Most Wanted Games of 2005

Since this is the start of a new year, GameSpy has slapped up a 'Most Wanted Games of 2005' article. There are definatly some good titles coming out this year. So who made their list? You will just have to head over and take a look for yourself! Most Wanted Games of 2005

Posted January. 20, 2005 @ 06:44AM GMT +10 by BenSW | top

HP's AMD SLI workstation specs emer

SOURCES CLAIMED HP will release the Opteron based xw9300 workstation which incorporates Nvidia SLI technology in mid-February. The processor options are for a 252 or 248 Opteron, using 1GHz/800MHz hypertransport technology, in a mini tower configuration. The machine will support five HDD, come equipped with a 750W power supply unit, have two PCIe 16X slots, one PCI 1X, one PCI-X 133, and two PCI-X 100 slots. Read more

Posted January. 20, 2005 @ 06:41AM GMT +10 by BenSW | top

Age of Empires 3 to support SM 3.0

THE NEXT version of acclaimed strategy title Age of Empires will have full Direct X 9 functionality and will support Shader Model 3.0. The series, developed by Ensemble Studios and published by Microsoft Game Studios, is one of the most-loved Real Time Strategy series' currently available. According to an interview at IGN, the latest title will have some graphical features pioneered in the latest generation of first person shooters. Read more

Posted January. 20, 2005 @ 06:40AM GMT +10 by BenSW | top

Xbox 2 to come late this year

A LEAKED press release from industry Dahlings and would-be world-dominators Electronic Arts has let slip that Xbox 2 will be hitting late this year, just in time for the next versions of Burnout and Need For Speed. According to a filing at SPOnG, the next version of Need For Speed - subtitled Most Wanted - will be making its way onto Xbox, PS2, GameCube, PC, PSP, Nintendo DS and willl have a "...simultaneous ship with the Xbox2 platform." The time frame certainly makes sense - we're all expecting Gates' next wonderbox before the end of this year, and the massive Q4 success of Burnout 3 would put it on track for a sequel same time, same place. Read more

Posted January. 20, 2005 @ 06:39AM GMT +10 by BenSW | top

CES Interview: NVIDIA and Sony

Xbit-Labs has posted an interview they had with NVIDIA regarding working with Sony for PS3: We would like to offer you an interview with NVIDIA’s Vice President of Corporate Marketing, David Roman, who kindly agreed to answer a few questions about the cooperation with Sony and about the situation with Playstation 3 related projects. Check it out here

Posted January. 19, 2005 @ 10:21PM GMT +10 by erock | top

Athlon 64 Overclocking

Auphan Online has a review talking about overclocking the Althlon 64. For this review, I will be overclocking an Athlon 64 2800+ and will be focusing on bus manipulation more than anything else. These chips are multiplier locked upwards. This basically means, in the case of this chip, that I am limited to 9xHTT and downward. Check it

Posted January. 19, 2005 @ 10:18PM GMT +10 by erock | top

Wednesday Video Card Reviews

Albatron GeForce 6600 GT PCIe review by Bytesector ATi All-In-Wonder Radeon X600 Pro review by DesignTechnica PowerColor Radeon X800 XL review by FiringSquad HIS Radeon X700 Pro review by Gamers-Depot Radeon X800 roundup by HardOCP Leadtek Radeon 6600 GT 128MB AGP review by NGE ATI Catalyst 5.1 Comparison by Tweak Town Catalyst 5.1 Comparison by Hexus

Posted January. 19, 2005 @ 10:11PM GMT +10 by erock | top

Morphing nForce4 Ultra into nForce4 SLI

Want to turn your nForce4 Ultra into a nForce4 SLI? You do, Then head this way to AnandTech If you have been following the news, some very strange things are going on with the nVidia nForce4 chipsets. About six weeks ago, MSI showed an nForce4 ULTRA motherboard with a regular x16 PCIe slot, plus anended x4 PCIe slot. Those who saw the demos said that MSI was running two matched video cards in what they called a "semi-SLI mode", which ran at about 90% of the performance of normal nVidia SLI. It was with this idea that we took a closer look into the possibilities, and what we found will surprise you! It turns out that the nForce4 Ultra is apparently just an nForce4 SLI with SLI turned off. What is even more important is that we also found a way to turn on the disabled SLI! Morphing nForce4 Ultra into nForce4 SLI

Posted January. 19, 2005 @ 06:20AM GMT +10 by BenSW | top

MyDoom Virus Returns

A new version of MyDoom discovered at the weekend appears months after the last iteration of the long-running series of worms. MyDoom-AI (alias MyDoom-AE) normally spreads by emails with some featuring sexually explicit images. It claims attachments contains passwords for adult websites. In fact, they contain malicious code that disables security software and turns PCs into drones for zombie attack networks. Its spread so far is limited but a fresh variant of MyDoom three months after the last batch is bad news. November's infamous Bofra worm was initially classified as a variant of MyDoom, but even excluding this more than 30 variants of the worm have been created since its debut in January 2004. Read more

Posted January. 19, 2005 @ 06:18AM GMT +10 by BenSW | top

AMD to upgrade memory controller

ONE MORE BIT ABOUT AMD and memory to expand on yesterday's DDR2 story. One of the biggest updates to the E0 step Athlon64s that will be announced soon is the memory controller. The new parts support double sided DIMMs in all slots at DDR-400. Previously you had to drop to DDR-333 or take your chances. Now it should just work. It will probably also be faster, but I have yet to see numbers. For those out of the loop, E0 will also bring massive power savings due to the IBM strained silicon process along with SSE3. If AMD ever gets around to announcing them, they will be a very good thing.

Posted January. 19, 2005 @ 06:17AM GMT +10 by BenSW | top

Dual core Intel chips like Bunsen burner

TOM'S HARDWARE Guide claims it's seen internal Intel documents that show Intel Smithfield dual core chips have a thermal design rated at 130 watts. That's 13 per cent more than Intel's current 5xx Prescott range, claims The Pabster. Supply current, said the site, will go from 119 amps to 125 amps, while the processors will consume more power than an Itanium 2, which eats up 122 watts. The site claims that the Pentium 4 560, a 3.6GHz which eats 115 watts, runs at the thermal limits, and it's obvious that Smithfields will need even more cooling. You can find the article here.

Posted January. 19, 2005 @ 06:16AM GMT +10 by BenSW | top

Sapphire begins shipments of ATI X850s

ATI Technologies’ add-in-card partner Sapphire has begun shipments of graphics cards powered by ATI’s latest visual processing units – ATI RADEON X850 XT Platinum Edition. The products are currently available in Tokyo, Japan, as well as in a number of online stores in the USA. European availability is unclear. The latest ATI RADEON X850 XT Platinum Edition graphics processors and cards on their base are presently positioned as top offerings from ATI Technologies and its add-in-card partners. The RADEON X850 XT Platinum Edition visual processing unit has 16 pixel pipelines and 6 vertex pipelines and is clocked at 540MHz, typically graphics cards are equipped with 256MB of GDDR3 memory with 256-bit interface and 1180MHz memory bus. Other recently unveiled RADEON X8-series visual processing units are expected to have 6 or 12 pixel and 6 vertex pipelines, feature 256-bit memory interface; the products will be available for PCI Express x16 interconnection only... Read More @ Xbit-Labs

Posted January. 18, 2005 @ 11:13PM GMT +10 by erock | top

2.13GHz Pentium M 770 arrives

Pentium M 770 processors have begun to appear in Tokyo shops today, ahead of tomorrow's formal launch of the 533MHz frontside bus-supporting chips. [i]The PM 770 is clocked at 2.13GHz, Intel's fastest 'Dothan' chip yet. Like the previous top-of-the-range model, the 765, it contains 2MB of on-die L2 cache. The Socket 479 part is intended to work with Intel's 915PM or 915GM chipsets, both members of the 'Alviso' family - the mobile equivalent of its 'Grantsdale' desktop chipset range.[i] Read More @ The Register

Posted January. 18, 2005 @ 11:10PM GMT +10 by erock | top

ATI to launch R481 soon

ATI decided to make one more AGP high end chip. We were surprised when we saw a R481 chip listed but it hasn't taken us long to find out more about it. R481 is a R480, for the Radeon X850 with an AGP interface. ATI won't bridge this chipm it will make it nativem as ATI decided to do native chips as long as it makes sense to do so. We heard this from the ATI CEO back at Computex 2004. ATI learned that yields on R480, X850 PCIe are much better than on the R420 or R423 chips and decided to make one more AGP part based on R480 marchitecture. ATI had to do two tape outs, one for the already shinily shipping R480 and one for the soon to be shipped R481, as they are different chips. Not too much different, but one chip is native PCIe while the other is native AGP. The rest is similar. Read More

Posted January. 18, 2005 @ 11:09PM GMT +10 by erock | top

Counter-Strike: Source Update Released

A Counter-Strike: Source update is available and will be applied automatically when Steam is restarted. The changes include: Counter-Strike: Source * Added Counter-Strike bots. For a more detailed description, click here * Added new bomb defusal map de_tides * Updated version of de_cbble to allow bots to navigate ladders * Updated version of cs_office. Fixes minor issue with projector * Updated version of de_dust2 to allow 40 players * Optimization to the way that dynamic props are checked. On higher end CPUs, this can result in more than a 5% total frame rate increase * Fixed bug where players would get twice the normal money at the start of a round * Weapon models are now checked at startup to make sure they are within limits for size * Fixed a bug that would allow a player to throw two flashbangs at once * Added “motdfile” cvar, which sets the filename for the message of the day on the server * Fixed logic that will automatically kick players for killing hostage or being idle for a long time Source: Steampowered

Posted January. 18, 2005 @ 02:33PM GMT +10 by Cyclone | top

ATI Radeon X800 Series Roundup

HardOCP compares seven X800 based cards in their latest review: Today we have an even larger roundup of retail ATI Radeon X800 series-based video cards, seven in all, covering the PCI-Express and AGP platforms. We have three PCI-Express video cards: a Sapphire X800 XT, an MSI X800 XT, and topping it off, an Asus X800 XT Platinum Edition. On the AGP side, we have an X800 XT and an X800 XT PE from VisionTek, an X800 Pro from MSI, and Sapphire’s Toxic series X800 Pro double slot video card. Check it out

Posted January. 18, 2005 @ 01:45PM GMT +10 by erock | top

Tuesday Morning Video Card Reviews

Sapphire Radeon X800 256MB review by Beyond3D Albatron GeForce 6600 GT review by Bytesector Asus GeForce 6800 Ultra PCIe review by GamePC Sapphire Radeon X800 XT AGP review by SharkyExtreme ATi Radeon X800 Pro review by Viperlair

Posted January. 18, 2005 @ 10:25AM GMT +10 by erock | top

Scriptomatic 2.0

A completely new version of the famous Scriptomatic, the utility that writes WMI scripts for you. (And, in the process, teaches you the fundamental concepts behind writing WMI scripts for yourself.) Unlike its predecessor, Scriptomatic 2.0 isn’t limited to writing just VBScript scripts; instead, Scriptomatic 2.0 can write scripts in Perl, Python, or JScript as well. Source: Warp2Search

Posted January. 18, 2005 @ 10:13AM GMT +10 by BenSW | top

ATI Catalyst 5.1

Ati has just released its newest set of drivers, the Catalyst 5.1's. Details: ·Second head in Dual Head system is no longer corrupt during login screen. ·Display corruption is no longer seen when switching between X-Windows and the Linux text console, and back to X-Windows. ·Video playback in Dual Head mode no longer results in an error message being displayed, or the player failing to start. ·PCI-Express systems no longer hang after running 3D Applications for long periods. ·3D Applications no longer hang on RHEL 3.0 with 1GB or more memory installed. Catalyst 5.1 without CCC Catalyst 5.1 with CCC Give your comments and feedback on these new drivers here in our forums.

Posted January. 18, 2005 @ 10:11AM GMT +10 by BenSW | top

MP3 Goes Multichannel

The file format that inspired millions of downloads hopes to inspire music fans to do something else: buy more speakers. Now officially released by the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS and Thomson, coinventors of the MP3 format, the new MP3 Surround supports 5.1 multichannel sound. Read More @ PCmag

Posted January. 17, 2005 @ 10:17PM GMT +10 by erock | top

10GIG online storage for free?

A company called Streamload is offering consumers a free 10 gigabyte online storage locker for multimedia files, potentially raising the stakes for larger companies such as Yahoo and America Online. Read more @ CNET

Posted January. 17, 2005 @ 10:16PM GMT +10 by erock | top

AMD holds off on DDR-2 support

AMD has been rumoured to be coming out with DDR2 in Q2, and documents floating around the i915/925 launch said as much. AMD basically said 'we could do it now, but why', and followed it up with numbers proving that it made little sense until DDR2-667 hit. Well, as they say about the best laid plans, it isn't going to happen this year. AMD backpedalled on DDR2 support, and will hold off until Socket 1207 hits in 2006. One person at CES was quoted as saying 'no way, no how', and that is about all there is to say. Read More

Posted January. 17, 2005 @ 10:08PM GMT +10 by erock | top

Internet2 Consortium sets new speed

The Internet2 consortium announced that a research team based at the University of Tokyo set a new IPv4 transmission speed record in November. The team successfully sent a multiple stream data transmission with a transfer rate of 7.21 gigabits per second over a distance of 20,645 kilometers " more than half the circumference of the earth. The Internet2 land speed record measures the data transfer rate by the distance traveled. The Tokyo team, which includes members from Fujitsu Computer Technologies and the Widely Integrated Distributed Environment Project, surpassed the previous record, set by a joint SUNET-Sprint team, by more than 20%. University of Tokyo professor Kei Hiraki said that, despite his team's impressive results, new technologies haved the way to even higher network speeds. "The record demonstrates that the data transfer bottleneck is no longer at the network layer," he said in a statement. "As I/O technology evolves, the data transfer possibilities may be endless." Read More

Posted January. 17, 2005 @ 10:05PM GMT +10 by erock | top

Computer Hardware Buying Guide

In this guide we will be going over different computer components for different price brackets as well as peripherals and other wonderful products. Daily I run across questions posed in forums around the net asking what they should get. What's the best for the money? What's better, this video card or that one? AMD or Intel? In this guide we will answer all of that and more, and hopefully we can cause all of you AMD, Intel, ATI and Nvidia fanboys to see the pros and cons or all the opponents. This guide will be offered in 3 parts, first part will be the AMD systems, second the Intel systems, and third all your peripheral needs! Read the guide @ Comp-Reviews

Posted January. 17, 2005 @ 05:58PM GMT +10 by erock | top

Anti P2P software developed

A US p2p monitoring group reckons that it has come up with software that can identify and trace file-traders. BayTSP uses a technique called software "spidering" to determine which user first uploaded a particular file for trading. The software, called FirstSource, sends out multiple requests for a file extremely quickly. It deduces the original file sharer by assuming that only they will have the full file, having uploaded the original. Once the file is confirmed to be the content in question, Bay TSP monitors individuals who download from the initial source, reports the original source to the music industry who can release the legal hounds. BayTSP thinks that the software solves the problem on tracking the pirates on file-sharing networks of finding out who posts the original files. There might be tens of thousands of copies available for download, but all of them likely originated from a handful of sources. Read More @ The Inquirer

Posted January. 17, 2005 @ 05:34PM GMT +10 by erock | top

Google GMail Drive 1.05

GMail Drive is a Shell Namespace Extension that creates a virtual filesystem around your Google GMail account, allowing you to use GMail as a storage medium. GMail Drive creates a virtual filesystem on top of your Google GMail account and enables you to save and retrieve files stored on your GMail account directly from inside Windows Explorer. GMail Drive literally adds a new drive to your computer under the My Computer folder, where you can create new folders, copy and drag'n'drop files to. When you create a new file using GMail Drive, it generates an e-mail and posts it to your account. The e-mail appears in your normal Inbox folder, and the file is attached as an e-mail attachment. GMail Drive periodically checks your mail account (using the GMail search function) to see if new files have arrived and to rebuild the directory structures. But basically GMail Drive acts as any other hard-drive installed on your computer. You can copy files to and from the GMail Drive folder simply by using drag'n'drop like you're used to with the normal Explorer folders. Download GMail Drive 1.05 here

Posted January. 17, 2005 @ 11:40AM GMT +10 by BenSW | top

Dual-Layer Standard May Disappear Soon

ual-Layered (DL) DVD writers are still a bit expensive, but the question of concern is the media prices. The price per DL media averages out to $10.00, which is shockingly high. We talked to manufacturers at this year’s CES about prices and what they thought about DL media in general. The replies we received were far from positive and disappointing. According to a few blank media providers, DL standard may not have a bright future ahead of it. The reason is the upcoming Blu-Ray and HD DVD standards that are supported by world’s top most corporations. Read more

Posted January. 17, 2005 @ 11:38AM GMT +10 by BenSW | top

Sunday Video Card Reviews

Video Card roundup by 3DProfessor nVidia GeForce 6200 TC review by Digit-Life CP4U GeForce 6800 LE AGP review by HardwareCenter Albatron GeForce 6600 GT AGP review by OverclockerCafe Albatron GeForce 6600 GT AGP review by PCStats

Posted January. 16, 2005 @ 02:24PM GMT +10 by erock | top

Thunderbird turns 2 Million

Thunderbird, an alternative email client has turned over 2 Million downloads in its first month! Goes to show that many people are willing to try somthing other then outlook. Give it a go!

Posted January. 16, 2005 @ 08:29AM GMT +10 by erock | top

Elvis's MAME Cabinet

How about this for a PC modification, a MAME Cabinet! It uses a PC to play old skool games. Check it out here

Posted January. 16, 2005 @ 08:22AM GMT +10 by erock | top

NVIDIA Forceware 71.40 drivers out

And another new Forceware driver in the shape of version 71.40 has hit the internet. This driver works for all NVIDIA videocards including the mobile series and works under Windows 2000 and XP. Download: NVIDIA Forceware 71.40 - TCMagazine Leave your comments and opinions in our forums here.

Posted January. 16, 2005 @ 08:16AM GMT +10 by BenSW | top

IE - Unsecure again!... or still?

A computer security researcher and an antivirus company are warning Microsoft Corp. customers about an unpatched hole in the company's Internet Explorer Web browser that could allow a remote attacker to bypass security warnings and download malicious content onto vulnerable systems. Read more

Posted January. 16, 2005 @ 08:10AM GMT +10 by BenSW | top

Novell offers free SuSE 9.2 download

SOFTWARE FIRM Novell said it is making SuSE Linux Professional 9.2 available as a free download. Novell said the version differs from the LiveDVD version, is a fully installable version, and is not time limited. Source: TheInquirer

Posted January. 16, 2005 @ 08:09AM GMT +10 by BenSW | top

754 pin AMD mobile Semprons range

JAPANESE SITE Akiba PC Hotline said that socket 754 mobile Sempron chips at ratings of 2600+, 2800+ and 3000+ are for sale. These chips, according to site, consume 62W and are for sale at ¥10,800 (~$105), ¥13,800 (~$135) and ¥14,800 (~$145) respectively. The Japanese version of the site, with pics, is here. Here is the Babelfish version in Jinglish.

Posted January. 16, 2005 @ 08:07AM GMT +10 by BenSW | top

Saturday Nite Video Card Reviews

Albatron Trinity GeForce 6600GT AGP on PCStats. Albatron Trinity GeForce 6600GT AGP on 3DXtreme. MSI NX6600GT-VTD128 GeForce 6600GT AGP on PCStats. ATi Radeon X800 XL PCIe review by DriverHeaven XFX GeForce 6600 GT AGP review by nVNews

Posted January. 15, 2005 @ 09:49PM GMT +10 by erock | top

Nforce 5 up and running

Apparently the upcoming nForce5 motherboard from NVIDIA is now taped out and is running according to sources. Reference platforms have been sent to various addresses for evaluations and valuations, and the board will be released in two version! One providing SLI support and the other not. Its excepted that the nForce5 motherboard will be released in Q1 2005.

Posted January. 14, 2005 @ 09:30PM GMT +10 by erock | top

Longhorn to make graphic cards important

Its suggested that Windows Longhorn will feature a graphics subset called WGF (Windows Graphic Foundation). Its goal is to unify 2D and 3D graphics operation in one and will bring 2D Windows drawing and 3D operations together. Nowadays, 3D is done using a Direct X subset with the current version 9.0c. Longhorn will also use 3D menus and 3D interfaces and will require at least Shader 2.0 compliant cards, so it will make the graphics card an important part of your PC. Nowadays, Windows doesn’t care much about graphics until you play your DVD or start a 3D game. In such cases, Windows actually benefits from graphic card acceleration whether we talk about video or 3D acceleration. Read more @ The Inquirer

Posted January. 14, 2005 @ 09:24PM GMT +10 by erock | top

Friday Nite Video Card Reviews

ATi Radeon All-In-Wonder X600 Pro review by Viperlair XFX GeForce 6600 GT PCIe review by VR-Zone Gigabyte GeForce 6600 GT PCIe review by AmdZone HIS Radeon X700 Pro 256MB PCIe review by 3dGameMan Gigabyte Radeon X600 XT PCIe review by EnvyNews Gigabyte 3D1 Dual GeForce 6600 GT PCIe review by Neoseeker ATi Radeon X850 XT-PE review by Guru3D nVidia GeForce 6200 review by Beyond3D Gigabyte Radeon X800 Pro review by PCModdingMy Sapphire Radeon X850 XT-PE review by TrustedReviews Crucial Radeon X800 Pro 256MB review by XtremeResources Gigabyte GeForce 6600 GT AGP on Legion Hardware Gigabyte 3D1 Single Slot 6600GT SLI on Neoseeker. HIS X700Pro IceQ Turbo VIVO 256MB PCI-E Video Card on 3DGameMan Gigabyte GeForce 6600GT PCI-E on Hi-TechReviews. Leadtek WinFast PX6600 GT TDH PCI-E on TheTechLounge. V-Mod Sapphire Radeon 9550 on OC-Service.

Posted January. 14, 2005 @ 07:59PM GMT +10 by erock | top

Mac Mini

Apple is releasing a new mac, the Mac mini. It is the cheapest mac. For $499 for a machine with a 1.2Ghz G4 processor inside and 40GB of hard disk space, $599 for a 1.4Ghz version with 80GB, will likely attract new customers It's available in the US on January 22, and around week later in the rest of the world. Source: Neowin.net

Posted January. 14, 2005 @ 11:17AM GMT +10 by [DBE]killer | top

WinXP Pro x64 Edition Nearing Completion

GamePC have thrown up their review of Microsoft’s XP Professional x64 Edition RC1! Here's a snip. We've been tracking the progress of Windows XP Professional x64 Edition since late in 2003, when we tested their first public build (1039) which was released in a pre-beta state. We've since followed up with reports of their later public builds, 1069 and 1218, both of which saw the operating system making huge strides in terms of stability, driver support, and software compatibility. While the operating system has been progressing nicely, the constant delays are enough to make anyone lose hope of a final release. We were beginning to think that the operating system would ever see the light of day, as we are now entering 2005 without a final copy in our hands and without a firm release date. Read more

Posted January. 14, 2005 @ 08:51AM GMT +10 by BenSW | top

Star Wars: Empire At War Preview

Rolling right along, 1up.com has slapped up a preview on Petroglyph's upcoming Strategy title, Star Wars: Empire At War. Here's a bit on formations in the game: Quote: Empire at War is also not going to have clueless pathfinding like we saw in Force Commander. "One big problem with [Force Commander]—and lots of RTS games for that matter—has been a proper lack of formations," says Tosti. If you grouped AT-ATs with AT-STs and ground troops, each would move at its own pace. Kind of defeats the whole point of grouping forces, doesn't it? Now, troops grouped together stick together. You're only as fast as your slowest unit, and they all watch each other's proverbial backs. EA Games' Battle for Middle-earth does this as well, but Tosti promises that this will be on a whole other level. Be sure to check out the screenshots as well! Source: Futuremark

Posted January. 14, 2005 @ 08:49AM GMT +10 by BenSW | top

Windows Longhorn to make graphics card i

MAJORITY OF USERS don't care about a graphics card because this majority uses only 2D operations, or should I say they need it just to draw and show picture on displays. Some will use the graphics card to accelerate video files or help decode DVD content. but that's about it. The big mass or users don't care about 3D games or any kind of shaders. This is about to change with Longhorn. Longhorn will feature a graphics subset called WGF (Windows Graphic Foundation). Its goal is to unify 2D and 3D graphics operation in one and will bring 2D Windows drawing and 3D operations together. Nowadays, 3D is done using a Direct X subset with the current version 9.0c. Read more [TheInquirer]

Posted January. 14, 2005 @ 08:47AM GMT +10 by BenSW | top

The Sims 2 Patch

The folks over at Maxis have released a new patch for their hit people-sim, The Sims 2. Making some tweaks and fixing a bunch of bugs, you can find a list of what's new and the DL mirrors right here. So what are you waiting for? Get downloadin'!

Posted January. 13, 2005 @ 09:15AM GMT +10 by BenSW | top

NVIDIA releases new GPUs Latest Co

Today NVIDIA announced two new products that are designed to fill holes in their current product lineup: the GeForce 6600 AGP and the PCI Express-based GeForce 6800 LE. The GeForce 6600 AGP is designed to go head-to-head with the RADEON 9600 XT, and features the same 8-pixel pipeline graphics core found in GeForce 6600 GT, although it's running at a tamer 300MHz. Final memory speed will be determined by each card manufacturer, but most are expected to run in the 250-275MHz range. The boards will officially retail for $149-$199 depending on the configuration. The GeForce 6800 LE PCI Express is based on the same technology as its AGP counterpart, featuring an 8-pipeline core running at 325MHz, and a 256-bit memory interface with 300MHz DDR memory. The card will support SLI and will be priced between $229-$279 depending on the card configuration. Both cards will be available in February. Source: FiringSquad

Posted January. 13, 2005 @ 09:14AM GMT +10 by BenSW | top

AMD 'unveils' Turion 64

The first 64-bit mobile microprocessor, it's also your first, last, and only protection from cyborg dinosaurs. Turion presumably marks the first fruit of AMD's foundation last June of a Japan-based chip design taskforce dedicated with building better mobile processors. At this stage it's unclear what Turion does that AMD's Mobile Athlon 64 processors, some developed for thin'n'light notebooks, others for more mainstream machines, don't. Presumably, we're looking at improved power management and possibly greater integration - perhaps a graphics engine built into the on-die North Bridge. Not much in the way of details. Source: FiringSquad

Posted January. 12, 2005 @ 08:55AM GMT +10 by BenSW | top

DVD+R DL 8X to come in 2005

THERE WAS an unusually great number of companies ready to talk about DVD standards and speeds here at CES. The last couple of months, the price of DVD recorders went significantly down and you can now buy 16X DVD-R/DVD+R recorders capable of recording DVD-R DL, Dual Layer disks at four speeds for just about $65. Dual layer drives can store a massive 8.5GB but those disks still costs a fortune as you have to spend at least $7 or €7 per piece to get them. DVD+R or DVD-R discs with 4.7 GB capacity can be found for about one €uro or even less. Even if you want to spend that kind of money, those disks are usually 2.4 speeds only and rarely can you find some 4X DVD+R DL disks. Full article here

Posted January. 12, 2005 @ 08:52AM GMT +10 by BenSW | top

ATI X800 and X800XL

ATI CARDS BASED on the R430, 110 nm core can use the same printed circuit board. We spotted some Sapphire cards at the show one based on X800XL and second on X800 standard core both using the same PCB. We checked the numbers and we were right, the PCBs were the same. In Sapphire's case, both cards were VGA + DVI design and both cards hadn't a six pin power connector. Power Color card that we previewed just before CES here has different cooler that covers memory as well, dual DVI outs and six pin PCIe power connector. Read more at TheInquirer

Posted January. 12, 2005 @ 08:48AM GMT +10 by BenSW | top

Intel, AMD dual core specs discussed

DEVELOPERS AT an X86-64 message board are discussing how best to get a dual core Opteron running using an Nvidia chipset. One engineer discusses some of the specs of the chip, including cache size and clock rates, although you probably need to be something of a genius to wade your way through the technicalities. And on another thread, there is a discussion of working with Intel's dual core chips, which may have core IDs as big as 256. Obviously for future use. Read more Source: TheInquirer

Posted January. 12, 2005 @ 08:46AM GMT +10 by BenSW | top

Radeon X850 and X800XL review

Earlier this autumn, ATi revealed details about their new PCI-Express video cards, the X850 XT Platinum Edition (PE) and the X800 XL. While the X850 XT PE of course is the new high-end video card, the X800 XL is ATI’s answer to NVIDIA’s GeForce 6800 GT. ATI was kind enough to lend us two reference cards for a quick spin in some of our benchmarks. Read More

Posted January. 12, 2005 @ 07:52AM GMT +10 by flawmatt | top

Pentium M Chips Sneak into Retail

Yet unannounced Intel Pentium M processors for 533MHz processor system bus emerged for sale in Tokyo, Japan. The products come in Intel’s typical retail packages, which implies that the chipmaker has already started to ship such central processing units to various customers including retailers. Currently Intel Pentium M processors 760, 750, 740 and 730 clocked at 2.00GHz, 1.86GHz, 1.73GHz and 1.60GHz respectively are being sold in Tokyo, Japan. All the chips are based on the core code-named Dothan with 2MB level-two cache and are produced using 90nm process technology. The processors come in mPGA479 form-factor and are intended for yet-to-be-released mobile platform code-named Sonoma and i915-series chipsets code-named Alviso which supports 533MHz Quad Pumped Bus with enhancements for mobile processors. Read More

Posted January. 12, 2005 @ 07:45AM GMT +10 by flawmatt | top

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