus AMD technology. n
Features
Performance
Value
Essentially Nvidias old GTX 680 at
a much, much lower price. And thats
far from a bad thing.
Sapphire
Vapor-X R9 280X
vital statistics
Price 239
GPU AMD Tahiti XTL
Shaders 2,048
Memory bus 384-bit
o we care that both

AMD and Nvidia now
commonly rebadge
GPUs to freshen them
up for sale? Does it matter
whether the new AMD
Radeon R9 280X is essentially
the same chipset as the old
Radeon HD 7970?
Ask AMD about it, and it may
tell you the 280X is in fact
a new chip. Well, possibly. It
might be a slight respin, but at
its core, what were dealing
with here is Tahiti as seen in
the 7970. Whether you glue
a 280X badge on it or a 7970
sticker, you get the same
2,048 stream shaders, 128
textures, 32 render outputs
and 384-bit memory bus.
In other words, what you get
is last generations top chip
from AMD. Thats no bad thing,
especially when you consider
that AMD pretty much carried
over its GCN architecture for
the new Radeon R9 290X chip.
It has more shaders etc, but is
functionally identical.
In that context, the branding

is a distraction. Instead, enjoy
the fact that Tahiti can now be
had for much less cash than
before. At just under 240, the
Sapphire board with its
proprietary cooling is priced at
the level we wish AMD had
originally chosen for the 7970.
In terms of average frame
rates, it trades blows with the
very marginally cheaper Nvidia
GeForce GTX 770. By that
measure, the 770 is a bit
quicker and more consistent,
but ultimately what swings
things in the 280Xs favour is
superior minimum frame rates
almost across the board.
Its a tight points decision
and we wouldnt blame you for
picking the GTX 770, but the
280X delivers better overall
numbers by a nose. With
Sapphires super-quiet
Vapor-X cooling kit, its a very
compelling package. n
Features
Performance
Value
Awesome all-round package for the
money. Gets the nod thanks to
superior minimum frame rates.
June 2014
13
Supertest
330 High-end graphics card
Sapphire
Tri-X R9 290
vital statistics
Price 330
GPU AMD Hawaii Pro
Shaders 2,560
Memory bus 512-bit
his has felt like an

awfully long time
coming, but finally,
belatedly, the AMD
Radeon R9 290 has become
the graphics chipset it was
meant to be. That it has taken
someone other than AMD to
achieve this is pretty typical,
but thats how AMD rolls.
Anyhoo, lets recap on what
always made the R9 290 so
promising on paper, and then
work out why this Sapphire
re-jig really delivers the goods.
It all starts with ticking the
proper high-end GPU box.
If at all possible, its always
preferable to have a video card
based on a true high-end GPU.
Thats because only high-end
GPUs get the full treatment
when it comes to high
bandwidth features such as a
super-wide memory bus and
lots of render outputs. GPUs
a little lower down the range
can often sport impressive
pixel processor poke, but they
sacrifice bandwidth-enabling
14
June 2014
features that allow a GPU to

maintain frame rates at really
high resolutions.
Thus, the R9 290 has a
monster 512-bit memory bus
and a faintly ridiculous 64
render outputs. These
numbers spank even Nvidias
mighty GeForce GTX Titan
Black. Not bad for getting on
for one third the price.
This isnt quite AMDs top
chip, so you lose a few stream
shaders and texture units to
the 290X, but the deficit is
only about 10 per cent.
However, the standard
Radeon R9 290 from AMD
failed with its cooling, both in
terms of actual efficacy and
noise. All that is history with
the Sapphire Tri-X R9 290. It
runs cool, and is very quiet. Its
what the 290 should have been
from the start. Our only
objection is pricing; wed like to
see 290 boards under 300. n
Features
Performance
Value
In many ways our favourite card, but
its just a little too pricey to take the
overall honours.
Nvidia GeForce
GTX 780
vital statistics
Price 360
Manufacturer Nvidia
Web www.nvidia.com
GPU Nvidia GK110
Shaders 2,304
Memory bus 384-bit
t around 500, its all

too easy to dismiss
boards based on
Nvidias GeForce GTX
780Ti chipset. Its impossible
to make any kind of value
argument for them, despite
the fact that the 780Ti is
undeniably the fastest 3D
accelerator in this test.
All is not necessarily lost for
the GK110. Nvidia first released
what you might consider a
more accessible version of the
fastest, most complex
graphics chip as a counterpoint
to the original Titan.
The GTX 780 is a cut-down
version of GK110, so youre
immediately diving into the
fine details of the specs and
trying to judge whether the
surgery has left the patient
unacceptably incapacitated.
The shaders or CUDA
cores in Nvidia newspeak
plummet from 2,880 for the
780Ti to just 2,304. Likewise,
the texture units are down
from 240 to 192. The
clockspeeds are a little off,

albeit only very marginally.
On paper, then, the 780Ti
has a whisker over 25 per cent
more pixel pumping gumption.
Then again, all 48 render
outputs are present. The same
goes for the 384-bit memory
bus and 3GB of graphics
memory, so this still remains
a pukka high-end offering.
Youre going to need a very
high-resolution panel to feel
the difference between this
board and the 780Ti. Only at
1440p and beyond does the Ti
really flex its muscles.
The real test is against
boards based on AMDs
Radeon R9 290 chipset, which
is a bit cheaper and barely any
slower. In the end, the decision
probably comes down to which
ecosystem you fancy AMD
and its console ties, or Nvidia
with its fancy features. Your
money. You decide. n
Features
Performance
Value
Like the Radeon R9 290, this is a
seductive all-round proposition. And
like the 290, its a touch too pricey.
Graphics cards
Sapphire
Tri-X 290X
vital statistics
Price 454
GPU AMD Hawaii XT
Shaders 2,816
Memory bus 512-bit
ou have to hand it to
AMD. Only it could
somehow conspire to
turn what ought to
have been a triumphant entry
into the high-end graphics
market with the chip known as
Hawaii into quite a palaver.
Were talking about the
Radeon R9 290 and R9 290X.
Deep down, both are fabulous
graphics chipsets, but thanks
to a shonky cooling solution,
that wasnt initially as obvious
as it ought to have been.
Now that the add-in board
makers have had time to work
their magic with new coolers,
everything looks different. At
least it does for the Sapphire
R9 290, but surprisingly not
for this Sapphire R9 290X.
On paper, it looks every bit
the winner that its 290 sibling
has proved to be. Thats nought
but a good thing when it means
you get the same triple-fan
cooling solution that promises
to shift plenty of air but keep
schtum about it.
Nvidia GeForce
GTX 780Ti
You hear that, AMD? Plenty
of airflow and not a lot of
noise? Maybe AMD has been
deafened by the din of its own
cooling designs. But where
AMD has failed, maybe
Sapphire can succeed.
For the most part, this 290X
board does what you expect
it tangibly edges the 290, if
not dramatically enough to
justify its price premium.
In a couple of benchmarks
its a little slower than its
Sapphire R9 290 sibling.
Crucially, those benchmarks
came towards the end of our
testing run, which suggests
that ye olde thermal throttling
might be kicking in.
To be frank, we dont really
fancy any 290X boards given
the price gap to the 290, but
with the slightly patchy
benchmark performance, it
becomes a very easy decision.
Just dont bother. n
Features
Performance
Value
Even Sapphire seemingly cant quite
fix the inherent borkiness of AMDs
Radeon R9 290X chipset.
vital statistics
Price 500
Manufacturer Nvidia
Web www.nvidia.com
GPU Nvidia GK110
Shaders 2,880
Memory bus 384-bit
nbelievably, Nvidias
GK110 chip has been
around since, what,
November 2012? Here
in the middle of 2014 its
retained its position as the
most powerful graphics chip
known to man, and as far as
we can tell Nvidia has no plans
to replace it this year.
But this doesnt
automatically mean any
graphics card with GK110
inside is a no-brainer. The very
earliest versions of GK110
werent really graphics cards
at all. They were mega-bucks
boards that were aimed at
professional rendering and
general-purpose computing.
The gaming bit really arrived
when Nvidia unleashed the
GTX Titan early last year, but
the problem with Titan was
that it retained GK110s full
double-precision performance,
which made it a potential
target for professionals
looking for a number-crunching
card on the cheap.
Enter, therefore, the

GeForce 780Ti. What you get
is the full GK110 gaming
awesomeness with all 2,880
stream shaders enabled and a
boost clock knocking on 1GHz.
Double-precision performance
has been hobbled, but to no
detriment to gaming.
All of which means the 780Ti
can be priced well below
GeForce Titan and the recently
revised GeForce Titan Black.
It also means the 780Ti
produces the fastest average
frame rates of any single-GPU
graphics card you can buy.
The snag is that the
Titan-series boards are so
pricey, Nvidia can slip the
780Ti in several hundred
pounds cheaper but still
charge 500. For us, thats too
much money, especially when
you consider that the 780Tis
minimum frames rates arent
always that impressive. n
Features
Performance
Value
We wants it. We cant affords it. And
neither, very likely, can you. Move
along, then. Nothing to see here.
June 2014
15
Supertest
How we tested
But the real dealmaker is value for
money, and thats the thinking behind our
GRID 2 pounds-per-FPS metric. Its a
measure of how much each frame-persecond costs for each of the GPUs in our
test. The lower the better. Its the ultimate
metric of pixel pumping bang-per-buck.
But remember: GRID 2 is just one game,
and it doesnt matter how cheaply each
frame comes if there arent enough of
them for smooth gaming. A figure of 10
frames per second isnt much use even
ifyou can have it for free.
demanding, though not necessarily at

their prettiest. At the other end of the
scale, GRID 2 does the console-port and
low-end rendering duties, though its
hardly ugly or graphically backward.
Meanwhile, Battlefield 4 and Bioshock
Infinite complete a pretty broad picture of
what you can expect from a full spectrum
of PC games with each card. Of course,
there is more to graphics cards than pure
frame rates power consumption and
noise levels are important as well, so weve
measured both of those.
Ah, ye olde graphics group test. How

theprospect of painstakingly picking
through the pixel-pumping parameters
ofa dozen GPUs fills our little hearts with
warmth and joy. While benchmarking can
be a bitprocessional, it never disappoints.
Wenever fail to learn something new,
nomatter how well we thought we
understood a given card.
As for the specifics, the main
benchmarks take in a quartet of games
that tick some critical boxes. Metro: Last
Light represents PC graphics at their most
1,920 x 1,080
DirectX 11 tessellation performance
Heaven
DirectX 11 gaming performance

Metro: Last Light
Frames per second: higher is better
Sapphire Radeon R7 250 2GB
4/8
KFA2 Geforce GTX 750 OC
2/6
18/26
11/16
Sapphire R7 260X 2GB
13/23
11/17
EVGA Geforce GTX 750Ti
22/32
13/20
Sapphire Vapor-X R9 270X
19/28
14/26
MSI GTX 760 Hawk
21/46
MSI GTX 760 Hawk
19/30
Nvidia Geforce GTX 770
23/53
22/35
24/55
25/38
Sapphire Tri-X R9 290
27/69
25/47
27/70
22/43
Sapphire Tri-X 290X
30/70
Sapphire Tri-X 290X
25/50
Nvidia Geforce GTX 780 Ti
26/82
20/51
15
30
45
60
75
90
105
120

Battlefield 4
Bioshock Infinite
6/11
6/13
18/32
12/42
20/32
17/37
30/40
13/51
27/48
16/56
MSI GTX 760 Hawk
29/59
MSI GTX 760 Hawk
17/72
42/71
11/84
41/66
17/78
52/77
17/89
52/82
13/94
Sapphire Tri-X 290X
55/74
Sapphire Tri-X 290X
17/91
57/82
12/102
Price
Sapphire Radeon R7 250 2GB 64
KFA2 Geforce GTX 750 OC 86
Sapphire R7 260X 2GB 95
EVGA Geforce GTX 750Ti 128
Sapphire Vapor-X R9 270X 165
MSI GTX 760 Hawk Twin Frozr 215
Nvidia Geforce GTX 770 230
30
30
45
60
75
90
105
120
60
75
90
105
120
15
15
45
60
75
90
105
120
15
30
45
Manufacturer
Web address
GPU
Shaders
Texture Units
Sapphire
www.sapphiretech.com
AMD Oland XT
384
24
Memory
2GB
KFA2
www.kfa2.com
Nvidia GM107
512
32
1GB
Sapphire
AMD Bonaire XTX
896
56
2GB
EVGA
www.evga.com
Nvidia GM107
640
40
2GB
Sapphire
AMD Curacao XT
1,280
80
2GB
MSI
http://uk.msi.com
Nvidia GK104
1,152
96
2GB
Nvidia
www.nvidia.com
Nvidia GK104
1,536
128
2GB
Sapphire Vapor-X R9 280X 239
Sapphire
AMD Tahiti XTL
2,048
128
3GB
Sapphire Tri-X R9 290 330
Sapphire
AMD Hawaii Pro
2,560
160
4GB
Nvidia Geforce GTX 780 360

Sapphire Tri-X 290X 454
Nvidia Geforce GTX 780 Ti 500
16
minavg
June 2014
Nvidia
www.nvidia.com
Nvidia GK110
2,304
192
3GB
Sapphire
AMD Hawaii XT
2,816
176
4GB
Nvidia
www.nvidia.com
Nvidia GK110
2,880
240
3GB
Graphics cards
Peak power performance

GRID 2
Aural performance
Decibel meter
watts: lower is better
dB: lower is better
110
52
120
48
155
52
130
54
220
50
MSI GTX 760 Hawk
220
MSI GTX 760 Hawk
50
250
63
260
52
320
54
290
62
Sapphire Tri-X 290X
340
Sapphire Tri-X 290X
53
330
72
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
2,560 x 1,600
DirectX 11 tessellation performance
Heaven

Metro: Last Light
N/A
N/A
5/11
5/9
7/10
4/9
10/15
7/11
10/18
11/14
MSI GTX 760 Hawk
12/21
MSI GTX 760 Hawk
11/16
14/25
11/19
14/26
13/22
17/32
13/27
18/34
12/25
Sapphire Tri-X 290X
17/34
Sapphire Tri-X 290X
17/28
20/41
20/30
minavg
15
30
45
60
75
90
105
120

Battlefield 4
Bioshock Infinite
N/A
N/A
10/16
12/23
12/19
9/20
13/20
9/29
18/30
16/36
MSI GTX 760 Hawk
19/36
MSI GTX 760 Hawk
9/43
22/43
12/51
28/42
15/46
30/51
16/56
27/51
17/61
Sapphire Tri-X 290X
34/53
Sapphire Tri-X 290X
16/58
39/59
21/71
30
45
60
75
90
105
120
60
75
90
105
120
15
30
15
45
60
75
90
105
120
15
30
45
Memory Bus
ROPs
Video Ports
Core Clock
Memory Clock
Power connectors
128-bit
DVI, HDMI, VGA
1050MHz
3.6GHz
None
128-bit
16
DVI, HDMI, VGA
1050MHz
5GHz
None
128-bit
16
DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort
1050MHz
6GHz
1x 6-pin
128-bit
16
DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort
1085GHz
5.4GHz
1x 6-pin
256-bit
32
2x DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort
1050MHz
5.8GHz
2x 6-pin
256-bit
32
1176MHz
6GHz
2x 8-pin
MSI GTX 760 Hawk Twin Frozr
256-bit
32
1085MHz
7GHz
1x 6-pin, 1x 8-pin
256-bit
32
1070MHz
6.2GHz
2x 8-pin
512-bit
64
957MHz
5GHz
1x 6-pin, 1x 8-pin
384-bit
48
900MHz
6GHz
1x 6-pin, 1x 8-pin
512-bit
64
1010MHz
5GHz
1x 6-pin, 1x 8-pin
Sapphire Tri-X 290X
384-bit
48
928MHz
7GHz
1x 6-pin, 1x 8-pin
June 2014
17
Supertest
1080p price/performance baseline
GRID 2
Average fps: higher is better
21
44
54
56
74
MSI GTX 760 Hawk
80
90
76
95
109
Sapphire Tri-X 290X
82
119
0
25
50
75
100
125
Pounds per FPS

GRID 2
And the winner is
/FPS: lower is better
3.05
1.95
1.76
2.29
2.23
MSI GTX 760 Hawk
2.69
2.56
3.14
3.47
3.30
Sapphire Tri-X 290X
5.54
4.20
0
his has undoubtedly been

one of the most closely
contested group tests in
human history. Perhaps that
shouldnt be too surprising. Both
AMD and Nvidia have become
incredibly adept at pricing their
graphics chipsets to make them as
competitive as possible. This is
especially the case in the meat of
the mid range; above and below,
you can still find some anomalies.
At the low end, AMD has been left
looking pretty silly by Nvidias
newMaxwell architecture in the
form of the GTX 750 and 750 Ti.
Consequently, the boards based
onRadeon R7 250 and 260X are
more or less brown bread. You just
wouldnt go there.
At the opposite end of the scale,
we cant see much point in either
the Nvidia GeForce Nvidia Geforce
GTX 780Ti or Sapphires take on
the AMD Radeon R9 290X. Both
aresimply too pricey and the latter
compounds the value problem
withpatchy performance, possibly
due to thermal throttling. Yuck.
In between those two extremes,
its fisticuffs galore, along with a
18
June 2014
few honourable mentions for niche

attractions. The KFA2 GeForce
GTX 750 OC carves out a nice patch
for itself thanks to its low-profile
form factor and super-low power
consumption, for example.
Sapphires Vapor-X R9 270X OC
with Boost also has a little space to
itself thanks to pricing that fills the
widening gap between the low-end
and the most interesting mid-range
boards. Its the closest thing to the
perfect 150 pixel-pumper. Then
theres the EVGA GeForce GTX
750Ti. Its hard to beat for 125.
Beyond that, it becomes a mighty
battle between two pairs of cards.
First up, the Sapphire Tri-X R9 290
takes on Nvidias GeForce Nvidia
Geforce GTX 780. There is scarily
little between the two cards other
than the 30 price premium for
theGeForce and a few frames per
second. The GTX is a bit quicker,
while the Sapphire board has
quieter, more effective cooling.
Youpays your money, you takes
your choice. Either way, we reckon
youll be very happy.
However, both are beyond 300,
and thats just a little rich for our
liking. Finally, then, its the

SapphireVapor-X R9 280X taking
on Nvidias GeForce GTX 770 for
the ultimate honour. And this really
is an incredibly tight contest.
Intriguingly, thats not because
thenumbers are almost identical.
Infact, the GTX 770 clearly has the
best average frame rates overall,
and a great score in GRID 2
alsohelps it trounce the 280X
intheframes-per-pound metric.
Butthe 280X hits back with a clear
winin arguably the most critical
pure-performance measure of all
namely minimum frame rates.
Thanks to Sapphires typically
excellent cooling kit, its also
ber-quiet and easy to live with.
All of which means the Sapphire
Vapor-X R9 280X edges it by the
very thinnest of margins. Its the
sort of points decision that could
easily have gone the other way had
we woken up on the other side of
bed this morning, or had the wind
been blowing in a slightly different
direction. It really is almost too
close to cal, but something has to
win, so our congratulations go to
Sapphire and AMD. n
#292/June
Performance gear, uncompromising verdicts

WHAT ARE YOU DOING, DAVE?
Lounging on my sofa with a can

of lager balanced precariously
on my distended beer belly
balanced precariously on my distended beer

belly and a gamepad in my hands. Mouse and
keyboard suits me perfectly, and I love sitting
in front of a high-res desktop display and
blowing out my retinas, but I also love having
the flexibility to move around my house and
still enjoy the same games at the same levels.
The idea of essentially turning the gaming
he gaming PC is set to disappear.
PC into a home media server is a tempting
Thats my prediction. In a few years
notion. And, with the constant shrinking of
the humble gaming PC will vanish
gaming components and their power
from our desktops, never to be seen
demands, having a little box the size of a NAS
again. This isnt some doom-laden prediction
strapped to your router, distributing your PC
of the collapse of my favourite gaming
gaming joy to whatever screen you want
platform, despite my usual innate
whether thats tablet, telly, desktop monitor
pessimism. I still think people are going to
or laptop is a future I can get behind.
want PCs capable of hurling textured
However, its possible that home streaming
polygons around high-res screens, they may
is merely a stepping stone towards fullynot be so willing to look at them, though.
realised cloud gaming to a time where the
Ive been playing around with game
gaming PC does completely disappear and
streaming on my home network quite a bit
you simply subscribe to a service which does
recently, and regularly use Valves
all the heavy-rendering server-side
In-Home Streaming service on
before spitting the game stream
Steam to fire games at my
back to whatever client device
low-powered laptop from my
you want to play your game on.
hulking SLI-powered desktop
But I feel thats more likely to
tower. Ive also had some fun
kill the home console market
firing The Witcher 2 at the
than the PC market.
Shield Android console while
Us PC folk are likely to
lying in bed on a Sunday
want to retain some control
gaming
morning. While neither setup
over the breadth of games we
keyboards
is perfect yet - the buggy Shield
can play. Were in the fortunate,
in particular - the potential is
and well-guarded, position of
evident, with both regularly updated.
having the biggest back catalogue of
Once the latency issues and streaming
any gaming platform around. A switch to
artefacts are nailed and Im more than
entirely cloud-based services would strangle
confident they will be dealt with very soon
that catalogue, limiting it to simply the
then we will no longer be tied to our desks to
popular titles. The PC may not be as big as
play PC games. Now, Im not the sort of
a mass-market cloud-gaming service could
person who only feels comfortable playing
be, but I believe it will still outlive hardwaregames lounging on my sofa with a can of lager
based consoles and retain its own niche.
Dave James has been lost in a world of Elite:
Dangerous this month. Since David Braben
added an end-to-end game into the alpha test,
his family, friends and colleagues have become
worried about how long theyve got left with our
Dave til he becomes assimilated by the virtual
universe. Theyve even vetoed his purchase of a
second-gen Oculus Rift just in case
P44
Gold Award
This is the ultimate badge
of hardware excellence.
Only truly outstanding gear
gets this coveted award. Oh, and
there are no prizes for runners-up here.
22
June 2014
Our Hardware Manifesto

Would we buy it and should you buy it? Thats
all you want to know and its all we care about.
Performance and value for money are the two
key pillars supporting the mighty PC Format
Gold Award on its lofty pinnacle.
The gaming PC isnt really

going to disappear its just
going to shrink
85,000 Rifts sold,

and counting
Oculus may have been picked up by the
much-maligned Facebook, but that hasnt
stopped its development kits from being
hugely popular. Although its not even close
to releasing its consumer version, Oculus
has still managed to shift 85,000 Rift units.
Hopefully, its new-found benefactor will
bring the consumer version a step closer.
Still, the second-gen development kit,
DK2, has only just gone on sale and has
already managed to garner some 25,000
sales. Which still havent been delivered
yet, and will only do so sometime in June/
July. But at just $350, with a 1080p screen
(split between your eyes) and new
positional tracking, Im sorely tempted to
drop some cash on one myself.
Steam Controller in the autumn

The refreshed Steam Controller looks set to
be available to everyone towards the end of
this year, according to a source of PC Gamers
US counterparts. They were told that the
exciting hardware would probably be available
in October or November of 2014, with native
game support for the controller oddity being
boosted from the current count of 382 titles up
to around 500 games. We dont yet know what

these additional games will be.
Back in March of this year, Valve showed
off the redesign of the Steam Controller and
had usable versions of the new hardware on
the show floor of GDC. Gone is the central
touchscreen of the original design; instead
there are twin four-button, diamond formation
configs in a more traditional controller layout.

You still get the haptic-feedback trackpads for
each thumb, which are the most iconic features
of the controller. These are designed to enable
the device to ape mouse control more closely.
I played with a prototype controller back at
CES and those trackpads are going to take a lot
of getting used to
Highlights
this month
EDitors one to watch
Mantle-like performance
already in DirectX 11?
vidia has made some serious improvements to the DirectX 11

performance of its graphics cards with the release of its latest
GeForce driver. Now Im not usually one to get too excited about
driver releases for any product, but this driver update, 337.50,
is something a little different. Nvidia has basically gone a bit Mantle.
One of the big things about Mantle, and indeed the next release of
DirectX (see page 54), has been to reduce the CPU overhead that the
current version of DirectX introduces to games. Both Mantle and DX12
are looking to deliver more efficient use of the hardware.
I spoke to Nvidia graphics guru Yury Uralsky about the update at GTC.
Developers have been asking for low level control, and more control
over all the underlying hardware, he explained. But that does not
necessarily require a completely new API.
So Nvidia has tweaked its DX11 drivers to reduce the CPU overhead in
the API. This update only works when a game is particularly CPU-bound,
and thats been demonstrated when Ive tested at different settings on
decent GPUs. This tangible performance boost disappears once you get
into higher-resolution situations and a title becomes more GPU-bound.
The StarSwarm benchmark highlighted the positive performance of
AMDs Mantle API. Pitting a GTX 780 Ti against a Radeon R9 290X
showed the Mantle card running around 10fps faster than the DX11 Nvidia.
Thats all changed with the
latest 337.50 driver update; now
the Nvidia card gets a 40 per cent
performance boost at 1080p to
run at 73fps. In the Thief reboot,
which also works with Mantle, the
GTX 780 Ti again sees a boost,
though this time only to around the
same sort of performance levels
as the competing Radeon card.
However, AMDs R9 290X
consistently manages smoother
minimum frame rates than the
GeForce GPU, which lends some
Nvidia has squeezed out
validity to AMDs Mantle efforts in
some Mantle-like efficiency
the face of an API update.
Logitech goes DPI crazy

I regularly end up with people sat at my PC bemoaning
the twitchy nature of my mice. I like high-dpi settings,
what can I say? When Im talking high-dpi, Im usually
talking about a maximum of the 8,200dpi I get from the
likes of the R.A.T. TE or Ballista Mk1, but Logitech has
just released the G502 Proteus Core with the worlds
first 12,000dpi-capable sensor.
Yup, 12K. Thats going to be one twitchy rodent.
Obviously thats adjustable, from a base of 200dpi all
the way up to that hefty max-dpi setting.
Thankfully, Logitech is making it a
suitably customisable mouse, allowing
you to distribute the weight
around the chassis to give you
the balance and weight
you desire. You can also
tune and calibrate the
clever mouse
to different
28 Intel & Crucial

SSD RAID Arrays
38 Arctic Accelero
Xtreme IV
43 AOC I2472pwhut
surfaces, so you can hit peak tracking speeds up
to the 300in/s maximum.
Its not a bad-looking rodent either, very much in the
mould of the angular Mad Catz R.A.T. Thats definitely
no bad thing the three different machines that I use at
PC Format Towers all have various species of R.A.T.
mice attached to them.
A rather R.A.T.
-looking new rodent
June 2014
23
Hardware Review
1,100 Graphics card
AMD Radeon R9 295X2
Taking aim at the 4K gaming horizon with both Hawaii XT barrels

vital statistics
Price 1,100
Manufacturer AMD
Web www.amd.com
GPU 2x AMD Hawaii XT
Core clock 1,018MHz
Process 28nm
Radeon cores 5,632
Memory 8GB GDDR5
Memory bus 2x 512-bit
ROPs 128
henever anyone
releases a new
GPU, two things
happen. The first
isthat some smart-ass will
inevitably pipe up, postironically typing the tired
Yeah, but can it play Crysis?
line into whatever forum or
comments section he can find,
and the second is that well all
start to wonder what it would
be like if you strapped two of
these new GPUs together.
Thats exactly how graphics
card engineers operate as
well,so once theyve finished
smacking down the Crysis
24
June 2014
talks, they turn their attention

to designing an effective
solution for jamming two
high-performance processors
onto one slice of PCB.
With AMDs Hawaii XTpowered Radeon R9 290X
cards out providing their
ownlocalised-warming
environmental crises, weve
got the fruits of those GPU
engineers labours: the Radeon
R9 295X2. Thats quite a
mouthful, and its quite a
graphics card.
The R9 295X2 tipped
upinearly April, proudly
sporting apair of Hawaii XT
graphics processors beneath
astrangely familiar brushedmetal shroud, with all its
LEDsand Radeon branding
twinkling. The R9 295X2 is
also the first reference design
card to be sporting a closedloop liquid cooler. This is a
smart decision by those AMD
engineers, and one that only
adds to the ultra-enthusiast
class aesthetic.
So yes, this is effectively a

pair of R9 290X GPUs on one
card, which is exactly why it
needs such a hefty, efficient
cooling array. The Hawaii XT
GPU is one powerful slice
ofsilicon, but its also an
incredibly hot one. AMDs
Graphics Core Next (GCN)
architecture is not quite as
energy efficient as Nvidias
Kepler design. In order to
compete with the might of
Nvidia's GK110 GPU, AMD
needed to make a massive
GPU that could fit all the GCN
cores that it needed to catch
up. And that size, as well as the
1GHz clockspeed touted by the
R9 290X, means it generates a
whole lot of excess heat.
Liquid cooling
To be fair, when you strap a

pair of high-end GPUs of any
sort onto one board youre
going to need some hefty
cooling to keep them running.
Generally what happens is
themanufacturers opt to
down-clock the processors

and run them slower than
intheir single-GPU card
compatriots. This is whats
happened with all the dualGPU cards weve ever tested,
and incidentally thats also
oneof the reasons Nvidias
upcoming GTX Titan Z looks
like it could be irrelevant.
Apair of GTX Titan Blacks
aregoing to be some $1,000
cheaper and, with the full-fat
clockspeeds of single-GPU
cards, are probably also going
to be quicker too.
But those clockspeed
shenanigans havent happened
with the R9 295X2. AMD
hasactually boosted the core
clock of the twin Hawaii XT
GPUs at the heart of this card
from the 1GHz of the R9 290X
up to a heady 1,018MHz.
Granted, that is a measly
18MHz speed bump, but wed
have still been impressed if
AMD had simply kept with the
same clockspeed, let alone
given it a little tweak. On the
AMD Radeon R9 295X2
Technical analysis
When it comes to gaming,
thereis very little to separate
the SLI pairing of GTX 780 Tis
and the Radeon R9 295X2 until
you get right up to the top 4K
resolutions. Thats where this
dual-GPU card is at its best,
making use of the huge frame
buffer and wide memory buses.
Being able to hit 60fps in BF4
at3,840 x 2,160 is a fantastic
achievement for a single card,
especially compared with what
Nvidias GTX 780 Ti cards are
capable of. The R9 295X2's pair
of vast GPUs does mean that it
draws a huge amount of power
some 200W more than a GTX
780Ti SLI array.
Thermal performance
C: cooler is better
Heaven 4.0
(Min) Avg FPS: higher is better
Radeon R9 295X2
75
Radeon R9 295X2
30
GeForce GTX
780Ti SLI
82
GeForce GTX
780Ti SLI
32
Radeon R9 290X
95
Radeon R9 290X
17
GeForce GTX 780TI
65
GeForce GTX 780TI
22
Is the R9 295X2s clockspeed

a result of attaching that
closed-loop liquid chiller to
thechips, or did the decision
toretain the ~1GHz Hawaii XT
speed come first, thereby
necessitating the efficient
water-cooling attachment?
Were not sure, but either way,
weve still got a quiet, cool
and,importantly, quick pair
ofgraphics chips making the
R9 295X2 the current fastest
graphics card in the world.
Thats one of the targets of
this card, and it had to be given
the 1,100 price.
Yes, what weve got here is
another ultra-enthusiast class
graphics card, and that means
a crazy-high price tag. As a
result of being announced
after Nvidias insane $3,000
Titan Z, it does seem far better
value. Applying the notion of
'value' to a single component
40
60
80
100
20
40
60
100% GPU
Watts: lower is better
Radeon R9 295X2
681
Battlefield 4
GeForce GTX
780Ti SLI
485
Radeon R9 295X2
60
Radeon R9 290X
368
GeForce GTX
780Ti SLI
48
GeForce GTX 780TI
389
Radeon R9 290X
32
GeForce GTX 780TI
33
Bioshock Infinite
80
100
80
100
80
100
80
100
DirectX 11 4K gaming performance
200 400 600 800 1000
DirectX 11 2560x1600 performance

Metro: Last Light
Radeon R9 295X2
20
40
60
50
Radeon R9 295X2
58
GeForce GTX
780Ti SLI
47
GeForce GTX
780Ti SLI
67
Radeon R9 290X
28
Radeon R9 290X
30
GeForce GTX 780TI
32
GeForce GTX 780TI
42
Battlefield 4
GRID 2
Radeon R9 295X2
20
40
60
80
100
86
Radeon R9 295X2
99
GeForce GTX
780Ti SLI
89
GeForce GTX
780Ti SLI
72
Radeon R9 290X
53
Radeon R9 290X
54
GeForce GTX 780TI
60
GeForce GTX 780TI
55
All the cores
20
Peak power performance
other hand, Nvidias Titan Z is

likely to be clocked slower than
the GTX Titan Black GK110
GPUs on which it's based.
TheTitan Black is running with
an 889MHz baseclock we
expect that to be far closer to
800MHz when it comes to the
chips inside the Titan Z.
Synthetic 4K tessellation performance
Max temperature
that costs over a grand seems

insane, but still, were talking
about the bizarre world of the
ultra-enthusiast component
a place where money seems
not to matter, and generating
aworldwide techgasm from
the great and the greedy of the
technology world is the only
aim. Lets be clear, what we
have here is more a 'proof-ofconcept' than a graphics card
any of us is ever likely to own.
Youre going to see these
cardsat AMD-sponsored
exhibitions, LAN parties and
pro-tournaments, not in your
best buddies rigs.
20
40
60
80
100
probably going to be the

easiest way to get a good
gaming experience at 4K and
thats another of the major
targets for AMDs R9 295X2.
Currently, the only way to
get genuinely playable 4K
frame rates at the highest
graphical settings is to run a
pair of GPUs with a big chunk
of graphics memory. Even the
GTX Titan Black isnt going to
offer a consistently playable
experience with all its
super-powered GK110 silicon.
You could argue thats largely
irrelevant given the paucity of
4K gaming screens out in the
Its crazy to be talking

about a 1,100 graphics
card as a value option
That 1GHz+ clockspeed is
impressive, but so is the rest
of the specs list. Two Hawaii
XT GPUs have a full 5,632
Radeon cores/streaming
processors between them,
with 4GB GDDR5 and a 512-bit
memory bus dedicated to each
GPU. That vast amount of
memory means that this is
wild, but its still one for the

marketing presentations and
graphics card willy-waving.
The issue is that with the
premium pricing and probable
scarcity, it'll be cheaper and
easier to source a pair of
R9290X cards to create a
CrossFireX setup to rival the
R9 295X2. You will need a
20
20
40
40
60
60
beefy PSU with enough PCIe

connectors to run the two
cards, but this dual-GPU
AMDbehemoth still wants
akilowatt supply and 12v
railsfor each 8-pin PCIe
powerconnector capable of
delivering 28 amps or more.
Youre also going to be able
to make the same argument
for an SLI setup with a pair of
GTX 780Ti cards strapped
together in a mockery of the
Titan Z. The PNY edition weve
checked out in past issues is
available for just over 500,
which means you'll still be
saving a fair wad of cash if you
opt for such an array.
This has always been part of
the problem with dual-GPU
cards. In situations where the
GPUs are clocked slower than
their single-GPU counterparts,
the competition inevitably
comes from within the same
stable. When youve got such
premium pricing in place,
making the multi-GPU card
more expensive than the sum
of its constituent processors
is difficult to justify.
4K beast
While the twin R9 290X cards

cant beat the R9 295X2 in
terms of performance, they
June 2014
25
Hardware Review
can at least achieve parity for

around 250 less. A pair of
Nvidia-based PNY GTX 780Ti
cards are also some 100
cheaper than this dual-GPU
beastie, and a bit quicker than
two Hawaii XT chips. Well, they
are until you start throwing
pixels around at 3,840 x 2,160.
As we said earlier, the target
for the R9 295X2 is largely
tonail 4K gaming, and even
Nvidias finest GPUs arent
able to keep up with the AMD
cards might at such eyewateringly high resolutions.
At lower resolutions, the
power of the combined GK110
This multi-GPU card
gives its rivals a good
pasting in Battlefield 4
chips breeze past the dualGPU Radeon in the frame rate

drag race, but that huge 8GB
frame buffer and twin 512-bit
memory buses mean that the
R9 295X2 has got another
gear to shift into, andleaves
the Nvidia cards choking on its
4K dust.
In Battlefield 4, the multiGPU card has got the beating
of the GeForce pairing by
some 25 per cent. Thats quite
a pasting, and one that only
gets worse when you take a
look at GRID 2. Only Unreal
Engine 3 gives the green side
any good news, with Nvidias
SLI pairing getting a 4K lead in

Bioshock Infinite.
The Titan Z will come with
another freakishly large frame
buffer kitting out its twin GK
110 GPUs, so it ought to have
something to say when it
comes to 4K gaming. But that
something is probably going
tobe inaudible, given that its
privileged mouth is stuffed
with caviar its an altogether
different class of graphics
card and will struggle to have
any relevance to any of us.
Itscrazy to be talking about
a1,100 graphics card as the
plucky value option, but in
comparison with Nvidias
upcoming dual-GPU card thats
exactly what it is.
Expensive taste
It's probably best that the

R9295X2 remains out of
thereach of mere mortals
andstays in the realm of the
cash-rich ultra-enthusiast, or
exhibition hall. The new AMD
reference design may be far
more stylish, with its Titanaping brushed-metal shroud
and closed-loop water-cooler
keeping it chilled and quiet, but
its by no means the ultimate
ingaming setups. You can put
together cheaper R9 290X
arrays if you really need to
26
June 2014
throw polygons around a 4K

panel at pace. That leaves the
R9 295X2 as little more than a
liquid luxury for those wanting
a 4K-capable mini rig.
So, although its a fantastic
performer at 4K resolutions
for a single card, its inevitably
far too rich for our blood
considering such pace is
already available for less
cash,albeit in less convenient
dual-card configurations.
In terms of engineering,
theR9 295X2 is a thoroughly
impressive beast. Its the
current fastest card around,
but its the fact that AMD has
managed to get a pair of
higher-clocked Hawaii XT chips
onto a single board without
melting a hole through space
and time that really stands
out. Its quite an incredible
achievement. Dave James
Features
Performance
Value
Impressively engineered, with outstanding
4K performance, but you pay through the
nose for the single card configuration.
Hardware Review
Technical analysis
The two RAID arrays blitz the single
drives, with both Intel and Crucial setups
surpassing the 1GB/s threshold in the
ATTO read. Its a slightly different story in
the more demanding AS SSD test, but still
Peak sequential read performance

ATTO
MB/s: higher is better
2 x Intel SSD
730 480GB RAID 0
1,076
2 x Crucial M550
512GB RAID 0
1,081
Intel SSD
730 480GB
529
Crucial
M550 512GB
542
Crucial M550 1TB
555
Samsung
840 EVO 1TB
555
200 400 600 800 1000
Incompressible sequential read

AS SSD
2 x Intel SSD
730 480GB RAID 0
968
2 x Crucial M550
512GB RAID 0
953
Intel SSD
730 480GB
521
Crucial
M550 512GB
514
Crucial M550 1TB
509
Samsung
840 EVO 1TB
505
200 400 600 800 1000
4k random write performance

AS SSD
680 SSD RAID arrays
Intel SSD 730
2 x Intel SSD
730 480GB RAID 0
86
2 x Crucial M550
512GB RAID 0
67
Intel SSD
730 480GB
76
Crucial
M550 512GB
58
Crucial M550 1TB
64
Samsung
840 EVO 1TB
76
20
40
60
80
100
Two drives good, one drive bad. Can RAID deliver a better solid state experience?
vital statistics
Intel SSD 730
Price 680
Manufacturer Intel
Web www.intel.com
Capacity 2x 480GB
Memory controller
Intel PC29AS21CA0
Memory Intel 20nm MLC NAND
Security Power loss protection
Warranty 5 years
vital statistics
Crucial SSD M550
Price 484
Manufacturer Crucial
Web www.crucial.com
Capacity 2x 512GB
Memory controller
Marvell 88SS9189
Memory 20nm Micron MLC NAND
Security Power loss protection
Warranty 3 years
ast month we saw the

first new solid state
drives of the year arrive
in the shape of the Intel
SSD 730 and the Crucial
M550. Both drive designs are
based on their own memory
and on each companys more
28
June 2014
enterprise-focused SSDs.
That means they are quick,
and are designed to be left
running at speed for a long
time without losing out in the
pace or reliability stakes.
And they are really rather
speedy, with the Intel just
about taking the performance
award in the majority of the
single-drive tests. The Crucial
M550 is a good 100 cheaper
though, and not far behind in
terms of raw speed. The M550
series also offers a full 1TB
version something Intels
SSD 730 range is lacking. The
highest capacity drive you can
get in Intel trim is the 480GB
option we checked out last
month, but part of Intels
marketing strategy for the
SSD 730 was to talk about its
excellent scaling performance
in RAID 0. So, either two
240GB 730s in a RAID 0 array
being faster than a single
480GB, or a pair of 480GB
drives offering nearly a
terabyte of storage at insane
speeds. With smaller capacity
drives getting ever cheaper,
the first option raises an

interesting point; would you be
better off with a single large
SSD or a couple of smaller
ones RAIDed up?
Stripey
Since TRIM support was rolled

out to RAID arrays last year,
there is no longer any real
barrier to SSD RAID indeed,
thats how companies have
been putting together
effective, high-capacity PCIe
SSDs with crazy-high
sequential read and write
numbers but you need RAID
0 if you want the performance
boost. That setup basically
stripes the data equally across
the two drives to enable the
higher speed, but theres none
of the backup protection you
get from other RAID setups
duplicating data for security. If
one drive in a RAID 0 array
falls over, it takes everything
else with it. Still, when it
comes to taking risks with our
hardware, the temptation of
the itll never happen to me
side is powerful; weve been
overclocking our CPUs and

GPUs to within an inch of their
respective lives for years.
To see whether Intels claims
of marvellous RAID scaling are
accurate or not, weve picked
up a pair of Intels 480GB SSD
730s to put up against
Crucials 1TB M550, as well
as Samsungs 1TB 840 EVO.
Weve grabbed a pair of 512GB
M550 drives to see how well
Crucials new drives scale, too.
How about that RAID 0
scaling then? To be honest,
Crucials drives are just as
capable as Intels of making
good with a pair of connected
drives. Using the ATTO
benchmark, the peak
sequential read/write scores
from both drives shot through
the roof. For the SSD 730 that
meant read/write
performance of 1,076MB/s
and 960MB/s, while the M550
array managed 1,081MB/s and
1,012MB/s for read and write
scores respectively.
The AS SSD test uses
incompressible data and gives
more of an averaged score
far in advance of the single drives.

But when it comes to handling the type of
small files used on a daily basis, there wasnt
an awful lot of difference. For handling the
sort of large files you might come across in
a professional environment, the difference
in performance becomes clearer.
Intel SSD 730 vs Crucial SSD M550
60GB Steam folder copy

29,521 files
Time (seconds): quicker is better
2 x Intel SSD
730 480GB RAID 0
848
2 x Crucial M550
512GB RAID 0
888
Intel SSD
730 480GB
852
Crucial
M550 512GB
948
Crucial M550 1TB
928
Samsung
840 EVO 1TB
848
200 400 600 800 1000
Copy 4GB image file

Tera Copy
2 x Intel SSD
730 480GB RAID 0
22
2 x Crucial M550
512GB RAID 0
22
Intel SSD
730 480GB
32
Crucial
M550 512GB
29
Crucial M550 1TB
30
Samsung
840 EVO 1TB
30
10
20
30
40
50
Saving 16GB image file

Photoshop
2 x Intel SSD
730 480GB RAID 0
660
2 x Crucial M550
512GB RAID 0
680
Intel SSD
730 480GB
737
Crucial
M550 512GB
700
Crucial M550 1TB
637
Samsung
840 EVO 1TB
685
484 SSD RAID arrays
over the benchmark test than

ATTOs compressible peak
performance numbers. That
makes things a lot closer
between the two setups in
terms of write speeds, but
pulls them both below that
magical 1GB/s mark. Either
way though, the RAID setups
are nearly twice as quick in the
sequential benchmarks as the
single 1TB drives from either
Crucial or Samsung.
However, when it came to
the 4k testing, neither RAID
array was able to bring very
much at all to the table. In fact,
the performance increase was
hardly noticeable, but give the
drives more work to do with
the 4k Q64 AS SSD test and
both arrays nearly doubled the
performance of a single drive.
Real-world
Crucial M550
200 400 600 800 1000
Outside of the synthetic

numbers, its similarly difficult
to get a proper bead on the
benefit of a large SSD RAID 0
array. When it came to the
folder copy tests, neither RAID
setup was able to boost the
copy time or the MB/s speeds
by any significant amount. In
fact, the speed of the single
Samsung 1TB drive was equal

to or better than either RAID 0
arrays while copying folders.
However, when it came to
handling large individual files,
the 4GB image and the hefty
17GB Blu-ray files, the arrays
had quite an advantage. The
RAID 0 SSD 730s took some
10 seconds less than
a single drive, and increased
the MB/s rate from 120MB/s
to 174MB/s when copying the
smaller image file. They also
managed to reduce the copy
time of the Blu-ray file from
3m 13s to 2m 8s, rising from
120MB/s to 172MB/s. It was
a similar story for the two
512GB 550s, which took just
22s to copy the image at a rate
of 174MB/s, and 1m 40s for the
Blu-ray at 174MB/s.
So, to RAID or not to RAID?
Dont forget that were talking
about striping disks for
performance, not mirroring
them for data protection. If
you want a system for general
everyday use and are in need
of high capacities, then a single
drive is still the way to go. The
two-drive option brings hardly
any performance benefit when
dealing with the itty-bitty files
that our operating systems

use on a second-by-second
basis. Also remember that
a RAID array increases the
boot time of a system as
a whole because it adds an
extra layer to the boot
sequence due to the needs of
the BIOS. And when were
talking about high-capacity
single drives, the 1TB Samsung
840 EVO is still the weapon of
choice its just plain faster
than the Intel or Crucial drives
and is only 20 more than the
1TB M550, or 50 more than
the 480GB Intel.
If you spend all day moving
and manipulating large files
such as photos and videos,
or using applications that
hammer the I/O creating large
queue depths, then the RAID
array does offer distinct
performance advantages over
a single large drive. For
professionals, the extra
money youll spend getting
two drives over a single,
similarly capacious SSD is
certainly worth it because
of that speed boost. Keeping
with the financial theme, we
have got to give the win to
Crucial here; the performance
difference really is negligible

and a pair of 512GB M550
drives will set you back a full
200 less than Intels own
offering. n
Simon Crisp
Intel SSD 730

Features
Performance
Value
Unfortunately, the cost of this pair of Intel
drives in a RAID array makes the
performance boost a tougher sell.
Crucial SSD M550

Features
Performance
Value
You get the extra performance and for only
a little more than the price of a single 1TB
SSD. Great for the budding pro.
June 2014
29
Technical analysis
The sliding price scale from the mini
Z87board at 100, past the 70 ASRock
B85 and down to this 39 Gigabyte
boardmirrors the actual stock CPU
performance, but the gaming and
overclocking performance mess up
thisneat order. This isnt a board for the
productivity enthusiast then, but for
gamers on a budget its a great option.
CPU encoding performance

X264 v4.0
FPS: higher is better
Gigabyte B85M-D2V
46.36
ASRock B85 Killer
47.72
MSI Z87I
48.35
10
20
30
40
50

Rome II
Gigabyte B85M-D2V
(17)45
ASRock B85 Killer
(19)44
MSI Z87I
(16)40
10
20
30
40
50
Overclocking performance
Max OC
GHz: higher is better
Gigabyte B85M-D2V
4.6
ASRock B85 Killer
4.7
MSI Z87I
4.4
39 Motherboard
Gigabyte B85M-D2V
A budget board with high-end aspirations
vital statistics
Price 39
Manufacturer Gigabyte
Web http://uk.gigabyte.com
Chipset Intel B85
Processor support Intel 4th Gen
CPUs
Socket Intel LGA 1150
Memory slots 2x DIMM
Max memory support Up to 16GB
DDR3 1,600MHz
Expansion slots 1x PCIe 3.0 x16,
2x PCIe 2.0 x1
Storage 4x SATA 6Gbps, 2x SATA
3Gbps
Rear I/O 2x USB 3.0, 4x USB 2.0
Display 1x VGA, 1x DVI-D
hy would you need a

Z87 motherboard?
Thats becoming
atough question
toanswer. With lower-caste
motherboard chipsets like
theH87 and B85 being given
access to CPU overclocking
and full PCIe support, theres
almost no reason for the
average gamer to worry about
Intels high-end chipset.
When you can grab a B85
board like this Gigabyte
B85M-D2V for just 39 notes,
its possible to build a powerful
30
June 2014
gaming rig witha K-series

processor for relatively little
cash. We've long hailed AMD
asthe budget gaming option,
but its grip on that end of the
market is looking tenuous.
We checked out the
well-specced ASRock B85
Killer last issue, and the only
concession to its budget
status was the use of the B85
chipset itself; everything
elsewas serious gaming. By
contrast, this Gigabyte board
wears its budget credentials
on its sleeve. Its a micro-ATX
spec, but as weve seen from
the powerful mini-ITX boards
doing the rounds over the last
year, size is no longer any
indicator of PC performance.
Theres none of the fierce red
and black heatsinkery that
adorns the ASRock board the
D2V is black and businesslike.
It also has only one PCIe 3.0
slot, and just two DDR3 DIMM
slots. The 1,600MHz speed
limit on those memory slots
and the fewer USB 3.0 and
SATA 6Gbps options are
shared by pretty much all
B85-based boards though, and
none of that is really an issue.

In a machine built on a budget,
youre unlikely to be trying
tojam in 16GB of expensive
3,000MHz RAM ,or be looking
to hook up a hefty CrossFireX
or SLI graphics card array.
Little mobo that could
So, how does it perform? Very

well, actually. We wouldnt
have thought a 39 B85 mobo
would be capable of keeping
up with the 100+ Z87 brigade.
And yet, here we are, with a
board thats running our stock
i7 4770K at 3.9GHz with all
cores stretched and is able
topush out CPU benchmark
scores equal to or better
than a good many Z87s. It's
atouch behind the B85 Killer
inthe processor tests, but
thedifference is microscopic.
It scores well in the storage
tests, posting 4k random write
speeds some 5MB/s higher.
Its also a bizarrely good
overclocking board. Dont ask
us how, but it seems the power
components are happy to give
our 4770K a clean enough
flowof juice to enable a solid
4.6GHz clockspeed. It didnt

get as hot as the ASRock did
last month either. Realistically,
because of its weaker power
setup, we would recommend
not running the same chip at
such speeds for a long time,
but 4-4.4GHz should be a
reasonable long-term solution.
So, why would you need a
Z87 motherboard? In the light
of the low-cost boards weve
been playing with recently, the
only reason would be to build a
high-end, multi-GPU machine
with a hefty amount of quick
memory. If you want a board to
support one graphics card and
an i5 CPU, 39 is all you need
to spend. n
Dave James
Features
Performance
Value
An excellent budget board that manages
some impressively high-end performance.
Great for gaming on a shoestring.
Technical analysis
The Asus machine is sporting the top
single mobile GPU of the moment, the
GTX 880M. Yet these twin GTX 765M
cards can mostly match it for less cash,
which is impressive. Sadly, the Company
of Heroes 2 benchmark highlights the
issue of some titles not supporting
multi-GPUs, with the Aorus achieving
similar scores as the P35Ks lonely 765M.
DirectX 11 synthetic tessellation performance

Heaven 4.0
Aorus X7
(6) 27
Asus G750
(7) 36
Gigabyte P35K
(6) 16
10
20
30
40
50
DirectX 11 1080p gaming performance

Bioshock Infinite
Aorus X7
(11) 59
Asus G750
(13) 66
Gigabyte P35K
(7) 30
20
40
60
80
100

COH2
Aorus X7
(5) 11
Asus G750
(14) 27
Gigabyte P35K
(5) 12
1,660 Gaming Laptop
10
20
30
40
50
Aorus X7
A new gaming notebook that might just be a little ahead of its time
vital statistics
Price 1,660
Manufacturer Aorus
Web www.aorus.com
CPU Intel Core i7-4700HQ @ 2.4GHz
Memory 16GB DDR3
Graphics 2x Nvidia GTX 765M SLI
Storage 256GB SSD, 1TB HDD
Display 17.3-inch 1080p TN
Dimensions 428 x 305 x 22.9mm
Weight 2.9kg
oh, gaming notebook

newcomer Aorus has
got damned close to
a great little gaming
laptop here, but it just feels
like its turned up a single GPU
generation too early. There is
a lot to applaud Aorus first
effort for, and most of it
comes from squeezing serious
gaming performance into
a surprisingly svelte chassis.
Despite being a gaming
wide-load, with a fat 17.3-inch
display, it comes in at just over
2cm thick. And thats not some
disingenuous scale where it
just counts the very edge this
SLI machine really is that thin.
Its also pretty light for a
gaming notebook, clocking just
32
June 2014
under 3kg on the scales. Its

not like its something you can
drop into a shoulder bag and
barely notice, but the heifer
Asus lappy weve checked out
this issue is just shy of 5kg
thats a big difference.
So whats inside it? Well,
theres a Core i7-4700HQ
processor sitting at the heart
of the machine, running
between 2.4GHz and 3.4GHz
turbo on its four cores/eight
threads. Theres also a chunky
16GB of DDR3 memory,
a 256GB SSD and a 1TB hard
drive doing the storage duties.
But its the graphics cards that
really set this machine apart.
Yup, graphics cards. Despite
that minimal girth, Aorus has
managed to squeeze a pair of
Nvidias GTX 765M graphics
chips into its first notebook.
The GTX 765M is an adequate
GPU on its own, but it does
struggle to run a lot of the
latest titles at 1080p without
dropping the settings down
a notch or two. Throw a pair of
them into the mix, however,
and youll get some impressive
performance scaling almost
touching that double-speed

boost you want from adding
in a second graphics chip.
Multi-GPU mire
But there are still problems

with SLI. Sometimes, new
games are released without
multi-GPU coding, leaving you
to wait ages for them to be
patched in; there are also
certain titles that refuse to
operate with anything above
a single graphics chip.
Company of Heroes 2 and
Total War: Rome II only use one
GPU, and those games
suddenly make your extra
graphics silicon irrelevant.
Theres also no getting away
from the fact that two GPUs
generate a lot of heat and your
thermal solution is going to
have to be good to dissipate
the extraneous energy. To be
fair, the cooling on the Aorus
X7 is effective enough to keep
the GPUs going, but comes at
a cost to the aural experience.
You certainly know about it
when either the graphics or
CPU are being seriously taxed
the fans make a definitely
audible rushing noise. There is

a stealth mode that drops the
decibel level a bit, but certainly
doesnt make it silent.
This is where it feels like the
X7 is a little ahead of its time.
Factor in a pair of next-gen
mobile Maxwell GPUs, with
their massively lower thermals
and incredible performance/
Watt metrics, and youll get
high-end frame rates from a
pair of quiet, cool GPUs. Right
now, SLI doesnt have enough
of a benefit to justify this
1,660 laptop, given the noise
of that thin n light chassis, but
the next X from Aorus could
make a bigger splash on the
laptop scene. Dave James
Features
Performance
Value
Very close to being a great gaming machine,
but the mix of price, noise and slightly
awkward SLI dulls some of its initial shine.
Technical analysis
The 995 Chillblast desktop isnt quite
half the price of this Asus PC, but comes
with a screen, mouse, keyboard and
headset. It also performs better in-game.
Throw in a slimline streaming laptop
for400 and youre quids in. In terms of
mobile performance the GTX 880M is
exceptional, and beats the GTX 765M
chips of the Aorus X7 across the board.
CPU encoding performance

X264 v4.0
FPS: higher is better
Asus G750
39.03
Aorus X7
38.39
Chillblast
Gamer rig
34.85
10
20
30
40
50

Metro: Last Light
Asus G750
(14)27
Aorus X7
(10)21
Chillblast
Gamer rig
(17)35
10
20
30
40
50

GRID 2
Asus G750
(60)79
Aorus X7
(50)67
Chillblast
Gamer rig
(71)92
1,800 Gaming laptop
20
40
60
80
100
Asus G750
Are mammoth gaming laptops going the same way as the fluffy elephantidae?
vital statistics
Price 1,800
Manufacturer Asus
Web www.asus.com
SKU G750JZ-T4056H
CPU Intel Core i7-4700HQ @ 2.4GHz
Memory 16GB DDR3
Graphics Nvidia GTX 880M
Storage 256GB SSD, 1TB HDD
Display 17.3-inch 1080p TN
Dimensions 410 x 318 x 58mm
Weight 4.8kg
he Asus G750 is a
laptop your lap is going
to know about, and
possibly protest about
too. This thing is enormous
some 6cm deep at its
thickest point and weighing
the same as a couple of house
bricks. But is that really a
problem? Granted you wont
want to sit with the G750 atop
your legs, but this category
ofnotebooks are desktop
replacements, and are often
tied to desks anyway.
The components inside such
a machine demand so much
power that to travel away from
a plug socket for more than
half an hour would be madness.
34
June 2014
This sort of notebook is

designed to be plugged in 24/7.
If youre the sort to head
over to your mates place for a
little light gaming, or regularly
travel to LAN events, then a
desktop replacement kinda
makes sense. Kinda. And if
youre going to replace your
desktop with anything, then
why not go all out?
This machine is rocking the
familiar Intel i7-4700HQ CPU,
16GB DDR3 and a decentSSD/
HDD combo. The big-ticket
item is the high-end Nvidia
graphics card the GTX 880M.
With 1,536 CUDA cores, 4GB
GDDR5 video memory and a
clockspeed capable of topping
1GHz, its the mobile equivalent
of the GTX 770 desktop card.
Splash the cash
That sort of spec doesnt come

cheap though were talking a
couple of hundred pounds shy
of the 2K mark. That sort of
spec doesnt come cool, either,
which is why this machine is
quite so chunky. The cooling
array Asus has used to keep
that GPU in check needs a bit
of space to work. When the

machine is on a desk, that
isnta problem, and it also
means you dont get the noise
of the Aorus X7 machine weve
tested this issue. The Asus
isnt that much quieter, but the
pitch is completely different,
making it much less intrusive.
And as the Asus speakers can
chuck out an impressively
rounded sound, its far easier
to cover up whirring fans.
But we have to talk about
the elephant in the room, and
thats not a dig at the size of
this machine. Well, not much.
The problem is the massive
gap in the price/performance
metrics of desktop and mobile
PCs. You can build a desktop
rig for half the cost of the
G750 and still have better
performance. If convenience
isyour bag, then the rise of
in-home streaming has to be
adetermining factor too.
Spending half the price on a
desktop PC to act as a game
server, and a cheapo laptop to
work as the client makes just
as much sense if youre staying
within your own four walls.
The receptive audience for

adesktop replacement laptop
has always been incredibly
small, not least because of the
price. But with the shrinking of
desktop PCs in both size and
price and the rise of local
game streaming, that audience
must be shrinking every day.
This is a quality gaming rig,
capable of consistently
excellent performance at its
native resolution. But the
dwindling numbers of folk
willing to pay such a premium
to be able to move from plug
socket to plug socket surely
means this sort of machine is
looking mammoth-like in more
ways than one. Dave James
Features
Performance
Value
The chunky chassis keeps it cool and quiet
with outstanding frame rates, but that size
and spec keeps it tied to a plug socket.
Technical analysis
The choice of graphics card is the real
killer for the Erazer X510s performance
against its similarly-priced peers. The
GTX 760 is a decent card in a lower-caste
PC, but when youre paying over a grand
you want something far more powerful,
such as the GTX 770 in the Chillblast or
the GTX 780 in the Palicomp. And
seriously, a one-year warranty guys?
DirectX11 synthetic tessellation performance

Heaven 4.0
Lenovo Erazer
X510
(6)20
Palicomp
Hydro-780
(8)42
Chillblast PCG Rig
(7)25
10
20
30
40
50
DirectX11 1600p gaming performance

Metro: Last Light
Lenovo Erazer
X510
(10)15
Palicomp
Hydro-780
(20)30
Chillblast PCG Rig
(7)19
10
20
30
40
50

Bioshock Infinite
Lenovo Erazer
X510
(13)66
Palicomp
Hydro-780
(32)118
Chillblast PCG Rig
(12)84
1,400 Gaming PC
30
60
90
120
150
Lenovo Erazer X510

Dont be fooled by the funky chassis, theres an ugly beige box beneath it all
vital statistics
Price 1,400
Manufacturer Lenovo
Web www.lenovo.com
CPU Intel Core i7-4770K @ 3.5GHz
Motherboard Lenovo OEM Z87
Memory 24GB DDR3 @ 1,600MHz
Graphics Nvidia GTX 760
Storage 2TB HDD
Warranty 1 year
his Lenovo PC isnt

made for the likes of
us. Yes, its a machine
designated as a
gaming rig and comes with
an enthusiast price-point,
angular, LED-lit chassis,
unlocked Core i7 CPU and an
overclock button, but it hasnt
been designed for you and me.
You see, we kinda know what
a gaming PC ought to be,
especially a gaming PC that
costs 1,400. The Erazer X510
has been designed for people
who dont.
Now, we will admit that its
possible Lenovo genuinely
thinks that this sort of spec is
worth the money and that the
enormous margin its placing
on such rigs is justified, but
that would imply that its
36
June 2014
desktop team really havent

a clue what theyre doing.
Lets start with those specs,
shall we? There is the current
finest Intel desktop processor
around: the i7-4770K. That
means it can be overclocked,
and the Erazer X510 offers
a one-touch overclocking
option with a physical button
on the chassis that can push
the CPU to 3.8, 3.9 or 4GHz.
Those relatively weak
overclocking options make
sense if you pull the side off
and see the compact CPU
cooler Lenovo has used. Still,
its relatively effective and
keeps the chip below 70C
even at 4GHz. Thats not
a bad start, but things go
downhill quickly.
Sideways glance
Pulling that side off will

immediately demonstrate
what a budget-looking machine
the Erazer really is. The
destabilising, top-mounted
PSU spills its cabling
throughout the chassis; the
system builders have evidently
given little thought to keeping
things tidy. The basic OEM Z87

motherboard doesnt look up
to much either, but your eye
will be drawn to the 24GB RAM
installed in it. Across three
DIMM slots. So while you may
have a lot of memory, youll
actually have measurably
lower bandwidth thanks to
eschewing the traditional
dual-channel configurations.
And then theres the
storage. We can forgive not
having an SSD in a 1K system,
as you want to maximise the
rest of your component spend,
but for this much cash having
a 256GB SSD/1TB HDD combo
instead of this singular,
sloooooow 2TB HDD has to be
the way to go. But this is a
gaming machine, so Lenovo
will have gone to town on the
graphics, right? Look theres
an Nvidia GeForce card! But
what sort of card, Lenovo? Its
a GTX *mumble*. Sorry, what
was that? A GTX 760, okay
Lets compare with the
Palicomp Hydro-780. That
comes with a 240GB SSD and
a 3TB hard drive. Its 4770K is
clocked at 4.4GHz out of the
box and has a GTX 780 backing

it up. All that, for the same
money that Lenovo expects
people to stump up for this
machine. The Palicomp rig is
almost twice as fast in any
game you throw its way. Hell,
even the 1K Chillblast PC
Gamer rig is quicker, and that
also comes with a 1080p
screen and peripherals.
The Erazer X510 has upset
us. There are so many system
integrators who deserve your
business far more than
Lenovo, which is putting out
incredibly poor value, poorly
performing machines. Dont be
suckered in by a big brand
on the desktop. n Dave James
Features
Performance
Value
Either Lenovo doesnt know how to build
a gaming machine, or just doesnt care.
Either way its worth giving a wide berth.
Technical analysis
The cooling efficiency is the main reason
to fit an aftermarket cooler to your
graphics card. Not only can it improve
long-term performance, but it can also
extend the life of a GPU that otherwise
might be running at 93C throughout its
entire gaming life. Aural performance is
almost as important, and here the Arctic
cooler operates brilliantly even against
the impressive Sapphire cooler.
Thermal performance
Thermal performance
Degrees centigrade: lower is better
Accelero Xtreme
IV R9 290
66
Reference R9 290
93
Sapphire R9 290
Tri-X
76
20
40
60
80
100
45
60
75
45
60
75
Aural performance
100% GPU load
decibel: lower is better
Accelero Xtreme
IV R9 290
36
Reference R9 290
40
Sapphire R9 290
Tri-X
37
100% fan speed
decibel: lower is better
Accelero Xtreme
IV R9 290
40
Reference R9 290
63
Sapphire R9 290
Tri-X
50
48 GPU cooler
15
15
30
30
Arctic Accelero Xtreme IV

A chunky GPU cooler to tame the savage beasts
vital statistics
Price 48
Manufacturer Arctic
Web www.arctic.ac
Maximum cooling capacity 300W
Heatpipes 5
Fans 3x 92mm
Weight 991g
Compatibility Nvidia 5, 6, 7-series,
AMD 200, 7000, 6000, 5000, 4000,
3000-series
ell, the good news

is we didnt break
anything while
replacing the
cooler on our reference
Radeon R9 290. Although it
looked like it was going to be
a close-run thing for a while
there. To be fair, that says
more about the bold,
belligerent enthusiasm of this
reviewer than about the Arctic
GPU cooler were testing here.
The Accelero Xtreme IV is the
latest in Arctics top-end,
third-party GPU cooling
solutions and it makes for one
mammoth graphics card when
youve finished fitting it.
The best news though is how
much of a difference it makes
compared to the standard
38
June 2014
reference cooling design on

your expensive ol graphics
card. We chose AMDs
second-tier Hawaii, the R9
290, as our test card partly
because its one of our
favourite high-end cards, but
also because the stock cooling
that AMD ships it with can
barely contain the rabid GPU.
With a standard cooler, you
start with great performance
that drops off as the heat and
noise increase. That makes
these third-party coolers
rather interesting, especially
as this top-end active air
cooler costs no more than
a mid-range CPU cooler.
Simples?
Unfortunately, fitting a GPU

cooler is nowhere near as
straightforward a job as
jamming a mid-range CPU
cooler atop your PCs
processor. Thats compounded
by the fact the Accelero
Xtreme IV has such a range of
GPU compatibility. Youll need
a scalpel, some patience and
a bit of common sense. The
main stumbling block during
installation was the relatively

basic pictographic manual and
having to attach foam padding
to the hot component areas on
the reverse of the GPUs PCB.
The manual claimed there
would be 40 thermal pads
inside, yet all we got was one
fat block of thermal padding
that we had to ineffectually
slice up ourselves.
Still, once that and the
protective film had been cut
to fit, the Xtreme IV went
together pretty simply. Theres
no glue needed, just a number
of clamps and screws. The
issue is that because its not
designed with a specific cards
dimensions in mind, its easy
to start bending that slab of
PCB while you tighten up the
GPU attachment.
Luckily, the performance is
worth the effort and extra
width the rear heatsink adds
to your graphics card. Our
reference card was hitting
93C under full load, with
some scary hissing at 40dB.
After adding the new cooler
and changing the fan profile, as
per the thoroughly useful
Arctic instructions, we saw

some amazing improvements.
At full load the R9 290 was
suddenly just 66C and 36dB.
Even pushing the fans to 100
per cent they sound no louder
than the reference cooler
struggling at just 40 per cent.
But is it worth going for
a cheaper reference cooled
edition and buying this cooler
separately, as opposed to
picking up something like
Sapphires triple-fan Tri-X
version? Yes it is. It may be
slightly more expensive, but
the cooling performance of the
Xtreme IV is superior to
Sapphires Tri-X chip chiller,
and quieter too. n Dave James
Features
Performance
Value
A fantastic third-party GPU cooler that can
make the roaring, super-heated R9 290
a much tamer beast in a trice.
100 Gaming headset

Tricked out QPad cans will put your ears on cloud nine
vital statistics
Price 100
Manufacturer Kingston
Web www.kingston.com
Headset frequency response
15Hz-25KHz
Interface 3.5mm jack
Driver size 53mm
Microphone frequency response
100Hz-12KHz
Microphone type Electret condenser
re these cans looking

familiar? If so, youre
probably acquainted
with QPads QH-90
headset, which was released
last year to much praise
within PCF towers (and
outside it too). The HyperX
Cloud Pro headset is the
equivalent of an overclocked
Core i7; an Escort Cosworth;
a caramel macchiato with
a triple espresso shot. Its the
thing you like, but more.
We like to imagine that
Kingstons R&D department
is staffed exclusively by Essex
teenagers who drive to work
in lowered, pearlescent 1999
Renault Clios. Theyve
examined the fine aluminium
body, sumptuous memory

foam earpads, great sound
reproduction and plethora of
extra connectivity options in
the QH-90, and concluded that
it needs more bass. Usually
Id bang that well-beaten drum
about how exaggerated
low-end destroys sound
quality in gaming headsets.
But in the HyperX Cloud Pros
case, it works a charm.
You see, if the QH-90 was
lacking anything and its
debatable that it was it was
powerful low-end. The
balanced EQ was
advantageous when listening
to music, taking in a film, or
Skyping your significant other.
But we live in a world in which
bass so extreme it physically
rattles your headset is
apparently desirable (see
p40), so the HyperX Cloud
Pros augmented lows are
a happy compromise. Sub-bass
frequencies from 15-20Hz
pack a sensory punch, but
theyre not loaded with
harmonic distortion like the
Mad Catz F.R.E.Q. 4D cans we
also tested this issue. Instead
of hearing a tone, you feel

a pressure change, and that
makes for satisfying bass.
Just as important as the
frequency response is the
manner in which the earcups
actually sit on your lugs. The
rounded memory foam cups
block out the vast majority of
external hubbub, and youre
able to perceive really low
frequencies pushing the cups
to and from your ears. It adds
a sense of weight to games
without destroying your music.
If youre really picky, you can
use a software EQ layer to roll
off all frequencies below
19.5Hz for a sound closer to
the original QH-90. I doubt
youd want to, though.
Elsewhere, its business
as usual bar a few aesthetic
updates. The Cloud Pros red
and black palette lends itself
a bit less to use on long-haul
flights (god bless that plane
audio input adapter, its a very
welcome addition) and a bit
more to LAN meets and
tournaments. So your
thoughts on the new look will
largely depend on your
intended usage. Eye of the

beholder, and all that.
Nonetheless, this headsets
among the most comfortable
weve ever tested. The Cloud
Pro, like the QH-90, is
beautifully presented and
comes complete with its own
carry bag. This is largely
useless if were honest, but it is
in line with what other brands
offer at the price point.
Ah, the price. We expect this
headset to weigh in at the 100
mark, which is a serious outlay.
But its an investment that will
genuinely enrich all your
gaming and multimedia
experiences. A class act, and
no mistake. n
Phil Iwaniuk
Features
Performance
Value
Injecting QPads excellent QH-90 with
more bass results in one of the most
complete headset packages available.
June 2014
39
100 Gaming headset
Mad Catz F.R.E.Q. 4D

Game-branded cans boast Titanic bass, fall down in the sound quality stakes
vital statistics
Price 100
Manufacturer Mad Catz
Web http://madcatz.com
Drivers 50mm
Weight 306g
Headphone frequency response
20Hz-20KHz
Microphone frequency response
50Hz-16KHz
Interface USB, 3.5mm jack
pparently, the
mathematicians have
got it all wrong the
fourth dimension isnt
time, its bass. While that
sounds like something Nathan
Barley or Tim Westwood
might say, its actually the
bold claim presented by Mad
Catzs F.R.E.Q. 4D stereo
gaming headset, which
features 4D sound. Alarm
bells are sounding in the
oh-so-sensitive ears of the
audiophiles among you
already, but lets give the
F.R.E.Q. 4D a shot.
The build and finish of this
stereo headset convey quality,
and although they do produce
a bit of the dreaded seashell
effect when you place the cups
40
June 2014
over your ears, they are

well-padded and light enough
to wear for a couple of hours
without popping a Panadol.
Youd expect more for the
money though, particularly
in the materials used on the
contact points, and a longer
cable would help. The shape
of the cups is an irregular
pentagon that is similar to the
TTeSports cans weve tested
previously; while this design
isnt hugely suited to a snug fit,
youll be able to fiddle around
with the headband to find a
position that works. Theres no
in-line remote with this model,
so the volume, mic and EQ are
all controlled via buttons on
the headset itself. The volume
scrolling wheel on the left cup
is a sturdy metal one, and the
mic is tucked away internally
yet clarity when speaking
hasnt been sacrificed. Special
mention goes to the mic mute
button on the right earcup
the design mimics the sniper
mode of Mad Catzs R.A.T. mice
and is easily located in a hurry.
On the right earcup are the
EQ and ViviTouch buttons. The
latter is designed as a sort

of audio force feedback,
producing a palpable vibration
when low-end sounds pass
through. Its... interesting.
Boombastic
ViviTouch creates harmonic

distortion of sub-bass
frequencies below 20Hz. You
shouldnt actually be able to
hear any frequencies below
that point, but theyre very
audible in this headset and
thats achieved only through
harmonic distortion.
When ViviTouch is turned
on, it is distorting the audio
signal. Initially, it feels like the
satisfying bass thud you get
from closed-cup Bose
headphones, but more
synthetic and scooped.
Unfortunately, the headsets
so geared towards this
sub-bass rumble that its
nearly impossible to get
a normal, flat EQ. You could
listen to a FLAC of a Robert
Johnson vinyl with this headset
and it would still sound like
a Dance eJay sample. Even
with ViviTouch turned off,
we struggled to produce a flat

enough EQ to achieve a natural
sound when watching films
or listening to music. The
headsets own EQ presets
switch between extremes, and
software wont totally remedy
the hard-wired EQ spikes.
What we have here then
is a headset that works well
for gaming and in-game chat,
with an interesting gimmick
in ViviTouch. But that gimmick
limits its use to gaming alone,
and you shouldnt be making
any compromises in a
products usage at this price
point. Youre best off sticking
with just the three dimensions
for now. n
Phil Iwaniuk
Features
Performance
Value
The head-rattling rumble of ViviTouch is
interesting, but hampers sound quality in
media use. Its just not worth the premium.
Mad Catz R.A.T. TE
66 Gaming mouse
Mad Catz R.A.T. TE

The classic R.A.T. goes on a serious diet
vital statistics
Price 66
Manufacturer Mad Catz
Web www.madcatz.com
Sensor Philips Doppler
DPI range 25 8,200
Acceleration 50G
Polling rate 1,000Hz
Lift-off height 0.2 1mm
Weight 90g
here have been an

awful lot of R.A.T.
gaming mice, from
thebudget R.A.T. 3 to
the excellent R.A.T. 7, MMO
editions and the slightly
over-the-top wireless RAT 9.
And here comes another, the
R.A.T. TE. This Tournament
Edition controller is designed
specifically to appeal to the
e-sports enthusiast, but still
retains the series angular
ergonomics and a little of the
trademark customisation.
But we have to admit feeling
a mite disappointed when we
released this rodent from its
packaging. We were expecting
the ultimate in R.A.T. design,
but all we had was a black and
blue mouse with no Allen key
or replacement side-panels.
Infact, the design calls back
more to the budget-oriented
R.A.T. 3 than the high-end
R.A.T. 7 rodents weve known
and genuinely loved.
That feeling continues when
you lift the mouse. Theres
none of the heft that comes
with the metal chassis of
thetop-end R.A.T.s and their
optional weights. To find
ourselves throwing around
thisincredibly lightweight
TEversion is quite jarring.
Playing is believing
It might sound like our first

impressions of the R.A.T. TE
weren't particularly good, but
actually using it negated a
lotof our misgivings, and the
focus on e-sports justifies all
the unusual design choices.
Its all about responsiveness.
A good e-sports mouse needs
to be quick, accurate and
lightweight so it can glide
across any surface with ease.
Of course there will still be
gamers, pro or otherwise, who
prefer to have weighty mice,
but the TE offers almost zero
resistance to the movements

of your guiding hand, which
translates into increased
accuracy in-game.
Of course the laser sensor
itself also helps, but its not
the now-familiar Avago ADNS
9800 that weve been used to
in the Shogun Bros Ballista and
Corsair M65, despite having
the same 8,200 max DPI
settings. Mad Catz is using a
new Philips Doppler sensor,
which has a greater tolerance
for acceleration and support
for much lower lift-off heights.
In fact, while the Philips sensor
supports a maximum lift-off
height of 1mm, thats where
the Avago sensor starts.
For fast-paced shooters,
where theres a good chance
youre going to be throwing
your mouse around frantically,
the lack of movement that
comes from lifting your mouse
is vital though the super-high
DPI settings mean you
shouldnt have to do so unless
youre spinning around like a
top. We find most mice a little
too flyaway for our tastes at
8,200 DPI, but the Philips
sensor in the R.A.T. TE is

super-accurate and there is
notwitchiness attached to
really fine-grain movements
in-game. We barely needed to
use the precision mode button
for sniping because the
accuracy was so high already.
Were genuinely surprised
that the R.A.T. TE is so good. To
begin with it just seemed like
abudget gaming mouse with
alittle marketing spin behind
it,but cutting out the metal
chassis and customisation
options has lightened it even
more than the Ballista, and
that Philips sensor makes the
most of that lightweight ease
of movement. n Dave James
Features
Performance
Value
The performance of that excellent Philips
sensor and the slick lightweight movement
make the TE an excellent gaming mouse.
June 2014
41
58 Gaming mouse
Gamdias Hades
Extension Laser
What in the name of Hades is a mouse doing bearing his name?

vital statistics
Price 58
Manufacturer Gamdias
Web www.gamdias.com
Sensor Avago ADNS 9800
DPI range 200 8,200
Acceleration 30G
Polling rate Up to 1,000Hz
Lift-off height 1 5mm
Weight 120g
amdias probably isnt

a particularly familiar
name to you indeed
we only heard about
the Taiwanese peripheral
maker late last year. But
although its only been around
since 2012, this new brand has
big ideas about redefining
theworld of e-sports with its
Greek myth-inspired gear.
Well, we say inspired, but
weve no idea what a gaming
mouse has in common with the
lord of the underworld, unless
Gamdias is riffing on the Greek
statues generally missing
arms in current times. We only
say that because one of the
interesting features of the
Hades Extension mouse is the
fact that it is ostensibly an
42
June 2014
ambidextrous design, but with

removable limbs that you
canuse to change its shape,
ortailor it to be either left- or
right-handed. With three pairs
of magnetic attachments its
apretty effective method of
customisation, but it doesnt
result in the absolute comfiest
of arrangements.
There are four configurable
buttons, not including the DPI
switch or the scroll-wheel.
Wecouldnt find out exactly
what the advanced gaming
laser sensor is, but given that
Gamdias Zeus mouse uses the
Avago ADNS 9800 with the
same 8,200 max DPI, were
confident its using the same
sensor in this rodent. If youre
thinking thats all sounding a
lot like the excellent Shogun
Bros Ballista, youd be correct.
That gaming mouse uses the
same sensor and also comes
with a few extra configurable
buttons. Its also the exact
same weight, but the Hades
isnt quite in the same league.
The Hades doesnt glide
assmoothly as the Ballista,
which, combined with the
extreme sensitivity of a 8,200

DPI sensor, leads to jerkier
motion in-game. That makes
itharder to track targets in a
fast-paced FPS and maintain
aconsistent arc of fire. It also
means you dont feel quite as
confident about its accuracy,
despite both mice using the
same laser sensor. Were also
more comfortable about the
ergonomic styling of the
Shogun Bros mouse but then
again, were right-handed, and
the Ballista most definitely
istoo. Lefties wont stand a
chance with it.
Hera we go
Neither mouse will win any

awards for its software
Gamdias Hera program
feelsmessy and awkward
despite having all the relevant
settings to hand, including
stats relating to the mouses
movements. Compared with
the simple but effective Mad
Catz software, its a rather
unpleasant experience and
notsomething youll want to
spend a lot of time using to
configure your rodents setup.
As a gaming mouse, the

Gamdias Hades alone cant
stand against the might of
theMad Catz R.A.T. TE weve
checked out this issue. The
Ballista can still hold its head
up high (despite the Philips
laser sensor in the TE being
evidently superior in-game)
thanks to the positioning of its
sensor under the index finger
for increased accuracy, and its
additional buttons.
The Hades extra buttons
can get in the way, especially
with some of the replacement
panels, and the combination
ofthe sensor and motion of
the mouse means it just isnt
asaccurate. n
Dave James
Features
Performance
Value
Not a bad gaming mouse, but it lacks the
sheer accuracy of either the excellent
Ballista or the new R.A.T. TE.
AOC I2472PWHUT
Technical analysis
Are we really feeling touch when it comes
to desktop PCs? Not for gaming and
production rigs there are just too many
compromises associated with clumsy
bezels and reflective screens. But for that
second PC in the kitchen or living room
itmight make sense. For web browsing,
viewing maps and planning journeys, a
touchscreen PC is a very nice tool.
270 Touchscreen monitor
AOC i2472PWHUT
Big-screen touch control on a small budget
vital statistics
Price 270
Manufacturer AOC
Web www.aoc-europe.com
Size 23.6-inch
Resolution 1,920 x 1,080
Panel type IPS 6-bit
Contrast 1,000:1
Response 5ms
Other 10-point multi-touch
ot too long ago, a

largescreen with
multi-touch tech
commanded equally
big money. The same went for
almost any monitor with an
IPS panel. Now you can have
both in the shape of the AOC
i2472PWHUT for well under
300. Thats progress.
But it doesnt automatically
make this 24-inch touchscreen
something youd actually want.
Like most big touchscreens,
its something of an acquired
taste. More on that in a minute.
First, lets cover the basics.
The AOC i2472PWHUT
sports what in many ways has
become the go-to spec for
affordable monitor panels. Its
a 24-inch screen with a 1080p
pixel grid. Thats 1,920 x 1,080

pixels in a 16:9 aspect ratio.
As mentioned, its an IPS
panel, though AOC doesnt go
into too many specifics. Our
sense is of the usual low-cost
6-bit variety, but thats okay
given the pricing and the
overall package youre getting.
An 8-bit or 10-bit panel would
push up the cost dramatically.
Inputs-wise, were talking
apair of HDMI ports and
notmuch else. That said, the
final part of the conventional
display feature set is an MHL
link for Android devices. Thats
a nice extra that ties in well
with the touch functionality.
Speaking of the latter, the
AOC i2472PWHUT supports
full 10-point multi-touch, so it
can handle all fingers on both
hands. Another important
partof the touch proposition
is a clever, spring-loaded kick
stand that allows the screen
tostand up like a conventional
monitor or cant right back to
almost horizontal. The spring
loading means the stand
maintains its position upon
release whenever you push or
pull the top of the display.

Itworks well and feels robust.
You can say the same of
themulti-touch functionality.
Using Windows 8s evaluation
app, the i2472PWHUT tracks
all 10 fingers rapidly and
accurately. Less impressive
are the compromises AOC has
made to the look of the display
to achieve a usable Windows 8
touchscreen. The panel is
surrounded by a raised bezel.
Standard for a touchscreen
monitor? Yup, but to allow for
gestures that swipe in and out
of the screen edge, theres a
second flush bezel between
the active panel and the raised
bezel. Its a bit visually clunky.
As for the image quality,
barring the usual glossy
touchscreen reflectivity, its
mostly as youd expect from
this type of budget IPS screen.
The colours are reasonably
vibrant and the viewing angles
are great, again barring the
distracting reflections.
Both white and black scales
show plenty of extension and
theres little to no banding in
gradients. Just dont turn on
AOCs overdrive function; its

akiller for inverse ghosting.
Overall, its a decent panel.
All of which means this is a
pretty strong package given
the reasonable pricing. Its
certainly a great candidate
forthat kitchen countertop
PC, where Windows 8 touch
support makes so much sense.
As a straight monitor though,
the double bezels are a proper
eyesore and a probable
deal-breaker. Youre not really
going to be after the i2472 on
the off-chance you might want
to stroke the screen every now
and then. Youd have to really
want touch support to make
itworthwhile. n Jeremy Laird
Features
Performance
Value
A very nice overall package at a great price,
but you have to really want the touch
functionality for it to make sense.
June 2014
43
Hardware Review
Gaming Keybo
Thermaltake
Tt eSPORTS
MEKA G-Unit
97 http://ttesports.com
Thermaltakes 97 gaming
board faces stiff competition
from the 75 Ozone Strike
Pro,but the MEKA G-Unit is
certainly no slouch. It comes
complete with a 1,000MHz
polling rate, 60 macro keys, a
fancy carry bag and a pleasingly
preposterous 50 Cent-inspired
moniker. Sold, right?
Well, if youre down with
Cherry MX Black keys you
could do a lot worse. If theyre
not your preference, you have
the choice of Blue switches,
instead, but you dont have as
many options as you do with
the Ozone and Cooler Master
boards. And thats a problem
when youre paying almost
100 for the pleasure.
Elsewhere, the MEKA
matches its competitors but
doesnt meaningfully surpass
them. Like the rest, it offers
several different backlighting
44
June 2014
modes (five in this case) to

illuminate either the whole
board or just the gaming keys,
and has a high rollover of 46
simultaneous presses. It isnt
ever going to be an issue in
practical use, but if youre
about to spend more money
than Ozone is asking for the
Strike Pro, youd want a higher
rollover just to reassure you of
the boards engineering. To its
credit, the MEKA sports two
USB passthrough ports; these
are incredibly handy and
something of a rarity.
In truth, this feels like a
slightly cheaper board, and its
hard to see why youd want to
spend this much money on it.
Not because it does anything
wrong, but because it doesnt
do everything right. Thats the
pressure you put yourself
under at this price n
vital statistics
Switch type Cherry MX Black
or Blue
Rollover 46-key
Ozone
Strike Pro
75 http://ozonegaming.com
Like Cooler Masters CM Storm

Trigger-Z, this Strike Pro from
fringe manufacturer Ozone
gives you the chance to tailor
your mechanical keys to suit
your tastes. It actually goes one
step further and slaps Cherry
MX Black keys on the roster,
which is the stiffest switch
type and is designed to avoid
accidental keypresses.
The Strike Pro is rather good
at showing up the Trigger-Z and
its peers when it comes to
specs. This board offers a USB
passthrough along with 3.5mm
audio inputs for headsets,
which you should be expecting
from any gaming keyboard
priced at 75 or more. It also
comes with dual-colour LED
backlighting this illuminates
gaming keys ([W], [S], [A], [D],
direction keys, [E], [Q] and [Esc])
in red, and the others in white.
This unique feature adds
spectacle if not tremendous
practical benefit to the
package. Overall there are six

backlighting modes, so you
should be able to find joy from
at least one of them.
Its rollover is all 104 keys.
This means that if your cat
decided to flop itself down on
every single key, every one
would register simultaneously.
Again, a very impressive spec
for the price. Youll also find six
macro banks with a total of 30
programmable macros on the
board; while this isnt a
standout performance, it
should still see you right.
Its build quality and visual
appeal dont quite match the
specifications, and despite
boasting a 50 million keystroke
life cycle, it doesnt look as
robust as the Trigger-Z.
However, that small point is
worth overlooking for the
features on offer. n
vital statistics
Switch type Cherry MX Red,
Blue, Black or Brown
Rollover 104-key
Keyboards
ards Roundup
Cooler Master
Trigger-Z
99 www.cmstorm.com
Theres no right or wrong when

it comes to Cherry MX key
switches these mechanical
components have quickly
become must-haves on the
spec sheet of any high-end
gaming keyboard. They come
infour flavours Red, Black,
Blue and Brown but theres
nohierarchy of quality. Its all
about personal preference. If
you like to feel a definite click
when your keypress registers,
Blue switches are for you; for a
clickless, butter-smooth feel,
choose Red. Brown switches
lie somewhere in the middle,
registering a subtler click when
pressed. Black switches are the
stiffest of the lot.
CM Storm gives you the
option of Red, Blue or Brown
switches with this Trigger-Z,
apricey but tank-like board
featuring five macro banks, a
detachable braided USB cable
and LED-backlit keys. The
lights correspond to your key
choice, so Cherry MX red

models have red LEDs, blue
keys feature blue ones, and
brown keys mercifully get
white. All feel great as theyre
fitted in such a sturdy board,
which owes something to
Cooler Masters HAF cases.
For almost 100, its a little
shy on features. Theres no
USB passthrough to plug in a
mouse or external drive, and
although there are different
backlighting levels and a mode
that illuminates only the [W], [S],
[A], [D] and function keys, you
cant program each key light
individually. Their absence
wont ruin your experience, but
competitors in this price range
usually offer those features.
Nonetheless, the Trigger-Z is
still a great board due to its
choice of mechanical switches
and its high build quality. n
vital statistics
Switch type Cherry MX Red,
Blue or Brown
Rollover 64-key
Razer
Blackwidow
Ultimate
115 www.razerzone.com
Despite its nosebleed pricing,

this Razer board is relatively
simple. Theres no pulsing LED
mode or extraneous displays
just straight lines, even and
effective green backlighting,
five dedicated macro keys and
bomb-proof build quality.
The body of the board has a
rubberised finish that looks
great out of the box, but wont
stay that way for long if youve
a penchant for mid-game
Monster Munch, such is its
tendency to display smearing
and smudges. Its not supplied
with a palm rest either, but
using the feet at the rear of the
board its easy enough to find
acomfortable typing position
without one. The braided
USBcable allows one USB
passthrough along with audio
and mic 3.5mm inputs, tucked
away to the right of the board
to keep things neat.
The switches beneath the

keys are Razers own design,
but take the Pepsi challenge
with these and a set of Cherry
MX Blue switches and youd
have to be quite the typing
virtuoso to feel a difference.
These are the clicky variety,
registering an audible sound
when the press is registered
and before the key reaches its
maximum point of travel.
Unlike some mechanical boards
that are conducive to hours of
typos (or erroneous grenade
tosses in games), we found the
Blackwidow easy to control
from the off.
All its really lacking is a
breakout volume control like
youll find on Corsairs boards.
Instead you have to press the
function key and tap [F2] and
[F3], which seems a shame for
such an expensive offering. n
vital statistics
Switch type Razer Mechanical
Green Switches
Rollover 10-key
June 2014
45
Hardware Review
Builder
Whether youre upgrading your PC
or starting anew, this is the best kit
ne of the joys of
owning a PC is that
you can upgrade it as
you go. Need higher
frame rates in games?
Drop in a newer graphics card.
More power elsewhere? Grab
a new processor or go for that
oldfavourite: a memory boost.
Theres a wealth of upgrades
that can transform your machine,
and you can change slowly over
time to suit your budget, so you
rarely have to suffer a sluggish
rig for long. Every now and then,
the best possible upgrade is to
dump your current rig and start
afresh by building a whole new
machine from scratch.
What sort of machine should
you build, though? Which items
are important? Which work well
together? How much should you
be budgeting for? Thats a lot of

questions, and to get the right
answers means having to go and
research all the current trends in
order to make the best decision.
Before you do that, though, take
a look to the right. Youll discover
that weve taken the hard work
out of the equation and presented
you with three machines that fit
three different budgets.
On these pages are our usual
recommendations for putting
together a budget, mainstream
and silly high-end machine. These
rigs all include a screen and
peripherals in the ticket price,
so if youre keeping your existing
goodies then you can spend more
elsewhere. And whats our choice?
Either get a larger SSD or a more
powerful GPU. Happy building you
Dave James
lovely people! n
How to
Buy a graphics card
If you want to play games using

your PC then you need to give
serious thought to the graphics
card you place inside your rig.
Were in a great position right
now where a lot of the focus for
the high-end is on the crazy 4K
resolutions , meaning that
performance lower down the
scale at the 1080p standard most
of us are playing is incredibly
46
June 2014
cheap. You can pick up great

value cards, such as the GTX
750Ti, which will deliver quality
1080p gaming performance, and
some of them dont even need an
external PCIe power connector.
Therefore, the target
resolution you game at is the
determining factor in choosing a
new GPU. For 1080p, pretty
much any card between 100
and 200 will deliver the goods;
if you need to go higher in the
resolution game then youll need
to top that 200 mark. You dont
need to really concern yourself
about the 1,000+ ultraenthusiast class graphics cards
unless youre seriously planning
on dropping further thousands
on a jaw-dropping 4K panel.
Budget
534
When every pound counts,
spend them wisely
motherboard
65
Gigabyte GA-970A-DS3
cpu
AMD FX-6300 BE
AMD has carved itself out a rather

comfortable niche in the lowend market, and Gigabyte
ishelping. With SATA
6Gbps and USB 3.0,
this mobo covers
allyour needs.
The FX-6350 may well be

here, but the FX-6300 still
has better OC chops and
a lower price point. The
fact you can hit 5GHz
with one of these
makes it a favourite.
MEMORY
34
Crucial 4GB 1600 DDR3
GRAPHICS CARD
MSI GTX 750 Ti OC
Memory pricing continues

to beincredibly volatile,
but its still a great time
to squeeze more sticks
into your rig. You really
should see 4GB as the
minimum these days.
Nvidias latest GPU is quite

a feat of engineering
because of that
brand new Maxwell
architecture. The
MSI card is a bargain
at this price too.
HARD DRIVE
43
Seagate 1TB Barracuda
40
Power supply
SilverStone Strider E 500W
Taking advantage of the SATA 6Gbps

connection on the Gigabyte mobo
is this Seagate drive. Its not
going to give you SSD
speeds, but its not bad
and gives you enough
space for gaming.
We may be talking about a budget

rig here, but its still a rather hefty
chunk of cash to risk on a no-name
power supply. This 500W
SilverStone PSU will give
you peace of mind and all
the PCIe leads you need.
Chassis
52
Corsair Carbide 200R
screen
AOC E2250SWDNK
Much more impressive than its

price tag may lead you to
believe, the clean lines and
added extras of this
chassis make it the
budget case to beat.
An understated bargain.
This 21.5-inch panel has a native

resolution of 1,920 x 1080
and looks pretty good
despite that price tag.
Youll need a minimum
of 150 for IPS, but
this TN aint bad.
optical
17
LG GH22LS50 DVD-RW
CPU Cooler
AMD Stock Cooler
Its hardly the sexiest

component, but until
games and OSes
come on USB
sticks, this is your
best option to get
your rig up and running.
Coolers make a big

difference for tweaking
high-end CPUs, but the
standard one that
comes with the
retail processor is
just fine for this rig.
84
114
85
N/A
Rig Builder
Mainstream
1,003
You dont have to spend a
fortune to get a stunning rig
high-end
3,967
If you really want to treat
yourself, this is how to do it
motherboard
133
MSI Z87-GD65 Gaming
cpu
Intel Core i5-4670K
Now that weve uncovered some

quality Z87 motherboards, such as
the MSI Gaming, its time
to make the switch
over to Haswell for
our mainstream
gaming machine.
The lack of HyperThreading makes

this a straight quad-core chip, but the
Haswell Core i5 is still
the silicon of choice for
a new gaming rig. The
extra Core i7 threads
cost a lot more.
Asus has really gone to town on the

X79 platform, spamming the market
with a host of boards (and most of
them are pretty darned
good, too). This here
P9X79 Pro is a great
little performer.
With the same six-core

setup as the previous gen,
theres not a lot of extra
stock performance,
butif youre after the
fastest CPU, this
is it right now.
MEMORY
58
Corsair Vengeance LP 8GB
GRAPHICS CARD
Nvidia GTX 760
MEMORY
97
Kingston HyperX 16GB
Graphics card
791
Nvidia GTX Titan Black
This pair of 4GB sticks will give you

all the performance you could ever
want, and theyre in
stormtrooper white.
Theyll only take up
two slots in the board
for upgrading, too.
Unfortunately, the ol HD 7870 XT

is hard to get hold of and rather
pricey now. Thankfully, the GTX
760 has arrived for less
than 200 and offers
some serious gaming
performance, too.
The quad-channel memory config

of the X79 makes for a great
opportunity for
RAM makers to ship
new kits. This XMP
1.3-compatible kit is
a tasty 16GB package.
The GTX Titan Black Edition has the

full-fat GK110 core of the GTX 780
Ti, but with 6GB VRAM and the
double precision
maths turned
back on. Perfect
for serious work.
solid state drive 130

Samsung 840 EVO 250GB
Power supply
52
OCZ ModXStream Pro
solid state drive 389

Samsung 840 EVO 1TB
171
Power supply
CM Silent Pro Gold 1000W
Samsungs new EVO SSDs

coverawide range
of capacities. This
250GB version is
a bargain price and
rather damned
quick as well.
If you want to build a performance

machine, youre going
to need a powerful
PSU. This 500W baby
will power the rig, with
extra to spare.
Its quiet as well.
Its been a while coming, but were

finally seeing terabyte-class SSDs,
and for a decent price.
The 840 EVO uses
some impressive
algorithms to
offer high speed, too.
Cooler Master continues to impress

with its power supply units,
and this wonderful box
of tricks managed
to scoop the gold award
in our exacting test way
back in PCF246.
Chassis
60
Cooler Master CM690
screen
123
Viewsonic VX2370Smh-LED
Chassis
CM Cosmos 2 Ultra
screen
HP ZR30W 30-inch
The CM690 eschews silly gimmicks

in favour of producing a no-nonsense
chassis that has plenty of
cooling options for your
mainstream rig. Theres
space aplenty inside, and
all at a reasonable price.
For years, weve been lamenting the

constant use of TN panels in
our gaming monitors,
always preferring the
delights of the IPS
screen. Now they can
be yours for just 123.
Cooler Master was always

an impressive maker
of cases, but it has
truly stunned us with
this chassis. Yes, its
expensive, but if you
can afford it, go for it.
HPs 30-incher is exactly what highend gaming means

to us and if money is
no object, this is the
screen to buy. Youll
need the GTX Titan
to really show it off.
KEYBOARD
65
Corsair Vengeance K65
CPU cooler
Enermax ETS-T40
KEYBOARD
120
Corsair Vengeance K70
CPU Cooler
105
Thermaltake Water 2.0 Ext.
We love a good mechanical switch

keyboard here on PC Format,
andCorsair is making some
of the best. The K65
is a great compact
option , with a
compact price to boot.
Enermax has simply amazed us

with this, its first CPU cooler. The
performance is excellent,
the price is astonishing,
its easy to fit and it isnt
so big that it limits your
case or mobo choices.
Corsairs update to the older

Vengeance keyboard
rights all its older
siblings wrongs.
Its also a
truly stylish
gaming board.
Why settle for a reasonable

overclock when
you can hit 5GHz?
This kit is speedy,
boasts incredible
performance and
is quiet in operation.
174
180
28
motherboard
Asus P9X79 Pro
236
286
cpu
850
Intel Core i7-4960X
June 2014
922
47
Hardware Tech Briefing
GPU Technology
Conference 2014
Nvidia wheels out the great and the good to talk up the work the
humble GPU is doing, and gives us a glimpse into the near future
very serious hardware

manufacturer needs a
technology conference.
Samsung has established
itsown solid state conference in
Seoul over the past two years, and
Intel has long been spinning out its
own Intel Developer Forum across
the world between San Francisco
and Beijing. Meanwhile, Nvidias
GPU Technology Conference
(GTC)is still trying to find its
feet,having transitioned from the
esoterically-titled Nvision to the
more relevant GTC over the last
few solar cycles.
Its a different beast to the
otherconferences Ive mentioned.
Whereas IDF and the Samsung
Global SSD Summit are focused
around the hardware and the
technology thats to come in the
future, Nvidias San Jose-based
GTC is more geared towards how
different people and organisations
are making use of the power in
todays modern GPUs. Nvidia CEO
Jen-Hsun Huangs opening keynote
aside, the event was all about
graphics technology that has been
around for a while, but is being
utilised in fresh, new ways.
Graphics processing units are
now being used for a vast array of
different things, such as
turning faint radio waves into

beautiful vistas of our universe,
bringing much-loved movie
characters to life and finding
waysto bring people suffering
from neurodegenerative diseases
back from the brink. Some of it is
incredibly inspiring.
Just the techs, maam

But Im a tech whore. So I was there
to hear more about Nvidias own
technology, to find out how the
upcoming Maxwell architecture
was going to translate to 20nm and
to see what was in store for our PCs
over the next years of graphics
advances. Sadly, Maxwell was off
the cards. There were no actual
Nvidia hardware engineers doing
talks about its architectures
existing or upcoming and so my
Nvidia is going to build the video

memory for the Pascal GPUs
directly onto the graphics silicon
Nvidias $3,000
dual-GPU
behemoth
48
June 2014
card rather than saying a single

relevant word about the Maxwell
die-shrink spoke volumes.
That dual-GK110 card is the
GeForce GTX Titan Z, which is a
union of a pair of GTX Titan Black
GPUs strapped to a single slice of
PCB in familiar SLI configuration. If
you thought the Radeon R9 295X2
weve checked out this issue was
acrazy price for a single graphics
card, prepare to be staggered by
the $3,000 price tag Nvidia has
slapped onto its own top dual-GPU
card. For that three grand you get
atotal of 5,760 CUDA cores split
across two full-fat GK110 GPUs,
with an amassed 12GB GDDR5
memory running via a pair of
384-bit memory buses.
Why does this thing exist? Well,
according to Huang its simply
hopes of finding out what was going

to make the next Nvidia GeForce
cards tick were dashed. Even if
they were here, I was told, they
wouldnt be talking about Maxwell.
Quite whats going on with the
much-vaunted die-shrink of the
top-end Maxwell technology we
dont know, but suffice to say
itsprobably not going to be
appearing any time soon.
That was hammered home
when Huang took to the
stage on the second day
forthe inaugural keynote
speech. The effusive Nvidia
CEO had the monopoly on
talk about new hardware
andmade some interesting
announcements in front of a packed
auditorium. The fact he was talking
up another Kepler-based dual-GPU
because the market just wanted so

much more performance. Maybe
Chris Roberts does for his own
private 4K rig running the latest
Star Citizen build, because surely
3,840 x 2,160 screens are the only
things that are going to demand
such graphical power in our homes.
The issue is that, without the sort
ofwater-cooling AMD has used to
chill out its Hawaii GPUs, those two
GK110 GPUs are surely not going to
be able to run at the same 889MHz
clockspeed of the GTX Titan Blacks
GPUs. And a pair of those are some
$1,000 cheaper than a Titan Z. Still,
fingers crossed Im proved wrong
and it turns out to be worth every
red cent of that $3K price tag.
Before Huang unveiled that
dual-GPU behemoth onto an
unsuspecting audience, wed
Tech briefing
already seen further into the future

than such old-school Kepler schtick.
We were treated to a glimpse into
2016 and the newly announced
Pascal GPU architecture. Named
after the French scientist Blaise
Pascal, its the GPU technology
that's set to come after Maxwell.
Pascal has leapfrogged the Volta
GPU that Nvidia said would follow
Maxwell as recently as CES in
January, and is sporting the stacked
DRAM which was Voltas main claim
to fame. The 3D memory isnt the
only new feature of this futuristic
GPU tech its also set to sport
aunified memory architecture
(presumably in hardware and not
just software) as well as a new
interconnect called NVLink.
Gaming
isgood for
the brain
From self-driving
Audis to supercomputers the size
of a couple credit
cards. Thats GTC.
Trail-Blaising
But lets start with that 3D memory.
Were going to, for the first time,
build chips on top of other chips,
said Huang. Were going to pile
heterogeneous chips meaning
different types of chips on one
wafer. That means Nvidia is
basically going to build the video
memory for the Pascal GPUs
directly onto the graphics silicon
itself. There are a couple of key
reasons for this. The first is that
having the memory in such close
proximity to the GPU massively
increases the bandwidth available.
Tiny holes are punched through the
stacked layers of silicon all the way
down into theGPU itself, providing
an interconnect that can, according
toNvidia, deliver between two
andfour times the bandwidth of
traditional VRAM.
Together it forms an interface
that delivers anunbelievable
amount of bandwidth, Huang
explained. Its a huge leap.
Having the memory
stacked atop the chip
also increases the
possible capacity,
allowing for around
twoand a half times the
VRAM with four times the
efficiency of current GPUs.
Bandwidth is a key part of

thenew NVLink interface, which
looks set to debut with the Pascal
architecture. Its a joint Nvidia/IBM
designed interconnect used to
connect to NVLink-compatible
CPUs and between multiple GPUs.
Most of the bandwidth boost is
going to be seen in the server/
supercomputer space, when
coupled with IBM Power CPUs,
butin our desktops it should have
enough bandwidth to enable linear
scaling across multi-GPU setups.
The extra bandwidth will enable
theunified memory architecture
tooperate at the same speed as
current CPU-to-RAM connections.
Softer side
The Oculus Rift

DK2 uses a lowpersistence screen
to reduce blur and
motion sickness
Effusive Nvidia CEO, Jen-Hsun Huang, with his new Pascal GPU
The self-driving Audi aside, that

was the extent of the new Nvidia
technology making an appearance
at this years GTC. Nvidia did
provide us with more of an insight
to DirectX 12 (see p54), and the
extended GameWorks SDK
completed an impressive software
double-act. With the Digital
Ira-based FaceWorks offering to
bring incredibly life-like visages
toour games and the cool-looking
FlameWorks working digital magic
to create realistic fire and
explosions, Nvidias gaming
software is getting more
and more powerful.
I was also able
togetmy hands on
thesecond iteration
oftheOculus Rift
development kit (DK2)
onthe show floor too. After
spending a long while just about
holding onto my lunch playing with
the original kit, the difference with
DK2 is stark. The extra resolution
makes a massive difference, as
does the lack of motion blur added
in by the low-persistence screen.
But its the positional tracking
thatmakes the DK2 so much more
immersive. Actually being able to
move around laterally in-game and
actually give things a closer look
byleaning towards them gives it a
huge step towards total immersion.
While the GPU Technology
Conference was essentially a little
light on GPU technology itself, the
Finally the news weve

all wanted to hear
theNHS may soon be
prescribing games for
the benefit of our brains
he final keynote of this years

GPUTechnology Conference was
one of the most inspiring talks Ive
attended in my many years covering
games and technology. Not only was
itcontending that the playing of video
games could keep the brain healthy,
butit also outlined a future in which we
could map the brain in real-time using the
computing power of graphics processors
to target exactly what we need to work
on. In this future, a doctor would no
longer just prescribe a heavy-handed,
un-targeted pharmacological solution,
but would be able to supplement this
with personal, technological tools to
keep our brains healthy.
Dr Adam Gazzaley presented with
expertise and enthusiasm along with
guest appearances by Grateful Dead
drummer Mickey Hart and his brain
and demonstrated how a simple game
co-developed with LucasArts boosted
the cognitive abilities of ageing brains
and maintained that improvement.
NeuroRacer is designed to improve
multi-tasking skills by mixing the act of
keeping a car on a road with performing
an action when a green sign appears.
Participants using NeuroRacer for
one month had dramatically increased
midline frontal theta levels, which is
linked to multi-tasking ability. The
critical finding was that the training had
a transfer of benefits where untrained
cognitive abilities, such as attention
span and functional memory, improved.
Interestingly, multi-tasking abilities
were still improved six months later.
Its the plasticity of the brain which
gives it the ability to modify its function
and structure in response tonew
experiences. By using custom-designed
games to assess and modify neural
mechanisms, we could radically affect
the treatment of people suffering from
neurodegenerative diseases. Some of
the best news is that those games are
going to be made by ex-LucasArts
developers. I personally cant wait for
the tentacles to return and eradicate
the horrible scourge of Alzheimers.
sheer breadth of support and GPU

usage for things other than visual
computing was astounding. Most
inspiring was probably the cognitive
enhancement possibilities, but the
gaming software and hardware was
almost as intriguing. I just missed
Maxwell is all n
June 2014
49
2 Titanesque
The brushed
aluminium shroud is
more than a little
reminiscent of Nvidias
own ultra-enthusiast
range. At least AMD
realised the HD 7990
didnt have the right
looks for a top card.
1 Liquid
luxury
The Asetek-designed
liquid chip-chiller is
the key component to
making sure the pair
of AMD Hawaii XT
GPUs are capable of
sitting on one slice of
PCB without melting
a hole through space
and time.
50
June 2014
AMD Radeon R9 295X2

trip
3 Power
The R9 295X2 sure
is a thirsty card, more
interested in quaffing than
sipping. At full load it
draws some 680W the
HD 7990 draws 615W. But,
for 10 per cent more juice
you get 50 per cent more
gaming grunt.
AMD Radeon R9 295X2
his is exactly what these ere pages

were designed for: a good oldfashioned techgasm. The Radeon R9
295X2 is probably AMDs last spin
of the current iteration of Graphics Core
Next architecture. And its one hell of
a spin, squeezing a pair of Hawaii XT GPUs
onto a single slice of PCB, but without
having to clock them down.
The reason AMD has been able to do this
is because of that attached Asetek watercooler. In fact, the cooling is so effective and
efficient that AMD has actually been able
to give the top-end GCN processors a wee
overclock compared to the chips in the
single-GPU R9 290X. The overclock may be

small, but there are some other, mightier
numbers to get your tech glands swelling.
Those twin GPUs offer a combined total of
5,632 Radeon cores, its got a massive 8GB
frame buffer working on a pair of 512-bit
memory buses and its capable of a
whopping 11.5 teraflops of processing power.
And at 1,100 youd hope that big price tag
would be backed up by some other
impressive numerals. But if youve already
dropped that on a 4K-capable display then
youll want something thats able to get you
decent gaming performance at your screens
Dave James
native res. And this will. n
June 2014
51
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June 2014
53
The DirectX evolution
They said it was dead.

They said it would never
return. They were wrong.
DirectX 12 is coming,
and Nvidia thinks it
could be something
raTHER SPECIAL
icrosofts all-encompassing, Windows-based

graphics API has come under serious attack
over the last few years. Since DirectX 11 was
released in 2009, very little has changed for
the MS API, yet OpenGL has seen huge
improvements and swelling industry support. Weve
also seen AMD go back to the drawing board and use
its position inside the Xbox One to push for a new API
specifically for its own graphics card architecture.
With Valve urging game developers and hardware
manufacturers to put their support behind Linux/
SteamOS and its use of the OpenGL API, and AMD claiming
huge performance gains from its Mantle API, many people were
predicting the end of DirectX. With a lack of statements to the
contrary from Microsoft, it was thought DirectX 11.2 may have
been the final splutter of a dying software abstraction.
How foolish those doomweavers sound now. Just before the
Games Developer Conference this March, a Twitter account
popped up with the @DirectX12 handle, teasing: Rumors of our
demise have been greatly exaggerated #DirectX12 is coming to
GDC. The tweet linked through to an official-looking webpage,
with a big DirectX 12 image above both Xbox and Windows logos.
Sure enough, GDC came and, like a geeky version of Live Aid,
folk from Microsoft, AMD, Intel and Nvidia got together on stage
to talk about how the new iteration of DirectX was going to save
54
June 2014
mankind, and its

love for PC gaming, by
creating a software union of
Xbox console and your gaming rig.
Just after GDC, I sat down with Nvidias Ashu Rege, VP of game
content and technology, and his right-hand man, Yury Uralsky,
tofind out where the new version of DirectX came from, how its
been put together and what it means for the future of PC gaming.
These guys provide the link between games developers and the
hardware Nvidia has engineered, and are in a unique position to
comment on what it looks like from both sides of the relationship.
it was thought
directX 11.2 might have
been the final splutter
of a dying software
abstraction
June 2014
55
o, what is DirectX
inthe first place?
Essentially, its a
conglomeration
ofdifferent
application programming
interfaces (APIs) aimed at dealing
with all kinds of multimedia fun
in Microsoft operating systems.
When were talking about
DirectX in relation to gaming,
what were generally referring
to are the specific versions of
Direct3D. Thats the part of the
package that includes hardware
acceleration, enabling us to
throw3D objects around a 3D
environment while using the best
bits of our 3D graphics cards. 3D!
DirectX was first introduced with
the birth of Windows 95 to provide
a platform for games developers to
create rich, multimedia content for
the new operating system at a time
when most of them were dyed-inthe-wool MS-DOS programmers.
At the beginning it was a bit of
arush job, trying to encourage
developers to start programming
for the new OS rather than DOS.
Unfortunately DirectX often
introduced more performance
overheads than DOS, which itself
allowed devs to get total access
tothe specific hardware.
The battle between providing
asolution which works across the
broadest range of hardware and
reducing the resulting overheads
issomething thats been part of
DirectXs DNA from its inception.
The reason theres a lot of
interest in low-level APIs is partly
historical, explains Ashu Rege.
Back in the day, when people were
programming hardware, you were
accessing it directly.
DirectX isnt the only graphics
API. OpenGL was there first, and
later on we also had Glide another
Its all smiles now, but
just you wait til they get
off stage...
56
June 2014
Currently the tech

demo of the Xbox
One exclusive,
Forza 5, is the only
DX12 title around
proprietary API specifically

designed for the 3dfx Voodoo
Graphics 3D cards. But the
exclusive nature of Glide, the
broadening scope of DirectX
andOpenGL, plus some terrible
business decisions meant it didnt
last long past its 90s heyday, and
most of its best assets now belong
to Nvidia. We also have Mantle,
another proprietary API specifically
designed for the AMD Graphics
Core Next 3D cards. One can only
speculate whats going to happen to
that, but we hope for AMDs sake it
doesnt ape Glide too closely.
Graphics APIs have been
evolving for years, says Ashu.
Themain ideas are the same,
though. You want to provide some
abstraction to allow you to get
tothe hardware without having
toworry about the hardware
changing. This is the key to
creatingan all-encompassing API
such as DirectX and its Direct3D
component. You need to make sure
that when a game is coded using the
tools for an API, its still compatible
when new hardware rolls around.

But the API itself will continue to
evolve as well, introducing new
features, and so you also need to
ensure the API can be extended to
offer developers continued access
to the new options.
This is why weve reached a
stagewhere the Direct3D API is
sofar abstracted from the actual
hardware it supports its trying
tocover such a broad spectrum
ofboth hardware and software
features. As the hardware got
more complex, the API started
getting further away from the
hardware because you had the
ability to support many different
vendors and many more features
that you wanted to expose,
explains Ashu.
Abstract thoughts
One of the targets for DirectX 12

isto cut down on that high level
ofabstraction. Now weve gotten
alittle too far away from the
hardware, Ashu says, and we
aregoing back to accessing the
hardware more efficiently and at
the lower level without losing all the
good features of the API. The goal
is to reduce the overhead which is
the single biggest thing where the
driver often adds extra overhead
and CPU cycles are used up in the
driver rather than in the application.
Its also to give developers more
control, especially for engine
guys,like Epic, Crytek or whoever;
theres more access.
This is something Microsoft
itself was at pains to point out when
it announced that the new API was
on its way. It provides a lower level
of hardware abstraction than ever
before, wrote Matt Sandy on the
DirectX Developer Blog, allowing
games to significantly improve
multithread scaling and CPU
utilisation. In addition, games will
benefit from reduced GPU

overhead via features such as
descriptor tables and concise
pipeline state objects.
This lower level of hardware
abstraction is the current buzzphrase around graphics APIs.
Itsthe way games developers
havebeen working with the
fixed-platform consoles for
years,andhas allowed them to
squeezeunprecedented levels
ofperformance out of the aging
last-gen games boxes just take a
look at what Rockstar managed to
pull out of the Xbox 360s pocketcalculator hardware with the vast
Grand Theft Auto V. Developers
have tighter control on how
theircode works on the console
hardware, whereas DirectX has put
more and more layers between the
devs and the PC. In short, DirectX
has become bloated and all that
fatis making our lightning-fast
hardware wheezy and slow.
You dont want things sitting
between you and the hardware,
taking away precious CPU cycles
and wasting performance, Raja
Koduri, corporate vice president of
visual computing at AMD, told me
atCES in January. How do we get
rid of the API overhead so we can
get many, many more objects, many,
many more draw calls, to take
games to the next level?
Core values
AMDs solution to this problem

isMantle. The company has been
trying to achieve this low level
ofsoftware abstraction with its
proprietary API for its Graphics

Core Next hardware, and now its
the key goal for DirectX 12. Though
its going to be a lot tougher trying
to implement a closer tie to the
varied cross-vendor hardware that
Direct3D has to support.
The key to achieving all of this is
improved efficiency. Bringing the
API closer to the metal makes for
more efficient use of the hardware
available. Overhead comes from
abunch of API calls and you have a
certain amount of CPU cycle time
that goes into translating those API
calls into a hardware abstraction,
explains Ashu.
The focus this time around is on
reducing CPU overhead as much
aspossible and improving API
efficiency in general, adds Yury
Yuralsky. The improvements can be
characterised as radical. There are
very significant gains in runtime

efficiency and driver efficiency.
Its become a familiar refrain with
recent API talk: the CPU is holding
us all back. The current version of
Direct3D introduces a ton of CPU
overhead, mostly because GPU
technology has improved more
rapidly than processor tech.
The GPU has outstripped the
CPU, explains Ashu, both in terms
of floating point computation and in
terms of bandwidth. That creates
an unbalanced situation where the
You dont want

things sitting
between you and
the hardware
Three pillars of performance

Microsoft has picked out three key areas
inwhich the new DirectX 12 API differs
significantly from those that have gone before
it. The first of these is pipeline state objects;
the second is command lists and bundles; and
the third is descriptor heaps and tables. Thats
serious developer talk there, but well attempt
to simplify things a touch.
DirectX 12s pipeline state objects (PSOs)
take the flexibility of the DX11 pipeline, where
different states can be changed individually
atany time, and simplifies it. In DX11 this
complete flexibility means the driver is
unableto resolve different elements until
theyhave been finalised at draw time, which
consequently adds extra overhead and reduces
the number of draw calls per frame.
DX12 unifies a lot of the pipeline states
(pixel shader state, rasteriser state and so on)
into PSOs. These objects are finalised when
theyre created, which reduces the overhead
and maximises draw calls, but are still mutable,

with less of an impact at draw time.
The command lists of DirectX 12 essentially
make it easier for different CPU threads to
assign work concurrently to the GPU. In D3D11,
all the operations are submitted in a long
stream of commands in a serial manner for the
GPU to execute one after the other. D3D12s
command lists contain all the relevant
information, such as what texture is needed
and what PSO to use, and so are completely
self-contained. They can therefore be assigned
to the GPU in a thread-free manner.
The third of these pillars is the descriptor
heap. Direct3D 11 had become inefficient in
theway it handled resources. This made it
veryconvenient to use, with a high level of
abstraction from the hardware, but it also
meant a lot of hardware capabilities went
underused. When a game engine wanted to use
different resources, it had to go through similar
processes from scratch. Direct3D 12 uses

descriptor heaps and tables to store different
resource usage in easily accessible areas. This
makes it more efficient to reuse resources in
different ways without redrawing everything.
DX12 could open up performance in existing GPUs
June 2014
57
50per cent improvement in CPU

utilisation, and better distribution
of work among threads.
DX12 hardware is here
CPU can become the bottleneck

because it cannot feed the GPU
fast enough.
Another part of the problem is
alack of proper multi-core scaling
within the DirectX API. Just sorting
out single-core CPU efficiency isnt
enough to bring Direct3D kicking
and screaming into our multi-core
present. Older APIs like DirectX 9
were pretty poor at the utilisation
of multiple cores. Back when
DX9was designed, most people
hadsingle core CPUs, says Ashu.
Deferred context support was
introduced with DirectX 11 to push
multi-core CPU performance, but
itdidnt quite go far enough.
The goal of deferred context
support [in DirectX 11] was to
simplify the transition of existing
code paths, which were primarily
single-core oriented, on to multicore, continues Yury. So efficiency
was not the top-most priority.
Thisis being completely fixed with
DirectX 12. With the DX12 deferred

context API its now focused
specifically on performance.
So, just like Mantle before it,
DirectX 12 is focusing on trying
tomake more efficient use of all
thecomponent parts of our PCs
hardware. Being able to spread
theworkload on the CPU across
allof its available cores means it
can keep up with the demands of
theGPU and ensure there is no
bottleneck forming between the
two. Microsoft has demonstrated
the gains it expects to get using an
early implementation of DirectX 12
running on 3DMark.
3DMark on Direct3D 11 uses
multi-threading extensively,
wroteMatt Sandy on the DirectX
Developer Blog. However, due to a
combination of runtime and driver
overhead, there is significant idle
time on each core. After porting the
benchmark to use Direct3D 12 we
see two major improvements a
Anything GCNbased, like the R9

295X2, or in the
Fermi, Kepler or
Maxwell families is
DX12-ready
This is great news for games coded

with the DirectX 12 API. It should
mean that modern game engines
use the full power of our hardware,
but theres still the problem of
encouraging devs to make the move
to a brand new API. Again though,
Microsoft has been thinking long
and hard. Im sure the wounds from
the botched introduction of DirectX
10 and its restriction to the Vista
OS millstone are felt throughout
Redmond, and it must be keen to
avoid such problems in future.
One of the best ways to garner
developer support is to make sure
there is a large installed user base
ready to go for DirectX 12 games,
and thanks to support for existing
graphics hardware, there will be. All
of Nvidias current DirectX 11 GPUs
thats Fermi, Kepler and Maxwellbased cards will be compatible
with DirectX 12. On the AMD side
only the Graphics Core Next cards
will be able to support the new
Microsoft API (some 40 per cent of
its DX 11 cards). The vast majority
ofus wont need a new graphics
card to take advantage of all the
platform efficiency improvements
everyone is promising for the new
API. Thats great news, and ought to
help take-up of DX12 development.
Another factor that will help
enormously is the involvement of
Whats AMD doing with Mantle?

One of the strangest things about the DirectX 12 announcement was
the question of why AMD spent so much time and money putting
together a proprietary API that is likely to have an incredibly short
shelf-life. With Nvidia claiming that its been working with Microsoft
onDX12 for four years, youd have to assume that AMD had also been
there from the get-go.
Its quite possible that DirectX 12 wasnt always the ultra-efficient
low-level API its now being touted as. AMDs decision to go it alone
withMantle, and the performance gains that it has demonstrated by
using a software layer thats closer to the metal, could well have
convinced Microsoft that this was the way to go with a new iteration of
DirectX. That seemed to be what AMDs Neal Robison was intimating
atCES in January. Will this make Microsoft make more changes and
enhance DirectX? I dont know, he said. I hope so. You could look at
working together with Microsoft to make enhancements to DirectX.
AMDs Raja Koduri admitted in January that such low-level API
enhancements were vital to PC gaming. Mantle, or Mantle-like
technologies, are definitely necessary. Youve seen the amount of
overhead there is in the current PC APIs its just eating up a whole
bunch of CPU cycles for no good reason.
It wouldnt be the first time a hardware manufacturer had created
something off its own back, for its own hardware, which Microsoft
subsequently dropped into DirectX. In fact, Intels own DX11.1 extension,
58
June 2014
PixelSync, which was introduced at GDC last year, is being directly

ported into DirectX 12 to support order-independent transparency,
helping make smoke and other transparent materials more realistic.
AMD working on making its next-generation of GPUs work well with a
low-level graphics API can only mean good things for them when it
comes to moving over to DirectX 12. All is definitely not lost.
How much importance has Mantle played in encouraging Microsoft to go back

to the drawing board with the next version of DirectX?
On the left is multicore utilisation

in DirectX 11. The four threads on
the right are optimised by DirectX 12
7.5 ms
App Logic
UM Driver
KM Driver
Direct3D
Kernel
Present
5 ms
Thread 3
Thread 2
Thread 1
Thread 0
Thread 3
Thread 2
lives easier, because the PC can be

treated as a bigger, better version
of the console and you just have to
scale it down.
And, like the hardware, the
DirectX 12 software is already in
the hands of the developers. At
GDC the Xbox One exclusive Forza
5 was shown running directly on PC
hardware using DirectX 12. It took
developer Turn 10 just two or three
months to shift the code from the
current Direct3D 11.x renderer
onthe Xbox One to the new PC
Direct3D 12 API. Microsoft has a
group [who are] the top developers
in the world, says Ashu. Weve
given all of them our driver and a
lotof them are already working on
DirectX 12 stuff. All the key guys
have DX12 access as well as our
driver and our hardware. Microsoft
is anticipating that well start to see
DirectX 12 games hitting the stores
in the autumn of next year, which
means those games have to be in
development right now.
Compatible hardware is already
available and the software is
already in the hands of the games
developers. If DX12 will run on
DirectX 11 hardware, is there any
reason why it wouldnt work on
DirectX 11-compatible software?
Well defer to Microsoft on this
Thread 1
consoles in this venture. Microsoft

has announced that DirectX 12
wont just be a PC API it will also
be the graphics API that powers its
phones, tablets and the Xbox One
games console. Were not just
talking about using a similar
software layer, either.
Fundamentally the API is the
same, explains Yury. Microsoft
explicitly stated [that] DirectX 12
isgoing to be the API for both the
console as well as the PC and other
Windows platforms. The reason its
cool from a developers perspective
is that they can target a huge install
base while coding to an API, which is
also ported to console.
This was not the case when
DirectX 11 was launched, because
allthe consoles were basically
DX9-class, so you essentially had a
bifurcated development process,
says Ashu. This is a pretty big
dealbecause if you talk to game
developers you just have to ask
them a simple question: How
manyactual console devkits do
youhave in your studio, and how
many of your people are regularly
programming in them? Usually that
number is in single digits. The actual
amount of time they spend coding
ismostly on the PC. Having this
transferability now makes their
2.5 ms
Thread 0
The API wars over? With Star Citizen supporting Mantle, DirectX and OpenGL were not so sure
0 ms
Is the writing
onthe wall for
AMDs proprietary
software layer?
This was the first

we knew of the
links between
Xbox and PC via
DirectX 12. But
which OS will get
the new API?
one, says Ashu sheepishly. Is there

any technological reason? There are
challenges, theres no question, but
I think its quite doable.
So, will we see DirectX 12 running
on Windows 7 PCs? What are the
chances of Microsoft limiting
DirectX 12 gaming access to gamers
only using newer versions of
Windows? Everbodys aware of
that situation, says Ashu. The
truth is Microsoft went through it
themselves, they went through it
with Vista and DirectX 10. I think the
right way to think is to be optimistic
because you hope that weve all
learned from the past.
And what of AMDs Mantle API?
With only a year until DirectX 12
isunleashed in gaming form, and
with development of compatible
titles going ahead right now, from
an Nvidia point of view, it must
seem that the writing it the wall for
AMDs proprietary software layer.
I personally think that the API
wars are over, says Ashu. Theres
DirectX and theres OpenGL.
Theyre well-established, a lot of
companies have invested a lot of
capital and man-hours to bring
them to their current level. Now
itsjust a question of are you on
Windows PC or Xbox one? Then
youve got DirectX. If youre on
Linux, SteamOS or Android or iOS
for that matter youre on OpenGL.
We support both equally. n
June 2014
59
#292/06.14
Because gaming is a way of life
&
Hennig joining Visceral Games

could be the melting pot that
spawns something truly special
PC Formats very own games-playing man
Dom Reseigh-Lincoln has survived the pizza and
Monster-fuelled party that was WrestleMania
30 with a smile on his face and a seriously
broken sleep pattern. What do you mean Does
he know hes 28? How very dare you. Oh, and
hes been playing The Elder Scrolls Online.
So much The Elder Scrolls Online.
adly, weve entered one of those dark

ebbs in the games industry again a
period where one or two layoffs or
studio closures create a domino
effect that sweeps through games
development, each one seemingly
feeding the severity of the next.
Take the departure of Uncharted
game director and writer Amy
Hennig, who parted ways with
industry darling Naughty
Dog earlier this year.
Hennig, who made her name
back in the 90s as a game
director on the Legacy of
Kain series, was working on
Naughty Dogs latest project,
Uncharted 4, before an
undisclosed issue forced her out
with a freshly printed P45. And while
plenty of fans and journalists are still
mulling over the machinations that led to
Hennigs move, its where shell be taking
root next thats potentially the most
interesting (and, indeed, exciting).
Shes now made a new home at Visceral
Games you know, the guys behind the
soil-yourself-in-fear Dead Space franchise.
Oh, yeah, and the game shes working on is
Viscerals as-yet-unspecified Star Wars

game. And trust me here readers, the
excitement you can feel frothing off the page
isnt just from 25+ years of Star Wars
fandom, but from the incredible possibilities
someone of Hennigs talent and vision can
bring to the Wars-verse. Her ethos has always
been to create authentic and believable
stories, crafting heroes and villains that put
the dudebro protagonists that dominate
much boxart to shame. Star Wars games have
always lacked that narrative heart, despite
sitting in such a rich universe. Sure, weve had
some amazing games (hello Dark Forces II
and Rogue Squadron love you!), but
few have ever really made us care.
As both a colleague and
friend, Ive always admired her
approach to creative
development focusing on
nailing down the soul of
a game first, and then making
sure the writing, the
gameplay, the design and the
art comes together to form a
unified, interactive experience
for the player, commented Steve
Papoutsis, vice president and general
manager at Visceral Games. Such an alliance
of talent could be the creative melting pot
that spawns something truly special. Hennigs
work on the Uncharted series on PS3 has
alongside the strides made by Rockstar and
the late Irrational Games helped bring
narrative to the fore, ensuring the characters
of high-profile titles burn just as brightly as
the game that surrounds them.
P66
Recommended
Age of
wonders III
60
Diablo III: Reaper

of Souls
Blizzard
PCF292 p64
This awesome
expansion has made
Diablo III even better,
and includes some fun
little goodies. We like.
June 2014
Company of Heroes 2
Relic Entertainment
PCF281 p62
This may not be a
flawless epic like the
original, but its still a
relentless compulsive
RTS mixing campaign
and MP brilliantly.
Metro: Last Light

4A Games
PCF280 p92
Metro: Last Light
offers a brilliantly
realised world,
wrapped around a
tense and emotive
FPS experience.
BioShock Infinite
Irrational Games
PCF279 p94
Ken Levine and
developer Irrational
Games return to the
BioShock franchise,
and create a stunning
FPS experience.
The atmosphere of a Visceral game

with a believable, memorable lead?
Take our money, EA
Tomb Raider
Crystal Dynamics
PCF278 p94
Lara Croft and the
Tomb Raider legend
are reborn with this
gritty reboot of the
series. A stunning
return to form.
StarCraft II: Heart of

the Swarm
Blizzard
PCF278 p102
This SCII expansion
adds new features
that will appeal to
competitive players
and casuals alike.
in the news
Public money halts

XPs execution
ooking to push its focus on convincing the world

that Windows 8 isnt a complete shambles, the
big M planned to call time on its support of the
ageing Windows XP in April but a last-minute
cash injection from the UK government has ensured
that the public sector will continue to receive support
and security updates for another 12 months.
So why did the Cabinet Office invest 5.5 million of
taxpayers money in the maintenance of a 13-year-old
operating system? Well, it turns out almost every
school, hospital, charity and branch of central and local
government still uses networks built on an XP
foundation, and despite being warned by Microsoft in
2007 that XP would eventually be phased out of its
support process, the Crown Commercial Service
(a branch of the Cabinet Office that deals with large
commercial purchases) has struggled to prepare its
IT infrastructure for the inevitable and costly migration
to the newer Windows 7 operating system.
But while this last-minute investment has given
the public sector a tiny sliver of breathing room, the
CCS has been quick to add that a transition to newer
operating systems is indeed underway.
While the public sector will still receive
updates, Microsoft has ended support for
home and commercial versions of XP
62 The Elder
Scrolls Online
64 Diablo III:
Reaper of Souls
74 Play retro games

on your computer
Vine
Hold on are you sending
a direct message with plain
old text? Pfft, get with the
times, granddad! If youve got
any sense of modernity, youll
trade those paltry static
characters for a nice moving
picture instead. Popular
video-sharing app Vine has
brought that potentially

over-intimate dream a little
closer with a new update that
allows its users to send
personal six-minute long vids
to one another. Following the
update that added a similar
private inbox feature to its
image-sharing rival
Instagram earlier this year,

Vine users will now be able
to send personal films to
non-Vine users as well. The
update has gone live on both
the iOS and Android versions
of the app. Lets hope the
term selfie doesnt take on
a whole new meaning, eh?
88 Get Android
apps on your PC
June 2014
61
Gaming Review
Should have gone
for the korma
RELEASE out now
The Elder Scrolls Online

Join the queue for a very familiar MMO experience
very modern Elder Scrolls

game has had a moment
nearthe beginning where
you step out into a new
landscape and think Ive never
been somewhere like this before!
I have spent 30 hours playing
TheElder Scrolls Online and Im still
waiting for that moment. Im waiting
for the point when this MMO sits up
and makes a claim to be anything
but familiar. This isnt simply about
whether TESO works as an Elder
Scrolls game in its own right it
doesnt, lets put paid to that notion
now but whether it can justify
being one of the most expensive
games on PC. Those stepping into
the light moments werent just
about showing off fancy new tech.
They were a promise: You are going
to have an adventure. This is going
to be worth your time.
At the beginning of the game,
your character escapes from prison
in the realm of Coldharbour. Your
62
June 2014
vital
statistics
P
rice 35 plus
9 monthly
subscription
D
eveloper
Zenimax
Online Studios
P
ublisher
Bethesda
W
eb www.
elderscrolls.
com
M
ultiplayer
Massively
DRM Online
only
R
ecommended
spec Dual core
CPU, 2GB RAM,
512MB GPU
soul has been stolen by the daedric

prince Molag Bal, and with the help
of some new allies you return to
Tamriel as the Vestige, a Chosen
One among a great many other
Chosen Ones. From there you are
looking at around 100 hours of
questing to reach the level cap of
50, with competitive play available
from level 10 and story-advancing
special missions occurring every
five levels or so. This is an MMO of
the prescriptive, content-driven
sort. Where Morrowind might have
spurred you on with the promise of
the unknown, TESO furnishes you
with an experience youve already
had if youve played a fantasy MMO
in the last couple of years.
Location, location
The geographical area the game

covers is expansive, but dont
calibrate your sense of scale
against the other games in the
series. A limited draw distance and
reliance on repetitive buildings and

scenery make the game feel much
smaller than it looks on a map. The
problem is exacerbated by the fact
that unless you commit heavily to
PvP, you will be seeing a lot of the
same sorts of environments. My
journey from level one to 20 took
26 hours, time almost entirely
spent in green fields, grey cliffsides
and brown cottages.
The tasks you perform fall into
familiar categories kill lists, fetch
quests and simple object-finding. A
few of the better quests have more
of a social or riddle-solving aspect,
allowing you to use the games basic
persuade and intimidate skills to
alter the course of events. Typically,
however, youll spend most of your
time running around and fighting.
The combat hybridises the
traditional fantasy MMO rotation
system where a player cycles
through a particular series of skills
and magical powers with skill-
The Elder Scrolls Online
We hope you like the scenery.

Youll be seeing a lot of it
You can sneak, but its more

fun to dive straight into combat
Its all fun and games until
someone gets stabbed in the
eye with extreme prejudice
based attacking and blocking closer

to the singleplayer Elder Scrolls
games. Generally, encounters are
forgiving enough that it doesnt
matter if you screw up a block or fail
to use an ability at the right time.
This applies to stealth, too; every
character can sneak about, but its
faster, easier, and more rewarding
to fight everybody you see.
The games skill system allows
you to customise your approach to
combat from the beginning. You
select skills by spending points in a
range of disciplines, the majority of
which are available to every player.
Your choice of class at character
creation grants you three sets of
skills that nobody else will have, but
beyond them youre free to mix and
match armour types, weaponry and
crafting disciplines.
Its also possible to be infected
with vampirism or lycanthropy
andgain access to new skill trees
with appropriate benefits and
drawbacks. This is a nice idea in
theory, and demonstrates the
versatility of the skill system. It
does, however, have an amusing and
detrimental effect on the games
tone: vampires and werewolves can
pass on their curse to other players
once per week, and its common to
see players in cities offering large
sums of money for the chance to
get bitten. The idea is fine on paper,
but crumples when exposed to

actual players.
This is true elsewhere. One of
TESOs biggest weaknesses as an
MMO is that it often becomes a
worse game when large numbers
ofplayers are involved in the same
activity. Even when your objective
is more deftly constructed, you are
always aware of the conga-line of
players waiting to do the exact
same thing. Ill never forget the time
I travelled back in time in the guise
of an ancient warrior only to find a
room full of doppelgngers jumping
about, dancing, and waiting for a
boss to spawn. Immersive it isnt.
Say that again
Narrative isnt necessarily

important to an MMO, but TESOs
tepid writing and lamentable voice
acting act to the severe detriment
of the atmosphere. A handful of
actors play most of characters
youll run into, Oblivion-style, and
Im fairly sure that every questgiver in the Daggerfall Covenant is
the same person with a different
hat and beard. The storytelling is
more adept in the main plotline, and
later conversations between Alfred
Molinas Jagar Tharn, Michael
Gambons Prophet and Jennifer
Hales Lyris Titanborn have a bit of
personality, but youd hope so, with
that amount of talent involved.
Thats essentially the experience

of The Elder Scrolls Online: you pick
up prescriptive tasks from lifeless
characters and join the queue to
perform them with dozens of other
players. There are treasures to
discover and the odd optional cave
to explore, but the things youll see
and the rewards youll uncover dont
match up to the effort. The crafting
system is well thought out, but the
abundance of materials and lack
ofa formal trading system means
there isnt much of an economy. At
its best, this is a decent iteration
ona very familiar RPG format. At
itsworst, its boring.
For all of these reasons, TESOs
PvP mode is an oddity. Its coherent,
accomplished, and takes advantage
of the engines ability to render
lotsof players without slowdown.
From level 10 onwards, you can
choose acampaign to join. Fighting
battlesearns you currency, which
isspenton siege equipment and
castle repairs. Even a disorganised
army participates in a cooperative
economy that encourages a
strongsense of collective spirit.
Most encounters are decided
bywhichever side has the most
bodies, and with three factions
fighting over a single (albeit large)
map, offensives by a single party
often struggle to overcome the
resistance offered by two factions
fighting a common foe. This creates
a kind of permanent war around
familiar flashpoint areas, which
Ican see wearing a little thin.
Overall, though, PvP is the games
best feature, allowing spectacle
toemerge naturally as players
congregate, cooperate and clash.
It is, nonetheless, the exception.
This is an MMORPG of moderate
scope with a few good ideas, but
theresources invested in it seem
sufficient to expect new dungeons,
daily quests and armour sets to
collect at a decent clip for the next
couple of months. If youre tired of
your current fantasy haunt and
looking for somewhere to transfer
your guild, this game may suit. For
everyone else, though, Id advise
caution. Okay isnt good enough
when youre facing down this
muchof a premium, and I cant
imagine paying a monthly fee to
visit somewhere Ive been so many
timesbefore. n
Chris Thursten
A few well-designed systems struggle to

overcome lifeless presentation. Capable,
but ultimately hard to recommend.
June 2014
63
Gaming Review
Helloooo?
Anybody home?
RELEASE out now
Diablo III: Reaper of Souls

An awesome expansion pack that makes a good game even better
o you want to know

something? I cant recall
another gaming villain who
looks as imposing as
Reaper of Souls Malthael, but
leaves so weak an impression.
He pops in and out as the narrative
unfolds, spouting a few
threatening lines before
evaporating in a mist of gloom, and
thus recalls Blizzards similar
treatment of Arthas Menethil
during World of Warcrafts Wrath
of the Lich King expansion. But at
least Arthas had the benefit
of years of accumulated lore
to support his cameos. The star
of but one act, Malthael is never
around long enough to make us
care about his grumbles.
Malthaels saga delivers hardly
any surprises; there are few of the
shifting allegiances and unexpected
deaths of Diablo III proper. Instead,
its the environment that stands out
in Reaper of Souls. As if in defiance
64
June 2014
vital
statistics
P
rice 29
D
eveloper
In-house
P
ublisher
Blizzard
Entertainment
W
eb www.
diablo3.com
M
ultiplayer Up
to 4, co-op
DRM Battle.net,
uninterrupted
internet
connection
R
ecommended
spec 2.4GHz
CPU, 2GB RAM,
GeForce GTX
260
of criticism that Diablo III was too

soft, Blizzard kicks off its tale with
medieval streets paved with bodies
that squish under your feet.
The enemies are as entertaining
as the setting, and include demon
dogs that wriggle you in their jaws
like a squeaky toy, as well as a boss
who wields a demonic flamethrower
while a burning ceiling collapses
around him. Perhaps thats why
Blizzard kept the prattling to
a minimum: story never gets in the
way of Reapers eternal hunt for the
next best loot upgrade or the
satisfyingly responsive dance of
combat and movement. Instead
of force-feeding us tragedies,
Blizzard invests in spectacle.
Malthael compensates for his
insipid tale with a fantastic boss
fight that makes Diablos feel like
a glittery piata bash.
At times, I felt as though I should
reach for popcorn. Am I really
battling on top of a moving
battering ram in Pandemonium?

Thank the heavens, I am!
Play it again
Im especially pleased by the

direction in which Blizzard took
Reapers levels, because there were
sections of Diablo III that I dreaded
slogging through. But each of
Reapers eleven zones yields treats.
Some levels shift with each new
playthrough so youre never running
through the same map twice and
randomised events pop up around
grimy corners. A number of these
rely on familiar scenarios, such as
fending off hordes on a timer, but
others present vignettes that
demand attention.
The massive patch that dropped
two weeks before launch let all
players choose specific difficulty
modes at their leisure. It removed
the tiresome need to slog through
an overly easy first playthrough to
access the tougher stuff; I could
Diablo III : Reaper of Souls
My kingdom for
a fire extinguisher
Reapers zones are
remarkably diverse
Sorry, Team GrisGris, this is

what a corpse party looks like
Anatomy of Adventure Mode

Chasing randomised bounties for loot and fun
Battlefields
of Eternity
Briarthorn
Cemetery
Hop in a portal
on top of a
demons head.
Kill rocky guy
Make the Altar

of Sadness
happy again
Pandemonium
Fortress Level 2
Westmarch
Commons
Kill final boss. Of

the game. Ouch
choose from one of five difficulty

settings right from the beginning
and change them if it got too rough.
But wait, it gets better. Select
Torment, and youll find a slider
that lets you bump it up six
additional tiers of brutality. That
gives you perks like 300 per cent
extra gold or 300 per cent extra XP,
but if youre unprepared like I was,
itll knock you silly.
And so it came to pass that
I chickened out and cut down the
difficulty a notch or four. Five
legendaries in all dropped during
my six-hour march from 60 to 70,
which was a marked improvement
over the zero found during my initial
2012 playthrough. In a sweeping
overhaul, Blizzard ditched the
auction house and tweaked the
game to drop legendaries that live
up to their name and to focus on
gear that is usually relevant for your
character. It works so well that I ran
into a laughable problem: so many
Crusader-only shields were
dropping that I had nothing to give
my NPC Templar companion.
Bible thumper
The Crusader class is a worthy

addition. Here Blizzard give us
a badass who can wield two-handed
weapons in one hand and a shield in
Survive a
firestorm!
Westmarch Heights
Save kiddies from
their ghoulish
neighbours!
another, and who can shoot fire

across the room as though he were
the Vaticans take on Captain
America. Press one key, and he
summons a flaming steed that heals
him, tramples enemies, or drags
them behind him; press another, and
he soars in the air to crash down
again in a holy shockwave.
To acknowledge the elephant in
the room, the swappable skill
system remains much the same.
And yes, Diablo III is still an
always-online game. Blizzard let us
play the way we want to play in
other ways besides skill trees, most
notably in the form of Adventure
Mode and Nephalem Rifts.
Adventure Mode is almost
rebellious in its freedom: it lets you
access all five acts (even if you
havent played them) and battle
through them with levelappropriate enemies. Its strong
enough to justify Reaper of Souls
otherwise steep asking price.
Bounties
Win shinies!
Nephalem Rifts, which drop

randomly in Adventure Mode, push
Reaper of Souls emphasis on
randomness to the extreme. In one
of my favourite examples, I battled
gigantic Withermoths from Act I
within 10 levels of corridors from
Act IIIs Bastions Keep.
There may be more to come, too.
Approaching the doors leading to
Malthael, the Templar asks the
Crusader, What happens after
Malthael is dead? The Crusader
replies: There will always be more
evil to face. I expect to die fighting
it. If Blizzard keeps this up, I expect
to be there with him. nLeif Johnson
The story sucks, but the environments, new

class, and freedom make Diablo III better.
Some credit goes to the free patch.
June 2014
65
Gaming Review
Theres a good/evil system
at work here. Not super
detailed, but always there
RELEASE out now
Age of Wonders III
The latest in the strategy series does not disappoint. And there are evil penguins, too
heres always been much to

like about Age of Wonders:
it is a fantastical fusion of
strategy and tactics, which
was last seen in the Shadow Magic
instalment. But really, it doesnt
get better than the penguins. Dire
penguins, to be exact. They are
dedicated to evil, and can be
summoned to join the armies of
goblins, dragons, elves and magic.
These were no men, declares the
in-game tome. They were far more
deadly. They were killer penguins.
If this game had brought us
nothing more than that quote, the
wait wouldve been worth it.
Happily, its brought us a lot more.
To get the gist of Age of Wonders,
imagine Civilization stripped down
to its conquest breeches, its armies
devoted to making the tactical
game interesting, and picture a big
dollop of RPG elements such as
heroes and magic gluing it all
together. Age of Wonders is a game
66
June 2014
vital
statistics
P
rice 30
D
eveloper
Triumph
Studios
P
ublisher
In-house
W
eb www.
ageofwonders.
com
M
ultiplayer
8-player
scenarios,
co-op, local
DRM Online
login
R
ecommended
spec Core 2
quad, 4GB
RAM, 1GB 3D
card
of battles, and a game of war.

Armies are built and heroes are
levelled up in a fantasy world
liberally sprinkled with quests,
treasure and potential allies. It is
played out over two campaigns and
several scenarios, complete with
a random map generator.
To take victory is no small feat,
but its done at a good pace that
cuts out the usual sitting and
waiting in favour of choices and
expanding you can found cities,
seize resources, or recruit
independents to the cause. This is
especially the case when playing in
simultaneous turn-based mode,
although there will be occasional
waits while everyone finishes
moving. Classic turn-based is also
available, if you prefer.
Most uncivilised
The streamlining makes for an

immediately interesting adventure,
though it is far from easy Age of
Wonders III takes no prisoners in

either its strategic or tactical game,
although its possible to let the AI
take care of the latter either
off-screen, or in pausable battles
that you can jump in and out of at
will and fast-forward on a whim. For
the most part this works really well,
although the fact that Age of
Wonders III looks so much like
Civilization V can mean that its
simplified economics of war and
scope of empire-building feel
a touch slight. Taking to the sea, for
instance, needs just one turns
research into Seafaring, at which
point any armies just magically turn
into a ship until back on land. If you
want a new unit, chances are it is
going to arrive about as quickly as
if ordered from Amazon.
All this is in service of the tactical
battles, however, and those are far
more interesting at least, up until
the end of the mid-game. Armies
(stacks) only hold a miserly six units
Age of Wonders III

New rule. If your army cant
fit in what youre defending,
its probably not worth it
Leaders make specialised

attacks like sieges easier by
giving their units bonus abilities
Taste the rainbow.
Then taste cold steel...
Obey my commands,
tiny people
Theres often not much space

for new cities. But theres
always room for conquest
A strong leader
Ensure the head of your army is kickass
CLASS
A choice of six,
including Sorcerer,
Rogue and Archdruid
SPECIALISATIONS
Rain down fire,
prioritise exploration
and more
UPGRADES
Bonuses for yourself
and men, like free
Wall Climbing
INVENTORY
Find lost gear, and
mounts like Hell
Hounds
IMMORTALITY
Or at least, free
respawning after
biting the dust
each, including heroes, making

initial fights somewhat
disappointing scraps. But any
armies in adjacent hexes also get
to take part in the battle, so things
quickly scale up from these small
skirmishes to full-on town sieges
and magic-slinging grudge matches
when leaders cross paths.
Shogun has nothing to worry
about in terms of production
values, but the epic battles in Age
of Wonders III are suitably
impressive. Theres a real premium
on specialisation and effective
combinations rather than simply
fielding a lot of expendable units;
there are also some great gamechanging additions, courtesy
of spells and heroic leadership. At
least, for most of a campaign there
is; the top tier units are both too
powerful and too easily spammed

once available. For now, anyway.
Age of Wonders, and Shadow
Magic in particular, has long been
a classic series, and this instalment
doesnt let the name down. A couple
of patches could sort out the
balance and a few minor things like
occasional lag on the strategy view,
but the core game is an immediately
engaging mix of strategy and
tactics that doesnt drop the ball
on either. n
Richard Cobbett
This is a war that is definitely worth sinking

your teeth into, but a handy patch or two
wouldnt go amiss.
June 2014
67
Gaming Review
Majula makes a
memorable hub
RELEASE out now
Dark Souls II
Harder, better, faster, stronger
here were rumours and

concerns in the early days,
when we knew nothing
about what From Software
had planned for us, that the sequel
to the legendarily difficult Dark
Souls would be easier. That to
attract a larger audience, the next
version of the Souls series would
be more accessible, less obtuse
and far less punishing.
Those rumours were misleading.
Rest assured: this is not Dark Souls
for babies. The game curses you
right from the start. Your character
begins as a faceless amnesiac
drawn to the kingdom of Drangleic,
where memories are forgotten and
heroes become hollows undead
who require souls to keep their
humanity. Your only chance to fight
the curse is to collect four great, old
souls and confront the king of this
cursed land. Youll need to collect
lots of lesser souls to level up your
skills, purchase items and services,
68
June 2014
vital
statistics
P
rice 40
D
eveloper
From Software
P
ublisher
Namco Bandai
W
eb www.
darksoulsii.com
M
ultiplayer Its
complicated
DRM Steam
R
ecommended
spec Intel Core
i5, 8GB RAM,
Nvidia
GTX 750 Ti
and trade with those you meet. If

you die (sorry, when you die) you
lose the souls youve collected and
must find the spot you died in to
retrieve them. Fail before you reach
that spot and theyre gone forever.
That will happen a lot, too.
Gate and switch
As in the first game, exploring a new

area requires patience and risk in
equal measure. I love the dread I
experience when I approach a fog
gate, a sort of progress marker that
often means harder challenges lie
ahead, including bosses. I question
whether Im ready to move forward.
Sometimes I am often, Im not.
Bonfires are fast-travel points
that connect the games areas.
Theyre linked at Majula, a hub
village where you encounter
merchants, blacksmiths and the
Emerald Lady. Shes the only way
you can level, spending souls to
improve stats that are more clearly
expressed than they were in

DarkSouls. That means youll be
returning to Majula more than you
did Firelink Shrine. Dont imagine
abustling hive of activity, though.
The residents of Majula are lonely,
depressed, filled with dread and
empty of hope like a summer
camp for emo LARPers. Each has a
story to tell, and all are voice-acted
with impeccable detail.
Even while fast-travelling through
bonfires, though, Drangleic never
feels much like an open world.
Instead, Dark Souls 2 pushes you
inspecific directions, especially in
the early game. The Forest of Fallen
Giants will lead to a specific path,
and when you get to the end, the
game just warps you back to Majula.
The three other spokes work in
much the same way, and rarely link
to each other. Part of the magic of
Dark Souls was how discovering the
shortcuts you could take made the
game feel like one environment.
Dark Souls II
Careful with
that flame!
Some chests shoot you
The NPCs are

haunting
Praise the sun!
Crummy gifts
All the starting gifts suck
choose the least useless
Human effigy
Turns you human. Youll
probably use this one to
learn how it works.
Healing items
A collection of various
lifegems. Wont keep you
alive for long.
Life ring
Slightly increases your
HP. Take two hits
instead of one!
Homeward bone
Its a bone. It takes you
home. Why are you carrying
bones? Creeper.
Seed of a tree of giants
Makes monsters hostile to
an invader. They still hate
you, though.
Bonfire ascetic
Burn in a bonfire and
enemies get New Game+
tough. Suicide.
Petrified something
You can trade this with the
talking birds nest youll
meet. No, really.
Nothing
If you want to protest
your lacklustre options,
choose this.
Dark Souls 2 also struggles to

commit to one of its boldest
changes. Early info on the game
described how players would
needto light torches and navigate
areas steeped in darkness as yet
another way to fray their nerves.
Inpractice, lighting is rarely as
important as it should be. Torches
feel optional in most of the games
areas, and the sections that reward
sacrificing your shield arm to carry
them never reward that sacrifice
enough to justify the vulnerability.
Looks could kill
From Software promised that the

PC port would be the definitive
version of Dark Souls 2, and it
doesnt disappoint. The game looks
markedly better than its console
cousins, even at standard 1080p on
modest hardware. The textures are
sharper, and character details are
easier to make out. Screenshots
and YouTube videos dont convey
just how much better Dark Souls 2

looks with everything cranked up.
Dark Souls was a brilliant game
that didnt explain itself well. Many
new players were frustrated even
by the tutorial because the game
didnt teach its secrets to them.
Dark Souls 2 fixes that by giving
youmore information about its
items, skills and world. It is more
accessible for new players, but not
at the expense of being brutal.
But even though failing sucks,
succeeding in Dark Souls 2 feels
absolutely amazing. Ill die a
hundred times to experience that
feeling when I win. n
Cory Banks
More accessible, challenging and rewarding

than its predecessor, but every bit as tough.
The sequel PC gamers deserve.
June 2014
69

James Russell shows you how to jack up your audio credentials
Project Goal
Higher-quality
recordings
Well optimise our current system

for a better input signal, reduce
latency and go over some basic
vocal processing, but getting the
perfect take is up to you.
Requires
A sound card
A motherboards built-in sound

card demonstrates the right
principles, but a dedicated PCI
card (or better yet, an external
audio interface) will be far better
suited to good-quality results.
Audacity
A free open source program that

lends itself particularly well to
casual or intermediate audio
tasks, Audacity provides a basic
introduction to digital audio
principles and ways of working.
Download it free from http://
audacity.sourceforge.net.
30
Minutes
70
June 2014
odern computing
hasbrought us to a
stage where a sound
recording studio that
may once have cost thousands of
pounds is now available completely
in the box in software form.
Butwhile todays gadgets and
programs would be the envy of
a60s recording engineer, your
recordings will only be as good as
the signal you can get into them
and the preparations you make.
Common problems with existing
audio recording setups include
skipping, clicking, dropouts and
the dreaded background noise.
Thisguide will show you the

audio-specific tweaks and tricks,
and explain the technical jargon
required to improve recording
clarity, and to prevent the wires
from getting crossed.
The usual tips also apply, of
course a better, faster computer
will be less likely to trip up on
audiomatters (and everything
elseyou choose to use it for), so
taking common-sense steps such
asincreasing your RAM, CPU and
free disk space, and closing other
programs and processes (including
System Restore and antivirus
processes) will inevitably make any
Choosing a microphone
Decide what matters most before opening your wallet
Before opting for the unnecessary bells
andwhistles of an expensive microphone,
consider what itll actually be used for.
Consumer microphone manufacturers are
often keen to point out their models stereo
capabilities, but this is rarely necessary.
Unless youre recording sources coming
frommultiple directions simultaneously
(voices in a meeting room, perhaps) and
youdlike to keep that directionality, opt for
mono. Headset microphones aimed at online
chatting are good for voice signals, but may
perform badly for other sources.
Check the connection type used by the
microphone. A microphone with a USB
connection eliminates the need for an audio
interface or sound card, but may not provide
the lowest latency signal. Other connections
include XLR (three pins in a round housing)
or -inch jack, which requires an external
audio interface. A condenser type mic
requires an audio interface capable of
supplying a 48V phantom power signal.
job easier and allow for a higherresolution result.
Sound advice
Just as a motherboards standard

onboard graphics chip cant be
expected to handle the heavy-duty
demands of modern games, your
computers built-in sound card may
not be up to scratch for recording
high quality audio. Inferior audio
components can often receive
interference (also known as
crosstalk or bleed) from nearby
connections. If your sound output
makes electronic blips whenever
you move the mouse thats plugged
into a nearby USB port, for example,
you cant expect your microphone
socket to perform much better.
Even when output audio on
speakers or headphones seems
respectable enough, your audio
inputs may not be up to scratch.
There could be problems in terms
ofboth frequency response (your
inputs may not be able to detect
very low or very high sounds with
a3.5mm jack connection) and the
quality of the analogue-to-digital
converter (ADC) chip.
If youre looking for a goodquality recording, its high time
toget some dedicated equipment.
An internal sound card is a good
option for anyone hoping to
improve their audio output, and the
quality of its components will likely
be superior to those of your built-in
chip. Sound cards will usually offer
multiple outputs (for front and
rearsurround-sound signals) and
p tips
to
High priority
Jargon
buster
DAW
Digital audio
workstation
apiece of
software used
to record,
process and
output audio
files. Audacity,
Reaper and
Adobe Audition
are all good
examples.
ADC
Analogue-todigital
converter. This
chip lives inside
your sound card
and turns a
real-world
audiosignal
intoa digital
representation.
A DAC performs
theopposite
operation
onoutput.
Scheduling
back to the output.
multiple
Switch Processor
ces. Audio
rvi
se
d
un
However, with some
inputs.
to Backgro
lly prioritised
well-chosen refinements,
But the
processing is usua
k,
e tas
as a low-importanc th
a
desktop PC can be more
problem of
wi
even when working
than
capable of dealing
the 3.5mm
.
an audio program
with even demanding
jack remains.
professional audio tasks.
An external
If youre experiencing latency
sound card, or
problems and lagging audio
audio interface, offers
signals, the solution is to use the
a better solution in terms of
ASIO (Audio Signal Input/Output)
bothquality of components and
protocol for audio input and output.
industry-standard connectivity.
This will allow audio software to
Audio interfaces are able to handle
communicate directly with the
a variety of input signals, and can
sound card, cutting out the middle
produce a signal separate from that
man. Your existing sound card
of your computers inbuilt output,
oraudio interfaces driver may
which is extremely useful for
already support ASIO, in which
monitoring what youre recording
case youll simply be able to select
as youre doing it.
the protocol in your softwares
preferences or options window.
Latent issues
Ifnot, search for a hardware
One major consideration in
driverthat does support ASIO, or
recording is latency. In other
ifone doesnt seem to exist, install
words,after a microphone signal
ASIO4ALL (www.asio4all.com)
ispiped into a computer, how long
afree tool that can do the job just
does it take to get where it needs
as well. Audacity (http://audacity.
tobe? If this period is too long
sourceforge.net) is one of the few
yourisk a noticeable delay, and
programs that wont interface
ifyoure monitoring through the
withASIO drivers, but you can
computer as youre recording, you
stillcontinue with the next step.
could end up hearing an off-putting
Once youve got the show up
repetition of your input signal.
andrunning on ASIO, its time
Sadly, Apple still has the edge
tosetup an appropriate buffer
when it comes to latency issues;
size.This determines how many
Windows signal architecture isnt
samples (and therefore how
ideally set up for audio input. After
many milliseconds) of audio are
entering your sound card, your
intentionally held back to give the
signal may be sent on a circuitsoftware breathing space to do any
bending journey before finally
necessary processing. Unless youre
arriving in the recording software,
running a U2 gig, you wont need to
where its spat out again, and the
apply many (if any) effects to the
odyssey is repeated on the way
Set up correctly
Bear these considerations in mind before embarking on any recording
vs line-in
1 Mic
While the (pink) mic and (blue) line-in
ports of a sound card are both sound inputs,

theyre built to handle different signals. The
mic port handles low-level mono (one-channel)
signals from a microphone, whereas line-in
handles higher-voltage signals from other
audio equipment. Connect a music player to
the mic port and you could overload it.
2 Input/output
Connect all your equipment, then open
Audacity and select the devices the program

will use to record and play audio. Note that
outputting through speakers while recording
with a mic can cause a feedback loop. For
mono sources such as microphones, choose a
mono input type; if you choose stereo, itll only
record the sound onto the left side anyway.
and bobs
3 Bits
In the Preferences > Quality screen, the
default sample rate is 44,100, and bit-depth

isset to 32-bit float. This is the resolution of
the sound. CD-quality audio is 44,100, 16-bit,
so this is fine. Professional studios usually
crank the sample rate up to 192,000, but this
is unnecessary unless youll be applying lots
of processing before saving a final version.
June 2014
71
Better voice recordings

The voice-oriented steps can also be applied to other recording materials
optimisation
1 Signal
With your audio equipment plugged in and at the ready, open
Audacity and hit the Record button. Keep an eye on the red L/R
meters towards the top of the window. If the loudest sound youre
going to make reaches too close to 0, turn your microphone down or
move it away from the sound source. Exceeding that level will cause
the signals loudest points to degrade.
rumble
3 Remove
To eliminate low-level background noise, select Effect >
Equalization, then click the Graphic EQ option. Pull down the first
fewsliders on the left to take out the very lowest sounds, then press
Preview to see if the result is improved. Take care though pulling
down more and more sliders will start to affect the vocal quality
beyond a certain point.
remove it
5 ...and
Once Audacity has identified the noise in your recording, select
the entire audio (you can do this quickly using the keyboard shortcut
[Ctrl]+[A]), and go to Effects > Noise removal again. This time, use
the settings in the Step 2 panel, along with the Preview button, to
improve the noise reduction.
72
June 2014
a test
2 Run
Now you need to perform a test recording to check for
anylatency issues and to assess your setups recording quality.

Audacity has specific latency/buffer controls, which can be set under
Preferences if necessary. Once a satisfactory recording has been
achieved (this is usually the first one), its time to clean and polish it
up with some processing.
the noise...
4 Select
The audio holy grail of crisp, utterly noise-free recordings is
notoriously difficult to achieve, but doable, and Audacity can have a

good go at it. Select an area of audio that is just a noise signal, then
select Effects > Noise removal and choose Get noise profile from
the window that appears. Audacity will scan the signal for what data
to remove in the next step.
6 Output
Once youre happy with the processed audio,selecting File >
Export will allow you to create a file for use elsewhere. The default
WAV (16-bit PCM) is professional but large, MP3 is a low-quality but
widely usable format, and Ogg Vorbis is a higher-quality alternative
for the same file size as MP3.
ps
op istgoilden
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your recordin
wind noise
whenyoure
recording outside.
A windshield is the
fluffy dog on a stick
associated with sound
recording for TV, but it can
also take a less flamboyant guise
asa thin piece of foam wrapped
around the end of a microphone.
Windshields of any sort can make a
significant improvement in windy
environments, but may reduce the
clarity of the sound somewhat.
A pop shield placed in front of
your microphone will cut down
onintrusively loud P sounds,
keeping you from sounding like a
supermarket announcer on every
recording. One of the oldest tricks
in the amateur sound engineers
book is to construct a makeshift
pop shield by stretching the fabric
from a pair of tights over a frame
made from a wire coat hanger,
usually to good effect.
Environment agency
audio, so the buffer size can be

reduced for recording. Dont set
thebuffer too low though, or some
data may be missed. This stage is
allabout finding a balance reduce
the buffer size to compensate for
any latency, but make sure that
your recording quality doesnt
actually suffer for it.
Pop shields cut out

P sounds
Wind and pops
A windshield placed around a

microphone will greatly reduce
Environmental noise plays a big

part in the quality of a recording.
While the pros are content with
high-spec booths and specialised
acoustic treatment, there are a few
simple steps that can be taken to
get a good result at home.
Another consideration is the
distance from the microphone to
the source move the two further
apart and the background noise
will seem stronger; but move them
closer together and the ratio of
wanted sound to unwanted sound
is higher, making for a cleaner
recording. Its better to have to turn
a microphone down because its too
close to a source than to have to

turn it up because its too far away
doing the latter would increase
the level of the unwanted
background sound as well.
The background whirr of PC
fansis a dead giveaway of a home
recording. Although its hard to
notice in real life as our ears get
accustomed to tuning it out, a
microphone must hear everything,
so noise will be more apparent in
recordings. Simply moving the
recording equipment further away
from the PC is an easy way to at
least reduce this effect. A barrier
made from thick, absorbent
material between the microphone
and computer may also help.
The sound of a ringing room
canbe heard on some recordings
this is a tail added to the ends of
sounds similar to what you hear in
an empty room without curtains or
furniture. The effect can be worse
if the recording itself takes place
ina particularly bare area of the
room, so moving to a different
location could be a simple solution.
If necessary, you can deaden the
room by adding more absorptive
material (fabrics). Household items
that are commonly used for this
purpose include mattresses, rugs
and thick curtains.
For more creative results,
experimentation is the key.
Whether its music, sound effects
oranything else, the environment
in which the recording takes place
will have a huge effect on the
overall outcome. Try recording in
bathrooms, stairwells, cupboards
and other places if youre after a
unique sonic imprint. n
Recording on limited resources

Perhaps you dont have the
option of upgrading an old
computer, or youre pushing
the number of simultaneous
tracks to a level that even
NoelGallagher wouldnt be
comfortable with. How can you
eek out the extra mileage you
need on an empty tank?
Lowering the bit depth and
sample rate of audio is a way to
make it take up less space, but
anything below 44,100 12-bit
will start to become noticeable,
and will begin to sound a bit
like an early-90s gaming
system the closer you get to
the dreaded 4-bit audio. Your
circumstances (and where
theaudio will be played) will
inform this decision.
Stereo tracks take up twice

as much space as mono ones, so
consider converting any stereo
tracks to mono ones (a process
possible in many software
applications) to halve your
CPU demand.
Bouncing is a technique
thatcan help those with too
many simultaneous tracks
onthe go. This will merge
allcurrent tracks into one,
freeing up room for more to be
recorded. The same approach
was usedon 60s four-track
taperecorders. While some
software will have an actual
bounce function, another
approach is to export the
multiple tracks into a new
file,then import that file into
An old machine
can still create
reasonable
recordings
anew project to build upon

with subsequent tracks.
Also consider the length
oftherecorded material in
oneproject. An hour-long
recording will use more of
certain resources than will a
recording of a few seconds, so
recording in separate bite-size
chunks can alleviate the stress

on an old machine.
Identify the bottleneck in
your resources and use an
appropriate solution. If you
have a poor processor with
plenty of RAM, for example,
itmay be best to use longer,
lower-quality recordings.
June 2014
73
30
Play classic games
minutes
Kill time, 80s style! Mayank Sharma takes you back to the golden age
Project Goal
Old-school gaming
Emulate your favourite vintage

arcade gaming platforms using
modern hardware.
Requires
A Linux PC
You can use any computer, even a

Raspberry Pi, to recreate arcade
machines from the 80s.
Gaming ROMs
Some gaming studios have

released their ROMs for free, but
others expect you to have the
original cartridges.
ideo games in the 80s

were quite different
from the latest crop of
frag-em-till-youre-dead
point-and-shoot games. They were
tastefully crafted 8-bit graphical
masterpieces with intense
storylines and gameplay that kept
you engrossed for hours. If youre
feeling nostalgic, you can emulate
the golden era of gaming consoles
on your modern hardware and
escape into the 80s.
Any modern day computer has
enough number crunching power
to virtually manifest vintage
platforms in order to power legacy
games. Most of the software that
virtually creates the defunct
platforms is open source and can
beinstalled on top of a standard

Ubuntu desktop, which is what
well be using as the base operating
system for this tutorial.
The earliest titles that caught
theimaginations of gamers didnt
boast spectacular 3D graphics or
immersive surround sound. In fact,
the first generation of interactive
games didnt sport any graphics at
all. They output text, and players
interacted with the narrative by
typing commands. These games,
with their elaborate plots, were
popularly known as interactive
fiction; Infocom was one of the first
companies to produce popular text
adventure games.
The Infocom developers used
Z-language to create these games.
Retrofit the Pi
One of the most popular uses for
the Raspberry Pi is as an emulator
for retro games. People have taken
advantage of its small physical
dimensions and used it inside
oldconsoles and classic arcade
cabinets to bring them back to life.
The RetroPie project produces
aRaspbian-based image for the
Raspberry Pi that boots into a
customised environment thats
designed for playing retro games.
Download the image from http://
bit.ly/1ecWc97 and copy it over to a
74
June 2014
4GB SD card with the dd command

on Linux or the Win32DiskImager
program on Windows. Now boot
the Raspberry Pi with this card.
The RetroPie distribution uses
EmulationStation to manage and
launch the various installed
games. As soon as you boot the
distro youll be asked to configure
your controller.
To play ScummVM games, copy
over the game dat files in the
appropriate folder by accessing the
Raspberry Pi over the network.
Then follow the instructions

provided at http://bit.ly/PXNQXz
to make your retro games appear
in the EmulationStation.
RetroPie comes
withsome gamespreinstalled, including
the evergreen
Duke Nukem 3D
Play classic games
To run programs written in

Z-language, you need an
interpreter like Frotz. Install it
with the command sudo apt-get
install frotz. To play a game
withFrotz, you need the games
Z-language file. You can find loads
of games on the Interactive Fiction
Archive (www.ifarchive.org).
One of the most popular
interactive fiction games was
Zork.Its made up of three chapters,
andyou can download them all
forfree from Infocoms website at
www.infocom-if.org/downloads/
downloads.html. The game is
available in zip archives such as
zork1.zip. Download the file and
unzip it withunzip -d zork1 zork1.
zip. This willextract the contents
of the archive inside a directory
called zork1. Thegame can be
launched bypointing to the games
dat file under the DATA directory,
such as frotz zork1/DATA/ZORK1.
DAT. The game might be a shock to
the system for anyone who missed
this golden era of gaming.
Point-and-click adventures
Point-and-click adventures also

became popular in the late 80s. In
these games, the main characters
movements and actions are
controlled using the mouse.
Just like the text games, these
games run in a virtual machine
created with software on modern
computers. One of the most popular
virtual machine platforms for
playing these classic games is
ScummVM. Its an abbreviation of
Script Creation Utility for Maniac
Mansion Virtual Machine. Scumm
is a scripting language that was
originally created by LucasArts to
assist in the development of

Maniac Mansion. The language
hassince been used to create
several other titles.
The ScummVM project uses a
virtual machine that interprets
Scumm games. It was initially
designed to play LucasArts
adventure games created using
Scumm, but it now supports a
variety of non-Scumm games
bystudios such as Revolution
Software and Adventure Soft.
Get ScummVM
ScummVM is available for free

andcan be installed with the
sudoapt-get install scummvm
command. Once installed, the
ScummVM launcher will be
available next to other installed
applications on your computer. You
can install some games directly
from the distros official repository.
The commands sudo apt-get
install beneath-a-steel-sky and
sudo apt-get install flight-of-theamazon-queen will install two
popular freeware point-and-click
games. Their publishers have
released these games as freeware.
When you now start ScummVM,
the launcher will list the installed
freeware games. Select any game
by clicking on its name, then click
on the Start button to launch it.
You can find all the freeware
games, as well as some demos, on
ScummVMs website at www.
scummvm.org/games. ScummVM
supports over 100 classic titles. If
you still have the original floppy
disks or CDs from these games, you
can copy over their data files to play
them with ScummVM. The projects
wiki (http://wiki.scummvm.org)
has a page that lists the files

required for each particular game
to run under ScummVM. If youve
downloaded a game manually, refer
to the walkthrough to add it from
within ScummVM itself.
You can also make ScummVM
launch a game directly using
command line arguments. The
command scummvm monkey
willlaunch Monkey Island, for
example. To launch a different title,
replace monkey with the ID of the
required game. Use the scummvm
--list-games command to display
all the IDs of supported games. The
command scummvm --list-targets
will only display the game ID of
installed games. When you launch
ScummVM from the command line,
it will save games in the directory
from which it is executed, so make
sure that its always executed from
the same location.
ScummVM offers several
anti-aliasing filters to improve
visual quality. These filters take
the original game graphics and
scale them by a certain fixed factor
before displaying them to you. The
typical Scumm game runs at a
resolution of 320 x 200. If you use
the 2x filter, youll get a resolution
of 640 x 400. To double the
resolution of the Monkey Island
game, launch the game using
thescummvm -g 2x monkey
command. You can also run the
game in full screen by using the
--fullscreen option, such as
scummvm --fullscreen monkey.
Itis possible to control these
parameters within ScummVM
itself. Refer to the walkthroughs to
tweak the settings for ScummVM
and for individual games.
Load and play games

Manually import your game collection
game
1 Add
To load a game into ScummVM, copy its
data files from the original media. If youve

downloaded the files from ScummVMs site,
youll have to extract them via the command
line or the file manager. Run ScummVM, press
Add Game, and point it to the extracted folder.
menu
2 Global
Select the game entry and press Start
to play. While playing the game, you can press

[Ctrl]+[F5] to pause the game and bring up
theglobal menu. Click Help button to access
in-game documentation. The Options button
lets you tweak settings such as volume.
game
3 Save
One important part of the global menu
is the Save button. When pressed, it brings

upa list of available slots. Some games also
offer an in-game menu to save your progress.
To resume gameplay from a saved slot, click
the Load button in the global menu.
June 2014
75
Configure ScummVM
Navigate the nooks and crannies of the configuration window
your options
1 Know
Before you start playing games, its important to spend some
time flicking through the configuration window of the ScummVM

launcher. Start the launcher and click the Options button. This brings
up the multi-tabbed interface of the configuration window. Note that
as you make changes, some settings will be applied instantly, while
others require you to restart ScummVM launcher.
paths
3 Default
Switch to the Paths tab to configure the locations where
ScummVM looks for particular files. The Save Path option here
indicated the default folder where ScummVM will store saved games.
If the option isnt set, the saved games will be stored in the current
directory. The Theme Path option points to the directory that stores
additional themes for the launcher.
and volume
5 Audio
Click on the Audio tab to control the various options that
dictate how audio is outputted in games. You can select the preferred
device that is used for audio playback, as well as the sample rate at
which ScummVM plays back sounds. To set volumes for music, sound
effects and speech, click on the Volume tab.
76
June 2014
settings
2 General
Click on the Misc tab at the far right. Here youll find settings
that dont fit inside any of the other tabs. Select the Theme button
here to change the visual appearance of the launcher by switching to
another theme. The GUI Renderer setting defines how the launcher
isrendered, while the Autosave option controls how long ScummVM
waits between saves.
graphics
4 Change
Next, click on the Graphics tab to tweak various settings
thatdetermine how the games will be displayed on the screen. The

Graphics Mode option allows you to pick a graphics filter to scale the
game to a higher resolution. Its likely that the characters in the game
will look distorted at first, but this is easily remedied by selecting the
Aspect Ratio Correction checkbox.
file
6 Configuration
When you change a setting in ScummVM launcher, all it does is
add a line to the launchers configuration file. This is a plain text file
that stores all the settings for ScummVM. You can also edit this file
directly by opening it in a text editor. Under Linux, the configuration
file is called .scummvmrc and is housed under a users home directory.
Play classic games
Configure individual games

Customise your retro games to suit the way you play today
settings
1 Edit
Sometimes a games default options wont be to your tastes.
Toalter the settings for a game, start the ScummVM launcher and
highlight the game that you wish to edit, then hit the Edit Game
button to bring up the configuration window for that particular
title.This window is somewhat similar to the multi-tabbed global
configuration window we explored before.
path
3 Game
The one setting here that you should definitely take the time
tovisit is the Paths tab. Like the similarly named option in the global
settings window, this tab allows you to specify the folder for storing
saved games. If you dont set it, they will be stored in the default
directory, More importantly, the Game Path option allows you to
specify the location of the games data files.
identity
2 Game
From under the Game tab, you can change how ScummVM
identifies the game. This enables you to view and change the short
name or game ID that is used when launching the game from the
command line. You can also the Platform menu to specify the games
original platform. The Language option only changes the alphabet
used for subtitles in certain games it doesnt translate them.
global settings
4 Override
The Graphics, Volume, Audio and MIDI tabs house the same
settings as their counterparts in the ScummVM configurations

window. Before you can tweak any of these settings, youll have to
enable the Override global settings checkbox under the respective
tab. Take a look at http://bit.ly/1gHiv15 for a decription of what
eachof these options does.
Yet more vintage games

Another popular option for playing
vintage games is the Multiple Arcade
Machine Emulator. As the name suggests,
MAME can virtually manifest several
different arcade machines. The project
has been in existence for over 15 years
and supports over 7,000 individual games!
MAME supports multiple platforms
and you can install it on Ubuntu with
asimple sudo apt-get install mame
command. The PiMAME project produces
a Raspbian-based image thats specially
built for emulating several classic gaming
systems including MAME, Game Boy,
PlayStation, ScummVM and more.
Download the PiMAME image file
(http://blog.sheasilverman.com/
pimame-raspberry-pi-os-download) and
copy it over to a 4GB or larger SD card
using either the dd command on Linux
orthe Win32DiskImager program on
Windows. When you boot the Raspberry
Pi with this card, it will display a menu
from where you can access the different
emulators as well as utilities for the
Raspberry Pi. If youre using a card
greater than 4GB, remember to use the
raspi-config script to expand the root
partition to fill the SD card.
Before you can play games, you need
totransfer the game data files to the Pi.
The PiMAME distro has a built-in FTP
server and web uploader to help you
transfer the data files to the device.
You can upload games to PiMAME over the network

via its browser-based interface
Oncethe games have been added, you can

access them from PiMAMEs main menu.
To play the MAME supported games,
you can download one of the ROM sets
that have been released for free to the
public for non-commercial use from
http://mamedev.org/roms.
June 2014
77
Make your Facebook 30

account super secure
minutes
Matt Hanson helps you protect your privacy with custom security settings
Project Goal
Privacy
Hide private information from

would-be identity thieves.
Requires
Nothing
Its all built into Facebook.
acebook has just celebrated

its 10th birthday, and in
thattime it has amassed
over a billion monthly active
users. Itsa great place to share
photos and information with friends
and family, but whenever you share
personal details online, you should
always be aware of who can see it.
Forexample, most people put
theirfull name, date of birth, phone
number and even address on their
profile without a second thought.

All this could be used by someone
to commit identify theft, where
they pose as you and use your
identity to open credit cards and
more. Facebook has a number
ofprivacy tools that can keep
yourdata safe, while still letting
friends see your profile. Some
options arent easy to find though,
sowell show you how to make
your account completely secure.
Step-by-step: Set your privacy options

Keep your personal information and photos well away from prying eyes
in
1 Log
I dont need to tell you how to log in to Facebook, but when
youlog in to your account from a shared or public computer, make

sure you dont tick Keep me logged in. Itsan option we sometimes
choose without thinking, and its fine for home PCs, but you dont want
someone accessing your account after youve stopped using the PC.
78
June 2014
the privacy settings

2 Access
Facebook has recently implemented a number of changes to
make privacy settings easy to access. To see them, click the padlock
icon on the top right-hand corner and a drop-down list containing
themost popular settings is displayed. These arent all your options
though click See more settings for even more privacy tools.
Make your Facebook account super secure
can see what you post?

3 Who
To check how much information youre sharing, and with whom,
click the arrows next to Who can see my stuff? and What do other
people see on my timeline?, then click View As. Initially youll see
what your profile looks like to people you dont know. Make note of
any information youre not comfortable sharing with strangers.
what people post about you

5 Review
Its one thing to be careful about what you post about yourself,
but what about friends who tag you in posts? Youcan set Facebook to
tell you if that happens, and if youre happy with what theyve posted,
you can allow it on your timeline. If not, you can untag yourself. To get
started, click See more settings then Timeline and tagging.
tagged content
7 Allow
From now on, when someone tags you, youll be asked to review
the tag. This appears as a notification, but you can check itmanually
by clicking the Privacy icon, expanding Who can see my stuff? and
selecting Use activity log. Click Tag review to see things youve been
tagged in, then Add tag to permit it, or Ignore to remove the tag.
what people can see

4 Limit
Now you can do something about it. First, limit who sees what
you post. Status updates can include what youre doing, who youre
with and where you are, soits a good idea to limit them to people you
know. Click the privacy icon, then click the arrow by Who can see my
stuff? and under Who can see my future posts? select Friends.
tags
6 Review
Here youll see an option Review posts friends tag you in before
they appear on your timeline? Click Edit and select Enabled. By Who
can see posts youve been tagged in on your timeline? click Edit and
select Friends or Only me. By Review tags people add to your own
posts before the tags appear on Facebook? click Edit then Enabled.
who can befriend you

8 Restrict
Some people see Facebook as a competition to get as many
friends as possible, but this can be dangerous, as you dont want

strangers seeing all your information. From the Privacy menu expand
Who can contact me? then under Who can send me friend requests
you can choose Friends of friends only people your friends know.
June 2014
79
Facebook searches
9 Limit
You can also impose limits on the people who are able to find
your account through searches. From the Privacy menu, click More
settings. Next to Who can look you up using the email address you
provided and Who can look you up using the phone number you
provided, click Edit and select Friends or Friends of friends.
your browsing
11 Protect
You may want to make sure your online activity is secret,
whichis where secure browsing comes in. When on Facebook, look

atthe address bar of your browser. If it says http:// rather than
https://, browse to the More settings screen and click Security on
the left. Next to Secure browsing, click Editthen check the box.
a stronger password
13 Set
You should always useastrong password ideally a mixture
ofupper and lower case letters, plus numbers. The more complex it
is,the harder it will be to crack. For even more security, enable Login
Approvals. Whenever you log in from a new device, a message is sent
to your phone allowing you to approve the attempt.
80
June 2014
people Googling you

10 Stop
These privacy settings are all well and good, but they dont do
much if anyone can type your name into Google and find your profile.
From the same screen in step 9, beside Do you want other search
engines to link to your timeline click Edit and make sure the box
nextto Let other search engines link to your timeline is unchecked.
login warnings
12 Receive
The most important aspect of Facebook security is making
sureonly you can log in to your account. Enable Login notifications

from the Security menu. This emails or texts you if your account is
accessed from a device you havent used before. You can see all the
devices youve allowed access under Recognised Devices.
yourself safe
14 Keep
Now youve followed these steps, your Facebook account is as
secure as possible. Make sure you pay attention to any notices you
get telling you someone haslogged into your account if you dont
recognise the device, make sure you change your password. To do this,
go to More Settings > General and click Edit next to Password.
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Be secure and
flexible online
15
minutes
Christian Hall helps protect you from online

threats and access sites blocked by location
Project Goal
Anonymity
Protect your privacy by using

Hotspot Shield to encrypt data
sent over unencrypted networks.
Hotspot Shield will also unblock
websites such as YouTube and
block malware
Requires
Hotspot Shield
Download the software free

from www.hotspotshield.com.
PN technology has been

around for a long time,
enabling you to send
encrypted data over
anunencrypted network, butits
usually the domain of workplaces
rather than the home. The free
Hotspot Shield software changes
that, giving you much greater
security than using a standard
proxy server to surf anonymously.
With Hotspot Shield you can
alsounblock almost any website
that limits access based on IP
address, and bypass filters to
reachyour favourite sites any
timeyou want. This makes it ideal
for restricted public Wi-Fi hotspots,
or watching Lets Play videos on
YouTube at work (although dont
tellyour boss it was our idea).
You can browse completely
anonymously too,and it hides your
IP address at alltimes. When you
connect to the web with Hotspot
Shield enabled, your PC is given a
new IP address tomask your actual
one, enabling you to surf privately,
and it can even automatically
detect and block malware before it
reaches your PC.
Data Secured
This area shows you how
much data Hotspot Shield has
secured for you as you browse
the web.
Virtual Location
Here you can establish
avirtual connection
toanother country to
access local content, like the
US Netflix site, for example.
Step-by-step: Improve online privacy
all your devices

1 Protect
Download Hotspot Shield by visiting www.hotspotshield.com
and clicking Free download. As the file is downloaded, youll see a

prompt about protecting devices other than the Windows PC youre
currently using. Type in your mobile phone number, select your
country and click Send SMS if youd like to receive a direct link to
themobile version of the program too.
82
June 2014
the installer
2 Run
Find the exe file in your Downloads folder and run it to install
Hotspot Shield. This process takes a while to complete, and youll see
a few of the programs features in an intro sequence that plays while
you wait. Once the program is installed youll seeits icon pop up in
your desktops Taskbar Notification Area. The program will also place
an icon on your desktop for quick access.
Be secure and flexible online
sign in
This button allows
you to sign into
Hotspot Shield Elite
from the Control
Panel. If youre signed
out, your PC will still
be running Hotspot
Shield, but not the
more powerful
ad-free version.
Test protection
This uses the site
www.findipinfo.com
to confirm that your
browsing has been
made private by
masking your real
IPaddress.
Stop/Pause
Protection
Pause protection will
automatically start
the service for you
after 15 minutes, one
hour, or whatever
period you choose.
protection
3 Test
Youll now see Hotspot Shield Elite in action, and you can
usethe drop-down list to choose which country youd like to use as

your virtual location. To verify that this has worked, click the Test
protection button and an independent IP testing web page will open
showing your current IP address and which country your PC is now
purporting to be from. Impressive, isnt it?
up
4 Sign
If you want to use Hotspot Shield Elite for more than a few
days, youll need to sign up for an account. Dont worry, it wont cost
you anything just yet, but it does give you access to the programs
fullfeatures. Visit www.hsselite.com/account and youll see a pop-up
inviting you to register. Type in your email address and apassword,
and youll be taken to the Dashboard.
June 2014
83
Dashboard
5 The
Time left indicates how much time is remaining on your Elite
service. It allows you to buy additional time, redeem a license that

you have purchased and see your account history. Next to this are
all the devices that are currently being protected by your Elite
subscription. You can add up to five devices PCs, tablets and
smartphones running Windows, OS X, iOS or Android.
TV from another country

7 Watch
If youre in the UK, you can use Hotspot Shield Elite to access
US-based sites that would usually be off limits. Click on Virtual

location and choose United States to circumnavigate the usual
location restrictions on sites such as Netflix. The US content at
www.netflix.com is usually inaccessible from the UK, and youll find
avery different set of TV shows and movies to watch.
Hotspot on the move

9 Try
When you install the mobile version of Hotspot Shield,
youllbeasked to install a profile for iOS devices. This simply means

that some extra files need your authentication to proceed. Once the
install process is complete, the app will launch. Its interface is very
basic, but it offers most of the standard features, including the ability
to switch countries if you install another country profile.
84
June 2014
your stats
6 Check
The Statistics Report panel shows the work that Hotspot
Shield Elite is doing to protect your PC while its running in the

background. As you browse the internet, Hotspot is scanning
thewebsites you visit for potential threats; youll see the counter go
up in real-time as it does so. Below this is a notification area where
important messages from the developers will appear.
back again
8 Switch
Of course, you might not want to access the internet
throughaproxy all the time. If you decide that you want to get
backtowatching Netflix UK or the BBC iPlayer website as normal,
youllneed to turn Hotspot Shield off so your IP address returns
toaUK one. Simply go back and select United Kingdom from
thedrop-down list under Virtual location.
protected
10 Stay
You can pause Hotspot Shield at any time by choosing
Stopmaximal protection, then clicking Pause protection at the

bottom left, but youll remain in a VPN for your chosen IP (the United
States, for example). Be aware that every time you change IP area,
your access to certain content will be restricted. For example, here
Imunable to access HBO Go from the UK. n
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Fine-tune videos
with VirtualDub
hour
Polish your clips before publishing them online. Catherine Emma Ellis shows you how
Project Goal
Better videos
Adjust colour and saturation,

add watermarks and more.
Requires
VirtualDub
From www.virtualdub.org.
ou probably take a few

moments to edit your
photos before displaying
them online tweaking
the colours and cropping out any
distractions so why not do the
same for your videos?
VirtualDub is a free tool that lets
you do exactly that, applying filters
to your clips to ensure they look
their best before you upload them to
YouTube. You can adjust colours, add
watermarks, and apply special

effects such as blurring out faces.
You can also use VirtualDub
torecord footage from various
sources its a popular choice for
Lets Play videos but here were
going to edit a clip weve already
shot. The video will need to be in
AVI format. If its something else,
like an MP4 or WMV file, you can
convert it easily using Freemake
(www.freemake.com).
Step-by-step: Fine-tune clips

Brighten up drab footage by applying filters and other effects
VirtualDub
1 Download
Go to www.virtualdub.org, click Downloads and select
VirtualDub at SourceForge. Choose the 32-bit download the 64-bit

version can cause compatibility issues, even in 64-bit Windows. The
download will begin after three seconds. Save the compressed file to
your desktop, then right-click it and select Extract all.
86
June 2014
it up
2 Open
VirtualDub doesnt need to be installed, so you can get
goingstraight away. Double-click the extracted folder to open it,

thendouble-click the file Veedub. Youll see a brief introduction to
VirtualDub and its history. Click Start VirtualDub on the right to
launch the program, then click OK to accept the terms and conditions.
ips
p tit out
toSpell
Fine-tune videos with VirtualDub
subtitles
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3 Grab
Click File > Open video file and select the video clip that you
editing
4 Start
What you do now depends on how you want your video to look.
want to edit. You may see a warning that a non-standard audio type
has been detected, but this shouldnt be a problem. Your video will
bedisplayed twice. On the left is the original, and on the right is a
preview of how it will look when your changes have been applied.
Click Video and choose Filters > Add. Youll see an extensive list
ofoptions. Some of them might sound rather strange, but many will
be familiar if youve used an image-editing program like Photoshop
before. Click one to see a brief description of what it does.
a watermark
5 Add
If you want to share your video online, you might like to add
and apply
6 Adjust
Use the controls on the bottom left to position your image.
awatermark. Select Logo > OK followed by the ellipsis button ()

and youll be prompted to choose an image. Ensure the picture you
select is fairly small, otherwise itll obscure your video. You cant
resize an image once its been imported into VirtualDub.
it up
7 Brighten
Sometimes lighting conditions arent right, which can leave your
video looking a little dull. Select Video > Filters > Add, then click HSV
adjust > OK. This tool lets you tweak your videos colour, saturation
and brightness. Use the sliders to fine-tune your videos appearance
(Value adjusts overall brightness). Click OK when youre happy.
Youcan also adjust its opacity. Once youre happy, click OK to apply
itand the preview on the right will be updated accordingly. To see it in
motion, use the two Play buttons on the bottom left. The first plays
your original video, and the second plays the edited version.
and save
8 Finish
Once youve finished editing your video, click File > Save as
AVI and choose a folder to save your file into your Videos library is a
good choice. Click Save and the video will be processed. You can now
close VirtualDub and open your edited video using a media player, or
upload it to YouTube for the world to see.
June 2014
87
15
Get mobile apps

and games on Windows
minutes
Enjoy Android apps and games in full-screen desktop glory, says Christian Hall
Project Goal
Android on a PC
Use your favourite mobile
apps on your desktop.
Requires
BlueStacks
From www.bluestacks.com.
ometimes its frustrating

tofind that certain apps are
only available on specific
platforms. For example,
ifyou have an Android phone or
tablet, youve probably installed
many apps and games that you wish
you could use on your PC as well.
BlueStacks can help its an
emulator that simulates an Android
device on your PC, and gives you
access to a modified version of the
Google Play Store on the desktop.

BlueStacks default options
include Google Play Store access,
Notifications and aSpotlight
subscription (which givesyou
onefree app a day). I recommend
keeping these options. Its also
worth remembering that apps
running inBlueStacks will make
reference to settings you only get
on a tablet or smartphone, so youll
have to get used to ignoring these.
Step-by-step: Emulate Android

Install BlueStacks App Player and use Android apps on your Windows PC
on the desktop
1 BlueStacks
After installing BlueStacks from www.bluestacks.com, youll
seetwo icons on your desktop: a Start BlueStacks shortcut, which

launches BlueStacks App Player, and a shortcut to your apps. Open
this folder to reveal all your downloaded apps. Theres a link to the
programs Facebook app and a help file, too.
88
June 2014
App Player window

2 The
BlueStacks App Players interface is easy to navigate. You can
install new apps by clicking the + button under Top Apps or Spotlight,
or by searching for the one you need. Youcan install over 25 apps
from the adapted version ofthe Google Play Store. Hopefully the
number available will grow as BlueStacks develops.
Get mobile apps and games on Windows
p tips
to
App switching
ps quickly
Switch between ap
cking the
cli
by
ks
tac
eS
Blu
in
n (next
tto
bu
ing
sk
Multita
n).
tto
bu
me
to the Ho
setup
3 One-time
The first time you try to install an app youll be asked to
permissions
4 App
Just before an app is installed, youll be asked about
complete a verification process, starting with your Google account.

Click New or Existing depending on whether you already have one.
The next step is to enable App Sync, which will prompt you to sign
into Google Play. Click Letsgo, then install the app from the store.
permissions. This is somewhat irrelevant because youre using

yourWindows PC rather than a phone or tablet, but since this is an
emulator you still have to go through the process, so click Accept to
continue. When the app has been installed successfully, click Open.
apps
5 All
In the main window tap the All apps button (with the + icon)
methods
6 Input
Click the Settings icon, then select Language & Input(which
toreveal all your installed applications, including Settings and Help.

Your apps can be arranged either alphabetically, or by install date.
Anotice will appear in the bottom-right of the screen while an app
isinstalling, and another will pop up when the process has finished.
shortcuts
7 Taskbar
You dont have to open the BlueStacks app in full ifyou want to
do something quick like check app updates or change the orientation

of the screen. Instead, try clicking the BlueStacks Taskbar icon, which
gives you access to these settings along with a quick overview of how
many apps you have and how much space they take up on your PC.
youll find under Personal). Here you can make a fewchanges to the
mouse/trackpad and physical keyboard. Many of these options are
fortablets, but the software does include the option to use your PCs
keyboard rather than the virtual one thats built in.
your apps
8 Enjoy
Now you can enjoy dozens of great apps that are normally only
available on Android devices. When you use BlueStacks tolaunch a

game, youll see a How to play window before you start,which tells
you how the touchscreen controls translate into keyboard inputs.
TickDont show again for this app to hide this next time.
June 2014
89
25
Back up your files

in case the worst happens
minutes
Nick Odantzis shows how to protect your precious files in case Windows 7 goes kaput
Project Goal
Create a backup
A PC backup ensures that all

your information is kept safe.
Requires
Hard drive
These are widely available.
henever you buy a new

computer orbuild your
own, you should make
it a priority to back
everything up. If you dont and
something goes wrong, you could
lose everything on it.
Creating a backup doesnt require
any specialist knowledge, but can
take quite a while to complete,
especially if you have lots of files
and folders. Subsequent backups
shouldnt take as long, because you

will only be making copies of files
youve recently changed or added.
Before you can make your
backup, you need something
to save your files on. Most people
tend to use an external hard drive
because theyre affordable, have
a very large storage capacity, and
can be plugged in with an ordinary
USB cable. Once youve got that,
youre ready to begin.
Step-by-step: Create a backup right now

Never worry about losing all your files ever again
a drive
1 Choose
Plug in your external hard drive and click Start > Control Panel
> System and security > Backup and restore. Now click on Set up
backup and select your external hard drive from the list of possible
destinations. Before you proceed, make sure the external hard drive
is bigger than the internal drive youre backing up.
90
June 2014
location
2 Different
If you have multiple PCs, you might prefer to back up to
a network drive. The will enable all PCs on your network to access it,
so you dont need an external hard drive foreach one. To save files to
a network drive, click Save on a network. Enter the network location
(browse for it on your PC), then enter the username and password.
Back up your files
ips
tSaovepon t
precious
hard drive space re

d Resto
Go to the Backup an on
Center, then click
w backups
Manage space > Vie most
the
t
and delete all bu
recent backup.
up everything
3 Back
Select what you want to back up. The easy option is to pick Let
Windows choose. This backs up most of your files and folders, except
ones that arent needed, or cant be backed up. It also creates
a system image like a mirror of your computer so if there is ever
aproblem with your PC, you can easily restore it to a previous state.
an image
5 Make
Keep the Include a system image of drives tick box checked
if you want to be able to easily restore your computer if something

goes wrong, then click Next and confirm that you are backing up the
right folders. If you want to change how often you back up your
machine, click on the Change schedule option.
your PC
7 Resurrect
If something goes wrong and you want to restore your PC using
your backup, go to the Backup and Restore Center and click Restore
my files. If theres a big problem and you cant even access Windows,
press [F8] on your keyboard before the Windows logo shows during
startup, insert your Windows CD and choose Repair your computer.
and choose
4 Pick
If you only want to select a few folders to back up rather than
most of whats on your PC, select theLet me choose option from the
list. This option will also give you the ability to change when you
perform abackup. Click on Next and select the folders that you would
like to include in your computer backup.
schedule
6 Change
By default, backups will be made once a week, but if you use
your PC a lot, its a good idea to increase the frequency. The best time
to do a backup is when youre not using your PC overnight or while
youre at work is ideal. Use the drop-down menus to change the
schedule. Click on OK and your computer will begin making a backup.
a little sigh of relief

8 Breathe
You should now be feeling much more confident, because your
PC is a lot safer. Youve created a backup of your PC on an external

hard drive or network drive, and can restore it to its old settings if
anything gets wiped accidentally. You can even get everything back if
you have a serious problem that prevents you loading Windows.
June 2014
91
All the stuff you didnt know

Luis Villazon has already eaten from
the Tree of Knowledge. Now he bites
into the fruit of your technical troubles
IUTWANID
Steampunk graphics
I was playing Warcraft III and exited the

game. The screen went black, as it usually
does, but never returned to normal. The
monitors LED light was constant, so it
isreceiving an output. I pressed the
power button to shut down the PC and
heard Windows shutting down normally.
Iturned the computer back on, and the
BIOS screen and Windows XP loading
screen showed. After Windows loaded,
the screen remained black and I heard
Windows log in. I booted up the computer
in safe mode and uninstalled the drivers.
After the uninstall I was able to log in
and back up my data. I tried reinstalling
the latest drivers but after the restart,
the same black screen. I rolled back to
thedrivers which came with the graphics
card. The same problem, but after 30
seconds the screen would suddenly come
to life. I installed a fresh copy of Windows
XP but after installing the drivers the
same black screen comes up again after
Windows loading. I have a Radeon 9250
128MB. Id like to buy a new graphics card
but I cant find an AGP graphics card new.
Stefan
No kidding! The Accelerated Graphics
Portstandard dates back to 1996 and
hadalready lost the fight against PCI back

when your graphics card was released a
decade ago. Now, you seem like a rational
person. You have done some pretty solid
troubleshooting here (the final reinstall of
XP was unnecessary, but Ill let that slide),
and you have correctly identified that your
graphics card has died. Its possible that
its just one of the VRAM banks that has
blown, since it can still run lower screen
resolutions, but they are almost certainly
soldered straight onto the board, so its
not really something you can repair. So I
agree you need to replace the card. But
with a new one? Are you mad? Youre
playing Warcraft III on a PC from 2004! Of
course you cant find new parts that are
compatible with this archaeological relic!
What you should look for is a second-hand
one. There are several working 9250 cards
on eBay right now, for less than a tenner.
IMRTIUTB
Dealing with hijackers
After reading your reply in PCF286 to

Jason Brigman, titled Searching for
Google, Ive concluded that I have a
similar problem. After trying the steps
you gave him though, I havent been able
to resolve the issue. My mom works for
UNISA, who impose account restrictions
on their employees computers. This
AGP graphics cards.

That takes us back...
means Im unable to manually change her

home page in Internet Explorer as I dont
have the required admin privileges. In
Internet Options, her home page is set
tothe standard UNISA home page, but
somehow a browser hijack is causing IE
toopen a site called http://start.qone8.
com as her home/landing page. Taking
the laptop to UNISAs technical division
isa nightmare, as their solution for
everything is to format, which somehow
takes them a week. Any thoughts?
Jaco Roos
We covered some of the manual ways to
tackle browser hijacks in PCF286, and an
automated adware removal tool called
AdwCleaner in PCF288 (http://bit.
ly/1gIV6lw). The qone8 hijack on your
mums computer isnt the same as Delta
Search, which featured in those other
questions, but its cut from the same cloth.
AdwCleaner will get rid of it, and so will
Malwarebytes (www.malwarebytes.org/
free). Either of these will save her a trip to
the IT services department. Which is good,
because I imagine that the one-week delay
is actually the least of your worries. Every
download link for qone8 Ive ever seen has
been on a porn site banner ad. Dont worry,
I wont tell anyone mums the word.
IMRTIUTB
Sudden slowdown
My computer is fairly high-end and does

alot of work. It manages gaming very
well, but also doubles as a work machine,
which means that it has the entire Adobe
CS6 installed. It has an SSD for the OS,
and four drives for programs and data
Free technical support

Email Luis for guaranteed insults and
possibly even some technical help as well.
pcfhelpline@futurenet.com
PCF Helpline, 30 Monmouth Street
Bath, BA1 2BW
The six categories of

all human misery
IUTWANID: I t Used To Work And Now
It Doesnt.
IGAEM :
I Get An Error Message.
IMRTIUTB: I ts More Rubbish Than It
Used To Be.
RATH:
Randomly, A Thing Happens.
ICDNT: I Cant Do the New Thing.
IKBTL:
I Know Better Than Luis.
92
June 2014
Expert technical help
Wanna take on a hijacker?

Adwcleaner is good to have
at your back
you asked!
myApollo
Is this a streaming Michael
McIntyre app?
Not even close. Its a social network.
backup. I recently reinstalled Windows 7

Pro yes, it finally came to that and of
course, once the many programs are
re-installed one by one, the system gets
slower. And slower. For example, InDesign
started up in four seconds on a nonbloated machine. On mine it takes around
25 seconds. When things suddenly stop
working it is difficult to tell what you did
last that could have changed it. So I blame
it on an email, for now.
I clicked on an email from www.
dreamstime.com in Outlook and the mail
would not open. Instead, small progress
bar windows flashed a few times on
screen, Outlook said that it was not
responding and finally the mail opened.
Since then I constantly experience that
avariety of programs hold their breath
before launching, and this extends to
opening folders in Windows Explorer.
IGAEM
Java palaver
I have an important question, and its a

two-parter. First, when I boot my PC I am
greeted by a message informing me that
the Java Update scheduler has stopped
working. I cannot uninstall Java because
Ineed it. Second, this message appears
roughly five minutes after booting up:
The instruction at 0x755dd33d
referenced memory at 0xfd575d15.
Thememory could not be read. click on
OK to terminate the program.
Lee
Thats not a two-part question, its two
problems neither of them phrased as
questions. Just because you need Java
doesnt mean you need the update
scheduler running constantly in the
background. This doesnt even guarantee
Of course you cant find new

parts compatible with this
archaeological relic
Ihave run ESET AV, but believe this email
was a red herring.
Albert Swanepoel
Almost certainly. A PC that takes longer to
start than it used to is like a person with
less energy than he once had. It is normal,
inevitable and caused by lots of different
things. Very rarely is malware the culprit;
ironically, antivirus software is frequently
responsible, so a piece of boilerplate
advice you often hear is to disable or
uninstall your AV software. But this is just
taking a blind swing at a likely culprit. You
need a more objective way to measure the
source of your slowdown, and thats what
the Event Viewer is for. The walkthrough
this month shows you how to create a
custom view of the Windows 8 event logs
that will do just that. The procedure for
Windows 7 is pretty much the same.
you always have the latest version of

Javainstalled. Its just the process that
remembers to check for updates every
now and again (once a week, by default).
Theres no need to run a separate
background process for this. If you open
Control Panel and search for java youll
find (surprisingly enough) the Java Control
Panel. Untick the Check for updates
automatically box and click Do not check
in response to the blustering message that
appears. That stops the update scheduler
from loading at startup, which cost you
nothing, since it was crashing anyway.
But you still want to check for Java
updates, because bugs in Java are a
potential security risk. You can do this
manually from the Java Control Panel, or
create a new event in Windows own Task
Scheduler that runs jucheck.exe every
sooften. Monthly is probably fine.
Ugh. Just what we needed. Whats

different about this one?
Privacy. myApollo is designed to
make it easy for you to share your
personal information, news, files
and photos with friends and family,
but to make it hard for strangers,
scammers, phishers and marketing
companies to get hold of it.
How on Earth does it do that?
Two ways. First, myApollo profiles
arent indexed by search engines, so
randoms cant find your profile by
searching for your name, but more
importantly, myApollo doesnt store
your data on its own servers.
Where is it stored then?
It uses a peer-to-peer model to store
it on all the devices in your friends
list. The myApollo servers simply
coordinate the requests and pull
the data from whichever computers
happen to be turned on at the time.
That doesnt sound secure at all!
What if one of those PCs is hacked?
No file is stored in its entirety
onasingle device. Instead, each
computer has part of the puzzle,
and a blueprint that tells it where
tofind the rest. This model also
allows myApollo to compete with
services like Dropbox because very
large files can be shared this way,
without depending on bottlenecked
connections to the central server.
Whats its business model?
Advertising. But unlike Facebook,
myApollo is committed to only
using your personal data to tailor
the ads you see, rather than selling
the data to other companies.
Could this ever replace Facebook?
Facebooks huge lead has prevented
even Google+ from making sizeable
inroads, but privacy is a big concern
for many Facebook users. If the
networking technology proves
robust, it might carve itself a niche.
Read more at: http://myapollo.ca
June 2014
93
The other error message could be

causedby faulty RAM, but its more likely
caused by some other background app
accessing memory that it isnt allowed
to.Buggy graphics drivers are a common
culprit, butin your case its probably one
of the other applications that load when
Windows starts. Disable them one by one
until you track down the cause.
IMRTIUTB
Radiation hazard
I might not be your typical reader; I am

glad if I can switch on my cell phone. The
stack of PC Formats in our home is the
result of our sons voracious appetite for
everything electronic. Most recently, he
dropped his Tablet Asus Nexus 7, 32GB,
Wi-Fi, and the screen broke. He needs
that tablet in Grade 9 of his school and
Tablet computers are not

filled with plutonium, cyanide
gas or haitian voodoo curses
says it is still functional with wireless
keyboard paired and a mouse plugged in.
My immediate concern for my son living
in a boarding school 800 kilometres
awayfrom us is, whether he is exposed
toany health hazard from looking at
andworking with that tablet that has
noscreen any more.
Alois Ruider
Nope. Completely fine. Tablet computers
are not filled with plutonium, cyanide gas,
anthrax spores, Haitian voodoo curses or
Speed up boot times

Spot whats slowing you down
view
1 Custom
Open Event Viewer and select Create
Custom View. Tick all the Event Level

boxes,then from the Event Logs drop-down
menu, choose Applications and Services
Logs> Microsoft > Windows > DiagnosticsPerformance > Operational. In the <All Event
IDs> box, type 100. Click OK and save it.
down
2 Drill
Click your custom view. Each longer-
than-normal boot-up gets its own event.

Clickthe Details tab. MainPathBootTime is
the delay, in milliseconds, from the Windows
logo to the desktop. BootPostBootTime is the
time it takes for the CPU to reach 80 per cent
idle after the desktop loads.
degradation
IDs
3 Boot
4 Event
Now create a new custom view, exactly
Its normal for apps to take longer after
the same as the one you made in step 1, but

this time enter 101-110 instead of 100 in the
<All Event IDs> box. Click on an event to see
how long a driver or app took to load (Total
Time) and how much longer than normal this
was (Degradation Time).
94
June 2014
an update (Event ID 101), but if you see the

same culprits appearing over and over in the
list, there may be a problem. Event ID 102 is
adriver initialising, 103 is a service, 106 is a
background optimisation, 109 is a hardware
device.
anything else that can leak out and kill

youif the screen is cracked. Certainly
theyemit electromagnetic radiation of
various wavelengths, but this is perfectly
safe. Electromagnetic radiation ranges
from very long wavelengths like radio
waves, through visible light, all the way
tox-rays and gamma rays at the shortest
wavelengths. The shorter the wavelength,
the more energy is carried by each photon
and so the more potential they have to
beharmful, but its all a question of the
intensity of the radiation. Visible light will
kill you if someone focuses a terawatt
laser beam at your head, but you dont
worry about the light that shines from
your monitor screen. Likewise, the 60mm
wavelength used by Wi-Fi networks lies
within the microwave range, but its much
too faint to cook your insides.
In any case, even if you were ignorant
enough to believe that tablets emitted
dangerous radiation, there is nothing
about the glass screen that would keep it
in. The point of those signals is to travel to
other computers, so it would be pointless
to build the case from materials that block
them. If you are happy to use a tablet with
an intact screen, you should be just as
happy to use one with a cracked screen.
What you do risk, however, is the health
of the tablet itself, so its a good idea to
get the screen fixed as soon as possible.
You can find replacement screens for
most tablets on eBay.
RATH
Symphony shutdown
My PC has begun to switch off at random.

I cannot imagine what is provoking it so,
but I have tried re-seating the memory
and my graphics card. No joy in fact,
after that, it would switch off within
seconds of my switching it on. Next, I
tried removing the memory altogether.
Lots of beeps from the machine. Then I
put each memory module back, one by
one, into each of the slots. Everything
seemed to work okay and I put both
memory chips back in. Now it switches
off when playing back dense, multiple
high-res samples in Cubase 6. As I only
have 4GB of RAM, Cubase has always
struggled a little when I have made too
many demands (like using the 24-bit
samples in Halion Symphonic Orchestra).
Am I right to suspect that some piece of
hardware has gone for a ball of chalk,
andif so, which one?
Simon Cushman
It could be overheating, but thats not
consistent with the way the problem got
worse after you reseated the RAM and
graphics cards. Normally, when people
Expert technical help
If youre that scared of a bust screen you may not want to

tackle such surgery, but the options there...
No NEED TO read
Learn Python the

Hard Way, 3rd Edition
by Zed A Shaw
Price 25.99
Publisher Addison Wesley
ISBN 978-0-321-88491-6
take the case off and have a poke around,

they blow away any thick buildup of
dustand overheating issues improve
somewhat. This seems more like a dry
solder joint to me, and the most likely
locations are on the motherboard or the
PSU. Since you wont be able to find the
microscopic hairline crack in the solder,
and wont be able to repair it if you do, you
will probably need to replace either the
motherboard or the PSU. The PSU is the
cheaper and easier option, so start there.
outeither. If I put a MSI 560Ti in, I do

notget the errors. I have checked the
temp of the card and the max it gets is
70. If the supplier cant find an error, then
they are giving the card back, so I will sit
with the same problem.
I have done a driver upgrade to latest
EVGA drivers available and downgraded
to 314.22 of the drivers, and yes, I also
did a full driver removal and clean with
Nvidia driver cleaner.
Gerrit
RATH
From the crash logs you included, I see

that youre getting error 0x116 in dxgkrnl.
sys. This is also sometimes listed as
VIDEO_TDR_ERROR, and if you search
Microsoft or Nvidia forums you will
invariably be told that this is a driver
error.Which is odd because you have
already ruled this out. And yet, if its not
asoftware error, it must be a hardware
fault. In which case your supplier ought to
be able to replicate it. Despite what you
say, benchmark programs are a perfectly
I can only run benchmarks
Thought I would involve the big boys here.

I have an EVGA 660Ti SC. After a bit of
playing games like War Thunder, Star
Conflict and, yes, even Anno 1404, the
computer would restart. The card is
currently back at the supplier and they
have been testing it for two days with
noproblems found. Great, no problems,
but they are running benchmarks on the
card and my benchmarks do not crash
If theres some problem in your PSU the

best bet is to replace rather than
attempt a repair yourself
The subtitle of this book is A

verysimple introduction to the
terrifyingly beautiful world of
computers and code. So which is it:
hard or simple? The preface makes
things worse by boldly proclaiming
that the hard way is easier and
telling you to do incredibly simple
things that will be very hard at
first. So let me pull aside the
curtain: when Shaw says hard,
what he actually means is laborious.
He explicitly compares the process
of learning Python to the way you
learn guitar, with hours and hours
of repetitive practice. There are 52
short chapters, and almost all of
them involve you typing in the
example program and watching it
run. Not cutting-and-pasting the
example program; Shaw is clear
that we need to type it in. To build
up our muscle memory, presumably.
In chapter 22 we take a break from
this to go back through the previous
chapters and write every word and
symbol we have used, then take a
few days to write and re-write the
list to double-check that its correct.
This Mister Miyagi approach is
aimed at complete beginners to
programming; Python simply
happens to be the language he has
chosen to use. It feels a lot like the
how-to books on BASIC that I read
in the late 70s, but it feels like were
programming on 70s hardware too.
In 52 chapters we never once use
any of the graphics or GUI libraries
that are available for Python. The
example game in chapter 43 is a
command-line text adventure, like
Zork from 1979. If youve never
programmed before this is a good
first step, but if youre switching to
Python from another language,
there are much easier ways. I guess
we cant say we werent warned.
June 2014
95
Stats know-it-all
1. Which of these uses camel case

a) helloworld
b) HelloWorld
c) HelloWorld
d) helloWorld
valid way to stress-test graphics cards.

Sonot hardware and not software what
a puzzling paradox!
Except its not, because I think I have the
answer. There is some quite convincing
research to show that VIDEO_TDR_ERROR
can be caused by sudden temperature
spikes on the graphics card. While 70C is
normally a safe upper temperature, you
have to remember that the thermocouple
that measures this temperature doesnt
react instantly. This means that it
effectively records a rolling average of
thetemperature, and brief spikes might
climb way beyond 70C before the
thermocouple (and therefore the fans) can
respond. These temperature spikes will
depend on what games youre running, but
also on the cooling within the case. Most
repair shops dont bother to put the lid
back on for systems they are testing, so
they generally get better cooling than they
would under your desk.
If you use Precision X (www.evga.com/
precision) youll be able to override the
GPU fan speed. Try locking it to a constant
75 per cent speed and see if that helps.
Orrather, revel in the realisation that it
definitely does help.
IMRTIUTB
Dont touch my baby!
I have a laptop thats getting long in

theteeth. Im a designer and Im finding
newer software is becoming sluggish,
especially vector processing. Im dreading
upgrading for the simple reason that
mylaptop is my baby! Ive customised,
tweaked and tuned it juuust the way I like
it. Would a fresh installation of Windows
give me the revival of performance I
crave? Or should I choose the inevitable
and start upgrading to a desktop?
Shaun B
How much have you tweaked it, really?
Have you replaced the key caps with
carbon fibre composite for more
96
June 2014
responsive action? Have you added

custom anti-glare coatings to the screen,
made from eagle sneezes? Or have you
just installed some apps and got the
Windows desktop looking how you like it?
Reinstalling Windows doesnt make
anything faster by itself. If it did,
Microsoft would have introduced an
automated reinstall process that ran
overnight once a month by now.
Reinstalling seems to make things faster
because you initially roll back to an earlier,
unpatched version of Windows with no
apps installed, but then Windows Update
puts all the patches back, you add the apps
back in and you are back to square one,
with nothing but a whiff of psychosomatic
new-car smell to convince you that you
havent thrown away your weekend for
nothing. At best, youll discover that you
dont need to reinstall everything you had
on there before and improve performance
slightly that way, but thats not going to
magically make the latest drawing
programs run snappily on your old laptop.
But so what? You dont need to get a
desktop. You can upgrade to a new laptop
if you want. If you want to keep all your
precious little customisations, just clone
the hard disk onto a USB drive using
Acronis True Image (www.acronis.com)
and then restore that onto the new laptop.
Bingo zippy new hardware running your
familiar old desktop and apps.
IKBTL
Dont dig the Dynasty
In PCF290 you gave Chris Barry a

battering for calling his PC The Rig.
Imquite okay with that apart when you
take a look at the very same magazine
pages, almost every second word used
byreviewers and other writers is rig.
Are they trying to make your mag more
manly? You should have a word with
those Duck Dynasty morons and tell them
you hate them. The other question is
about the advice you gave to Thabani
3. Which of these is a verbatim

string in C#?
a) string s=@my string
b) string s=my string
c) string s=@my string
d) string s=my//string
4. How big is a C# int?
a) 8 bits
b) 16 bits
c) 32 bits
d) Its platform dependent
5. Whats the difference between
bool and Boolean?
a) For most purposes, nothing
b) Bool can take a null value
c) Boolean uses the System
namespace
d) All the above
Ndlovu about the Chrome browser. Your

answer began by telling him to click to
spanner icon and choose About Google
Chrome, but the way he explained it,
Chrome wont even launch, so there will
be nowhere to click.
Tarmo Kappa, Ireland
Good point. But the rest of my answer
explained that the problem occurred
whenthe autoupdate mechanism failed.
Clicking About Google Chrome was just
away of forcing a manual update. If it
doesnt start at all, you can just uninstall
Chrome completely and download it from
scratch from www.google.com/chrome.
And as for the R-word, its simply that I
have very definite ideas about acceptable
vernacular, just like I have very definite
ideas about almost everything. Im not
going to suggest that the Ask Luis
sectionof the magazine exists as a
semi-autonomous enclave, like Vatican
City, because that would clearly be
overstepping my remit as a freelance
writer. And Im certainly nothing like the
Pope, especially the new one. He smiles
alot more than me, for a start.
Answers: 1d 2c 3a 4c 5d
EVGAs own PrecisionX tool will help identify

temp spikes and help with fan adjustment too
2. What is the default value of a

char variable in C#?
a) null
b) 0
c) \0
d) space
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ART/PRODUCTION
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THE Voice of reason
Face rift
Illustrator Kevin February
PC Format has a mole.

A man wedged inside
the games industrys
nether regions. A man
rendered so hideously
paranoid by a life spent
playing sub-standard
PS2 ports that he wont
even let us edit his
copy. These are his
troubled thoughts
98
June 2014
acebook has bought Oculus

Rift. Oh no, the great
unwashed cried, this is worse
than Aronofskys Noah! Or words
to that effect. Only as we all know,
nothing is worse than Noah.
The fear for many tech heads is
that the whims of such a massive
company will stifle the work of
aplucky young startup that is
goingto transform gaming. That
somehow Zuckerberg et al will take
the burgeoning company and break
it. Because Facebook is evil.
Only that isnt going to happen.
Thats not how the world operates,
and it certainly isnt how hardware
development works. Consider for
asecond the fact that Facebook
dropped $2 billion on the VR
company. It isnt going to quash the
innovations of its new acquisition,
and it certainly isnt going to break
it just because it can. Facebook
isntevil (at least not in that sense).
You dont spend silly money on
something just to break it well,
notunless you really are evil.
Of course there are plenty of
reasons why Facebook would want
to buy Oculus Rift, ranging from
having a big pile of cash sat around
not doing much, through to realising
how vital it is to be seen to be
investing in the future. But theres
another important reason too, and
thats to do with how important
gaming is to Facebook numbers
revealed at the recent Games
Developer Conference showed that
there are 375 million users playing
games on the site every month.
Facebook isnt quite so removed
from modern gaming after all.
ADVERTISING
Facebook wants to improve

itsgaming presence, and Oculus
Rift needs more cash to make
itshardware and software more
compelling. A win-win situation all
round, surely. So why the anger?
The only possible reason is that
people are naturally distrustful of
anyone once they start throwing
bigsums of cash around. Either
that, ortheyre just plain stupid.
Even backers of the Kickstarter
project cant really be upset, as its
all leading to making the dream of
modern VR a reality.
Of course gaming isnt the only
potential application for Oculus
Rift. There are other uses for
virtual reality beyond making all
your favourite games a headacheand vomit-inducing nightmare
(albeit a very cool nightmare).
Before Facebook reached for its
chequebook, Tesco had revealed
that it was working on a virtual
store that you could walk around in,
buying all the Doritos and Irn-Bru
you could ever want.
And because its just you
wandering around in your pants,
youcould make the shopping
experience as unique to your
perverted needs as youd want. All
in glorious surround-a-vision. With
Tesco tracking what youre looking
at all the way, of course. And
Facebook posting your dodgy
buying history and sharing it with
your friends, along with pictures of
your purchases. Actually, this might
not be such a great idea after all.
Iknow that if I ran Facebook, thats
exactly what I would do. But then,
Ireally am evil at heart. n
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directx 12 in-depth report

issue 292/June 2014

AMD turns to watercooling

Round-up of the latest

How to ensure your audio is

hardcore retro gaming

Make your own arcade machine

AMD Radeon R9 295X2

Kingston HyperX Cloud Pro

Beef up your audio skills with our

ScummVM or MAME, get your

ell, its a bit of a graphics-gasm

Prize polygon pushers

hat does the future

isa sensible angle to take. After all,

means that there is now a base GPU

Prize polygon pushers

Battlefield 4 was the first released

Thief also boasts a Mantle build, but

o, right now the graphics

theyre both selling loads and loads

Prize polygon pushers

here are several factors that you need

that, or youre planning to use

When it comes to SLI and Crossfire,

A decent cooling array can transform an

adding a second card isgenerally

Theres still that nagging doubt

Even so, Mantle was a surprising

Prize polygon pushers

When it comes to pumping out those

Underneath the cooler youll

A top-end dual-GPU graphics

Titanfalls textures may not be too

hardware, were not sure we

the whole industry

the effort Nvidia (and to a lesser

64 Low-end graphics card

t the top of the

very little from a gaming

86 Low-profile graphics card

his is it. The holy grail

approaching proper gaming

pare a thought for the

it up with the similarly-priced

128 Low-end graphics card

comes close to it in pixelpumping terms. Its getting on

165 Mid-range graphics card

MDs Radeon R9 270X

700-series rebranding and

215 Mid-range graphics card

MSI GTX 760

clear air to the GTX 770s price

230 Mid-range graphics card

ime heals all wounds,

pecking order, and the

239 Mid-range graphics card

o we care that both

In that context, the branding

330 High-end graphics card

his has felt like an

features that allow a GPU to

360 High-end graphics card