Fraps is a universal Windows application that can be used with games using DirectX or OpenGL graphic technology.

In its current form Fraps performs many tasks and can best be described as:

Benchmarking Software - Show how many Frames Per Second (FPS) you are getting in a corner of your screen. Perform custom benchmarks and measure the frame rate between any two points. Save the statistics out to disk and use them for your own reviews and applications.

Screen Capture Software - Take a screenshot with the press of a key! There's no need to paste into a paint program every time you want a new shot. Your screen captures are automatically named and timestamped.

Realtime Video Capture Software - Have you ever wanted to record video while playing your favourite game? Come join the Machinima revolution! Throw away the VCR, forget about using a DV cam, game recording has never been this easy! Fraps can capture audio and video up to 2560x1600 with custom frame rates from 10 to 120 frames per second!

Changelog 3.2.0 - 26th Mar 2010

• Added loop recording for registered users.  Press and hold video capture hotkey to start 30 second buffer
• Added option to disable stereoscopic capture when running with NVIDIA 3DVision
• Major optimizations for recording from D3D10 & D3D11 games

Download

GeForce GTX 480 noise levels debunked

Ever since the release today of the GeForce GTX 400 series there has been much discussion regarding the noise levels the cards make under load. Especially the GTX 480 is topic of much discussion. Some sites show numbers up in the 60 to 70 DBa, which honestly is really too subjective.

What happens is that people measure differently and often subjectively. If you place a DBa gun a CM away from the graphics card ventilator then sure, you record really high noise levels. But if you play games, do you place your ear directly on the air exhaust ? Of course not, that just does not make sense to us.

We measure real-life conditions. That means we take a distance of 75cm from the PC and place a DBa gun pointed at the PC. We assume your PC chassis is closed and not open, so is ours. Now to proof to you that the GTX 480 is noisy, but definitely not what some media make it claim to be. I made two video's of the GTX 480 in idle and under heavy stress with Furmark.

The end result is A PC creating roughly as much noise as say a GeForce GTX 295. And again, we are not disputing that this isn't noisy, contrary .. it is noisy alright. But to say it's at a the level of 60~70 DBa makes no sense.

Have a look and listen to the videos.

Above video shows the GeForce GTX 480 in IDLE = ~ 37 DBa.

Above video shows the GeForce GTX 480 heavily stressed with Furmark = ~ 45 DBa

And that my friends is how we measure. We are not saying that other websites are wrong in their measurements, no Sir. We measure in a real-life situation, and that's roughly the distance where your ears are positioned.

There is one more note I like to make, some sites made videos of the noise levels as well, and it is banging noisy. Just like our video, a video camera will always compensate and increase microphone levels when needed. Making that recording sound out of proportion.

Add to that this, if the only sound recorded is the noise of the PC, at what volume should you play it back to be able to have that volume level representative of what the noise levels really are ?

GeForce GTX 470 and 480 review

Today we test both the GeForce GTX 470 and 480. Yes, after waiting a ling time NVIDIA today finally released their high-end enthusiast class DirectX 11 capable demonic frag monsters. What we'll do today is focus on features, performance, power consumption, and heat envelopes mainly. We'll get you up-to-date on all the reference and official specifications and features of the new cards. Have a look at one of the most extensive articles we ever published.

In no less than 35 pages of content we'll try and show it all in relation to what you expect to do with a series 400 graphics card, gaming. Without further ado, let me point you to the article:

Read the Guru3D review right here.

And the last GTX 400 press release for today. MSI introduces its N480GTX and N470GTX:

Urged over and again until it appeared! In order to fulfill the demand for extreme 3D performance of hardcore gamers, internationally renowned motherboard and graphic card brand- manufacturer MSI launched today the long expecting premium graphic cards N480GTX-M2D15 and N470GTX-M2D12. Both models are built with the latest 40

Inno3D is excited to announce the grand unveiling of the Inno3D GeForce GTX 480 and GTX 470. The GTX 480 boasts an amazing 480 shader processors, a 384-bit interface to 1.5GB of onboard GDDR5 RAM, and clock speeds of 700MHz, 1,401MHz, and 1,848MHz for the core, shaders and memory, respectively - the GTX 470 has 448 SPs and with a 320-bit memory interface.

GTX480/470 was redesigned from the ground up to deliver the best performance on DX11 - adding dedicated engines in the GPU to accelerate key features like tessellation. Game performance and image quality has received a tremendous boost, enabling film-like geometric realism for game characters and objects. Geometric realism is central to the GTX480/470 architectural enhancements for graphics. In addition, PhysX simulations are much faster, and developers can utilize GPU computing features in games most effectively.

Inno3D's offering comes with reference clocks.

eVGA also issues their rpess releases and announces a complete series right away. The product they'll release include pre-overclock version and a liquid-cooled version as well:

• GTX 480&470
• GTX 480&470 SuperClocked FTW
• GTX 480&470 Hydro Copper

EVGA is proud to announce the latest and fastest GPU on planet earth, the EVGA GTX 480 and the EVGA GTX 470! Experience heart-pounding cinematic visuals thanks to the combined power of DirectX 11, NVIDIA PhysX, and NVIDIA 3D Vision Surround technologies.

Palit Microsystems Ltd, the leading graphics card manufacturer, announces the world

I assume that quite a lot of you guys will be on the lookout for 3rd party or water-cooling on the new GeForce GTX 470 and 480 to divert the massive heat production. Here's an interesting option.

CoolIT Systems, leaders in advanced liquid cooling technology, announced today that upon its retail availability this summer, the Omni ALC universal graphics card liquid cooling solution will offer full support of NVIDIA

A new game in the saga of Witcher has been announced 2 months ago and it seems from the Videos that it will be a very good one. This new addition it's called "Assasins of Kings" and promise to be a very dark game with a deep non-linear plot. 

Let's hear what the developers say about it:

CD Projekt RED officially announced The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, the sequel to the award-winning The Witcher, which has sold more than 1.5 million copies worldwide on PC alone.

The second entry in the Witcher saga is characterized by an incredibly gripping, mature and challenging non-linear plot. In addition, the new combat system is even smoother and guarantees a greater variety of tactical possibilities.

The game is built upon completely new technology, designed from scratch by CD Projekt RED to develop role-playing games with non-linear plot. The new technology also delivers beautiful visuals, transporting players to one of the most vivid RPG universes ever.

You can follow the game development on Twitter and even Facebook, you can also check the website for videos of Trailer and Real-Time gameplay.

The first Fermi press-release to enter the mailbox comes from Point of View.

Point of View known for its range of NVIDIA based 3D Graphics cards, Netbooks and other PC products, announces today its launch of the latest generation enthusiast graphics cards: the Point of View GTX 480 1536 MB and Point of View GTX 470 1280 MB.

Today we test both the GeForce GTX 470 and 480. What we'll do today is focus on features, performance, power consumption, and heat envelopes mainly. We'll get you up-to-date on all the reference and official specifications and features of the new cards. Have a look at one of the most extensive articles we ever published.

Guru3D Rig of the Month March 2010

Each month here at Guru3D.com we feature one of you guys, your PC, your DIY project. It is quite honestly amazing how much detail and dedication you put into an PC, and every now and then it really shows. We again had a LOT of entries coming in in the past five weeks, thank you very much for that. Out of the fifteen most original we in the end randomly picked one.

This rig of the month totally speaks for itself, an outstanding PC build, sheer beauty and then an excellent photo-shoot highlighting the craftsmanship you are about to see.

Warthorn (Matt) PC is the the Rig of The Month March 2010. Meet the dude at the age of 21, he has been a Guru3D aficionado for four years (!) already digging through our articles, he shares our passion of building nice PCs.

Check out his rig right here.

MSI plans to unveil its third Big Bang motherboard, the XPower. This new motherboard uses Intel's X58 chipset and features six PCI Express x16 slots, six DDR3 memory slots, SATA 6Gbps and USB 3.0.

The motherboard is designed for hardware enthusiasts, it features 16-phase DrMOS PWM, two 8-pin power connectors, Hi-C capacitors, an extra 6-pin PCIe power input for the PCIe slots, OC Dashboard and V-Kit. Audio is provided by a Quantum Wave audio card with 7.1 channel audio, EAX 5.0 and THX TruStudio PC Suite.

MSI thropws in six (!) PCI-Express x16 slots.  While the ICH10R gives out six SATA 3 Gb/s ports, an additional controller gives two 6 Gb/s ports (colour-coded white). Audio is care of a bundled PCI-Express x1 audio card called the MSI QuantumWave that includes THX TruStudio PC Suite, and support for Creative EAX 5.0 HD. Connectivity includes dual gigabit Ethernet, two USB 3.0 ports next to a number of USB 2.0 ports, power-eSATA, FireWire, and a connector for the OC Dashboard module.

It looks like MSI is using a generous splattering of them on the new Big Bang XPower. Q1 in 2010, and it already looks like we're supposed to spell "promising" with the "I" before the "M."  The motherboard looks a bit naked but that's because the photos don't show the cooling solution that will be shipped with the retail models.

Click on the thumbnails.

In a mine is bigger than yours attempt is throwing in some fighting words along with its USB 3.0 implementation.  The company has basically said that not all USB 3.0 implementations are created equal (which is true), suggesting their motherboard chip can make data transmission almost 75-percent faster than rivals can manage (which is a little exaggerated).

The component in question is a PLX high-speed transmission chip (which we've been telling you about), which ASUS say is responsible for boosting USB 3.0 speed by 74.38-percent over competing motherboards.  While the company doesn

AMD has announced today that they are happy to be the first to fully support the recently released OpenGL 4.0.

AMD is supporting the 3D interface with its ATI Catalyst OpenGL 4.0 preview driver, which enables all OpenGL 4.0 functionality. The driver will be supported by the ATI Radeon HD 5000 series graphics cards, including the HD 5400, HD 5500, HD 5600, and HD 5700. All of the new features, are supported right out of the gate on these graphics cards, which is made possible by the OpenGL software team.

Some of the new features in the 4.0 release include OpenGL Shading Language revision 4.00 and shader subroutines that allow for significantly increased programming flexibility. The new version is meant to make it increasingly easier for developers, software programmers, and anyone else involved with OpenGL to use the platform. Which, we

Pioneer introduced its second AV receiver update this month with three new 7.1-channel models. The VSX-920-K, VSX-1020-K and VSX-1120-K all have special features for iPhones and iPods depending on the model. All have at least a compatible USB port that can play and charge Apple devices; the 1020-K and 1120-K have support for the iControlAV app (free, App Store) to steer the receivers, including multiple audio or video zones, balance tuning and input selection.

All of the receivers have an iPhone Control button to give control back to the touchscreen rather than let the receiver take over. An optional $99 Bluetooth receiver will take stereo Bluetooth from A2DP devices like the iPhone, second- or third-generation iPod touch players and most recent phones.

In their traditional roles, the Pioneer receivers carry 3D-capable HDMI 1.4 inputs and support Dolby Pro Logic IIz for virtual surround as well as real surround up to and including Dolby True HD and DTS HD Master Audio. At the base, the $399 920-K can handle 110W per channel, four HDMI inputs and an Anchor Bay image processor. Upgrading to the $549 1020-K adds a display with support for album art as well as two extra HDMI connectors, correction for compressed audio, two-channel audio signal sync and two-zone audio. The range-leading 1120-K at $749 adds an extra 10W per channel as well as a Marvell image processor, multi-channel sync and support for home automation through an RS-232 port.

Pioneer ships the first two models in May and delivers the top model a month later.

NVIDIA announced its GPU Technology Conference 2010 (GTC 2010) will take place on September 20-23 at the San Jose Convention Center:
NVIDIA today announced that the GPU Technology Conference 2010 (GTC 2010) will take place on Monday, Sept. 20 to Thursday, Sept. 23 at the San Jose Convention Center in San Jose, Calif.

Building on the successful format of last year's inaugural conference, GTC 2010 will offer an even broader and deeper selection of technical sessions, interactive tutorials, technology previews, and industry and academic presentations.

"Last year's GPU Technology Conference was very exciting, with many top researchers and developers demonstrating how they are using the GPU to solve some of the world's most difficult challenges, from medical diagnostics to energy exploration," said Bill Dally, NVIDIA Chief Scientist. "I am eagerly looking forward to seeing the new advances that will be unveiled this year."

"I consider the GPU Technology Conference to be the single best place to see firsthand the amazing work enabled by the GPU," said Professor Hanspeter Pfister, School of Engineering & Applied Sciences, Harvard University and GTC 2009 keynote speaker. "It's a great venue for meeting researchers, developers, scientists, and entrepreneurs from around the world and I'm looking forward to GTC 2010."

The conference will once again encompass three concurrent GPU-focused summits in one location:

* Emerging Companies Summit A showcase for innovative startups to demonstrate their products and network with venture capitalists, GTC attendees, and other investors.
* GPU Developers Summit A wide selection of content-rich sessions, tutorials, and presentations for developers, engineers, and scientists.
* NVIDIA(R) Research Summit A unique opportunity for students, professors, and researchers to present their findings and collaborate.

For More Information:
* To stay up to date on GTC 2010, visit the GTC 2010 website and join the GTC 2010 mailing list.
* To submit proposals for tutorials, sessions, and posters, see GTC Call for Submissions.
* To learn about being a sponsor or exhibitor, see GTC Sponsors/Exhibitors.
* To watch the GTC 2010 video, see the nTersect blog.

Photoshop CS5 is up and coming and will combine the very best features in graphics, video and Web design for professionals, for a horrendous price. Just recently, they released a sneak-peak video of some of the experiments they

Ubisoft is generating some goodwill as earlier this month some players of Assassin's Creed 2 and Silent Hunter 5 were unable to play their games due to outside attacks on Ubisoft's DRM servers. Now it seems players of both games have received emails from Ubisoft offering compensation for the downtime. According to the message boards for both games, players have gotten emails apologizing for the downtime and also offering a way to get a free downloadable Ubisoft game from a pre-selected list. Some owners of Assassin's Creed 2 have gotten offers to download extra content for that game for free.

For his trouble, Igor now gets to choose between four games - Prince of Persia, Heroes Over Europe, Endwar and H.A.W.X., downloading them directly to his PC without having to bother with the draconian DRM scheme of Ubi's newer titles.
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Reader w

Friday USA time NVIDIA will introduce two new graphics cards, we invite you clear your agenda for the following for in-depth Guru3D.com coverage ... on cards we can not show just yet -- oh alright, a little bit.

Why don't you discuss this here.

The Prince of Persia saga has gotten a new member, since the Movie had been produced, Ubisoft couldn't stay there and do nothing, so they just created a new one called "The Forgotten Sands"  this new game in the saga has the same character as in the Movie, featuring a whole new level of graphics and with the promise of following the plot of the Movie.

Let's hear what Ubisoft has to say about this new game:

"This new game marks the return to the Prince of Persia

There is not AMD/ATI without NVIDIA and so it is, after the Launch of the new Catalyst 10.3

NVIDIA had just launched the official WHQL Forceware version 197.13, the additions of this new driver are as follows:

• Adds support for Next Generation ION.
• Adds support for GeForce GT 320, GeForce GT 330, and GeForce GT 340.
• Upgrades PhysX System Software to version 9.10.0129.
• Upgrades HD Audio driver to version 1.0.9.1 (for supported GPUs)
• Increases performance in several PC games from v196.21 WHQL. The following are examples of measured improvements. Results will vary depending on your GPU and system configuration
• Adds SLI and multi-GPU support for top new gaming titles including Assassin Creed II, Battlefield: Bad Company 2, Command and Conquer 4: Tiberium Twilight, Grand Theft Auto IV: Episodes from Liberty City, Mass Effect 2, Napoleon: Total War, and Zombie Driver.
• Enhanced SLI support for Metro 2033, Supreme Commander 2, Unigine, and World of Warcraft.
• Adds Ambient Occlusion support for Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood, Need for Speed: Shift, Resident Evil 5, RUSE, and Street Fighter IV.
• Adds override anti-aliasing support for Mass Effect 2.
• Includes numerous bug fixes. Refer to the release notes on the documentation tab for information about the key bug fixes in this release.

You can download the new drivers from the official NVIDIA site here.