On May 17, 2008, I built a new gaming PC, and arguably the most integral component of that build was my Geforce 8800 GTS 512mb graphics card from EVGA. In addition to being the most expensive component in my build, the GPU has more affect on gaming performance than any other single piece of hardware, and therefore I put much consideration into its selection. It was a great card and it got me through some really great games (Bioshock, Mass Effect, CoD4, TF2). However, this summer saw the introduction of the new Nvidia Geforce GTX200 series of graphics cards and since “90 day step-up program” was printed right on the box of my already outdated 8-series……I really didn’t have much choice in the matter did I?

So what is the EVGA Step-Up Program you ask? Basically, if you bought an EVGA graphics card in the past 90 days and would like to upgrade to a newer one, you can send in your “old” card and pay only the difference in price for the “new” card, which EVGA will then mail to you.

I of course was skeptical at first. From their list of restrictions on their website, I expected them to find some minor flaw in my returned GPU (scratch on box, manual page wrinkled, HDMI cable not wound properly, etc.) and deduct 15% from my buyback price (which would have been their legal right). My fears were unfounded however, since the process could not have gone more smoothly. Three times I contacted their support department with questions ranging from shipping to program restrictions and each time, I found their staff to be extremely helpful, polite, and even humorous at times. 

I have a small list of companies I’ve dealt with who have always provided exceptional products and support, and a much larger list of companies I’ve dealt with that make me want to burn down their headquarters. But I am pleased to say that EVGA definitely belongs on the former list, and hopefully they’ll stay there for many years to come. Read the rest…

Now that I have my very own EVGA Geforce GTX 260 courtesy of the EVGA step-up program, I decided that it was finally time to play the only game out there that could truly test my new behemoth of a GPU…Seriously it’s a monster. Performance was what I expected (which in this case is a good thing), but what really surprised me was how great the actual game was. There has been so much hype over the stunning visuals and lofty system requirements that the excellent gameplay seems to have taken a back-burner. In this post I’ll review both the performance of the GTX 260 and the great gameplay of Crysis.

The GTX 260

My GTX 260 is the standard model (no overclock), and I have it paired up with the following system:

• Intel Core2Duo E8400
• 2 Gig Gskill Ram 800MHz
• Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L Motherboard
• Corsair 550W Power Supply (85% efficiency)
• Antec 900 case
• 500 Gig Seagate Hard Drive

Read the rest…

Sadly, Gears of War not very impressive at all on the PC….Well, at least they tried. You can read the reasons for this here.