Gaming

With the abundance of new games constantly releasing, it can be overwhelming. How will I afford all the games I want to play? What if I regret buying a game? Or maybe you’re looking for a way to test out games before fully committing to paying full price. If you can relate to any of these scenarios, then Xbox’s game pass may be the subscription service for you.

While you may hear ‘Xbox’ and think this doesn’t apply to you, a PC only gamer, you’re in luck! Xbox offers two subscription services for PC players, giving them access to over 400 games to play with more games being added all the time. The two subscriptions we will be going over into this article are the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription and the PC Game Pass subscription. We’ll be answering the hard hitting questions such as “what are these services?” and “how does this service benefit me, a PC gamer?”

PC Game Pass

$9.99/month

Game Pass Ultimate

$14.99/month

Game Pass is a service started in June 2017 that allowed subscribers access to hundreds of games on the Xbox. Since then, two more tiers for the subscription have been created, the PC Game Pass and the Game Ultimate Pass, which gives PC users unlimited access to this catalog for as long as they have a subscription. Gamers playing on a Macbook, tablet, or smartphone can also access and stream the entire game library through the cloud, so this service can be enjoyed by just about everyone everywhere.

Starting at $10/month for PC Game Pass or $15/month for Game Pass Ultimate, these subscriptions gives you unlimited access to a growing catalogue of over 450 games. These games include popular titles like Minecraft, the Yakuza series, and much more along with tons of indie games and instant access to newly released AAA titles. The game library is constantly being updated, with games rotating in and out of service. Don’t worry though – if a game you’re playing through the service is leaving your save data won’t be deleted and you are able pick up where you left off after buying the game. Members of the service also receive up to a 20% discount on titles that are leaving the rotation as well as up to 10% off related game add-ons, so you can buy your favorite games at a discount.

Members also receive other perks with the service! Microsoft offers the first month of membership for $1 – perfect for those who want to try out the membership without committing – and the benefits just keep coming from there. Members receive discounts and deals on games, perks including in-game content, partner offers, EA Play, and Xbox Live Gold.

EA Play provides members with unlimited access to a collection of their most popular titles such as the Sims, Battlefield, Mass Effect, and more. Members receive a 10% discount on all purchases of Electronic Arts digital content, which extends to season passes, points packs, and DLC. Members also get the ability to test out select newly released games for up to 10 hours.

If you opt for the more expensive option of Game Pass Ultimate, you’ll get Xbox Live Gold included with your subscription. This add-on is important if you want to play online multiplayer games or if you want to play on a Mac or portable device through the cloud.  This add-on also lets you save up to 50% when purchasing games and gives members 2 free games a month.

Cons

• Fewer titles than PS Plus
• Games do not come with DLC
• Cloud gaming streaming is limited to 1080p at 60 FPS
• Titles rotate out of service
• Not the best for people who don’t spend much time gaming or spend a lot of time on one game

While the value of this service differs from person to person, I think we can safely say that Xbox’s PC Game Pass is more than worth it. At only $10/month, you can download and play an unlimited number of games from their library, get access to special offers, discounts, and services, and get instant access to Xbox Studio titles the day they release. If you want a bang for your buck or just want to try some new games for a month, the PC pass or Game Pass Ultimate is the way to go!

Today we’ll be looking into the NVIDIA GeForce xx70 line of graphics cards to see how much they’ve upgraded and improved through the years, as well as the transition from GTX to RTX and the introduction of ray tracing.

Graphics Processor
GPU Name: GP104
GPU Variant: GP104-200-A1
Architecture: Pascal
Foundry: TSMC
Process Size: 16 nm
Transistors: 7,200 million
Die Size: 314 mm²

Graphics Card
Release Date: Jun 10th, 2016
Generation: GeForce 10
Predecessor: GeForce 900
Successor: GeForce 20
Production: End-of-life
Launch Price: $379 USD
Bus Interface: PCIe 3.0 x16

Clock Speeds
Base Clock: 1506 MHz
Boost Clock: 1683 MHz
Memory Clock: 2002 MHz, 8 Gbps effective

Memory
Memory Size: 8 GB
Memory Type: GDDR5
Memory Bus: 256 bit
Bandwidth: 256.3 GB/s

Graphics Features
DirectX: 12 (12_1)
OpenGL: 4.6
OpenCL: 3.0
Vulkan: 1.3
CUDA: 6.1
Shader Model: 6.4

Render Config
Shading Units: 1920
TMUs: 120
ROPs: 64
SM Count: 15
L1 Cache: 48 KB (per SM)
L2 Cache: 2 MB

Theoretical Performance
Pixel Rate: 107.7 GPixel/s
Texture Rate: 202.0 GTexel/s
FP16 (half) performance: 101.0 GFLOPS (1:64)
FP32 (float) performance: 6.463 TFLOPS
FP64 (double) performance: 202.0 GFLOPS (1:32)

The 20 series is where we see the introduction to RTX. NVIDIA’s transition from GTX to RTX was a huge stepping stone for more realistic graphics as real-time tracing was able to simulate individual rays of light. RTX graphics cards also established Tensor cores which are used to accelerate deep learning which allows users to upscale their resolution without a significant loss of performance.

Graphics Processor
GPU Name: TU106
GPU Variant: TU106-400A-A1
Architecture: Turing
Foundry: TSMC
Process Size: 12 nm
Transistors: 10,800 million
Die Size: 445 mm²

Graphics Card
Release Date: Oct 17th, 2018
Generation: GeForce 20
Predecessor: GeForce 10
Successor: GeForce 30
Production: Active
Launch Price: $499 USD
Bus Interface: PCIe 3.0 x16

Clock Speeds
Base Clock: 1410 MHz
Boost Clock: 1620 MHz
Memory Clock: 1750 MHz, 14 Gbps effective

Memory
Memory Size: 8 GB
Memory Type: GDDR6
Memory Bus: 256 bit
Bandwidth: 448.0 GB/s

Board Design
Slot Width: Dual-slot
Length: 229 mm, 9 inches
Width: 113 mm, 4.4 inches
Height: 35 mm, 1.4 inches
TDP: 175 W
Suggested PSU: 450 W
Outputs: 1x DVI, 1x HDMI 2.0, 2x DisplayPort 1.4a, 1x USB Type-C
Power Connectors: 1x 8-pin
Board Number: PG160 SKU 52

Graphics Features
DirectX: 12 Ultimate (12_2)
OpenGL: 4.6
OpenCL: 3.0
Vulkan: 1.3
CUDA: 7.5
Shader Model: 6.6

Render Config
Shading Units: 2304
TMUs: 144
ROPs: 64
SM Count: 36
Tensor Cores: 288
RT Cores: 36
L1 Cache: 64 KB (per SM)
L2 Cache: 4 MB

Theoretical Performance
Pixel Rate: 103.7 GPixel/s
Texture Rate: 233.3 GTexel/s
FP16 (half) performance: 14.93 TFLOPS (2:1)
FP32 (float) performance: 7.465 TFLOPS
FP64 (double) performance: 233.3 GFLOPS (1:32)

Graphics Processor
GPU Name: GA104
GPU Variant: GA104-300-A1
Architecture: Ampere
Foundry: Samsung
Process Size: 8 nm
Transistors: 17,400 million
Die Size: 392 mm²

Graphics Card
Release Date: Sep 1st, 2020
Availability: Oct 29th, 2020
Generation: GeForce 30
Predecessor: GeForce 20
Successor: GeForce 40
Production: Active
Launch Price: $499 USD
Bus Interface: PCIe 4.0 x16

Clock Speeds
Base Clock: 1500 MHz
Boost Clock: 1725 MHz
Memory Clock: 1750 MHz, 14 Gbps effective

Memory
Memory Size: 8 GB
Memory Type: GDDR6
Memory Bus: 256 bit
Bandwidth: 448.0 GB/s

Board Design
Slot Width: Dual-slot
Length: 242 mm, 9.5 inches
Width: 112 mm, 4.4 inches
TDP: 220 W
Suggested PSU: 550 W
Outputs: 1x HDMI 2.1, 3x DisplayPort 1.4a
Power Connectors: 1x 12-pin
Board Number: PG142 SKU 10

Graphics Features
DirectX: 12 Ultimate (12_2)
OpenGL: 4.6
OpenCL: 3.0
Vulkan: 1.3
CUDA: 8.6
Shader Model: 6.6

Render Config
Shading Units: 5888
TMUs: 184
ROPs: 96
SM Count: 46
Tensor Cores: 184
RT Cores: 46
L1 Cache: 128 KB (per SM)
L2 Cache: 4 MB

Theoretical Performance
Pixel Rate: 165.6 GPixel/s
Texture Rate: 317.4 GTexel/s
FP16 (half) performance: 20.31 TFLOPS (1:1)
FP32 (float) performance: 20.31 TFLOPS
FP64 (double) performance: 317.4 GFLOPS (1:64)

Graphics Processor
GPU Name: AD104
GPU Variant: AD104
Architecture: Ada Lovelace
Foundry: TSMC
Process Size: 4 nm
Transistors: 35,800 million
Die Size: 295 mm²

Graphics Card
Release Date: 2022
Availability: 2022
Generation: GeForce 40
Predecessor: GeForce 30
Production: Unreleased
Bus Interface: PCIe 4.0 x16

Clock Speeds
Base Clock: 2310 MHz
Boost Clock: 2610 MHz
Memory Clock: 1325 MHz, 21.2 Gbps effective

Memory
Memory Size: 12 GB
Memory Type: GDDR6X
Memory Bus: 192 bit
Bandwidth: 508.8 GB/s

Board Design
Slot Width: Dual-slot
Length: 336 mm, 13.2 inches
Width: 140 mm, 5.5 inches
Height: 61 mm, 2.4 inches
TDP: 285 W
Suggested PSU: 600 W
Outputs: 1x HDMI 2.1, 3x DisplayPort 1.4a
Power Connectors: 1x 12-pin
Board Number: PG141 SKU 331

Graphics Features
DirectX: 12 Ultimate (12_2)
OpenGL: 4.6
OpenCL: 3.0
Vulkan: 1.3
CUDA: 8.9
Shader Model: 6.6
Render Config
Shading Units: 7680
TMUs: 240
ROPs: 80
SM Count: 60
Tensor Cores: 240
RT Cores: 60
L1 Cache: 128 KB (per SM)
L2 Cache: 48 MB

Theoretical Performance
Pixel Rate: 208.8 GPixel/s
Texture Rate: 626.4 GTexel/s
FP16 (half) performance: 40.09 TFLOPS (1:1)
FP32 (float) performance: 40.09 TFLOPS
FP64 (double) performance: 626.4 GFLOPS (1:64)

The xx70 series of graphics cards have improved quite a bit since their first iteration. They are a good value GPU, providing quality gaming at a reasonable price. If you’re looking for a card that gives you a bang for your buck, the xx70 cards are a good starting point.

Below you will see five of the absolute best 3090 cards available on the market! They all boast top of the line performance, excellent design and cooling. Check out the ASUS GeForce RTX 3090 ROG STRIX White Edition which is a particular fan favorite around here!

Graphics Processor
GPU Name – GA102
GPU Variant – GA102-300-A1
Architecture – Ampere
Foundry – Samsung
Process Size – 8 nm
Transistors- 28,300 million
Die Size – 628 mm²

Graphics Card
Release Date – Sep 1st, 2020
Availability – Sep 24th, 2020
Generation – GeForce 30
Predecessor – GeForce 20
Successor – GeForce 40
Production – Active
Bus Interface- PCIe 4.0 x16

Clock Speeds
Base Clock – 1395 MHz
Boost Clock – 1785 MHz (+5%)
Memory Clock – 1219 MHz, 19.5 Gbps effective

Memory
Memory Size – 24 GB
Memory Type – GDDR6X
Memory Bus – 384 bit
Bandwidth – 936.2 GB/s

Board Design
Slot Width – Triple-slot
Length – 335 mm, 13.2 inches
Width – 140 mm, 5.5 inches
Height – 56 mm, 2.2 inches
TDP – 350 W
Suggested PSU – 750 W
Outputs – 1x HDMI 2.1, 3x DisplayPort 1.4a
Power Connectors – 3x 8-pin
Idle Fan Stop – Yes
Board Number – PG132 SKU 10

Graphics Features
DirectX – 12 Ultimate (12_2)
OpenGL – 4.6
OpenCL – 3.0
Vulkan – 1.3
CUDA – 8.6
Shader Model – 6.6

Render Config
Shading Units – 10496
TMUs – 328
ROPs – 112
SM Count – 82
Tensor Cores – 328
RT Cores – 82
L1 Cache – 128 KB (per SM)
L2 Cache – 6 MB

Theoretical Performance
Pixel Rate – 199.9 GPixel/s
Texture Rate – 585.5 GTexel/s
FP16 (half) performance- 37.47 TFLOPS (1:1)
FP32 (float) performance – 37.47 TFLOPS
FP64 (double) performance – 585.5 GFLOPS (1:64)

Graphics Features
DirectX – 12 Ultimate (12_2)
OpenGL – 4.6
OpenCL – 3.0
Vulkan – 1.3
CUDA – 8.6
Shader Model – 6.6

Render Config
Shading Units – 10496
TMUs – 328
ROPs – 112
SM Count – 82
Tensor Cores – 328
RT Cores – 82
L1 Cache – 128 KB (per SM)
L2 Cache – 6 MB

Theoretical Performance
Pixel Rate – 189.8 GPixel/s
Texture Rate – 556.0 GTexel/s
FP16 (half) performance – 35.58 TFLOPS (1:1)
FP32 (float) performance – 35.58 TFLOPS
FP64 (double) performance – 556.0 GFLOPS (1:64)

Graphics Processor
GPU Name – GA102
GPU Variant – GA102-300-A1
Architecture – Ampere
Foundry – Samsung
Process Size – 8 nm
Transistors – 28,300 million
Die Size – 628 mm²

Graphics Card
Release Date – Sep 1st, 2020
Availability – Sep 24th, 2020
Generation – GeForce 30
Predecessor – GeForce 20
Successor – GeForce 40
Production – Active
Bus Interface – PCIe 4.0 x16

Clock Speeds
Base Clock – 1395 MHz
Boost Clock – 1695 MHz
Memory Clock – 1219 MHz, 19.5 Gbps effective

Memory
Memory Size – 24 GB
Memory Type – GDDR6X
Memory Bus – 384 bit
Bandwidth – 936.2 GB/s

Board Design
Slot Width – Triple-slot
Length – 305 mm, 12 inches
Width – 120 mm, 4.7 inches
Height – 57 mm, 2.2 inches
TDP – 350 W
Suggested PSU – 750 W
Outputs – 1x HDMI 2.1, 3x DisplayPort 1.4a
Power Connectors – 2x 8-pin
Board Number – PG132 SKU 10

Graphics Processor
GPU Name – GA102
GPU Variant – GA102-300-A1
Architecture – Ampere
Foundry – Samsung
Process Size – 8 nm
Transistors – 28,300 million
Die Size – 628 mm²

Graphics Card
Release Date – Sep 1st, 2020
Availability – Sep 24th, 2020
Generation – GeForce 30
Predecessor – GeForce 20
Successor – GeForce 40
Production – Active
Bus Interface – PCIe 4.0 x16

Clock Speeds
Base Clock – 1395 MHz
Boost Clock – 1800 MHz (+6%)
Memory Clock – 1219 MHz, 19.5 Gbps effective

Memory
Memory Size – 24 GB
Memory Type – GDDR6X
Memory Bus – 384 bit
Bandwidth – 936.2 GB/s

Board Design
Slot Width – Triple-slot
Length – 300 mm, 11.8 inches
Width – 137 mm, 5.4 inches
TDP – 350 W
Suggested PSU – 750 W
Outputs – 1x HDMI 2.1, 3x DisplayPort 1.4a
Power Connectors – 3x 8-pin
Board Number – PG132 SKU 10

Graphics Features
DirectX – 12 Ultimate (12_2)
OpenGL – 4.6
OpenCL – 3.0
Vulkan – 1.3
CUDA – 8.6
Shader Model – 6.6

Render Config
Shading Units – 10496
TMUs – 328
ROPs – 112
SM Count – 82
Tensor Cores – 328
RT Cores – 82
L1 Cache – 128 KB (per SM)
L2 Cache – 6 MB

Theoretical Performance
Pixel Rate – 201.6 GPixel/s
Texture Rate – 590.4 GTexel/s
FP16 (half) performance – 37.79 TFLOPS (1:1)
FP32 (float) performance – 37.79 TFLOPS
FP64 (double) performance – 590.4 GFLOPS (1:64)

Graphics Features
DirectX – 12 Ultimate (12_2)
OpenGL – 4.6
OpenCL – 3.0
Vulkan – 1.3
CUDA – 8.6
Shader Model – 6.6

Render Config
Shading Units – 10496
TMUs – 328
ROPs – 112
SM Count – 82
Tensor Cores – 328
RT Cores – 82
L1 Cache – 128 KB (per SM)
L2 Cache – 6 MB

Theoretical Performance
Pixel Rate – 193.2 GPixel/s
Texture Rate – 565.8 GTexel/s
FP16 (half) performance – 36.21 TFLOPS (1:1)
FP32 (float) performance – 36.21 TFLOPS
FP64 (double) performance – 565.8 GFLOPS (1:64)

Graphics Processor
GPU Name – GA102
GPU Variant – GA102-300-A1
Architecture – Ampere
Foundry – Samsung
Process Size – 8 nm
Transistors – 28,300 million
Die Size – 628 mm²

Graphics Card
Release Date – Sep 1st, 2020
Availability – Sep 24th, 2020
Generation – GeForce 30
Predecessor – GeForce 20
Successor – GeForce 40
Production – Active
Bus Interface – PCIe 4.0 x16

Clock Speeds
Base Clock – 1395 MHz
Boost Clock – 1725 MHz (+2%)
Memory Clock 1219 MHz, 19.5 Gbps effective

Memory
Memory Size – 24 GB
Memory Type – GDDR6X
Memory Bus – 384 bit
Bandwidth – 936.2 GB/s

Board Design
Slot Width – Dual-slot
Length – 285 mm, 11.2 inches
Width – 111 mm, 4.4 inches
TDP – 350 W
Suggested PSU – 750 W
Outputs – 1x HDMI 2.1, 3x DisplayPort 1.4a
Power Connectors – 2x 8-pin
Board Number – PG132 SKU 10

Graphics Processor
GPU Name – GA102
GPU Variant – GA102-300-A1
Architecture – Ampere
Foundry – Samsung
Process Size – 8 nm
Transistors – 28,300 million
Die Size – 628 mm²

Graphics Card
Release Date – Sep 1st, 2020
Availability – Sep 24th, 2020
Generation – GeForce 30
Predecessor – GeForce 20
Successor – GeForce 40
Production – Active
Bus Interface – PCIe 4.0 x16

Clock Speeds
Base Clock – 1395 MHz
Boost Clock – 1695 MHz
Memory Clock – 1219 MHz, 19.5 Gbps effective

Memory
Memory Size – 24 GB
Memory Type – GDDR6X
Memory Bus – 384 bit
Bandwidth – 936.2 GB/s

Board Design
Slot Width – Triple-slot
Length – 319 mm, 12.6 inches
Width – 140 mm, 5.5 inches
Height – 58 mm, 2.3 inches
TDP – 350 W
Suggested PSU – 750 W
Outputs – 2x HDMI 2.1, 3x DisplayPort 1.4a
Power Connectors – 3x 8-pin
Idle Fan Stop – Yes
Board Number – PG132 SKU 10

Graphics Features
DirectX – 12 Ultimate (12_2)
OpenGL – 4.6
OpenCL – 3.0
Vulkan – 1.3
CUDA – 8.6
Shader Model – 6.6

Render Config
Shading Units – 10496
TMUs – 328
ROPs – 112
SM Count – 82
Tensor Cores – 328
RT Cores – 82
L1 Cache – 128 KB (per SM)
L2 Cache – 6 MB

Theoretical Performance
Pixel Rate – 189.8 GPixel/s
Texture Rate – 556.0 GTexel/s
FP16 (half) performance – 35.58 TFLOPS (1:1)
FP32 (float) performance – 35.58 TFLOPS
FP64 (double) performance – 556.0 GFLOPS (1:64)

Those are the specifications for all of these cards. They are top of the line and push out performance never seen before. You could not go wrong with any of these cards. If you like the aesthetics and colors you have to go with one of the MSI or the Asus parts. All the design elements they put in with the coloring and RGB is really top of the line and looks amazing! If you are just looking for next level performance in a sleek design the EVGA cards are bangers too! Grab one from us today and get your game on!