When we checked out EVGA's GeForce 7900 GS KO back in September, we found that it exceeded the performance of the GeForce 7800 GTX in F.E.A.R. on our Core 2 Duo E6600 test system.

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In every game in this evaluation, the NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT outperformed the GeForce 7600 GS and Sapphire RADEON X1650 PRO, as we expected. The GeForce 7600 GT is in a higher performance class than the other two video cards, but the high cost of the Sapphire RADEON X1650 PRO demanded that we compare it with the 7600 GT.

Sapphire Radeon X1650 PRO models that are being sold at on-line retailers such as Newegg and ZipzoomFly are listed at 450MHz GPU and 1300MHz memory, which are probably based on the specifications that are provided at Sapphire's web site.

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• NZXT Zero Ultimate Cooling Case at OCCafe
  
• ZALMAN CNPS9700 Led CPU Cooler at Tweaknews
  
• Sapphire Radeon X1650 XT at TechReport
  
• ATI Radeon X1650 XT at HotHardware
  
• ATI Chips Comparison Table at HardwareSecrets
  
• Corsair TWIN2X2048-6400C4D DOMINATOR Memory

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• New DX10 Crysis Videos Demo on G80
  
• 3D Galaxy II & Blue Eye Water cooling at Guru3D
  
• Cooler Master I-Tower 930 Review at Neoseeker
  
• Intel D975XBX2 Motherboard at Legit Reviews

He [the spokesman from Microsoft] told us that Windows Vista will not require a system re-activation unless the hard drive and one other component is changed. This means that enthusiasts will be able to swap CPUs, memory and graphics cards out without any worry about having to re-activate with MS, either on the internet or by phone.

Should you change the hard drive and another piece of hardware - for example for a major upgrade such as a motherboard change that requires a re-installation - Microsoft will allow you to re-activate up to 10 times. You will not, however, be able to have more than one machine activated concurrently. Should you wish to activate more than 10 times, you could be busted, or Microsoft could choose to let you activate again at its discretion.

As far as I know, this is not being done with Windows XP as a single (retail) copy can be installed on mutiple PCs and activated today. I also do not believe that Microsoft intended to enforce this policy with Windows XP since activation records are (were) purged from their database after 120 days. In this case, the majority of consumers were led to believe that the "once copy per device" rule was being enforced.

Discussion here.

• Fixed skewed video capture when game resolution width not a multiple of 8
• Fixed slow full-size recording when anti-aliasing forced in NVIDIA Control Panel
• Fixed blank/garbage captures after switching between multiple games
• Fixed crash on Fraps exit

"We founded NVIDIA with the vision that GPUs would transform the computing experience. TSMC has played a fundamental role in our ability to fulfill this vision. By providing NVIDIA with leading-edge technology and change-on-a-dime customer service, TSMC enabled us to focus on what we do best--building great technology and markets."

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• Closer Look at 20" and 21" LCD Monitor Features. Part II at XBit
  
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• 8800GTX is selling
  
• Inno3D GeForce 7950 GT at Bit-Tech
  
• Intel Core 2 Duo in Notebooks at XBitlabs
  
• Dell 2007WFP vs. Samsung SM205BW at PureOverclock
  
• ASUS EN7950GT Video Card Review at Gamepyre
  
• MSI mPC 945 Barebone SFF at Viper Lair
  
• Palm Treo 700p Review at OCIA
  
• CoolerMaster Mini Aquagate at Techwarelabs
  
• Zalman Reserator 1 V2 and Fan Kit at Techgage

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• Nvidia's nForce 590 SLI chipset for Intel CPU's at TechReport
  
• Ultimate Geek Comforter at TechZone
  
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• Cooler Master NotePal P1 at TrustedReviews
  
• Apack Zerotherm GX710 Copper VGA Cooler at Tweaknews
  
• Rivatuner Version 2.0 Release Candidate 16.1 at Guru3D

Version 2.8.0 changes:

• Added full-size video capture up to 2560x1600 for dual core CPUs
• Added G15 gameinfo screen (mapped to 4th button)
• Added Targa (TGA) screenshot format support
• Added dual core optimizations to Fraps FPS1 codec
• Added extra digit to counter (now displays above 999 fps)
• Improved full-size D3D9 video capture speed (10-20%)
• Fixed G15 display not scaling properly with high framerates
• Fixed Company of Heroes reporting 999 fps
• Fixed mouse cursor offset in some windowed applications
• Fixed flickering movies recording Flight Simulator 9/FSX with dual monitors

Fraps allows you to display your framerate in real-time and will capture the current, mininmum, average, and maximum frame rates during the benchmarking mode. Using this information allows the following type of graph to be created.

Frame Rate Per Second Performance

"Available and shipping today with an estimated street price of US$199..."

However, I cannot fault ATI for this situation. Their statement is considered "forward-looking" and they are not obligated to revise any forward looking statements.

This type of carefully crafted wording ranks right up there with question number 10 in their CrossFire FAQ:

10. What games work with CrossFire?

A. CrossFire works with all 3D applications. The user is able to run any game with multiple graphics cards cooperatively rendering the images. The end user is able to take advantage of the additional graphics hardware for all games, all the time.

Competitive solutions only work on a limited number of games that are profiled in the driver. New games, older games, lesser known games, and even some current popular titles are not supported, and the end user sees no benefit with this system when running these applications.

• Support for dual-core and quad-core Intel Core 2 processors
• Support for Logitech keyboard LCD
• Hardware monitoring: support for 3rd party applications
• ATI CrossFire and nVIDIA SLI information
• Abit MicroGuru 2005 power cycle information
• Detailed optical drive information
• Screen size test picture in Monitor Diagnostics
• SCSI and SAS hard disk temperature measurement
• Updated hardware database that has now support for over 46,000 specific devices
• Notebook CPU temperature measurement via ACPI driver
• Several improvements under Windows Vista and Windows PE

To download a limited trial version of EVEREST Ultimate Edition, please click here.

EVEREST Ultimate Edition comes highly recommended by nV News.

• Microsoft Releases New IE Web Browser (IE7)
• Bad Intel on NVIDA
• AMD Faces Tougher Battle Against Intel

• NVIDIA GeForce 7950 GX2 at PenstarSys
• Inno3D GeForce 7900GS SLI at PC Modding Malaysia
• Intel GMA 3000 Q965 Graphics (Linux) at Phoronix
• ABIT AB9 Pro Core 2 Duo Motherboard at Noticias3D - Translated Link
• Gigabyte 965P-DQ6 Motherboard at ChileHardware - Translated Link
• Saitek GM3200 Laser Mouse at Cooling-Station - German
• Interview with PowerColor’s Raymen Wu

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• Thermaltake Big Typhoon VX at hi-techreviews
  
• New and Improved OCModShop Gallery! at OCModShop
  
• Silverstone Strider 750w ST75F PSU at OC3D

Its been a long time coming, but the GeForce 7900GS is finally here. This is quite probably the most affordable card of the GeForce 7900 series. Although its missing one vertex unit and one quad pixel pipeline, it still retains much of the capabilities and performance of a GeForce 7900. Performance wise, it offers performance similar to the original GeForce 7900GT, which also means it's also very close to the original GeForce 7800GTX.

Our experience doing gameplay testing sessions and timedemo runs / replay teaches us that every performance test tool is not perfect. Each have their own advantages and disadvantages. Both should be used to try and 'capture' what kind of performance a hardware can offer for a particular game. However, even using both doesn't mean we will be able to capture actual gameplay frame rates in its entirety.

Remember, we made a subjective decision to play the game in a particular way that will be graphically intensive and produce repeatable results. We doubt real life gaming sessions from different gamers with different styles of play will be the same as ours. However, we're pretty sure that the results portray a worst case scenario - all things being equal, you should see slightly higher frame rates in these games with a similar setup.

Chris tests performance with a couple of motherboards from Asus to determine the difference in performance when used with standard SLI and quad SLI setups.

No one can deny that when the Core 2 Duo processor runs alongside a pair of high-end Nvidia graphics cards, performance will be incredible. Here in the labs we’re seeing some record breaking numbers when using these new chipsets with SLI graphics card setups. Until now, high-end SLI graphics setups have been bottlenecked by Pentium-D/Athlon64 X2/FX processors which were required for use along with SLI. Now that the Core 2 Duo can finally run with SLI, those bottlenecks are removed and we can finally see what these SLI systems are capable of.

Image courtesy of NVIDIA

However, there is another side of NVIDIA that writes software for developers. With tools from NVIDIA, like their new NVPerfKit 2.1, developers are better equipped to produce optimized games with fewer defects.

NVPerfKit 2.1 offers the following enhanced components:

• Instrumented Driver - Interfaces with the graphics API and GPU to provide performance counter data
• NVPerfHUD - Offers advanced real-time analysis of Direct3D applications
• NVPerfSDK - Includes an API for accessing GPU signals in applications, sample code and helper classes for OpenGL and DirectX applications, and an NVIDIA Developer Control Panel and instrumented driver
• NVIDIA Plug-In for Microsoft PIX for Windows
• GLExpert - Permits debugging of OpenGL usage errors and performance issues
• Supports PerfMon, Intel VTune, gDEBugger and other analysis tools

NVIDIA Corporation, the worldwide leader in programmable graphics processor technologies, today announced NVPerfKit 2.1, a comprehensive suite of next-generation performance tools for the debugging and profiling of OpenGL and Direct3D software applications for Windows and Linux.

Developers working on 32- and 64-bit Linux or Windows platforms can now benefit from the same technology that powers the NVIDIA NVPerfHUD performance analysis tool, a robust profiling and visual debugging heads-up display (HUD) program for Direct3D applications supporting Microsoft DirectX 9.0c and Windows XP on select NVIDIA graphics processing units (GPUs).

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• Asus EN7600GT Video Card at Viper Lair
  
• Inno3D 7900 GS at TrustedReviews
  
• Toshiba 200GB 2.5" Hard Drive at Techgage
  
• Radeon X1950 Pro 256MiB at Hexus
  
• Razer Baracuda HP-1 3D Audio Gaming Headphones at PCApex
  
• Antec Fusion Media Center Case at Tweaknews
  
• Scythe Infinity at TechPowerUp!
  
• Zalman Reserator 2 Review at Hi-techreviews

"A key enabler of GeForce 7900 GS products is the inherent architectural efficiency of all 7900-series GPUs. 7900-series GPUs consistently consume fewer watts than competing designs, resulting in a host of user benefits, including less heat, less noise, a more compact form factor, and reduced expenditures for power supply and chassis cooling.

GeForce 7900 GS really starts flexing its muscles at 1600x1200 resolution with 4xAA and 8xAF enabled. Conversely, much higher resolutions or quality settings are not realistic since they do not provide responsive framerates. Unless you’re running SLI of course, which puts GeForce 7900 GS into an entirely different league.

SLI continues to be the premier multi-GPU solution. With over 220 industry partners and scaling in over 300 games, SLI provides the best performance, the most robust operation, and a truly seamless out-of-box experience. All multi-gpu solutions are not created equal—as an experiment, try running your favorite game that’s not among the dozen or so games commonly tested by reviewers. The results may surprise you.

SLI means that GeForce 7900 GS customers can purchase a great $200 graphics solution today and economically upgrade to a killer graphics solution in the future. In summary, we’re proud of the GeForce 7900 GS, and the resounding popularity it’s achieved."

• Ultrawideband WPAN at TweakTown
  
• Six Best iPod Accessories at TechZone
  
• Logitech Quickcam Fusion at Tweaknews
  
• Radeon X1950 PRO 512M at TechReport
  
• Radeon X1950 PRO 512MB at MVKTech
  
• Radeon X1950 PRO 512MB at HardOCP
  
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• Radeon X1950 PRO 512MB at Hothardware
  
• Samsung 1 GB Digital Audio Player at Futurelooks
  
• Making Computer Diagnoses at Technibble
  
• Swiftech Apex Ultra Watercooling Kit at OCAU

Image courtesy of SLippe.com

NVIDIA also expects to release an SLI profile for Microsoft Flight Simulator X sometime during the week of 10/16/06.

Happy Gaming!

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• BIOS Optimization Guide Rev. 9.1! at TechArp
  
• Is AMD really f&$@£d? at Hexus
  
• DigitalLife Photo-Showcase, AMD 4x4 and More at HotHardware
  

• ASUS M2NPV-VM Review at TweakTown
  
• Gigabyte GA-965P-D3 Intel P965 Motherboard Review at PCPer
  
• OCZ Secure Digital Dual Memory Card at OCCafe
  

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• APACK ZeroTherm BTF90 CPU Cooler at ThinkComputers
  

• Squeezebox Network Music Player Review at XYZComputing

BFG Technologies 3D Fuzion Geforce 7600 GS from $88.88

For those of you still clinging to an AGP-based system, BFG can hook you up with their GeForce 7800 GS. I recently gave my nephew a system with a GeForce 7800 GS and he is thrilled with it.

BFG Technologies GeForce 7800 GS OC (AGP) from $239.99

And finally, the incredible GeForce 7950 GX2 from EVGA. It runs on selected motherboards with chipsets from ATI, NVIDIA, Intel, and VIA. Used one last night with an Athlon 64 X2 4800+ for my weekly Guild Wars adventure and averaged well over 60fps during a three hour marathon at a resolution of 2560x1600 with 4X AA, 8X AF, and maximum in-game graphics settings.

EVGA GeForce 7950 GX2 from $479.99 (with $20 rebate at TigerDirect)

The X-bit labs article is a review of Gigabyte's GV-3D1-7950-RH graphics card, which also covers aspects of the technology and includes benchmarks from 18 game titles.

Note that there is a 77.8% increase in the number of pixels when moving from a resolution of 1920x1200 to 2560x1600. Moving from 2048x1536 to 2560x1600 is a 30.2% increase in the number of pixels.

Also make note the performance of a single GeForce 7950 GX2 should you examine the benchmark results. It continues to be the best value at the high-end and recently dropped below $500.

"NVIDIA Corporation (Nasdaq: NVDA) has once again raised the bar for notebook graphics performance with the release of the NVIDIA GeForce Go 7950 GTX graphics processing unit (GPU)-- the world's fastest notebook GPU on the market(1). Notebooks with the new GPU are available for order from select top gaming notebook makers in North America and Europe. Gamers can experience the power of this new GPU in Dell notebooks at DigitalLife 2006 in New York City."

• HardOCP


• HotHardware


• LegitReviews

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• ULTRA-Power 1500VA Power Protection at hi-techreviews
  
• Second Round for Nvidia Quad SLI at XBitLabs
  
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• Thirty Day Trials at PCMech

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• Gigabyte 7600GT Silent II at Bootdaily
  
• Asus M2N32-SLI nForce 590 SLI AMD Motherboard at PCPer
  
• Heatpipe and Peltier Cooling at TweakTown
  
• Ultra's X-Finity 500W PSU at OCModShop
  
• Zalman CNPS9500 LED Heatsink Review at GruntvillE
  
• Abit AB9Pro review at NeoSeeker
  
• Foxconn Winfast N570SM2AA Motherboard at Ninjalane

3D Media Center bridges the gap between games and multimedia by using the GPU to create a completely 3D interface that includes a 3D carousel, a DVD player powered by NVIDIA's PureVideo decoder, a video editor with computer games special effects, a photo editor capable of manipulating the highest resolution photos, video transfer to mobile phones, Sony's PSP and Apple's iPOD and can be operated by standard remote controls.

"Tenomichi has, for the first time, combined two of Microsoft's core technologies DirectX and Direct Show to create a new multimedia engine called 3D Experience" said Richard Faria, Tenomichi's President and CEO. "This engine has been used to create 3D Media Center, the most advanced 3D application available in the world" he said "3D interfaces provide the consumer with a fully immersive experience that blends the boundaries between interface and rich media. All consumer applications will follow our lead into 3D; it's inevitable because it's more natural."

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• BF2142 Tweak Guide at TweakGuides.com
• Video Card Recommendations at ASE Labs
• Monitor Calibration Guide at MadboxPC
  
• Intel P965 Shootout Part 1 - ASUS, MSI and Foxconn at Tweaktown
  
• Abit AB9 Pro and AW9D MAX Motherboards at The TechReport
  
• Silverstone NT06 CPU Cooler Review at Madshrimps

GeForce Lan 2 (2005)

• Raffle with big prizes from industry partners - both days!
• Surprise contests with big prizes - both days!
• Witness the launch of NVIDIA's next generation Gaming PLATFORM (GPU and MCP together!)
• Case mod competition: Best Original Case and Best in Show
• Special gift for all CLUB SLI members, along with early access to venue (what's - CLUB SLI?)
• Free, custom NVIDIA tee shirts
• Free pizza and drinks all day, both days
• Hosted panels and Q&A sessions with NVIDIA and partners

"Intel may raise its stake in Nvidia so that they can form a strategic partnership to oppose the merger of AMD and ATI, according to sources at Taiwan-based motherboard makers.

Nvidia shares climbed last week on speculations that it could be acquired by Intel amid the general disbelief that the chipmaking giant could ever do that.

Instead, Intel, which currently holds about 8-10% of Nvidia shares, may seek to form a strategic alliance with Nvidia by raising its stake in the GPU (graphics processing unit) vendor, according to the sources.

The partnership would imply that Nvidia decreases product developments for the AMD platform and devotes more efforts to IGP (integrated graphics processor) chipsets for the Intel platform, the sources said.

Nvidia is also evaluating the possibility of such a partnership, the sources claimed.

The US$5.4-billion merger between AMD and ATI is expected to be completed this quarter, posing a strong challenge for both Intel and Nvidia."

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• Galaxy GeForce 7900GT Dual Core Masterpiece Edition at Guru3D
  
• Vidabox HTPC Wireless Keyboard at HardOcp
  
• GSkill F2-8000PHU2 1GBHZ DDR2 Review at VrZone
  
• October 2006 system guide at TechReport
  
• Lian Li PC-A10 Dual PSU Case at OCCafe
  
• GeForce 7950GT & 7900GS at Techhounds
  
• Antec Nine Hundred Case at Hardware Secrets
  
• BIOS Optimization Guide Rev. 9.0 at TechArp

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• Mt. Rainier: Is It Necessary? at The TechZone
  
• Samsung 225BW LCD Display Review at XYZ Computing
  
• Sharkoon Swift-Case Combo 3.5 at TechPowerUp
  
• OCZ EvoStream 600W PSU Preview at PCModdingMalaysia
  
• Samsung YP-K5 MP3 Player at TrustedReviews
  
• CoolerMaster Notebook Cooler Review at OCIA

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• Confirmed DX10/SM4.0 Games
  
• AMD X2 AM2 4200+ EE Review at Neoseeker
  
• Core 2 Quad QX6700 Performance Preview at HardOCP
  
• bit AW9D-MAX Motherboard at Viper Lair
  
• Sennheiser PC150 Headset at Techgage
  
• IDF Wrapup at TechReport
  
• Mushkin XP2-6400 Review at Hi-techreviews

We were less than impressed with the Radeon X1650 Pro lineup. While ATI has trimmed their manufacturing process to 80nm and added HDCP to the mix, the X1650 Pro is almost a carbon copy of the previous generation Radeon X1600 XT lineup. It’s still based on an aging 12 pipeline design which struggles in modern games. The card works fine for newer games if you keep resolutions at 1024 x 768 and under, but in this day and age of high-def gaming, the X1650 Pro shouldn’t be considered for any kind of dedicated gaming.

Our tests showed that this card performs slightly less than the GeForce 7900 GT, which is about $100 more expensive, making the 7900 GS appear to be a good value. Even better is that our card was highly overclockable, and when pushed, could match the performance levels of Nvidia’s new GeForce 7950 GT product. With Nvidia working to phase out the GeForce 7900 GT, the GeForce 7900 GS now sits below the GeForce 7950 GX2 and 7950 GT as the meat of the GeForce 7 lineup. All in all, we think it’s a great card which can deliver solid gaming performance at a reasonable price point.

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• G80 specs revealed
  
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• NZXT Precise 650w Power Supply at OCIA
  
• OCZ Tempest Heat Sink Fan Cooler at LegitReviews

The higher shares could also be the result of Friedman Billings Ramsey analyst Chris Caso's prediction that there could be upside to 2007 estimates.

Our checks at Nvidia and ATI Technologies Inc. channel partners suggest that near-term conditions for NVDA remain strong, due to stabilizing personal computer build rates, as well as Nvidia design wins resulting from ATI Technologies roadmap uncertainty," Caso wrote in a note to clients. "We further think chipsets, notebooks, handsets, and PS3 provide enough growth drivers to comfortably meet 2007 estimates, with room for upside."

• NVIDIA Catches a Bid at The Street.com
• NVIDIA Rises On Intel Rumors at Forbes

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• Thermaltake Bigwater 735 Water Cooling System at Tweaknews
  
• Ultra's X-Connect 2 550W PSU at OCModShop
  
• Albatron's KI51PV-754 Motherboard at The TechReport
  
• Sharkoon 1337 Gaming Mat at TechPowerUp

Image courtesy of NVIDIA

Both ATI and NVIDIA know of the potential of GP-GPU, and over the past few years both companies have brought in people to help achieve higher performance and greater compatibility with their hardware for GP-GPU purposes. ATI may be ahead in the game right now, but the truth is both companies are working very hard to include greater GP functionality in their upcoming products. Both R600 and G80 should have a much greater amount of performance and functionality over previous architectures.

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• Inno3D GeForce 7900 GS Review at Overclocker Cafe'
  
• Fall IDF Wrapup at The TechReport
  
• Ultra's Aluminus Case Enlightens You at OCModShop
  
• MSI GeForce NX7600GT HD at Viper Lair
  
• Corsair TWIN2X2048-8500C5 2GB DDR2 Memory Kit at XYZ Computing
  
• Vantec SATA/IDE to USB Adapter at Techgage

Nvidia is expected to announce the world's first DirectX 10-compliant graphics chip, the GeForce 8800 (codenamed G80), in the middle of November, graphics card makers revealed. However, despite the advantage of early launch, demand for the new graphics processing unit (GPU) will depend on penetration rate of the new Windows Vista OS and availability of new PC games supporting DirectX 10, the makers indicated.

With Shader Model 4.0 support, DirectX 10 will improve visualization and rendering capabilities utilized in PC games, also reducing CPU overhead, according to the makers. It means that game developers will get additional space to make their games more sophisticated, said the makers.

The makers expressed the doubt that ATI's next-generation R600 chip, which is also expected to support DirectX 10, may appear in the market before 2007. Nevertheless, ATI will continue benefit from its close relationships with Microsoft around the Xbox 360, the makers said.

Since DirectX 10 is positioned as a Vista-only solution, with presumably no ability to work with previous Windows versions, Nvidia's move to launch the GeForce 8800 in November should rather be considered as a symbolic step, said industry sources. So far, Microsoft only promised that Windows Vista will run DirectX 9.0, allowing to later upgrade it to DirectX 10 via Windows Update, the sources indicated. When Microsoft releases a DirectX 10-capable OS, ATI will perhaps catch up with the competition, the sources added.

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• LCD Monitor Guide at TheTechZone
  
• LCD Lian-Li PC-C30 at BoxGods
  
• Gainward BLISS 7800 GS+ 512MB AGP at MVKTech
  
• Corsair HX620W Modular PSU at Tweaktown
  
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• HTPC on the Cheap: Intervideo's HomeTheater at OCModShop!