Each month we here at Guru3D.com we choose a rig of the month.
September 2008 are 'Flatline & Coma PCs' from 'Flatline aka Dave. Pretty normal PCs (for Guru3D standards) nice pimping jobs on them. But obviously the semi-control room he created is pretty interesting to see by any standard.
http://www.guru3d.com/category/rigs/
Microsoft will make many of its previously standard bundled apps optional with the launch of Windows 7, the company said late Monday. While Vista came with copies of Windows Mail, Movie Maker and Photo Gallery regardless of the edition, the sequel operating system will now remove those entirely and make available only downloadable versions that can tap into Windows Live. The company argues that the move will ensure a quicker turnaround for the launch of the next Windows version and that it lets Microsoft work with firms in the future to customize the experience.
No explanation is given for how this would work, though Microsoft in the aftermath of antitrust rulings has had to agree to deals which saw different web browsers and other apps replace its own in PC bundles.
The update also saves Microsoft the challenge of supporting two distinct but functionally equivalent apps in some cases.
Microsoft's acknowledgment of speed as an issue supports some as-yet tentative claims that the company is attempting to hurry the Windows 7 release for late 2009 or earlier as well as to avoid the years-long delay for Windows Vista. The company has officially penned in an early 2010 launch for the update but is also facing a hostile reaction to Vista from home and business users, both of whom have encountered early compatibility and performance issues that are believed to be hurting Microsoft's public image.
The company recently started a $300 million ad campaign that includes Jerry Seinfeld and other celebrities in a bid to drive Vista sales before Windows 7 arrives. Microsoft's most recent ad launches a minor attack on Apple's "Get a Mac" ads by claiming that they present an unfair stereotype of Windows users and their experience.
By contrast, Apple has typically had a relatively short release cycle of between one to two years for major operating system updates by splitting its iLife creative suite away from Mac OS X. The move lets the software developer ship updates to either program independently of one another, although Apple to date has made no plans to drop its e-mail application. [Via Macnn]
Added logging of sensor data to file
Download - click here.
On the web photo's of a Intel Core i7 965 XE engineering sample and its stock cooler. The stock cooler is composed of the same fins projecting radially, just that they are much thinner, and more in number (to boost surface area of dissipation). The cooler uses 50% of fins made of copper and the rest 50% made of aluminum.
The large CPU contact base is made of copper and pre-applied TIM. The box pictured is the "white-box" part, expect the retail box to be of that exact size.
The device itself may not look as sexy as the iPhone, but the software is where T-Mobile and Google will likely focus the brunt of their joint marketing effort. Google's Android platform not only includes an open-source, Linux-based operating system and a neat user interface, but also a full-featured suite of apps. You'll find a WebKit-based browser, Google Talk, Gmail, Amazon MP3 software that lets you buy songs with the device, a built-in version of Google Maps with a "compass" feature that follows your movements in the Street View mode, and a music player that lets you search for related videos on YouTube.
If the built-in apps don't satisfy you, you'll be able to hop into the Android Market and download third-party software. Google points out that developers don't have to jump through hoops to get started writing Android apps (indeed, the SDK is freely downloadable here), so G1 owners should eventually have access to a healthy software library. Google co-founder Sergey Brin even mentioned writing an app that, if you throw the G1 in the air, calculates how long it spends flying before falling back in your hand (or the floor). A T-Mobile executive also discussed an app that lets you scan product bar codes and look up prices online.
T-Mobile says you'll be able to pre-order the G1 starting today for $179-about 20 bucks cheaper than the iPhone. The device will officially become available on October 22 in the U.S., some time in November in the United Kingdom, and in the first quarter of 2009 for the rest of Europe. The G1 may not replace Blackberry and iPhone devices in corporate users' pockets just yet, though: there's currently no Microsoft Exchange e-mail support, and T-Mobile suggested it may leave that up to third-party developers.
The good folks from Ubisoft has released batch of screenshots from Far Cry 2, providing a glimpse of the title's various multiplayer modes running on the PC. In addition, the first "patch" for Far Cry 2, when it's released, may introduce a number of predatory animals into the mix. Out of the box, Far Cry 2 only features a handful of herbivores.
Far Cry 2 will be released late in October.
One of the Guru3D users created this small utility to assist on benchmarking Crysis Warhead, much like Crysis Benchmarking tool.
Requirements: Windows XP/Vista - Microsoft .NET Framework 1.1 - Crysis WARHEAD (not included)
The benchmark tool contains 3 timedemos named framebuffer.tmd that will be saved on folders Game\Levels\ambush, Game\Levels\avalanche and Game\Levels\frost.
Note: None of your Crysis Warhead files will be changed or removed, just the 3 timedemos will be saved on the folders above.
CHANGELOG
0.17 - 23/09/2008
STEAM fix.
0.16 - 23/09/2008
Added support for STEAM. Thanks to HaljordanGL2814 from adrenaline forum for testing and feedback.
Added experimental system information and results submission to ranked server (not working yet on this build)
Added option to save text results after benchmarking
0.15 - 22/09/2008
Added support to WH internal flythrough timedemos
Download - click here.
Apparantly it won't be long before we'll see yet another series 4800 Radeon graphics card, the Radeon HD 4830. The new card is equipped with the RV770 chip that we know from the 4850/4870 cards and comes with a 256-bit memory interface and should compete with the GeForce 9800 GT.
An interesting rumor though is that the new graphics card will actually be made by AIBs themselves, which means that we're going to witness the launch of differently clocked boards and probably also differently featured.
The RV770LE graphics card will come with 512MB of memory and will have 480 stream processors. Sources say that the card will differ from the Radeon HD 4850 solution on the pipeline numbers, as the graphics card manufacturer plans to lower the pipeline count on it. There are no specific details on the amount of branches that will be cut, yet the card will end up with less pipes than Radeon 4850 and 4870.
When it comes to pricing, the card should fit just well on a position below Radeon HD 4850 and above HD 4670, but the company hasn't come up with a specific price just yet. We should also note the fact that Radeon HD 4830 is expected to fight the NVIDIA GeForce 9800GT and GeForce 9600GT cards, and the 9800GT's are placed a little over
There's a credible rumor on the web that HP is going to shut down the VoodooPC operation, citing both an internal e-mail discussing layoffs, and the fact that the company returned over 300 power supplies to Topower, a hardware partner.
It would be strange for HP to be shutting down its boutique hardware shop, given the fact that it is just now ramping up promotion of its newest, totally cool Envy and Omen systems, but stranger things have happened in corporate America, and these are strange times indeed. Say it ain't so, Rahul.
Update: Voodoo founder Rahul Sood answer:
HP is working on a plan to better leverage its existing resources to bring Voodoo products to market faster and make them more accessible to consumers. I can assure you that Voodoo employees and champions of the brand will continue to work on the conceptualization, design and development of Voodoo products.
We can infer from this that the Voodoo brand will continue, and the Voodoo team will stay more or less intact, but that Voodoo may move into a more designy role here, and do less of the nuts-and-bolts assembly that it was doing before. That's my interpretation. As was the case a month ago when we inquired as to the health of Voodoo, Rahul directed us to his blog for further info. Thanks Rahul!
This time around we test and review the GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 Superclocked from EVGA. The all new GTX 260 model has 24 more shader processors and was overclocked at default to squeeze more performance out of it. Overall we where very happy with the price versus performance ratio giving you a really good gaming experience. Be sure to check out this review.
Click here to read this Guru3D article.
Adobe today unveiled Creative Suite 4, bringing with it Photoshop CS4 and Photoshop CS4 Extended, the latest versions to the photo editing application, optimized to take advantage of GPUs, along with many more features. Photoshop CS4 also simplifies many tasks, with content-aware scaling, auto-align and auto-blend modes on 360 degree panoramas.
Photoshop CS4's new GPU-aware nature allows it to share intensive tasks with the graphics card, speeding up operations significantly. Photoshop will offload panning, zooming, canvas rotation and several other operations to the GPU, allowing users to also experience a more free-flowing workspace.
In addition to the above-mentioned features, Photoshop CS4 Extended allows users to paint directly on 3D objects, as well as texturing them with 2D images. Users can also animate 3D objects, and the software includes a new ray-tracer to create more realistic renderings. Parameters, such as lighting, can also be edited, and can compile DICOM image stacks into three-dimensional models for medical personnel.
According to sources, AMD will begin to change their naming scheme for their 45nm CPU: they will keep the Phenom X4/X3 branding , but the numbers will get five digits.
Sources mentioned that the name of two 45nm CPU this year will be Phenom X4 20550 and Phenom X4 20350, with their AM2+ and DDR2 support, these two 45nm Deneb CPU are only available for a short period (last order at 09Q2), for AM2+ mobo users to update AMD
We already showed you this technology a couple of times in our Computex and CeBIT reports, but it looks like Thermaltake is taking it serious (that or this is a very good marketing gimmick).
The crazed coolant doctors at Thermaltake are now shipping what they're claiming is the first case to feature a DC-inverter micro refrigeration system onboard, which goes beyond conventional liquid-cooled setups by using the same type of compressor/condenser/coolant system found in a refrigerator or air conditioner into your PC case. Thermaltake claims the Xpressar gains an additional drop of 20
Ah speculation time again. Well, we all love it so it appears that Australian e-tailer Austin Computers has already begun listing two future NVIDIA stock keeping units (SKUs) - which obviously - are yet to arrive.
The first listing is that of a GeForce GTX 280+, which preliminary specifications show could be a 55nm variant of the same GeForce GTX 280. Looking at how NVIDIA dealt with the 9800 GTX+, it could be assumed that the new GTX 280+ could feature higher clock speeds in order to make it more competitive.
Second to be listed, which looks rather surprising, is that of a GeForce GTX 350, based on the GT300 graphics processor. Again, whatever little specifications listed, show that the card is based on the 55nm silicon fab. process and holds 2 GB of GDDR5 memory across a 512-bit wide memory bus. It is mentioned that the product could be available any time in Q4 2008. Is NVIDIA gearing up for X'mas? [via Techpowerup]
Ascaron has announced that Sacred 2: Fallen Angel has been approved for manufacturing and will hit the store shelves on October 2, 2008. ASCARON and Deep Silver, the games label of Koch Media, announced today that SACRED 2
If you like to ride your bike at night or are just a generally happy person, this LED accessory is certain to brighten up your riding experience. Or at least attract some funny looks.
This LED accessory just clicks onto the wheel of your bike. Pretty simple stuff. In fact, each wheel only has one LED on it. But by means of a microchip, each LED flashes in a strobe-like fashion according to how fast you
Sony is gearing up to launch a likely Centrino 2-based update to its VAIO TZ ultraportable notebooks, according to evidence from an FCC filing and a string of forum posts. Called the VAIO TT, the computer would be one of the last remaining systems to launch with Sony's design update and is known to be too powerful to represent Sony's upcoming netbook; most specifications are unavailable, but the notebook will have 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and optional 3G access over EVDO.
A listing at online retailer B&H for a privacy filter which supports both the TZ and TT also pushes the system into the ultraportable class with an 11.1-inch display.
While yet to be confirmed, claims have been made that the new VAIO would be introduced on Monday, lining up roughly with wider availability of ultra-low voltage Core 2 Duo processors that will be necessary for the update. Exact configurations are unknown but will likely include carry-over options from the TZ, such as solid-state drives. [via Sony Insider]
Here at Guru3D we have something that is called the VGA charts. The VGA charts is simply put a selection of games in which we will show you performance numbers (measured by average framerate). The distinct difference review results and these charts is two-fold, in our reviews we can only show you 5 maybe 6 comparative graphics card results due to limitation. In the VGA chart you can see all the reference cards we have tested in an orderly and easy to comprehend manner.
The VGA charts landing page can be found here:
http://www.guru3d.com/category/vga_charts/
The University of Rochester with help from MIT pulls the wraps off the first true 3D processor
While quantum computers and fiber optic computers are certainly ideal candidates for a silicon PC replacement, they remain in the distant future. In the meantime, one key unexploited domain, which may give silicon a stay of retirement, is 3D chip technologies.
Today virtually all chips on the market are flat, two dimensional designs. While this is somewhat efficient from a cooling perspective, it offers definite limitations in terms of computing resources per given space. A 3D chip could theoretically be much more compact, while being equally efficient. This would have the added perk that it could reduce defects, as larger dies typically lead to more defects. It would also limit propagation delays by shortening interconnects and make the chip harder to reverse engineer.
While some chips designs have claimed to be "3D", most of these designs are merely stacked chips with a few communications interconnects and not mass interoperation between stacked layers. Now the University of Rochester has demoed perhaps the first true 3D processor design. The chip is optimized in 3 dimensions and runs at a speedy 1.4 GHz. Its unique design allows it to become the first chip to offer full functionality in three dimensions in tasks involving synchronicity, power distribution, and long-distance signaling.
"I call it a cube now, because it's not just a chip anymore. This is the way computing is going to have to be done in the future. When the chips are flush against each other, they can do things you could never do with a regular 2-D chip," stated Eby Friedman, Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Rochester and faculty director of the processor.
Professor Friedman worked with engineering student Vasilis Pavlidis to develop the design. He says that while Moore's Law of transistors in a given chip area doubling with time may come to halt in a 2 dimensional world, as some are suggesting, extending processors into 3 dimensions will allow it to continue as fast as ever.
The hardest part according to the researchers is getting the levels of the chip to properly interact. Professor Friedman compares the problem to a scenario where a standard microprocessor is like the U.S. traffic system, and then the 3D processor is like 3 or more U.S. traffic systems stacked atop each other and expected to coordinate traffic between levels. He says the problem is even tougher as the processors are different, so it
