This is the first GPU I've purchased for a desktop since my dual 7950GT's. Even though this model is in the mid-range between the budget 5830 and the high-end 5870 models, the bundled DX11 game Alien VS Predator is absolutely playable at 1080p resolution on my 46" HDTV.

25/11/2008 Forceware 180.60 CUDA betas prove themselves a bit worse than the 180.48 set, but better than previous 180.xx releases with an avg of 62.42fps and surprisingly few frame rate dips with 91.39% above 30fps. You need at least a Geforce 8 card to take advantage of CUDA, so this time I'm SOL.

Overall, I'm very happy with the ease of use with Beyond TV 4.61 tuner software. What it lacks however is a native feature for a virtual tuner through a firewire port. I have managed to record television in High Definition manually using Video LAN's VLC Player.

First you need a 6pin to 6pin firewire cable connected from the left port of the STB (viewed from the front. Note that some DCT's have been reported to stream the signal from the other port.)

My initial testing with Forceware driver 169.13 in the default SLI performance mode worried me a bit. As a tweaker, I know when my framerates are dipping below 30fps and it bothers me. With the 169.13 driver I had no crashes, but my frame rates were usually in the 40's and that's a bit low for my taste: especially since I have a high-end, SLI GPU configuration. As per usual however, subsequent beta drivers have proven to boost that performance and we haven't seen the plateau yet.

18/03/2008 Update! Forceware 174.74 and 174.70 beta were released by nVidia!
Application Error : The instruction at "0x03c4580e" referenced memory at "0x121c4d40". The memory could not be "read".

Click on OK to terminate the program

Once again the latest 174.xx came out with impressive performance records, although when I close the UT3.exe application, I receive the following error message:

I've heard around the Epic Games Forums that optimal performance in UT3 is gained by lesser-used SLI rendering modes. I tend to dip below 30 frames per second at times despite the power of my dual EVGA Geforce 7950GT's, so I thought I might test the theory.