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3DMark Vantage is a gaming performance benchmark that is used to measure native DirectX 10 and multi-core CPU performance with large amounts of physics, AI and graphics on PC's running Microsoft Windows Vista with Service Pack 1. 3DMark Vantage shows the user where their gaming system performs at its peak or doesn't have the horsepower, and how to get the most performance possible out of their hardware for today's and tomorrow's games.

Speed; a key role into anyone’s PC decision. Members with Windows XP are waiting for Vista SP1 (Service Pack 1) before upgrading. Now it is weeks away from release, its time to bring out the stopwatches, and see what improvements Windows Vista SP1 has on the operating system. According to CNET, there are some performance enhancements, but mainly in the driver areas. What is worse however, is that certain tasks such as copying on a USB 2.0 Hard Drive is 50% slower, a hit which overshadows the other file system improvements in SP1.

Microsoft has unleashed a performance and reliability update for Vista SP1 users. The update, which is detailed below, is available for download here.

Insipred by the Corsair Performance Analysis of 4GB versus 2GB of memory we figured it would be fun to see for ourselves how gaming performance is impacted by adding more system memory. We got our hands on a 2GB and a 4GB set of Corsiar DOMINATOR PC2-9136C5 memory modules and set off to see what happens to the average framerate in nine games at 1920x1200.

VIA's new Isaiah architecture looks as though it may be quite a competitor for Intel's Atom. VIA's C7 has never carved out a strong market for itself, despite years of trying, and Isaiah may be key to changing that.Read More...

AMD has finally released the AMD 790GX chipset for enthusiasts around the world. The AMD 790GX chipset is designed for performance gamers and multimedia enthusiasts alike, and promises to deliver outstanding gaming as well as full HD video performance. With the AM2+ processor in mind the AMD 790GX Chipset along with the ATI Radeon HD 3300 graphics core provides awesome gaming compatibility and fantastic multimedia capabilities right out of the box at an ultra competative price.

I do not know how you feel about the current situation but I’m feeling a little bit overwhelmed by the Service Pack Release spree that Microsoft seems to be in lately. Just a few hours ago they released the Windows XP Service Pack 3 Release Candidate 2 Refresh to the public which is available in Windows Updates.

Even if you take accumulated PC junk out of the equation, the most important factor in in how well your computer runs is the hardware specifications. Windows Vista provides some kind of indicator with its Vista Experience index, but it doesn’t give a whole lot of detail. Here are a few tools which you can use to really test your system’s performance.
3D Mark06

Futurmark's latest benchmark utility is a subset of the highly-popular PCMark series. Dubbed Vantage, the free software is primarily intended for Vista users. While the benchmarks are explored below, the program incorporates tests including CPU/GPU image manipulation, HD video playback, Vista start-up times and video transcoding.