- 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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HIS Radeon X850 XT IceQ II iTurbo Review
The first thing that immediately stands out is the massive cooling solution on HighTech’s Radeon X850 XT iTurbo. The cooler is a familiar design, in that we’ve seen it many times before on previous HighTech cards. It is based on Arctic Cooling’s Arctic Silencer series of coolers, and it is in fact the ATI Silencer 5 cooler with slightly different aesthetics, in the form of a blue UV reactive fan and a UV reactive duct, allowing it to glow a nice ice blue under UV light.
Head over to Bit-Tech for the full review.
SpeedFan 4.25 Beta 9
SpeedFan is a freeware program that monitors fan speeds, temperatures and voltages in computers with hardware monitoring chips. SpeedFan can even access S.M.A.R.T. info for those hards disks that support this feature (almost all :-)) and show hard disk temperatures too, if supported.
You can download the latest version over at Major Geeks.
Forceware 80.40 Beta Drivers
A new Forceware set has been released, dated the 13th.
• nv4_disp lists – DriverVer = 06/13/2005 ; Changelist 1300631
• Adds H.264 hardware decode support for the 7800 series
• Drivers come with a setup.exe for easy installing
• GeForce 2 and up are supported in this release
• Files are dated: June 13th, 2005
I can’t help but notice a mention of a G72 in the nv4_disp.inf file. Download it over at NGOHQ.
Apple Sees One Million Podcast Subscriptions Happen
There’s little doubt the medium has its appeal. Apple has announced its iTunes Music Store has more than one million subscriptions for the 3,000 podcasts it has made freely available there.
“With the release of iTunes 4.9, listeners are voting with their ears,” said Adam Curry, co-founder of the PodShow Podcast Network. “Subscriptions have dramatically increased across our entire PodShow Podcast Network, and I predict over the coming months that iTunes will introduce tens of millions of new listeners to the world of Podcasting.”
Wow, one million subscribers sure didn’t take long. Smart move by Apple. Check out more info here.
Opera wins Motorola deal
Norwegian web browser firm Opera Software completed a highly successful week with a three-year deal with Motorola mobile phones.
The contract is an expansion of an existing deal Opera has with the American mobile giant and entails the Norwegian web browser being available on all operating systems used on Motorola phones.
This is a great win for Opera! Check out the news posting here.
Albatron PC6800 – Wise Fan III + Heat Pipe review
Speaking about ‘the pipes’; as many of you say, the “Eehw it only has 12 pixel pipes” factor, the standard GeForce 6800 offers an excellent gaming experience and it should since it is still in that high-end class, but for a far better price. This little gem here will cost you just 250 EUR which is an awesome price, versus performance versus original cooling versus what not. The one bummer has to be is the software-bundle though, but hey. Less games included in the end will save you money. On the other side, you do receive the component HDTV connector and a plethora of other cables.
Now this card has a very unique cooler. I’ve never seen one quite like it actually. How well does the card itself perform? Check out the review over at Guru3D.
Battle of AMD64 PCI-Express Chipsets
Today 3DXtreme has the pleasure of having a look at two motherboards based on competing chipsets for the AMD64 platform. The Chaintech VNF4 Ultra being based on the Nvidia nForce4 Ultra chipset and the Albatron K8X890 ProII based on the VIA K8T890 chipset. They both sport PCI-Express and a number of features. But the real question is whether they perform equally and if they will let us overclock. Let’s take a closer look…
Check out the full article at 3D Xtreme.
Intel Pentium Extreme Edition 840 Review
In a multithreaded environment, the CPU demonstrated some excellent performance, besting the 3.73 Extreme Edition which has a 266FSB and over 500MHz clock speed advantage. Image and video editing are really the 840’s forté as we’ve seen results that are truly amazing. We didn’t publish the results, but DVD Shrink was remarkably quicker with the Extreme Edition 840, taking half the time the 3.73 XE did to shrink Revolutions, and this was during our multitasking tests.
If you want Dual Core and it has to be Intel, check out thisreview. For a $1,000 CPU, I’d rather go with an X2, especially since the 840 EE runs very hot.
Raidmax X-1 Case w/ 450W Power Supply Video Review
This case has great looks, lots of features & a 450 watt PSU. There are plenty of drive bays; 5×5.25″, 2×3.5″ (Ext.), 3×3.5″ (Int.). Case air circulation is good with the included 120mm & 80mm fans. An optional recommended 80/90/120mm fan can be installed at the front for additional cooling. It’s also available in a number of different colors. Watch the Video to find out more…
For a well priced case, this one seems to have a lot of great features. Check out the full video review at 3D Gameman.
What do you look for most in a mouse pad?
Our June 2005 contest is now over, thanks to everyone who had entered. Of all the submissions, we’ve randomly selected some of these entries to publish. Check out this article to see what other gamers like you look for in a mousing surface.
Check out the full article at Phoronix!
Exclusive ABIT Fatal1ty X800 XL 512MB Details
This document makes claims regarding the benefits of the ABIT Fatal1ty X800 XL 512MB’s unique copper VPU cooler, its ‘vGuru XTurbo mode’ which in conjunction with an external switch seems to allow dynamic changes to its BIOS Clock settings and on the fly voltage increases (!) plus statements as to the performance increases through overclocking.
I like where ABIT is going with this! Imagine, clicking a button effectively overclock your GPU. Check out the full article at Hexus.
asetek DYO CPU Cooler Antarctica CPU Cooler 1/2″ Review
I tested the asetek WaterChill KT12AT-L30 a few weeks back and now i have the chance to give the asetek Antarctica CPU waterblock a try. I expanded the testlab with a AMD system as well so that i can cover all AMD products as well as Intel. Installing the Antarctica is a breeze, testing it left me amazed. One thing to note though, at time of testting we had a heatwave (35 degrees celcius outside) here in The Netherlands wich in which i had to test the Antarctica in ambient (room) tempertures of about 29 degrees, trust me the Antarctica clearly lives up to its name ;-)
This is a great looking waterblock, but how well does it perform? Check out all the details at HardwareXL.
Mushkin HP3200 Redline PC3200 DDR Memory Review
The system hit another snag at 244 MHz, this time we had to give the memory a big voltage increase, all the way up to 3.2V. That did not just fix the problem it also allowed the memory to crack the 250 MHz barrier, with 2-2-2-5 memory timings, which is not bad at all! With 3.2V the memory went as high as 257 MHz before I started to experience stability issues again; the fix was simple though, I just raised the voltage further. ;-)
You can check out the full review over at PC Stats!
Half-Life 2 – Aftermath Q&A
If you played Half-Life 2, last year’s blockbuster first-person shooter, then you know that the game ended in a cliff-hanger that left more questions than answers. The good news is that Valve is in the final stages of prepping Half-Life 2: Aftermath, the first expansion for Half-Life 2, due out later this…..
Serious Sam 2 – Dev Diary
When we set out to create Serious Sam II, we realized it would be really hard, impossible even, to connect our engine to any of the existing level editors available on the market. Since our engine uses so many advanced technologies that aren’t in other games and editors, we had to custom…..
Interview with Richard Garriott at C&VG
The games industry is a hell of a place to grow up. Especially when the game you originally conceived out of your high school Dungeons & Dragons adventures becomes one of the most successful (offline and on) role-playing franchises of all time with the Ultima sries of games. You get your own…..
Predictions Point to PS3 Creating Losses
For the unaware, analysts have predicted the PS3 price tag to be around $399US. If this pulls through, will Sony lose $100 with each console sold?
Citing a prediction made by Merrill Lynch Japan Securities, the PS3 will cost about $494 per unit, while the system will be sold for $399. Merrill Lynch Japan says that the main the Cell chip, RSX and BD-ROM drive — the main components of the machine — will cost approximately $100. The rest of the machines components will take up the remainder of the cost.
Of course, more times than not, console makers lose money on their consoles to keep them cheap. Then they jack the prices of peripherals! Check out the article over at Gamespy.
c|net Celebrates 10 Years
Seems like only yesterday you could “share” unlimited songs with your friends on Napster. Do you remember the innocent days before “google” was used as a verb, spyware and adware didn’t turn your processor into molasses, and the Y2K bug was actually scary? Time flies in the world of tech, and nobody knows that better than News.com. They’ve chronicled it all, from the bubble to the bust, the Newton to the iPod, Netscape to Firefox. Take a walk down memory lane with us as we highlight the top tech news stories of the past decade.
Ahh, ye old days. Actually, I’m surprised that Napster happened in 2000.. it felt like it had happened earlier. For a cool trip down memory lane, check out the article here. Happy anniversary to c|net!
NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GTX Review
Due to the fact that NVIDIA was fashionably late with sending us a GeForce 7800 GTX we’re not going to bother with running the same set of benchmarks all other online publications have already done. And to be honest, even if we’d had gotten a sample in time we’d probably have taken a different approach anyway, as we usually do. The majority of these publications use a system that’s outfitted with parts that you won’t find in any run-of-the-mill PC anyway, for example FX-series AMD Athlon 64 processors and the fastest memory available. We won’t be using any of that in this particular article as we realize that most of you are not running top-of-the-line parts but rather a mid-range configuration. What we set out to do here is to give you a few ballpark figures on how the GeForce 7800 GTX performs in a mid-range configuration.
Check out the full review at Hardware Analysis.
AeroCool Turbine Power 450W Review
It seems that nothing can get us back to the bland grey and simple power supply units of ages past. The presence of such a power supply unit seems intolerable to most enthusiasts in this day and age. Most have already been replaced by more powerful and much more aesthetically pleasant units. Furthermore, what seemed to be an innovative thought not even a year ago, the modular type power supply unit appears to be taking the market by storm. Almost every power supply manufacturer and company has such a model amongst their ranks now. AeroCool, the famous manufacturer of enthusiast hardware is among those manufacturing modular power supplies. The Turbine series of power supply units was released a while ago, boasting excellent appearance, modular design and exceptional performance all in oÂne. Today I have a Turbine Power 450W unit for evaluation, so we will shortly know if it stands up to the quality AeroCool is usually known for.
Check out the full review over at Xtreme Resources.
Google Earth’s downloads halted
As we mentioned the other day, Google recently released their Google Earth program, a 3D Earth simulation. The program in some instances, allows you to get so close to some cities, that you can see cars and people. Though it just came out, it’s already one of my favorite software releases of the year. Well, since the launch, they have halted the downloads temporarily.
Thanks for your interest in Google Earth, but we’re sorry we can’t offer you a download right now. As you know, Google Earth is in beta, and we’re still building out our ability to take on new users. We’re making good progress, and expect to be able to accept new downloads shortly, so we recommend you check back daily at earth.google.com. We hope to be able to welcome you and other new planet surfers soon.
So don’t fret, it will be back online. Chances are, if it becomes really popular, it will slow the servers down to the point of it not being such a fun program to use. But we’ll see.
ATI’s Next Three Months Of Catalyst
In the time before the Radeon, ATI’s drivers were notoriously bad. ATI knew that, in order to compete in the high end consumer space with NVIDIA, their driver would need to be easy to use, intuitive, and stable. Thus, the CATALYST program was born.
For the past few years, we have seen ATI’s drivers grow in stability and performance. Features have been added that have continued to push the envelope of driver development. Features such as Overdrive (automatic overclocking) and VPU Recovery (soft reset to avoid system crashes) have been added and last year, ATI pushed forward with their Catalyst Control Center user interface redesign.
There’s a lot of good information here about the future of the Catalyst. Check it out at AnandTech.
AMD Japan files suit against Intel Japan
TOKYO (Reuters) – Advanced Micro Devices Inc. said on Thursday it had filed two suits against Intel Corp. in Japan, seeking $55 million in damages from the world’s largest chip maker for alleged violations of the country’s antitrust laws.
The suits, filed at two courts in Tokyo, are the latest shot in a two-decade battle between Intel and AMD, which has accused its larger rival of using everything from threats to kickbacks in illegally building the world’s top computer-chip business.
That’s a lot of money, but if guilty, it will be a small price to pay for Intel. Check out the news posting here.
Intel Dothan Overclocking
What’s the big deal of overclocking a Dothan? Using Dry Ice to do it, of course.
Since I published the “How to Dry Ice cool your PC†I’ve been hard at work improving the design of the container and isolation techniques.
Not so long ago one of my fellow Madshrimps published an A64 overclocking article by using Dry Ice here. Today I tackle a Dothan (Pentium M) system in search for a 100% overclock!
The Dothan CPU is meant for the laptops out there but a smart device made by Asus allows you to plug this CPU into a full sized ATX desktop board. The CT-479 adapter might well be the overclocker’s dream come true.
Check out the full article at MadShrimps.
ASUS P5WD2 Premium Review
ASUS remains a solid industry leader, with their well established brand name and heavy enthusiast focus. They continue to deliver high quality and high performance solutions to cater to the dynamic and demanding enthusiast crowd. Their latest product remains true to this, with a feature packed and innovative yet stable motherboard solution.
Check out the full review over at Hard|OCP.