September 2005

9/30/05

Friday Roundup - 9/30/05 @ 12:04 am - By: MaxPower - Source: Various


MSI P4N Diamond - 9/29/05 @ 3:12 am - By: MikeC - Source: MSI
Steve Angelly checks out MSI's P4N Diamond motherboard, which is based on NVIDIA's nForce4 SLI Intel Edition chipset. The P4N Diamond is loaded with features sought after by gamers and computing enthusiasts alike.

The NForce 4 SLI Intel Edition chipset brings a lot to the table as it supports four SATA2 connectors, two IDE ports, 10 USB 2.0 ports, two PCI-Express x16 interconnects for SLI, Gigabit Ethernet, Realtech AC'97 audio and dual channel DDR2 667+. The chipset supports the various Intel LGA775 CPUs including the recently announced Dual-Core 8 Series and 1066MHz FSB-capable Extreme Editions.


Thursday Roundup - 9/29/05 @ 12:19 am - By: MaxPower - Source: Various


GPU Temperatures - 9/28/05 @ 8:56 pm - By: MikeC - Source: N/A
I will be updating my review of MSI's NX7800GTX SLI with the following GPU temperature test results. Temperatures were recorded using the nV Monitor component of NVIDIA's nTune. The following reading is with the system idle and the room temperature at a chilly 17.4° C (63.3° F).

nV Monitor

The lead GPU temperature was then recorded with the system running masa's Real-Time High Dynamic Range Image-Based Lighting demo, or rthdribl, running in a 1024x768 window with 16X AA enabled.

One test (red line) was conducted with the room temperature at 24.1° C (75.4° F) while a second test (blue line) was run with the room temperature at 17.4° C (63.3° F).

GPU Temperature Results


GeForce Go 7800 GTX - 9/28/05 @ 6:57 pm - By: MikeC - Source: Email
Today, NVIDIA announced the availability of notebooks powered by the new GeForce Go 7800 GTX. The GeForce Go 7800 GTX consumes the same amount of power as the previous generation GeForce Go 6800 Ultra while having 100 million more transistors.

Launch partners include ABS Computer Technologies, Alienware, Dell, EuroCom, Evesham, Falcon Northwest, Hypersonic, Prostar, Sager, and VoodooPC. Here is how the GeForce Go 7800 GTX stacks up against the GeForce Go 6800 Ultra.

NVIDIA estimates that notebooks using the GeForce Go 7800 GTX will be more powerful than 99% of the desktops in existence! Check out bit-tech's review of Evesham's Voyager C720 with the 7800 GTX Go.

NVIDIA Corporation, a worldwide leader in graphics and digital media processors, today unveiled the new NVIDIA GeForce Go 7800 GTX graphics processing unit (GPU), the flagship of the NVIDIA notebook GPU line-up. This new GPU is immediately available in notebooks from Sager Computer, Inc., Falcon Northwest, Voodoo Computers, Inc., Eurocom Corporation, ABS Computer Technologies, Inc., Hypersonic PC Systems, Evesham Technology, and ProStar Computer, Inc.

"Notebook PCs have entered a new age of performance and features," stated Rob Csongor, general manager of notebook GPUs at NVIDIA. "With twice the performance compared to the previous generation, the GeForce Go 7 GPU delivers the ability to play all of today’s and tomorrow’s hottest games and the power to process high definition video--all with remarkable power savings."

Based on the award-winning desktop PC version, the NVIDIA GeForce Go 7800 GTX GPU features a completely redesigned architecture which delivers a number of groundbreaking achievements:

  • Brand new programmable shader architecture, delivering twice the shading horsepower of the previous generation notebook GPUs

  • Support for the latest games and applications with DirectX 9 Shader Model 3.0 and Film Quality HDR, the must have feature for developers delivering more realism to Real-Time Gaming

  • NVIDIA PowerMizer technology, advanced power management to maximize battery life is achieved in the same power budget as the previous generation GPUs, the result is less heat generated with maximum battery life

  • Second-generation NVIDIA PureVideo technology, allows users to experience home theater quality video on the notebook PC


GeForce Go 6800U - 9/28/05 @ 3:13 am - By: MikeC - Source: N/A
My son is attending Virginia Tech this year and is planning to major in engineering. Incoming students are required to have a laptop and we wanted to ensure that he had a system that could meet the demands of today's high-end 3D engineering applications.

We ended up purchasing Sager's NP9880 Series from PORTABLeZ.COM, which features NVIDIA's Go GeForce 6800 Ultra and a 17.0" Wide Viewing Angle WSXGA+ (1680x1050) display. PORTABLeZ.COM did a bang up job as we placed our order on a Monday and had the laptop on Thursday.


Dave is studying very hard and he sent me a screenshot from one of those high-end 3D engineering applications the other day. I was really impressed and found it strikingly familiar to one of the player models from World of Warcraft


Wednesday Roundup - 9/28/05 @ 12:00 am - By: MaxPower - Source: Various


Call of Duty 2 Demo - 9/27/05 @ 3:07 pm - By: MikeC - Source: N/A
The Call of Duty 2 demo came out yesterday and many folks have been having a great time with the game. Although I've been unable to get SLI to work with the demo, the COD 2 demo has an in-game option to optimize performance for dual graphics cards.

We are seeing more developers beginning to support SLI by offering in-game SLI options. I recall seeing a similar option in an ini file for the Dungeon Siege 2 demo and the F.E.A.R. demo always overrode whatever SLI option had been assigned in a custom profile.

Click on the headline to read the demo feedback thread or on the image below to check out some impressive lighting effects.


Tuesday Roundup - 9/27/05 @ 12:26 am - By: MaxPower - Source: Various
Be sure to check out our previous news post rounding up all of the latest ATI CrossFire reviews.


CrossFire Reviews - 9/26/05 @ 3:19 pm - By: MikeC - Source: Various
Reviews of ATI's dual-graphics solution CrossFire were published today. This cartoon seems to sum up most of the conclusions when comparing CrossFire with the Radeon X850XT to NVIDIA's SLI with GeForce 6800 and GeForce 7800 Series.

AnandTech

Despite exceptional performance at its target resolutions, we have to strongly recommend against the purchase of an X800/X850 series CrossFire card. We have a hard time recommending all but the absolute top end NVIDIA 7800 GTX SLI as a viable solution.

Beyond3D

It's fairly clear that when ATI introduced their PCI Express Radeon lines they didn't consider at that point on using them for multiple graphics board rendering and as such they have ended up with a few compromises...

Digit-Life

One thing is clear: this technology (CrossFire) appeared too late; it will be very hard to compete with NVIDIA SLI, considering what foothold SLI has already gained on the market...

DriverHeaven

At this time though it (CrossFire) is no match for a 7800 SLI system in terms of outright performance and feature set (SM3) and because of this it’s hard to recommend when weighed again Nvidia's SLI...

ExtremeTech

But ATI's new dual-graphics technology is not without drawbacks. The DVI dongle seems a bit clunky compared with a nice little internal card-link like the one used for SLI, and the need to buy a special "CrossFire Edition" card instead of just any additional matched graphics card is kind of a bummer.

FiringSquad

That’s right, the rumors you’ve been hearing about CrossFire being limited to 1600x1200 max resolution at a headache-inducing 60Hz are unfortunately true. How ATI’s engineers could have overlooked this limitation when developing CrossFire - a product which doesn’t really shine until you crank up the screen resolutions - is pretty baffling.

HardOCP

We want to make some comparisons between CrossFire and SLI. We will start with installation. Simply put, CrossFire is more complex and harder to set up than SLI.

Hexus

The current downsides massively outweight the good points that do their best to shine through. Too late by far, this level of Crossfire would have been relevant a few months ago before the launch of NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT and GTX...

PC Perspective

That being said, you can probably guess that I don’t think much of the Radeon XPress 200 CrossFire Edition chipset as it stands now; the nForce4 chipset just has a lot more to offer and didn’t cut any of the corners that ATI has done...

t-break

With that said, we now come to the question of who will buy CrossFire. Frankly speaking, we don’t know anyone who would want to. Not because of the issues mentioned above but because ATI is a bit too late with it.

The Tech Report

Other CrossFire shortcomings will likely be addressed with the release of new ATI graphics hardware, including the resolution/refresh rate ceiling of 1600x1200 at 60Hz. However, some CrossFire idiosyncracies probably won't be going away any time soon, including the need for a separate CrossFire Edition master card, those pesky external cables, and the relatively pokey PCI and USB performance of the Radeon Xpress 200 south bridge.

TrustedReviews

So, going back to my original question, was CrossFire worth the wait? Well in its current guise probably not. In my opinion ATI should have waited for the R520 to appear before launching CrossFire...


Monday Roundup - 9/26/05 @ 9:04 am - By: MaxPower - Source: Various


Friday Roundup - 9/23/05 @ 12:10 am - By: MaxPower - Source: Various


Thursday Roundup - 9/22/05 @ 12:16 am - By: MaxPower - Source: Various


Lost Coast Results - 9/21/05 @ 7:21 pm - By: MikeC - Source: Email
bit-tech.net has the first benchmarks on the web of Half Life 2: Lost Coast. They have put together comparative screenshots between NVIDIA and ATI-based graphics cards with and without HDR and also have a video preview of the level.


81.26 Beta Drivers - 9/21/05 @ 11:27 am - By: MikeC - Source: Email
Here is NVIDIA's response to the 81.26 driver that has recently surfaced on the web.

“NVIDIA is continually releasing drivers to our OEM partners, ISVs, and developers for testing and evaluating new NVIDIA products and new software applications. This driver v81.26 that has appeared on the web is not reflective of the final driver stability quality that NVIDIA will release, so many of the application problems that users are reporting are a result of alpha driver.

NVIDIA recommends users continue to use official drivers from our websites: NVIDIA.com or nZone.com. These drivers have been thoroughly tested by our QA and performance labs.

Please continue to check back on our websites for new official drivers from NVIDIA that will be released in the near future.”


Wednesday Roundup - 9/21/05 @ 12:24 am - By: MaxPower - Source: Various


More C51 Information - 9/20/05 @ 8:25 pm - By: MikeC - Source: Email
Here are a few key points of NVIDIA's new nForce 400 MCP and the GeForce 6100 Series GPU, code named C51, followed by a brief Q&A.
  • The GeForce 6100 series is the first .09 GPU to hit the market

  • The nForce 400 series is NVIDIA's first MCP to support Azalia

  • Both product families are cross compatible, providing system builders and OEMs the ultimate flexibility in designing platforms for their customers

  • First motherboard solution to support high-definition video along with providing customers with the ability to offer component-out, composite-out and S-Video-out jacks right on the backplane

  • First UMA solution to support both DirectX 9.0 and Shader Model 3

  • Primed for digital media applications such as Daz Studio and Pinnacle Studio 10, along with mainstream games such as Sims2 and Lego Star Wars

  • Boards are all micro-ATX, and there are some exciting new form factors coming out from companies such as RicaVision (www.ricavision.com) who are building living room/convergence products

Q: What is the clock speed of the GeForce 6150?

A: 475

Q: What is the clock speed of the GeForce 6100

A: 425

Q: What is the process size of nForce 430 and nForce 410?

A: 0.14 um

Q: What is the process size of GeForce 6150 and GeForce 6100

A: 0.09 um or 90 nm

Q: Can the GeForce 6100 or GeForce 6150 be equipped with on-board memory? If so, how wide is the memory bus to this local memory?

A: 6100 and 6150 are designed to keep system costs at a minimum by always running in UMA configuration.

Q: What is the HT link width and speed (or just bandwidth) between the GeForce 6100 and nForce 400 series?

A: 1.6 GBps in each direction

Q: Is C51 compatible with nTune?

A: Yes. There is full nTune support for C51.

Q: Does C51 offer Azalia support?

A: Yes.

Q: How many pixel pipelines in the GeForce 6100 series?

A: 2

Q: How many vertex pipelines in the GeForce 6100 series?

A: 1

Q: Does plugging in an external add-in graphics card disable the on-board graphics?

A: No.

Q: If I plug in an add-in graphics card, can I run up to four displays simultaneously?

A: Yes, as long as the motherboard manufacturer has enabled the outputs on their product.

Q: Can you run an SLI setup with C51?

A: No, this product is aimed at the UMA mainstream market, serviced primarily by the system builder, system integrator, and OEM communities. SLI is not a requirement for these markets.


New NVIDIA Products - 9/20/05 @ 8:15 pm - By: MikeC - Source: Email
NVIDIA has announced new products that are targeted at the integrated computing market for the AMD64 platform. The nForce 400 Media and Communications Processors (MCPs) and GeForce 6 Series of Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) will give system builders the flexibility to mix and match MCPs and GPUs and provide an assortment of integrated products.

SANTA CLARA, CA—SEPTEMBER 20, 2005—NVIDIA Corporation (Nasdaq: NVDA), a worldwide leader in graphics and digital media processors, today unveiled the Company’s latest core-logic motherboard solutions—targeted at the integrated computing markets—combining new NVIDIA nForce 400 media and communications processors (MCPs) with a new line of the Company’s GeForce6 series graphics processing units (GPUs).

Developed for AMD64-based computing platforms, the family of NVIDIA nForce 400 MCPs and GeForce 6100 GPUs provide the world’s leading motherboard manufacturers, including ASUSTeK, Biostar, Chaintech, DFI, ECS, Epox, Foxconn, Gigabyte, Jetway, MSI, and Shuttle, with the first and only GPU motherboard solutions designed to:

  • Deliver high-definition video playback and output to high-definition televisions

  • Leverage the GeForce6 graphics core that supports both Microsoft DirectX 9.0 and Shader Model 3 (SM3.0) and

  • Provide other important digital media functionality, including secure networking and secure storage, features important to today’s mainstream users

With the NVIDIA nForce 400 and GeForce 6100 products forming the technological foundation for the motherboard, global OEMs and system builders are now able to design affordable, flexible, and innovative solutions for a variety of PC platforms, including mainstream offerings for Microsoft Media Center, convergence digital media products in unique, small form-factors, and small office, home office solutions. In addition, system builders and OEMs can promote their systems as being "HD Ready" by integrating DVI and component outputs directly on the PC for hassle-free connection to a high definition display or television.

This is made possible by integration of NVIDIA Pure Video technology, whose hardware acceleration engine enables smooth playback of HD video, including Windows Media 9- and MPEG 2-based footage, with minimal CPU overhead. NVIDIA PureVideo technology also delivers advanced video features to the PC—including advanced de-interlacing, inverse telecine, and high-quality scaling—rivaling that of high-end consumer electronics DVD players.

"Over the last few years, our discrete NVIDIA nForce products have completely redefined the high-end enthusiast space, allowing us to achieve a significant market share position, but with this new product introduction we are focused on an equally important segment—the integrated mainstream market serviced most commonly with PC OEMs and system integrators," said Drew Henry, general manager of platform product at NVIDIA. "We are confident that our new NVIDIA nForce 400 series of MCPs combined with our new GeForce 6100 series of GPUs will provide the only viable foundation for powering today’s digital media and high-definition video-centric PC platforms."

"NVIDIA’s chipset and graphics innovation coupled with AMD64 technology continues to set new standards of excellence," said Emile Ianni, corporate vice president, Platform Engineering and Infrastructure Development, Microprocessor Solutions Sector, AMD. "Today’s announcement showcases NVIDIA’s commitment to extend to integrated solutions the leading-edge performance available until now only through discrete solutions. We are helping system integrators and OEMs offer their customers feature-rich AMD64 platforms for a variety of markets, including Media Center PCs, digital media PCs, small office/home office and home theater convergence products."

NVIDIA nForce 400 and GeForce 6100-based systems will be available from worldwide system builders in October. Additional product information and specific partner availability will be made at that time.


Tuesday Roundup - 9/20/05 @ 12:42 am - By: MaxPower - Source:


F.E.A.R. Preview - 9/19/05 @ 9:20 am - By: MaxPower - Source: e-mail
Guru 3d has put together a nice preview of the highly anticipated F.E.A.R. which recently went gold.

There has been a great amount of talk surrounding this game of late, and as we here at Guru 3d aim to please, it was decided we would take a quick pre-release look at both single player and multiplayer aspects of this game, with some preliminary testing and benchmark results, to give you an idea of just what to expect, and whether your brand spanking new 7800GTX will be just as scared of that Girl in the Red Dress as you!


Monday Roundup - 9/19/05 @ 12:16 am - By: MaxPower - Source:


SLI Review Updates - 9/16/05 @ 6:43 pm - By: MikeC - Source: N/A
I have made a couple of updates to the MSI NX7800GTX SLI review since it was originally published. One of the updates consists of benchmark results from the following scene in The Lord of the Rings, The Battle for Middle-earth.

The second update consists of Half-Life 2 gameplay results along with four 2048x1536 screenshots with 4X AA enabled. Absolutely impressive.


Rel 80 SLI Features - 9/16/05 @ 6:01 pm - By: MikeC - Source: NVIDIA
There is more good news on the horizon for SLI owners as NVIDIA's upcoming Release 80 drivers will contain the following features and enhancements.
  • TV-out / HDTV-out support for even higher resolution gaming support

  • Mix and match vendors - for example, pairing an SLI supported graphics card from MSI with one from BFG or XFX

  • Mix and match framebuffers (via Coolbits) - pairing a 128MB graphics card with a 256MB graphics card

  • Ability to enable vsync for all Direct3D and OpenGL games

  • Dynamically enable/disable SLI - rebooting is eliminated!

  • Primary Display Switching

  • Auto Display Detection

  • Linux Support
Also, the number of SLI Optimized games will increase to around 150!


Thursday Roundup - 9/15/05 @ 5:55 pm - By: MikeC - Source: Email


Wednesday Roundup - 9/14/05 @ 1:08 pm - By: MikeC - Source: Email
Congrats to Clay and his wife Laura for giving birth to a healthy baby girl - Eleanor Jean!


Tuesday Roundup - 9/13/05 @ 5:03 am - By: MaxPower - Source: Various


7800 GT Review - 9/12/05 @ 11:19 pm - By: MaxPower - Source: nV News
Jonathan Martini has put together a follow-up to Mike's initial impressions of the 7800GT. Jonathan sums it up best in his own words by saying:

This report will take a more comprehensive/exhaustive look at what the GeForce 7800 GT brings to the table and what it means for the high-end gamer.


Monday Roundup - 9/12/05 @ 9:56 am - By: MaxPower - Source:


Graphics Roundup - 9/09/05 @ 7:34 pm - By: MikeC - Source: Browsing
X-bit labs has completed a mega-roundup of graphics cards in their latest article - The Fastest Graphics Cards of Summer 2005: Ultimate Testing of 17 GPUs in 30 Games. The goal of the roundup is to determine the best graphics solutions at various price points. Here's a snippet.

This review was conceived to be a shopper’s guide for the time being and to make your choice of a graphics card in any price category easier. But before we see how fast popular games run on currently available graphics hardware, we want to remind you in brief what happened in the first half of this year.


RivaTuner Update - 9/09/05 @ 7:03 am - By: MaxPower - Source: Email
This update of RivaTuner is substantial. Some of the new features that really jump out at me are:
  • Now RivaTuner is able to monitor independent clock frequencies for core clock / geometric domain, core clock / shader domain and core clock / raster domain of G70 GPUs.

  • Added ForceWare 78.xx and 80.xx driver families support.

  • Added driver-level fan control tab for NVIDIA display adapters, allowing setting independent 2D, low power 3D and 3D fan speeds via the driver's generic fan speed adjustment interface.

Today Guru of 3D brings you a new release of the inmensely popular GeForce/Radeon tweaking tool RivaTuner. The purpose of this utility is to give you access to all the undocumented features of ForceWare and Catalyst drivers. This new 15.7 update is as expected extremely large. Please check the "What's new" information for a specific explanation of the update. There are some very interesting new items in there, let alone four pages with information of all the changes.


Friday Roundup - 9/09/05 @ 3:17 am - By: MikeC - Source: Various


MSI NX7800GTX SLI - 9/08/05 @ 10:06 pm - By: MikeC - Source: N/A
I have completed my review of MSI's NX7800GTX SLI. This product has provided the most visually impressive gaming experience I have ever had. Instead of attempting to describe the experience, all you need to do is to pay close attention to the settings that were used to obtain the results that are documented in the benchmark and game play sections.

Check it out here.


ATI Shimmering - 9/08/05 @ 10:02 pm - By: MaxPower - Source: Browsing
The shimmering issue rages on and ATI's new Catalyst 5.8 drivers are no exception.

So to our surprise we found out earlier this week, and as reported here, that ATI’s Catalyst 5.8 new drivers have the exact same problem. And unlike NVIDIA, that was on the ball immediately after reports of texture filtering issues with their newly bought GeForce 7800 GT or 7800 GTX, ATI doesn’t even list it in the release notes for their Catalyst drivers. Normally these new releases are accompanied by release notes that describe bugs that are still unresolved and are being worked upon, the texture filtering issue however isn’t mentioned.


Gigabyte Dual GPU - 9/08/05 @ 8:23 am - By: MaxPower - Source: Email
Wayne, over at 3DVelocity.com, takes a look at some dual GPU action from Gigabyte. He has a nice breakdown of his thoughts on how this particular card may appeal to different types of gamers.

When news of Gigabyte's 3D1 series first broke it seemed almost too good to be true. My initial assumption (or was it a hope) was that here we had a dual GPU graphics card capable of running in a single PCI-e x16 slot regardless of the chipset.

As you no doubt realise, I was wrong. What we actually have is a dual GPU graphics card capable of running only on SLI capable motherboards and worse yet, only in Gigabyte's own SLI boards, officially at least.


Thursday Roundup - 9/08/05 @ 12:05 am - By: MaxPower - Source:


EVGA Katrina Relief - 9/07/05 @ 11:26 pm - By: MaxPower - Source: Email
We're honored to help spread the word about EVGA's desire to help with hurricane relief efforts.

In our efforts to support those affected by Hurricane Katrina, EVGA is donating 100% of the proceeds from this auction to the American Red Cross. In addition, EVGA will double the final auction amount and add to the total donation.

You can bid on the e-GeForce 7800 GTX here.


Matrox G550 PCIe - 9/07/05 @ 2:27 pm - By: MaxPower - Source: nV News Forums
I've always had a soft spot for Matrox video cards. Their new G550 PCIe is pretty cool when you consider that it is an x1 form factor.


Lost in Poland - 9/07/05 @ 9:47 am - By: MaxPower - Source: Email
Here's an interesing diversion from the typical tech news. I thought I was reading portions of The Terminal at times but there wasn't no mention of Catherine Zeta-Jones. It's a fun read.

Well, technically, I was allowed on the airplane but the paper-pushers at the airport said I’d be in for a jolly old time with American Customs if I made it. Days, weeks perhaps, held in limbo.

Supposedly, there’s an ancient Chinese curse that goes "may you live in interesting times"; it was shaping up to be an interesting day at the least. Here I was – tired, hung-over, jet-lagged, and stuck in Poland. Friday the second was starting to feel like Friday the thirteenth.


Wednesday Roundup - 9/07/05 @ 12:04 am - By: MaxPower - Source:


Copperhead Review - 9/06/05 @ 3:31 pm - By: MaxPower - Source: browsing
Here's a nice review of the Razer Copperhead gaming mouse. Warm up your scroll-wheel because the reviewer apparently doesn't like multiple pages.

This mouse has a 2000DPI laser sensor, powered by a proprietary engine. This is more sensitive than any other mouse currently available. The mouse also features 1000 Hz USB “Ultrapolling”, adjustable to 125Hz & 500Hz, with a 1 ms response time. These mean that it polls the USB bus faster than any other mouse available, allowing for faster response time.


NVIDIA at IBC 2005 - 9/06/05 @ 11:14 am - By: MaxPower - Source: SYPHA
Here is an interesting bit of news for the professional workstation crowd.

"We are excited to be showcasing our portfolio of products for the broadcast, film and video markets at this year's IBC as it attracts every major supplier of technology for the creation, management and delivery of entertainment content," said Adam Foat, Product PR Manager EMEA, NVIDIA "The products NVIDIA have on show are unique and are certain to attract attention, as they will bring commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) platforms to an industry that has traditionally been dependent on proprietary systems that were costly to install, manage and upgrade."


Tuesday Roundup - 9/06/05 @ 7:51 am - By: MaxPower - Source:


Holiday Roundup - 9/04/05 @ 8:59 pm - By: MaxPower - Source:


XFX 7800 GTX OC - 9/04/05 @ 3:52 am - By: MUYA - Source: Browsing
XFX like eVGA and ASUS offers an extremely factory overclocked version of the GeForce 7800 GTX card. Even with what looks to be a HSF based on reference design by NVIDIA (unlike eVGAs and Asus who use customized HSFs) the XFX card which comes factory overclocked at 490MHz core and 1.3GHz memory. GamePC takes 2 of these cards for a spin and you can read up about their endeavours by clicking the headline.

At these higher clock speeds, a single (!) XFX GeForce 7800 GTX Overclocked card outperforms two GeForce 6800 GT cards in an SLI configuration across the board, and in most benchmarks, even beats two GeForce 6800 Ultra cards in SLI as well. This is some serious graphics horsepower for a single graphics card. In order to get the best performance out of these cards, you really do need a fairly high-end processor and you do need to run your games at high resolutions with the image quality effects turned up. The XFX cards really shine on newer titles like Battlefield 2 and FEAR, besting dual 6800 Ultra cards in SLI at a far lower price tag.


AMD or Intel? - 9/04/05 @ 12:10 am - By: MUYA - Source: Browsing
Extremetech have an interesting investigation over at their place relating to gaming performance and choice of CPU, AMD or Intel? AMD Athlon64? Intel P4? The graphics card of a XFX GeForce 7800 GTX was the only major constant for this investigation which for all purposes throws the actual CPU platform to the equation as there are variables including, chipsets, memory and timings, etc. Interesting read focusing on sustained levels of FPS above an acceptable level which you can goto by clicking the headline.


78.03 Beta Download - 9/02/05 @ 10:11 am - By: HalcYoN - Source: Forum
The 78.03 Beta Forceware driver is available for download in both 32-bit and 64-bit versions.

Release Notes:

  • Resolved issue with some application profile settings not overriding the global profiles settings.
  • Improved High Quality performance setting on GeForce 7 series to reduce shimmering artifacts
  • Microsoft® DirectX® 9.0c and OpenGL® 2.0 support


Friday Roundup - 9/02/05 @ 7:50 am - By: MaxPower - Source:


BFG PhysX Card - 9/01/05 @ 10:20 am - By: MaxPower - Source: Browsing
This is great news for any gamer out there. BFG Technologies continues to reinforce their "Built for Gamers" moniker by bringing a physics processing card to your gaming rig. Even better, these are slated for availability by the end of this year!

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. and LAKE FOREST, Ill., Sept. 1 /PRNewswire/ --AGEIA(TM) Technologies, Inc., the pioneer in hardware-accelerated physics forgames and BFG Technologies(R), Inc., a leading U.S.-based supplier of advanced3D graphics cards and other PC enthusiast products, announced today that theyhave entered into a retail distribution agreement. Under the contract, BFGTechnologies will manufacture, sell, market and distribute personal computeradd-in cards powered by the AGEIA PhysX(TM) processor to retail, e-tail anddistributors in the United States, Canada and the European Union memberstates.

AGEIA's PhysX chip defines an entirely new category of processor: thephysics processing unit that, when coupled with the PhysX SDK, provides cost-effective hardware acceleration of physical interactions within a gameenvironment, such as fluid dynamics and rigid body dynamics. The result willre-ignite the enthusiasm of gamers and game creators alike, and has thepotential to propel physics technology into unexplored new markets.

There is a growing discussion on this announcement here in our forums.


NVIDIA PureVideo - 9/01/05 @ 12:11 am - By: MaxPower - Source: Email
Digital Producer Magazine interviewed Scott Vouri, NVIDIA 's general manager of multimedia, with focus on PureVideo. NVIDIA's PureVideo The technology ensures smooth playback of high definition MPEG-2 and Windows Media Video.

DMN: Has the technology been standardized to ensure correct colors for TV playback?

SV: Yes, in fact PureVideo is ISF certified, which means that it meets the highest standards for home theater display output levels.


Thursday Roundup - 9/01/05 @ 12:02 am - By: MaxPower - Source:


 Visitors Are Online
Powered by Perlonline.com