We saw a couple of weeks ago NVIDIA released the GTX 1080 Ti which we had a chance to review. From that review we concluded it was a beast of a card, even in its Founders Edition form. Truth be told, its the closest thing to a single GPU solution at 4K resolution with high settings we have, and at a more reasonable price than the Titan XP or Xp or... whatever the new one is called. As with nearly every GPU released, the AIB's get in the game giving us their take. MSI sent us the GTX 1080 Ti Gaming X 11G to review. They have updated their Twin Frozr cooling solution as well as better goodies on the PCB to deliver a quieter and better performing version of the FE 1080 Ti. Read on below to see how it shapes up! Read More

It was only a matter of time before we got our hands on the small, mini-ITX versions of the Z270 chipset. Our first look at these micro power houses is from ASUS, their ROG Strix Z270I Gaming. The board, even in its tiny mITX size, looks to bring you all the features and performance of the larger boards but in a package that can fit into a small form factor. Let's take a look and see what the board has to offer! Read More

Today we'll have a look at the ASUS ROG Crosshair VI Hero which, at this time, is ASUS' top of the line performance board for the AM4 socket. From the early days of socket AM2/AM2+ with the introduction first ASUS Crosshair, in AMD land, the name has always been synonymous with performance. Over the years, I have had four different Crosshair motherboards and can say I have never been disappointed. Today I have my fifth Crosshair sitting in front of me and just by the look and feel of it, I can tell the quality is there. The AMD Ryzen CPU and AM4 platform are still new and as such you should expect a few growing pains. That being said, I'm certain given a bit more time most, if not all, of the bugs will be worked out and setting up this platform will be as easy as any other. At present there are some limitations with memory timings, this is driven by AMD not the motherboard manufacturers. This will be addressed in future AGESA updates delivered with your motherboard's BIOS. Read More

Today I have the Ryzen7 1700X and the Ryzen 7 1700 on the test bench. The Ryzen 7 1700X and Ryzen 7 1700 are identical to their big brother the Ryzen 7 1800X in every way aside from base clocks and boost speeds. The Ryzen 7 1700 is the only one of the three that doesn’t have the XFR (eXtended Frequency Range) technology. So let's dive in and see what these CPUs can do. Read More

It feels like it has been years since we've had an AMD CPU on hand for a review, because it has! The last part we saw was an APU back in 2014. Since those years ago, AMD has come out with a completely new architecture, moved to a 14nm process, gotten rid of those "modules" we've grown accustomed to, and are boasting a self-proclaimed 52% IPC gain over their previous CPU. Desktop processors now range from four cores without SMT (Simultaneous Multi-Threading) all the way up to eight cores with SMT. All of the processors have a vastly reduced TDP with the highest SKU coming in at 95W (just four watts higher than the i7-7700K). This is a huge improvement of the 220W the top Vishera CPU pulled down and the 125W of the FX-8580. Today, specifically, we'll be talking about the Ryzen 7 series, the flagship 1800X CPU in the lineup. IPC improvements are huge over Excavator, thread count is up (depending how you view modules the core count is up also), and I know all of us enthusiasts are excited to see the new challenger who has been looming. That said, enough from me, let's get to the chip. Read More

Intel has recently released Union Point, the Z270 chipset, for their new desktop CPU lineup. ASUS has taken this opportunity to redefine their motherboard lineup a bit and go back to their ROG roots with the ASUS ROG Maximus IX Apex. The Apex line is made specifically with a eye on overclocking, particularly extreme overclocking, when looking at its feature set. Never fear! Enthusiasts, Gamers, and RGB LED lovers will not be forgotten either! Read on to see some of the great features the Apex has and we will look into its performance and overclocking. Read More