The ZOTAC GeForce GT220 is an entry-level graphics card that provides quite a punch given its limited features. Armed with a 625-MHz core clock and a memory clock of 1580 MHz, the GeForce GT220 has 1-GB DDR3 memory. The ZOTAC GeForce GT220 comes with an HDMI port which makes it deal as an HTPC graphics solution. It does not need any additional power. The card was tested on our graphics card test bench comprising of an ASUS P6T Deluxe motherboard on a Core i7 975 processor. For an entry-level graphics card, the ZOTAC GeForce GT220 performs well. It was better off than the ZOTAC GeForce 9500GT. The ZOTAC GeForce GT220’s key advantage is that it does not tend to heat up a lot. We only saw a four to five degree difference between load and idle temperatures. Priced at Rs. 5,500, the...

The ATI Radeon HD 5970 is an extreme high-end graphics card which comes equipped with a dual GPU thus making it the fastest card from ATI in 2009. The ATI Radeon 5970 has a 512-bit bus with a core clock of 725 MHz and memory clock of 1000 MHz along with 1 GB of DDR5 memory. Design-wise, the ATI Radeon HD 5970 is very similar to the slower ATI Radeon HD5870 and ATI Radeon HD5850 cards. The card runs on a six and 8-pin power connector configuration. It has a single-fan cooling system, with two air-inflow compartments beside the fan. The card was tested on an ASUS P6T Deluxe motherboard with an Intel Core i7 975 processor. The ATI Radeon HD 5970 delivered the goods during performance. In general, it is a good bit faster than the dual-GPU NVIDIA GeForce GTX295. The only thing that is of...

Torchlight, true to the indie games tradition, snuck-up on us with what could be described as the best action-RPG to grace us, since maybe Titan Quest. Even though this game is a debut release for Runic Games, the studio’s development team has some heavy-weights from other studios like Blizzard and the now defunct Flagship Studios. Torchlight in essence is— like any other games in its genre— a Diablo clone and since the founders of Runic Games are ex-Blizzard, they have been a little more liberal with their inspiration. Not to take anything away from this game, Torchlight shines with brilliance in almost every conceivable aspect you would expect from a game in its category. It has the polish and finesse about it that any AAA title would aspire for. In addition,...