Have your say on Broadband December. 06, 2004 @ 08:52AM GMT +10

There is just one week left for you to take part in this year's Australian Broadband Survey. The survey is designed to capture your opinions on important issues like download limits, pricing, reliability of service and excess usage charges — there's absolutely none of those silly advertiser-driven questions to be found. We're going to use the results to build a picture of what the community thinks about broadband, what their experiences were, and what they want out of it in the future. The results of the survey will be released to all media organisations, so be sure to make your views heard — you have until next Sunday to participate! Thanks to Whirlpool for the article, head over there and make your views heard!

Posted by erock | top

VIA Vows to Bring More Advanced Audio December. 06, 2004 @ 07:19AM GMT +10

VIA Technologies announced licensing agreement with QSound under which the Taiwan-based chipset designer will be able to use audio capabilities developed by QSound in its VIA Vinyl Envy24 Audio Controllers. Under the agreement, VIA will bring together its Vinyl Audio Controllers with QSound’s audio enhancement technologies and audio-processing algorithms that delivers a ready to market solutions for VIA’s audio partners. The forthcoming audio solutions are expected to bring enhancements for games, music, and movies as well as advanced feature control that allows users to fully customize their audio experience. “We are very proud to be working with VIA, as we believe that this partnership will allow customers to truly experience the strengths of QSound’s audio technologies together with VIA’s acclaimed Audio Hardware portfolio,” commented David Gallagher, president, CEO, QSound Labs. Read more

Posted by BenSW | top

Firefox chooses Microsoft December. 06, 2004 @ 07:18AM GMT +10

MOZILLA'S FIREFOX is a capable web browser that looks and acts a lot like Microsoft's Internet Explorer on the surface. It's got a few quirks though. Like, sometimes when you type in a wrong URL, Firefox will have a stab at guessing which web page you really want and send you there instead. Interestingly, clicking on the URL http://http//www.campusplus.com/ suggested by our Adamson in his story about the Everywhere Girl took us directly to some place called www.microsoft.com. In fact any URL beginning with extra http:// at the front seems to take you to Microsoft's home page .

Posted by BenSW | top

More details of Tyan AMD Nvidia board em December. 06, 2004 @ 06:49AM GMT +10

THE INQUIRER has now seen the datasheet for the S2895 dual Opteron board, which has two PCI Express X16 slots supporting Nvidia's SLI technology. The board will be called the Thunder K8WEX and includes a number of features to attract enthusiasts as well as the workstation market it's being aimed at. According to reliable sources, other board manufacturers including MSI, Asus and others, are watching how well the Tyan offering does before deciding to make their own designs. Iwill is not letting the grass grow under its feet, however. Full story

Posted by BenSW | top

IBM discloses details of chip December. 06, 2004 @ 06:48AM GMT +10

When IBM gave a sneak peek at its new Cell microprocessor this week, it was short on specifics about what it calls a supercomputer on a chip. But details are leaking out thanks to a recent patent awarded to IBM and Big Blue's own disclosures for an upcoming conference. The Cell chips -- jointly created by IBM, Sony and Toshiba -- are expected to have a wide impact on everything from handheld computers to supercomputers. But the biggest potential use is for Sony's PlayStation 3 video-game console, which is expected to debut in 2006. Many analysts believe that if the Cell is successful, it will become the biggest threat to Intel's dominance of the chip industry. In a disclosure to the International Solid State Circuits Conference, IBM said it has made Cell chips that run at 4.6 gigahertz and operate at 1.3 volts. That speed is notable in part because Intel canceled its 4-gigahertz Pentium 4 chip this year. IBM earlier in the week would say only that a rack of Cell chips could compute 16 teraflops, or trillions of precision math operations, a second. The world's fastest supercomputer currently deployed in the commercial market is NEC's Earth Simulator, which computes 36 teraflops. Read more

Posted by BenSW | top

Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory Preview December. 06, 2004 @ 06:47AM GMT +10

1UP has a new Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory preview, checking out the game and talking to lead programmer Dany Lepage about AI, physics and other features of the game. Read it here Enjoy.

Posted by BenSW | top

Yet another HL2 stuttering fix December. 06, 2004 @ 06:44AM GMT +10

If youve tried all the tweaks out there designed to stop the sound stuttering problem in half life 2, but none work, heres another one worth trying, its worked for a lot of people and will hopefully work for you. Quote from Steam forums: ***Reducing the process priority of hl2.exe from “normal” to “low” in the Windows task manager.*** …don’t …ask …me …why. It just works for me. And at least one other forum visiter who has tried it. On a “playability” scale of 1-10, where before doing this would be about 5, changing this setting makes it around 9. The unbearable stuttering is now reduced to an occasional mere hiccup. I can wait no longer for a patch to enjoy this amazing game, so this will have to do for now.

Posted by BenSW | top

NVIDIA Windows Media Player 10 Skin December. 06, 2004 @ 06:36AM GMT +10

A new toy for NVIDIA fans everywhere, this custom skin features a sleek and ominous look, along with extended functionalities not available in most custom Windows Media Player 10 skins. Rip your CDs, search your Media Library, activate your playlists - all from within your NVIDIA skin! Download it here

Posted by BenSW | top

Forceware Extreme G 67.02 Final Drivers December. 05, 2004 @ 07:04PM GMT +10

Hi guys, im dont know if you have heard about these tweaked nvidia drivers but a tweaker called Daishi has released the FW 67.02 versions and they have proved to be a great success, i have been reading on Guru3d forums and these drivers are doing really well compared to the NGO,Prometheus Omega tweaked drivers, there are some results below from a user on http://www.valancestudios.com/ Forums. I have tried them myself and I find they have great IQ, so you guys should give them a try! I have posted a thread about these drivers here! Download >>HERE!<< 3dmark05 : 66.93 whql : 5226 --------- : SpiritFury 67.02 : 5196 --------- : G final : 5320 Cs:s 1024x768 4x/4x/Max : 66.93 whql : 132 Fps ------------------------ : SpiritFury : 148 (but many flutter) Confused ------------------------ : G Final : 163

Posted by S.T.x | top

EA shows what could be next December. 05, 2004 @ 12:23PM GMT +10

lectronic Arts has grown to the point where it's no longer just the biggest player in the games industry. It's now a major figure in the entertainment and technology markets at large, lending weight to the opinions and predictions of its top executives. Most recent, chief financial officer Warren Jenson held forth at the Credit-Suisse First Boston Technology Conference, where he discussed EA's prospects in the ongoing holiday season and its plans for the next few years. Jenson kicked off the presentation with a brief tease of what EA might be able to produce with the technology offered by Sony and Microsoft's next consoles. "Imagine that the characters in a football will be capable of showing real emotion," he said, among other possibilities. "That's what's going to be possible with the next generation of technology."..... Click here for the full story including pictures of what the next generation of the madden and need for speed series games could become.

Posted by BenSW | top

Doom Movie Update December. 05, 2004 @ 08:36AM GMT +10

Dark Horizons has posted some updated information concerning the Doom 3 movie. There is a translated summary of a story a Czech reporter has written when he visited the Doom 3 movie set in Prague. The story outlines the differant aspects of the movie which will diverge from the game's story. Here's a snip: The story follows eight marines, teleported into a command centre of a secret base on a remote planet. There, they learn that something strange is happening and soon monsters start to appear. The monsters aren't from hell, but rather people mutated by some nasty super-virus although the monsters look very similar to those in the game. ...Producers claim that the film will be more of a horror than an action shooter. There will be loads of shooting though, especially in the end where a large number of sequences will be shot purely in "first-person" perspective of the leading character (Karl Urban). The chainsaw and Bio Force Gun do appear in the film.

Posted by BenSW | top

Driver Updates December. 05, 2004 @ 08:22AM GMT +10

Here are the latest drivers: Radeon Omega Drivers v Beta) # based on the Catalyst 4.12 Beta drivers. # New Radlinker installation method, now it should install correctly every time. # Fixed gamma issues with color control panel. # WMV acceleration is now off by default, you can turn it on in the Options panel. # New quick shortcut for Radlinker, just right click your desktop and go directly to all the Advanced 3D settings. # Fixed Standby/Suspend/Hibernation bug. # Added a lot of new resolutions for wide screen monitor/dfp users. # Fixed the Forced Anisotropic settings, now they should not reset to Performance mode. # Removed the special Counter StrikeL from the package, now that CS:S is available, this is no longer necessary. # Fixed some uninstall issues, now the drivers should completely be removed if you select to do so. Beta Forceware 67.03 released The issues that some users have reported seeing when using the GeForce 6600 GT AGP are due to a driver bug which causes 3D corruption when this GPU is used with certain motherboards, most notably SIS motherboards. The fix is included in this release. ForceWare 66.96 64-bit Drivers This is a beta package of ForceWare drivers is for use with Microsoft Windows XP 64-bit Edition for Extended Systems build 1069 or later. TCTools: ATI Optimized driver 1.8 Main features: * Based on Catalyst Beta 4.12b2 * Added ATI Catalyst Control Center (Optional) * Added Softmods! * TwoL drivers for your selection * Added ATITool to the package * AddedL driver switcher

Posted by BenSW | top

ATI has a big problem December. 04, 2004 @ 09:15PM GMT +10

ATI HAS A PROBLEM WITH USB on the newest Radeon Xpress 200 chipsets. If you look at the Tech Report report on the new chipset, specifically page 17 here, you will see that the USB performance isn't exactly stunning. What we were hearing is that chipset has USB issues, but technically meets the spec. There is a re-spin coming in Q1, but ATI declined to be more specific than that. While they would not say what is being reworked, the south bridge is the obvious target for their affections. A few mobo makers we talked to said they didn't plan to put out boards before the respin, so if you are pining for a Radeon Xpress for the non-political merry winter gift-gibing festivities, you might have to wait a bit. I would expect new rev boards to be on the shelf by late Q1. www.theinquirer.net

Posted by BenSW | top

New system optimization guide December. 04, 2004 @ 07:32PM GMT +10

I have posted a new guide to full system optimization and benchmarking in the AusFX forums. It is made to help you tweak your system, to achieve the highest possible benchmark scores. It covers all aspects of system optimization including tweaking necessary settings in microsoft windows, the bios, system drivers and settings, and optimizing graphics card settings. You can view the guide here. Hopefully this guide should help a lot of people get started. Enjoy

Posted by BenSW | top

Latest hardware reviews December. 04, 2004 @ 08:50AM GMT +10

Memory: Corsair XMS 3200 XL Pro Corsair TwinX1024 3200XLPRO Mushkin 1Gb P2c4200 DDR2 dual memory Video cards: Gigabyte Radeon X800XT Platinum Ed Radeon X700PRO vs. GeForce 6600GT ASUS Extreme AX700Pro 256mb Storage: Mega Roundup 4: 16 Hard Disk Drives with 200GB+ Storage Capacity Ultra Portable HDD Enclosure 2.5"

Posted by BenSW | top