Microsoft short of Xboxes March. 23, 2005 @ 11:36AM GMT +10

THE ALMIGHTY and powerful Microsoft can’t supply enough of its Xboxes to its punters. A spokesVole, from the lair of the Vole in Redmond, admitted to Cnet News that there was a retail shortage of its Xbox video game console, with many major retailers unable to get the gear for love or money. In fact, it appears some retailers are unsure if they will ever be able to get the XBox again. Best Buy is the only major retailer that Cnet could find that had widespread availability of the basic Xbox package both in stores and online. The spokesVole said that the shortage was due to a surging popularity has led to a stock problem at retail. Read more

Posted by BenSW | top

AMD readies faster Opterons March. 23, 2005 @ 11:35AM GMT +10

The Inquirer reports: THE SERVER BLADE SUMMIT starts today, and what can we look forward to? Well, the biggest thing is the speed bump from AMD that they will announce before the end of the show. Faster Opterons, oh boy, just what I wanted, faster is always better. There are a few things that may be announced also, like 4-way blades from HP. Up until now, if you wanted one, you had to go to Angstrom, and from what I hear, they are very good blades indeed. HP seems to want a piece of the high density market, and, with dual core chips, that would mean 416 cores per rack. If they decide not tothe kimono at SBS, it won't be long before they do. Full Story here

Posted by BenSW | top

X800XT-PE vs. 6800 Ultra March. 22, 2005 @ 02:43PM GMT +10

origo3D.com has finished their video card comparision article: "After many week testing, benchmarks and workshops we have finished our X800XT-PE vs. 6800 Ultra videocard comparison. We judged many factors like heatsink, temperatures, driver or performance. More you can read in our article" Check it out

Posted by erock | top

ATI R580 spotted March. 22, 2005 @ 10:22AM GMT +10

The Inquirer reports that ATI have plans beyond the R520 chip, and now ATI plans to introduce its faster version by the end of the year. "We don't know many details as yet, but we do know that the card is based on R520 design and likely be called the R580. Knowing ATI, this means that it will end up as a faster version of the chip with faster memory and will be introduced toward Q4. We are talking about the same number of pipelines, similar specifications, but a faster card. Just bear in mind that the R420, the Radeon X800 series, got its faster brother codenamed R480, X850 generation. It's faster but it's the same card, in principle. This gives some idea of what to expect in the future."

Posted by erock | top

Fraps 2.5.4 March. 22, 2005 @ 10:19AM GMT +10

As reported on nVnews, an important announcement regarding NVIDIA 6600/6800 SLI users for Fraps tool: IMPORTANT NOTICE FOR NVIDIA 6600/6800 SLI USERS: It has been brought to our attention that SLI render modes in the 71.84 drivers will not activate with Fraps 2.5.3 (and earlier) running in the background. This results in games always running with Single-GPU performance. All SLI users are urged to update to Fraps 2.5.4 which does not conflict with SLI rendering. Special thanks to Brent Justice (HardOCP) and Chris Ray (nV News) for identifying this issue.

Posted by erock | top

Empire Earth 2 Q&A March. 22, 2005 @ 10:15AM GMT +10

Computer Games Magazine has an Empire Earth 2 Q&A posted this morning, asking Ian Davis of Mad Doc Software about the strategy game sequel. Topics include development surprises, creating so many unique and balanced units, new gameplay feature, game management, the Diplomacy System and the multiplayer modes. Source: Shacknews

Posted by erock | top

Chronicles Of Riddick Demo March. 22, 2005 @ 10:14AM GMT +10

A demo is now avaliable for the Chronicles of Riddick game for PC/XBOX. Download

Posted by erock | top

Tuesday Morning Video Card Reviews March. 22, 2005 @ 10:08AM GMT +10

HIS Radeon X800 XL review by HotHardware ATi Radeon X800 XL roundup by Bit-Tech Albatron GeForce 6200 TC review by nVNews Albatron GeForce 6600 GT review by RBMods Asus GeForce 6800 GT PCIe review by Tbreak

Posted by erock | top

XBOX new power cords still dangerous? March. 20, 2005 @ 09:50AM GMT +10

XBOX-Scene reports that the new power cord replacements for Microsoft's XBOX console could still be dangerous: "The XBox blow even with new cord - exploded directly in the face of Anahi, 25. Sammy,8, got the cord exchanged on his dangerous XBox - that had sparked when he was playing. When the new cord was plugged into the Xbox it exploded into the face of a friend of Sammy's mother. "I got sparks in my face and the whole apartment smelled of the burn" Anahi Reinoso, 25, says." Read this article for more info

Posted by erock | top

nForce4 6.53 WHQL Released March. 20, 2005 @ 09:46AM GMT +10

Nvidia has released a new Standalone nForce4 driver out in the shape of 6.53 for Windows 2000/XP. Download & Release notes

Posted by erock | top

New Unreal 3 Engine Screenshots March. 20, 2005 @ 09:44AM GMT +10

Interactive Data Visualization (IDV) today announced that SpeedTreeRT, its hardware independent foliage solution, has been integrated with Epic Games' Unreal Engine 3. Unreal Engine licensees will now have access to SpeedTreeRT's advanced content creation options, enabling them to quickly and efficiently populate game environments with highly detailed trees and foliage. Check it out

Posted by erock | top

Fraps Version 2.5.4 March. 20, 2005 @ 09:41AM GMT +10

The popular Fraps utility has been updated to version 2.5.4: Fraps is an excellent utility program that provides frame-rate statistics, screen capture, and real-time video recording. Download

Posted by erock | top

ATI R520 & ATI SLI March. 20, 2005 @ 09:39AM GMT +10

TechPowerUp have some information on ATi's upcoming R520 GPU. We have confirmed the 24 pipelines rumors from several independant sources. However, these 24 pipelines are not comparable to 24 of today's pipelines - multiply by 1.3. So the 24 pipelines will have the performance of 32 "normal" pipelines. The result of this is that the R520 will be two times as fast as the currently fastest X850s. ATi's SLI: While NVIDIA SLI splits the screen into two parts and one GPU renders each half, ATI's solution breaks the screen into little squares. Remember the chessboard effect you had when pipelines were bad with the softmod?

Posted by erock | top

Sunday Morning Video Card Reviews March. 20, 2005 @ 09:27AM GMT +10

Asus GeForce 6800 GT PCIe review by Tbreak HIS Radeon X800 XL PCIe review by HardAvenue Sapphire Radeon X700 Pro review by HotHardware ATi All-In-Wonder Radeon X600 Pro PCIe review by Tech-Mods Club3D Radeon X800 XL PCIe review by Viperlair eVGA GeForce 6200 TC review by 3dGameMan Act of War: Direct Action review by GameSpot HIS Radeon X800 XL review by Hi-TechReviews MSI GeForce 6600 GT review by nVNews BFG GeForce 6600 GT review by XYZComputing

Posted by erock | top

Brother In Arms Reviews March. 20, 2005 @ 09:23AM GMT +10

Brothers In Arms on GameSpot. Brothers In Arms on GameSpy. Brothers In Arms on IGN. (For PS2) Brothers In Arms Q&A on Game Chronicles.

Posted by erock | top