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• If you want to achieve a decent overclock, you’re going to need the right utilities and drivers. As with almost anything else, it’s a matter of using the right tools for the job. The problem is that the drivers especially are in a constant state of change, with user interfaces being altered and features being added or dropped. That means third-party tools are always racing to keep up, and a graphics card maker’s own overclocking utility may break from one driver to the next. Gone are the times where you could just update your graphics drivers whenever you were doing some “spring cleaning” in your system, anyway.  If you play current 3D games, you’re more or less forced to keep your drivers up to date. ATI releases a new version of its Catalyst driver suite every month, and each one features new bug fixes, improvements, and optimizations for games. A good example of this is the game The Last Remnant. Thanks to CrossFire optimizations, the performance of dual-card configurations has actually improved by a factor of three. Games based on the Unreal 3 engine also require the drivers to be optimized for them, and it may take a Catalyst release or two to get there. Since many top-tier games such as Bioshock, Mass Effect, and Stranglehold use this 3D engine, keeping up with driver updates is imperative. MSI’s Radeon HD 4870 card comes with its own overclocking tool called D.O.T. (Dynamic Overclocking Technology). You can’t download it directly from MSI’s support page, nor is it included on the driver CD. Instead, it is integrated right into MSI’s modified driver. At the time this article was written, the most recent release was version 8.542. Meanwhile, ATI had already released Catalyst 9.6. The trouble is, you can’t mix and match. If you upgrade to a newer non-MSI driver, you lose the D.O.T. feature. Trying to be clever, we downloaded MSI’s own version of the 8.603 driver from the Radeon HD 4770 product page. Installing it onto a fresh system yielded the same result as using the ATI version--no D.O.T. tab with overclocking features. When we tried to upgrade to that version from the modified drivers that came with our HD 4870, the D.O.T. tab remained. However, none of the changes we made affected the actual clock speeds, in effect rendering the tool useless. Thus you’ll have to choose between using the most recent driver release with the newest bug fixes and improvements on the one hand and having the D.O.T. feature at your disposal while being stuck with an older driver on the other. No doubt MSI will upgrade its modified release, but it’s likely that it will always lag behind ATI’s latest official ones. See more products MSI Radeon 4870 Video Card... PC Connection $172.73 Compuvest $172.19 ElectronicsPLUS $182.39 Limited Goods PG East $202.77 NextWarehouse $235.08

• Nintendo Wii Console (5 offers) Online shop Price gamestar777 $236.00 nickshop $243.88 P.C. Richard & Son $249.97 eCampus $249.99 DiscountsJungle $254.95 See more products Does the Wii have a great name? No comment. Is the processor next generation? Not really - the system is basically an overclocked Gamecube. Can it play HD DVDs? We don't think so, in fact the Wii can't even play regular DVDs. Is it high resolution then? Sorry, the Wii is 480p at best, while the Xbox 360 is capable of 1080i high definition. Not convinced that buying the Wii is a good idea? Well the reality is that the Wii has succeeded in enticing the hearts of gamers everywhere, in spite of its specifications. And the way Nintendo did this was brilliant: it took an approach that made all previous console benchmarks and features unimportant. Nintendo has wisely shifted the focus away from the numbers and towards what makes gamers out of regular people in the first place: interactivity and immersion. It all comes down to a simple decision: if you want to have fun playing virtual tennis, would you prefer to do it by pressing buttons on an analog gamepad, or by swinging around a responsive virtual racquet? How about gamepad buttons versus a virtual bow for archery? Gamepad versus virtual lightsaber? The motion sensitive wand controller is the console's key to success, and it's this simple premise that makes the Wii exciting and fresh. Forget the specifications; Nintendo's new console has a responsive and accurate control scheme that has excited the minds of game developers and players alike. Oh, and there is one very positive specification about the Wii I forgot to mention: its MSRP is around $250. Also important to remember is that it shouldn't be impossible to find in retail for Christmas, since its release date is November 14th. It looks a lot better for the underdog now, doesn't it?

• By Rob Wright Oh HDMI, where art thou? That was the question many gamers asked upon the release of next generation video game consoles. Because the Xbox 360 was first launched in November of 2005, it seems like there have been countless versions of the console released (though in reality, there have been five different SKUs, including the Halo 3 edition). Until the release of the Xbox 360 Elite this year, however, none of these consoles included an HDMI interface. Well, it's about time! This Xbox may look the same, but it's got more storage and HDMI support. Not only does the Elite include an HDMI interface, the console also comes with a 120 GB hard drive and an HDMI 1.2 cable (plus a network and a component/composite cable). True, it's the most expensive Xbox 360 version to date at $449.99. And yes, it costs almost as much as the PlayStation 3, which includes a Blu-ray player whereas the Xbox 360 console does not. Still, the Elite is arguably the best version of Microsoft's next generation console; HDMI capability is key, and its hard drive offers 100 GB more capacity than does the Xbox 360 Premium. The Elite is currently bundled with two Xbox 360 games - Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, and Forza 2. And for all gamers who have suffered from Xbox 360 failures and the dreaded "red ring of death," there's a little good news, too. While there's not much difference between the hardware for previous 360 versions and the Elite - sorry, the console is still loud - there are a few improvements, most notably the introduction of solid-state capacitors. Will this eliminate the console's penchant for overheating? Only time will tell, but it looks as if Microsoft has made an attempt to improve its hardware. And that alone may be worth the money. Those shopping for an Xbox console for someone special may finally be able to buy with confidence. Join our discussion on this article!