- Qualcomm Launches Snapdragon 4 Gen 2 Mobile Platform
- AMD Launches Ryzen PRO 7000 Series Mobile & Desktop Platform
- Intel Launches Sleek Single-Slot Arc Pro A60 Workstation Graphics Card
- NVIDIA Announces Latest Ada Lovelace Additions: GeForce RTX 4060 Ti & RTX 4060
- Maxon Redshift With AMD Radeon GPU Rendering Support Now Available
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Intel CEO Launches Inspire-Empower Challenge
In his opening keynote speech at Intel’s fall IDF conference, which began today, Intel CEO Craig Barrett delivered a rousing speech about improving the quality of life worldwide through the use of new technologies. He proceeded to introduce a series of guests whose pioneering work in the areas of investment, healthcare, human interface, and alternative energy have created technological solutions toward that end.
All of this led up to the announcement of the Intel Challenge – four awards of $100,000 each to be given toward the development of innovative technology ideas in the areas of education, healthcare, economic development, and environmentalism. The submitted projects will be judged by an independent panel, and the awards themselves will be given at the 2009 Spring IDF.
The Challenge is designed to inspire developers, individuals, and organizations to innovate and empower them to deliver new ways to apply technology to these issues. The INSPIRE•EMPOWER Challenge advances the commitment of the Intel World Ahead Program – to connect people to a world of opportunity.
Enjoy these pictures from Craig’s keynote. We’ll post more pictures and news as it happens.
IDF is Here, Off to a Great Start
As mentioned a few times recently in our news, IDF is here and will continue through until Thursday. We’re here in the (not so) warm San Francisco, ready to take in the gorgeous women awesome Intel talks. We’ve arrived early, along with thousands of others, and so far, things are off to a great start.
To reiterate, the biggest news of this conference will no doubt be hovering around Nehalem, and I’m sure we’ll be learning a LOT more about it as the day goes on. We’re also sure to have great discussion also revolving around SSD, Larrabee, X58 and other good stuff. It’s looking to be an exciting conference, so check back often for our updates.
Apple Offers Additional 60-day Extension to MobileMe Subscribers
Apple’s cloud-based MobileMe service has had a hard time from its conception. First, it experienced downtime at launch, then the company offered a 30-day extension for users who experienced problems. If that wasn’t enough, Steve Jobs sent out an internal email essentially admitting that they had “a lot to learn” about their online services. Most recently, Apple experienced problems with email on Monday mirroring the Gmail outage that occurred (though the two were unrelated), which came and went with barely any admittance from the company.
Today, in an email to the service’s users, Apple announced that they would provide an additional 60-day extension for everyone who owns an account while they “continue to improve the service.” Although the extra time is a nice gesture, and 100% up time is not guaranteed by any web service provider, the extension may not satisfy users who experienced unrecoverable productivity, especially since they are paying for the subscription.
The transition from .Mac to MobileMe was rockier than we had hoped. While we are making a lot of improvements, the MobileMe service is still not up to our standards. We are extending subscriptions 60-days free of charge to express appreciation for our members’ patience as we continue to improve the service.
New Android SDK Released, T-Mobile First to Release Android-powered Phone
The Android Alliance released the .9 version of the SDK to developers, featuring an overhauled interface and home screen, new applications, and more development tools. This version marks the last version with major changes before the final build ships. Although many bugs were fixed and some features were added, the GTalkService and Bluetooth API were removed.
T-Mobile also confirmed that they would be the first carrier to ship an Android phone, the HTC Dream. Although no release date was given, the New York Times speculates that the phone will be released before Christmas, “perhaps as early as October.”
There was some worry that the project wasn’t ready for prime time until the latest beta shipped earlier today. Back in July, news broke of a secret SDK released only to select developers, which left the rest of the community with buggy, out of date software. Now that the operating system has had time to mature, we can finally get a better idea of how it will compete with the more mature iPhone and Windows Mobile handsets.
I’m pretty happy today, for two reasons. First, I’m happy because I get to let everyone know that we’re releasing a beta SDK. You can read about the new Android 0.9 SDK beta at the Android Developers’ Site, or if you want to get straight to the bits, you can visit the download page. Once you’ve got it, be sure to visit our Developer Forum if you have any questions.
T-Mobile said Monday it plans to launch a mobile phone powered by Google‘s Android software, making it the first operator to do so and posing a direct threat to Apple‘s popular iPhone.
Source: Android , Source: Yahoo! News
Logitech Buys Ultimate Ears
Last Thursday, Logitech purchased Ultimate Ears, famous for their high end in-ear-monitor products, for a reported $34 million. Logitech, a company known for releasing popular audio components for PCs and game consoles, has yet to offer a line of headphones that compete with other makers, with the exception of their FreePulse wireless set, and Ultimate Ears is one venue with a lot of promise.
Loyal fans of the Ultimate Ears brand hold some concern that Logitech will merge the companies and kill off the UE name, but previous purchases have done well, including Harmony and, more recently, Slim Devices, witch have remained largely unchanged. However, in my opinion, I wouldn’t be surprised if Logitech begins to offer more consumer oriented headphones with Ultimate Ears technology under the Logitech brand, which would help both devisions.
Logitech is getting into the earbuds game, announcing today that it’s buying privately-held Ultimate Ears. Historically focusing on spendy in-ear monitors for live musicians, Ultimate Ears has recently hit the earbud game with full force, and Logitech seems to want a piece of that action. Plus the acquisition price of $34 million is like, what, profits from your last seven minutes of iPod dock sales, Logitech? Logitech and Ultimate Ears expect the deal to close in August.
So, Where’s the HD 4850 X2?
For the first time in a while, AMD now dominates both the mid-range and high-end GPU market, and it’s good to see. Competition is good, and AMD’s offerings up to recently haven’t instilled much faith in us, or the investors. As we saw in our coverage of the HD 4870 X2 though, AMD is back, and is sure to make oodles of cash this coming quarter. But what’s next?
AMD hasn’t talked much about the HD 4850 X2, although they did briefly mention it in the press release last week regarding the HD 4870 X2. The HD 4850 X2 is going to be set loose in September, so if you are looking for a slightly less-expensive dual-GPU option, it might be smart to wait. As you can see below, it’s supposed to improve upon the GTX 280 in all regards, and at $399, it will cost less.
While the HD 4870 X2 has a 750MHz Core and GDDR5 memory, the HD 4850 X2 gets scaled back to a 625MHz Core and GDDR3, so there are going to be some obvious differences. It will still prove faster than the GTX 280 (or so we’re told), but the HD 4870 X2 will remain the prime choice for those who want ultimate performance. Interestingly, the HD 4850 X2 will still feature 2GB of memory, like its bigger brother.
One important thing to bear in mind here though, is that while two HD 4870’s in Crossfire is generally more expensive than the HD 4870 X2, the HD 4850 X2 won’t follow. The single GPU cards retail for $185 right now, and most of them have mail-in-rebates. At that point, it’d be less expensive to just go that route. The HD 4850 X2 does look good for those who want Quad-Crossfire, though, because the memory is there, and so is the speed. It’s a great time to be pondering a GPU purchase, that’s for sure.
Setting a new performance standard in graphics cards priced under $400, the ATI Radeon HD 4850 X2 provides the power to play today’s most demanding titles at ultra-high settings. Like its big brother, the ATI Radeon HD 4850 X2 features 1600 stream processors, and two GPUs clocked at 625 MHz. The ATI Radeon HD 4850 X2 features 2GB of GDDR3 memory.
Source: Our Review of the HD 4870 X2
Intel’s Developer Forum Starts Tomorrow, Check Back for Our Coverage!
If the reminder I posted the other day wasn’t enough, let’s try it all again. As you read this, Rory and I will have probably already landed in San Francisco, ready to take in all that Intel’s Developer Forum will throw at us. If you didn’t read the post I made the other day, I recommend you do, since I tackled what we covered at the last event.
What are we going to hear about this year? Without question, the biggest news will hover around their upcoming Nehalem processors, the first proper successor to the 65nm Core 2 series that launched in the summer of two-years-ago. We already know that the initial processors will be called Core i7, so I’m sure we’ll be seeing banners representing the new branding all over the Moscone Center.
Besides Nehalem, Intel is sure to update us the X58 chipset, their record-breaking SSDs, USB and PCI-E 3.0, and they might even unveil more about their Larrabee architecture. Whew, how we will be able to comprehend all of this is beyond me, but we’ll do our best to keep you guys up to date on anything interesting that comes out of the conference. Coverage begins tomorrow, so check back often!
 Intel’s Senior VP & GM, Digital Enterprise Group, Pat Gelsinger |
Intel Developer Forum only happens in the U.S. once a year, which means you should not miss this invaluable opportunity to hear major announcements, get job-critical training, ask questions, and get answers from Intel Fellows and top engineers on next generation processor technologies that impact your work.
Source: Our Coverage of IDF
Microsoft Launches Windows 7 Development Blog
The folks down there in Redmond have gone ahead and released themselves a new blog, this time focusing on Windows 7 development. There’s only a single introduction post right now, but they note their goal to fill us in on all upcoming Windows 7-related happenings. Since ‘7’ has been in development since even before Vista’s launch, they no doubt have a lot to say.
They further note that two upcoming events, Professional Developers Conference and Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC), will be the first venues where in-depth Windows 7 technical detail will be released, so at that time we should be learning a lot more about what to expect from the upcoming operating system, which is still tentatively dated for release in early 2010.
I’m sure I’m not alone in being skeptical about the future release, because Vista wasn’t exactly the ideal launch Microsoft would have hoped it’d be. How they plan to clean up that mess and release a new OS that’s not to make the same mistakes is going to be interesting, especially with a release date that’s in reality, not that far off.
The audience of enthusiasts, bloggers, and those that are the most passionate about Windows represent the folks we are dedicating this blog to. With this blog we’re opening up a two-way discussion about how we are making Windows 7. Windows has all the challenges of every large scale software project-picking features, designing them, developing them, and delivering them with high quality.
Intel Admits to G45 Performance Issues
A few months ago, I boasted that Intel’s G45 chipset held a lot of promise, and for good reason. It’s power efficient, powerful and can handle 1080p playback without issue. Or, at least it should. According to a new blog entry at Intel’s Software Network site, Aaron Brezenski admits to issues that are plaguing the chipset now, but shifts the blame to the software vendors.
Aaron stresses that the players used for the actual 1080p playback are lacking the appropriate optimizations, which, if true, is a little ridiculous since G45 has been feature-complete for a while. We even saw boards equipped with the chipset at CeBit back in March, so what’s the hold-up? The problem relies even with Intel’s own DG45ID mATX board, which we are currently evaluating in our labs, and ExtremeTech found it to score only 30 out of 100 on the HD HQV test.
If the players are what’s to blame, then fixes should be en route, but you might want to reconsider your G45 plans for now, unless you were planning to build a machine with a very fast CPU and beefy graphics card. Aside from this playback issue, G45 is still a great chipset, but given the playback is a feature almost anyone who purchases a board would want, it leaves little choice but to go with something else.
Despite all the problems Brezenski still maintains that G45 is the perfect home theater chipset. Intel’s inability to get its latest integrated graphics functioning correctly for home theater use — whether or not Intel is at fault — may leave many wondering how they’ll be able to pull off a more complicated discrete graphics processor based on Larrabee in the future.
The iMac Turns Ten
I’ve said it a million times before, but I’ll say it again, “Time flies.”. Ten years ago, Apple released a new computer that really, really caught people off-guard. It was so different, and many people were undecided on whether to even like it or not. I personally didn’t, but I’m fussier than a wine-taster. What computer am I talking about? The iMac of course.
Ten-years-ago is when the first bulby-designed computer was released in numerous different colors, and as far as I know, it was the first to keep everything internal, except for the mouse and keyboard, of course. Whether or not you liked it though, it’s fun looking back, because technology today is in all regards 10x better.
The first iMac had a CRT screen, making the entire unit heavy, it featured a 233MHz PowerPC (G3) CPU, 32MB of RAM (whoa), 2MB of VRAM on the ATI Rage card, two USB ports (I believe the iMac was the first computer with USB ports, but I might be mistaken) and a staggering 4GB hard drive. How far we’ve come. Whether or not you like the iMac, it’s undoubtedly one of the most memorable computers in history.
Suddenly, the dying Apple was back in business, and in a big way. In addition to being all about the Internet, the iMac was the first consumer machine to go completely legacy-free: it offered only USB in an era when serial, parallel, and SCSI cables were still cluttering up desktops, and completely ditched the floppy drive long before the rest of the industry.
Spore Goes Gold
The fanciful sim game from Electronic Arts, Spore, has finally gone gold today. The PC game, which was originally planned to be released on Fall, 2006, will debut on September 5 and September 7, 2008, for the European and American markets respectively.
The game will feature eight levels from different stages in a creature’s evolution, going from the cell stage to exploring space. EA will also offer a limited Galactic Edition boxed copy of the game, which will include a “Making of Spore” and “How to Build a Better Being” DVD, two books, and a poster.
EA also reminds its fans that ports of the game for the Nintendo DS and mobile phone, including the iPhone, will be released along side the PC version.
The wait is almost over! Electronic Arts Inc. and Maxis today announced that Spore(TM), the most anticipated video game of the year from the creator of The Sims(TM), has gone gold and will be available for the Mac and PC at retailers September 5 in Europe and September 7 in North America and Asia Pacific. Spore(TM) Creatures for Nintendo DS(TM) and Spore(TM) Origins for mobile phones will also be available globally September 7.
Intel Releases Latest USB 3.0 Spec
Intel shot out a press release yesterday that I somehow completely overlooked, which details the 0.9 spec for USB 3.0, and it clears up many questions that lingered in the air. The most important one being that the spec is becoming available to all members of the USB 3.0 Promoter Group and contributor companies that sign an agreement, under the ‘RAND-Z’ licensing term.
Beyond that, a spec 0.95 is due out in Q4, and it shouldn’t be too long after that point before we begin to see products on the market that can both accept and utilize the new spec. Given this new draft is being released a week before IDF, it would be unlikely to not see example of the technology there, so we’ll be sure to report on whatever we find out.
Seeing someone quoted from AMD in an Intel press release is unusual, but what Phil Eisler has to say is, “USB 3.0 is an answer to the future bandwidth need of the PC platform. AMD believes strongly in open industry standards, and therefore is supporting a common xHCI specification.” Sounds good, but we knew that already, right? Dell, Microsoft and NEC also have plans to take full advantage of the new spec, and I personally cannot wait to see the products to be equipped for it.
“Dell welcomes the availability of Intel’s xHCI specification because it provides a single interface standard that will expedite the industry transition to next-generation USB 3.0,” said Rick Schuckle, client architecture strategist. “This interface standard is important to ensure that our customers have interoperable USB 3.0 systems, devices and software drivers.”
Best Desktop Search Applications?
There’s little worse than needing a file fast, and not being able to find it. The search tool in Vista is almost useless, and overly complicated, but what other options are there? Surprisingly, there are loads of options available and they go far beyond anything the simple finder tool in your native OS can handle.
Lifehacker rounds-up five different search tools, so that you can find one perfect for you. The most common solution is Google Desktop, which has the major benefit of working on all three major OS’. It has the ability to search inside of documents, your web history, in e-mails and others, in order to show you the result fast. I admit, I like this idea… being able to find documents because of words found inside is a huge benefit.
Other popular tools is the oddly-named Locate32, a Windows-only offering and Copernic Desktop Search. That name brings back memories, because in the earlier days of the web, Copernic developed some really great tools that allowed you to find anything on the web. I used it often, but nowadays, you don’t need such an application for the most part. But I digress. If you want a cool desktop search tool, check out the post.
Copernic Desktop Search indexes and searches your desktop-including email and pretty much anything else that lives on your hard drive. Copernic has been around for years, and despite lacking a strong backer like Microsoft or Google, it’s still a must-have desktop search application for many faithful users.
Peeved Developer Gets His Responses
This past Monday, I linked to an Ars Technica article that discussed Cliff Harris, an agitated game developer who’s tired of his games being pirated, and rightfully so. He raised the question to the pirates themselves, “Why do you pirate games?” Seems like a straight-forward question, but did he get straight-forward answers back?
It depends on how you view things. Some hardcore freedom enthusiasts believe everything should be free, while others believe games are simply too expensive. Both of these are foolish for the most part, given how much money people waste on other things without a second thought (how about those $5 coffees or GAS?!). ‘Going to the shops is annoying’ was another, which is another poor excuse, since even the laziest person can easily order the game online.
The most popular complaint is one I can actually agree with… DRM. I’ve mentioned my own thoughts many times before, but the overall idea for me is that if you pay for something, you shouldn’t have to put up with copy protection, on anything. I’m tired of seeing warning labels on my $30 Blu-ray movies, I hate having to find a no-CD crack for my $50 games, and don’t get me started on music DRM.
Developers (well, publishers more so) need to get a clue and reward the paying customers, given the fact that no matter the protection put in place, crackers will defeat it. It sometimes even happens before the game’s release, so who’s kidding who here?
 Starship Tycoon – One of Positech’s many titles |
In many cases DRM ensures that pirates get the superior version of the game, while people who purchased the boxed game have to put up with annoying piracy counter-measures. This issue became even more surreal last month when Ubisoft used an actual crack from the piracy scene to “fix” an issue customers were having with Rainbow Six Vegas 2. The truth is that as long as DRM hurts gamers while pirates enjoy more stable releases, there will always be an incentive to steal.
Lenovo Brings Wacom to their W700 Notebook
It’s not all too often that a new notebook comes around that is truly unique, because let’s face it, it’s hard to do something interesting with such a confined amount of space. Well, Lenovo has gone ahead and released what appears to be the mobile warrior’s ultimate notebook.
Not only does this 17″ feature the option for WUXGA resolution (1920×1200), an NVIDIA Quadro FX 2700M 512MB or a 1GB Quadro 3700M, DVI/VGA/DisplayPort, support for up to 8GB of DDR3 memory, and two hard drives in RAID 0 or 1, but it also includes, get this… a Wacom tablet. Finally, someone did something unique, and useful.
We’ve of course taken a look at a few Wacom tablets in the past, and attest to their usefulness, and how much they can add to your productivity. The notebook obviously doesn’t offer a huge pad to work with, but if you are already accustomed to a tablet at your desktop, then being able to bring one with you on the go seems like a great option. The downside, if any? The base model begins out at $2,978…
Lenovo’s ThinkPad W700 will use Intel’s latest and faster Penryn-based mobile processors and can be equipped with up to 8GB of DDR3 memory. In addition, the system can be configured with up to 2GB of Intel Turbo Memory. Because of its large frame, the ThinkPad W700 can also accommodate up to two HDDs in either a RAID 0 or RAID 1 configuration.
Intel to Launch New Budget Quad-Core Later this Month
According to the folks over at DigiTimes, Intel is currently preparing to launch a few new processors before the end of the month, including a new 45nm-based budget Quad-Core. The Q8200 will carry a frequency of 2.33GHz and a price of $224 per 1,000, so you can expect them to retail for around ~$245 – $250. This will be a Yorkfield-4M chip, representing the 4MB of L2 Cache (2x2MB).
The same CPU will carry similar specs to its higher-end brothers though, with a 1333MHz FSB and 95W TDP. The chip seems like a solid offering overall, but with the Q9300 (6MB Cache, 2.5GHz) only ~$20 more, it makes it a tough decision. But hey, at least there’s choice. It’s hard to discredit that.
Other new processors include the Dual-Core E5200, at 2.5GHz and 2MB L2 Cache and release price of ~$84. Lastly, the Single-Core Celeron 450 will launch at 2.2GHz and ~$53. Unlike the rest of the current Core lineup, this is a 65nm part.
Intel is planning to launch a 45nm quad-core CPU – Core 2 Quad Q8200 with a core frequency of 2.33GHz and price of US$224 in thousand-unit tray quantities by the end of August along with a new dual-core Pentium E5200 CPU at 2.5GHz and US$84. The company will also launch a 65nm Conroe-L-based Celeron 450 CPU at 2.2GHz and US$53, according to sources at motherboard makers.
Intel’s Developer Forum Next Week, Time to Look Back on Last Year
It’s almost that time of the year again, when we’ll be heading down to San Francisco for Intel’s Developer Forum, a conference for all things directly related to the company and its partners. Out of all the trade shows I visit in a given year, IDF has proven to be my definite favorite, and I believe it’s impossible to leave the Moscone Center not feeling a heck of a lot smarter than when you went in.
Before we begin reporting on the upcoming event, let’s take a brief look back on last year. The big news then was of course Intel’s 45nm architecture, which is hard to believe, since the market is completely saturated with the processors now, seven of which we’ve already taken a hard look at. Those include the Dual-Core E7200 and E8400, and the Quad-Core E5410, Q9450, QX9650, QX9770, and of course, Skulltrail’s QX9775’s.
Speaking of Skulltrail, that was another highlight of our trip, simply because the rig in place was so drool-worthy. How could it not be, with two Quad-Core processors operating at 3.2GHz? We of course took a look at this offering earlier this year and followed-up with our guide on building a budget version, because in all honesty, not everyone has thousands of dollars to spend on the motherboard and CPUs alone, right?
 (I had to use this image just one last time.) |
Rather significant news last year was with regards to the PCI-Express and USB 3.0 specs, which are still a ways off from implementation. PCI-E 3.0 promises to be twice as fast as PCI-E 2.0 and offer new support, while USB 3.0 aims to be 10x faster than 2.0, which is truly incredible. Imagine the possibilities there, especially with external storage. We are sure to learn more about these technologies, and many others, at next week’s event.
For a thorough refresh, why not run through last years coverage, to better prepare yourself for the excitement this year? This year also proves a little more interesting, since NVIDIA is hosting their own conference immediately afterward, called NVISION. I’ll talk more about that next week though, but for now you can visit the official site. If you live anywhere near San Jose, you should definitely consider going.
Source: Intel Developer Forum Coverage
IntelBurnTest Puts the Burn to Your Intel Rig
Not sure if it’s just me who’s noticed or not, but SP2004, Prime95 and others seem to be wearing a bit thin. They are still effective in getting the job done, but we need a new face to look at, and something that promises to be even more effective than the applications before it. Thanks to our friend Kougar, we now know of a new stress-tester that looks to become our favorite new tool in our lab.
‘IntelBurnTest’ promises to be much more accurate than Prime95’s Small FFTs/Blend test, takes less time to tell you if your overclocks are unstable (nice benefit) and also that it uses the exact same stress-testing engine that Intel themselves use to test their products.
Once opened, the app will ask you a few basic questions, such as how strenuous you want the test to be, and also how many times you want to run it. As you can see below, it’s a command-line-based application (I have it emulated in Linux there), but that idea shouldn’t scare you. It looks to be incredibly powerful and well worth your time if you want a reliable stress-tester.
Linpack by Intel(R) is an extremely stressful program that will put even the most powerful X86/X64 CPU in the world at its knees. Load temp under Linpack will be up to 22*C higher than the competing software Prime95. This program will make usage of Linpack easier and more practical.
AMD’s Split Rumors Heating Up
It looks as though AMD is preparing to split in half, and it might happen a lot sooner than we would have expected. TG Daily has the details on the upcoming Asset Light and Asset Smart strategies, which are being lead by current Chairman of the Board, Hector Ruiz (pictured below). You might immediately associate ‘split’ with a bad thing, but it’s not that kind of split, but rather a move AMD feels is imperative to the future success of the company.
The supposed goal is to split AMD into two sections. One will be lead by the newly-crowned CEO, Dirk Meyer, which will focus on the R&D of chip technologies, with the other half to deal with manufacturing. According to TG Daily, critical decisions are currently being made, and AMD has no plans to make this a slow process. As soon as the decisions are cleared, the move will be made.
How will this improve AMD, you ask? Well, we’ll have to wait and see. Ruiz is entirely confident in the shift, however, and states that it’s an important move and one that will help AMD turn a profit much, much sooner.
Officially, there is virtually no clear information on the announcement and the direction of Asset Light/Smart provided by AMD. In the company’s Q2 earnings call, chief financial officer Bob Rivet stated the announcement will not be a 2009 event and that the company will announce it “as soon as [AMD] can get it down which is what Hector [Ruiz] is focused on.”
NVIDIA Releases PhysX Power Pack
Last week, we posted an in-depth look at NVIDIA’s latest PhysX pack, which they referred to as ‘PhysX Pack #1’. That pack is now released, and has been renamed to a more appropriate ‘GeForce Power Pack’. Instead of releasing follow-ups that will take on a new naming scheme, it would almost seem likely that the pack itself will simply be upgraded from time to time, while retaining the ‘GeForce Power Pack’ moniker.
As a reminder, the pack focuses mostly on PhysX, so there are numerous tech demos to illustrate what the technology is capable of. Interestingly, this pack even includes items were were not originally told about, such as the Folding@Home client, which is a brand-new release, and also Badaboom, a video transcoder that utilizes the GPU with the help of CUDA, rather than the CPU.
Also new is the graphics driver, which is version 177.83. This is even newer than the driver we were given for our articles, but it seems the only difference is that this one is WHQL’d, so there will be no nag screens during the installation. This driver will automatically install the PhysX support, but can be turned off if so desired, post-install.
If you somehow still don’t know what PhysX is or what makes it worth your time, be sure to check out our article, which attempts to leave no question unanswered.
Starting today, any owner of a GeForce 8 Series or higher GPU can immediately discover the immersive playability that NVIDIA PhysX technology brings to PC gaming. This first of many planned “GeForce Power Packs” is a fascinating showcase of how PhysX technology is fundamentally changing video games and interactive entertainment.
AMD Strikes Back with their HD 4870 X2
For those of you who either stick to our news RSS or skip down the front page too fast, be sure not to skip over our look at AMD’s latest GPU offering. It not only becomes the fastest graphics card the world has ever seen, but it even greatly surpasses the previous champion, NVIDIA’s GTX 280, by a rather healthy margin in every-single game we tested.
The worst performance gain we saw was with our lone time demo, for Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, which was still a healthy 27% boost over the GTX 280. The DX 10-heavy Call of Juarez saw an even more healthy gain, of 77.8%. No need to wipe your eyes, I really said 77.8%.
The downsides are in the price, but given the performance boost over the GTX 280, it’s actually justified. It’s not often I’d ever say a $549 GPU could be justified, either, but this one can be. The card also happens to be a massive power-sucker, but that’s not much of a surprise given that two literal GPU cores are slammed onto the same PCB.
So if you are on the lookout for a new graphics card, or just want to make sure your drool mechanisms are all in check, read on.
Pricing-wise, the HD 4870 X2 costs $100 more than the GTX 280, and as I mentioned in the intro, that increase is actually justified, especially if you run ultra-high resolutions. That’s not to say that $550, or even $450 isn’t a lot of cash, but comparatively speaking, it’s actually well-priced. The current price for a single-GPU HD 4870 is around $270, so that makes the X2 cheaper than going the Crossfire route.
Source: Palit Radeon HD 4870 X2 1GB – AMD Reclaims GPU Supremacy
AMD to Bundle Blizzard Games with Radeon GPUs
For more proof that we will be unable to avoid seeing anything ‘World of Warcraft’ no matter where we go, look no further than the latest AMD / Blizzard joint press release. Their agreement outlines plans to allow AMD to bundle Blizzard games with their ATI graphics cards, although no exact titles are mentioned. It seems unlikely that it’d be WoW, given the already large player-base, but I wouldn’t rule it out yet.
Blizzard’s current arsenal of games, aside from WoW, in no way would push a new GPU anywhere near its limit, so this partnership intrigues me. Just what will be bundled? Looking into the future, games like Starcraft II and Diablo III could be bundled, just as ATI did with Half-Life 2 at that game’s launch.
We’ll have to wait and see, I guess. For those who are planning to make BlizzCon, you’ll see a whole lotta AMD there, who will be showing off their killer HD 4000-series line-up, hopefully with games that will actually push them a little bit…
AMD is committed to helping PC gamers around the world enjoy The Ultimate Visual Experience. The collaboration with Blizzard Entertainment underscores the mission of its recently announced AMD GAME! initiative, which is dedicated to providing consumers the information they need to help them better understand gaming technology and thus purchase the right systems and components they need to best meet their high-definition gaming needs.
‘Extreme’ Gamers Padding Industry’s Bottom-Line?
I’m sure we all have a certain ‘addiction’ that must be fed… something that forces us to open our wallets from time to time. With me, it’s music, and I usually purchase around ten CDs a month, but the great thing with those is I can usually get new CDs that are overstock for a great price, and even the brand-new releases tend to be priced-right. But even then, I know I’m not ‘extreme’. What if you were extreme though, and knew you were part of the 3% that pads the game industry’s bottom-line?
According to NPD Group’s research, extreme gamers are those who game it up for over 45 hours a week, and purchase a staggering 24 titles every three months! Let’s consider that each game at a minimum is $50… that’s $1,200 every three months, or $4,800 for the year. Sure, I’d consider that extreme, by all accounts.
In total, NPD says there are over 174 million gamers out there, so the 3% make up a mere 5.22 million of that. But how could they actually ‘pad’ an industry? Well, if you do the simple math and take $1,200 and multiply by the 3%, that’d be over $6.264 billion each quarter. If that’s at all accurate, then it’s one incredible statistic.
The NPD report identified seven different segments of gamers, including our extreme friends. The others include 9 percent who are “avid PC gamers,” 17 percent who are console gamers, 14 percent who are online PC gamers, 15 percent who are offline PC gamers, 22 percent who are “young heavy gamers” and 20 percent who are “secondary” gamers.
Dell Releases New Mobile Workstations
It looks like Dell’s catering to all you people who just “WANT MORE.” Today, Dell announced a trio of new notebooks that will push the envelope. The M6400 is Dell’s new 17″ concept notebook, which features 16GB RAM, 1TB of total storage, a dedicated graphics card with 1GB of video memory, and a 100% Adobe RGB color gamut display. Dell’s 15″ M4400 can use 8GB of RAM, and the smaller 14″ M2400 will weigh 4.77 pounds.
These notebooks make use of a “jog shuttle” to provide more accurate control of applications. Beyond that, we only know that these behemoths will debut in Fall of 2008. Until then, where does the line start?
We heard you. Welcome to our slick new concept for the ultimate Dell Precision mobile workstation, destined to be one of the first of its kind and the envy of all those who thought they had a powerful and cool notebook.
Console and PC Game Emulation Under Linux
Unless I’m blind, today might just be a slow news day. But that downside turned into an upside, as I came up with the most common-sense idea ever… linking to our old content! So from now on, if news is coming in slower than tar dripping from an Alaskan rooftop, we’ll pick some random interesting piece of content from over the 600 we have lingering around.
The first article to come to mind was posted just over a year ago, on May 28th. It targets Linux users, but for those Windows and OS X users interested in PC/console game emulation on your rig, then you can still gain some valuable information. I might be a huge fan of Linux, but I’m the first to admit that the gaming situation sucks, with Windows demanding all of the attention. Well, if you bring console or PC game emulation into the mix, things improve vastly!
In the article, I take a look at how to set your PC up for the NES, SNES, MSX, Playstation 1, Genesis, DOS and of course, the ultra-popular MAME. Other tasks delved into is properly installing a joystick and taking care of some dirty deeds that need to be tackled before something will work. If you already know how to install emulators on any OS out there, then perhaps our simple (though perhaps slightly outdated) list of many different emulators available will kick off some new interest.
It seems simple, but there is no doubt that the coders behind these emulators work long and hard to create a stable program. Emulators became popular in the late 90’s, but it was far from being just a fad. If there was a console that existed, there is a good chance that there is an emulator for it. To this day, many emulators are still in development, so they will not be going anywhere, anytime soon.
Source: Game Emulation in Linux