G.Skill International Co. Ltd., manufacturer of extreme performance memory and solid-state storage with solid quality, has today released its Phoenix SATA II 2.5

GeForce GTX 480 3-way SLI review

Back in January we already heard that SLI performance would be outstanding with this new series and well, that definitely tickled my senses and taste buds. As a results today we'll 'finally' have a look at SLI scaling of that GeForce GTX 480.

We look at single card performance, dual-card performance and also triple (3-way) SLI performance to see how well these puppies will scale. The article will first cover SLI performance among the new GTX 480 in several configurations and games, and then we'll check a little 2-way Multi-GPU gaming in a handsome multi-GPU slaughter-fest article in the ATI versus NVIDIA kind of way to see who and what scales the best.

Check out this Guru3D article right here.

HIS introduced the Radeon HD 5550 Silence 1GB, this low-profile model is aimed at HTPC users and features a passive double-slot cooling solution.

Today HIS is proud to announce the new HIS 5550 Silence 1GB DDR2 low-profile Graphics card, the world's first Silence 5500 series low-profile graphics card. Supporting the innovative DirectX

It has become apparant that Hybrid PhysX Mod from NGOHQ.com posted earlier this month contained the Infostealer.Gampass trojan. I wanted to add to this that it MIGHT as well be a false positive. None the less, we say ... safety for all.

According to Symantec, Infostealer.Gampass specifically targets video game credentials, log-ins and passwords. I would recommend uninstalling this and doing a full scan on your computer.

* Update - This news-post was invalid and we are happy to report that the mod was a false positive.

ATI have just released ATI Catalyst

"AMD has raised the bar for affordable performance in the new Phenom II X6 with advanced capabilities like its Turbo Core Technology" remarked Geoff Lyon, CEO of CoolIT Systems. "ECO ALC continues to hold the highest performance to price ratio of any liquid cooler currently on the market. When you combine these computing and cooling technologies, the performance results are tremendous."

Newegg is currently offering ECO as an accessory for AMD's Phenom II X6 processors for $74.99. For more information on the ECO and the rest of CoolIT's lineup visit this page.

Designed with support for Intel LGA 1156 CPUs, this mainboard merges most of the new technological standards, in order to open up new performance heights.

The P7F7-E WS Supercomputer uses a hybrid 16+3 phase VRM design and is based on the Ibex Peak 3450 chipset, which can support Core i3, Core i5, Core i7 and Xeon 3400 Series processors. Also, it comes with no less than six DDR3-2000 memory slots and, thanks to the NVIDIA NF200 bridge chips, it is equipped with four PCI Express x16 slots, capable of 2-way or 3-way SLI and CrossFireX multi-GPU configurations.

It should, however, be noted that the potential of the motherboard is unleashed when combined with the massive computing power of up to four NVIDIA Tesla cards and their CUDA Parallel Technology.

Other specifications of the platform include six SATA 3.0Gbps ports, a pair of SATA 6.0Gbps connectors, dual Gigabit Ethernet, 7.1 channel audio, FireWire, DVI output and, last but definitely not least, two USB 3.0 ports. There are also a diagnostics LED, 12 USB 2.0 ports and a number of ASUS unique features such as the ASUS Xtreme Design, ASUS GPU Boost, an EPU that lowers energy consumption and even the Express Gate, an instant-on OS usable for basic tasks and web browsing.

End-users interested in analyzing this motherboard in detail will find all the information they need on the official product page. As for pricing and availability, the ASUS P7F7-E WS Supercomputer workstation motherboard is already shipping and carries a (overpriced)  price tag of 330 Euro.

Click the thumbnail for a full-size photo.

Sweet bejeezus .. I can only dream of the driver complications here. BSN reports about an upcoming custom-design Radeon HD 5970 4GB graphics card from PowerColor that features 12 mini-DisplayPort connectors.

Engineers at TUL Corporation showed a real ingenuity by taking full usage of six display pipelines inside each Cypress chip [i.e. "Hemlock"]. Their custom HD 5970 comes with 4GB GDDR5 memory of yet unspecified clocks, but the backplate reveals PowerColor linked each and every Display pipeline with mini-Display Port connectors.

As a result, we have no less than 12 mini-DP connectors on a triple-slot graphics card with a custom cooler that enables PowerColor to significantly overclock the two Cypress GPUs and the associated 4GB of GDDR5 memory.

Check out the photo, click thumbnail.

EK Waterblocks has introduced eight new waterblocks, four for the GeForce GTX 480 and another four for the GeForce GTX 470. The design of each of the four models for each card is pretty much the same, there's an all-copper base model, a version with an acetal top, a nickel-plated version and also a unit with nickel-plating and acetal top.

More info at EK Waterblocks.

DigiTimes had a chat with NVIDIA general manager of MCP business Drew Henry. When speaking about Fermi, Henry said rumors about yields being lower than 20 percent are completely untrue. He claims they currently have everything under control, and says they have a chance to launch a 512-core Fermi in the future.

Q: What are your comments on the rumors that Nvidia has blocked some graphics cores with problems on their GeForce 480/470 chips causing these chips to have less than 512 cores due to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company's (TSMC's) low yields?

A: Nvidia does not comment on unannounced products; however, we have a chance to launch a graphics chip with 512 cores in the future.

TSMC's yields for its 40nm process has met our expectations and market rumors about the yields being lower than 20% are completely untrue. We currently have everything under control.

When questioned about Apple's role as moral police in the App Store, Jobs responds that 'we do believe we have a moral responsibility to keep porn off the iPhone.' Better, is what he said next: 'Folks who want porn can buy and [sic] Android phone.'

Looks like we are all buying an Android phone guys !

ASUS Crosshair IV Formula (AMD 890FX)  review

We test the Crosshair IV Formula, the Mc Daddy of AMD 890FX motherboards. the alpha dog motherboards loaded with features like aforementioned, but also USB 3.0, automated overclock switches .. and get this four PCIe x16 slots and even core unlock functionality by pressing a button. The Crosshair IV Formula oozes with features and performance, the six-core Phenom II X6 processor review which you probably just read was overclocked towards 4.1 GHz on a cheapo CPU air-cooler .. based on this motherboard. Head on over to the next page, where we'll head deeply into the AMD 890 FX chipset and the ASUS Crosshair IV Formula motherboard that has the 890FX chipset embedded.

Check out this Guru3D review right here.

Gigabyte today unveiled an exciting range of motherboards based on the highly anticipated AMD 890FX, 880G and 870 chipsets. The new models are the GA-890FXA-UD7, GA-880GMA-UD2H and GA-870A-UD3, all of which support the AMD Phenom

Palit announces the first custom design Palit GTX 470, featuring Dual Fans and 4 Video outputs which support HDMI, DisplayPort, and two Dual-Link DVI display outputs.

The first custom design Palit GeForce GTX470 furnishes with a cooler & quieter innovated thermal solution. This will give your games an adrenaline shot of lighting speed performances and stunning futuristic visuals. Equipped with Dual Fans, Palit GTX 470 will provide much cooler gaming condition and emit heat from GPU more efficiently and effectively. Geared with Palit GTX 470 series, you will experience heart-pounding and cinematic-like visuals on your favorite games with the combined power of DirectX 11, CUDA, and PhysX technologies. Also, expand your visual real estate across three HD displays in jaw-dropping stereoscopic 3D for the ultimate immersive gaming.

The Palit cooler & quieter thermal solution is designed with more fans and fins in order to optimize the revolutionary Fermi architecture performances. Geared with Palit cooler & quieter thermal solution, the temperature on GPU is up to 12 ?KC degree lower and the noise level is 4 dB lower when in peak functioning mode. The cooler consists of a PWM fan with optimized heatsink, giving it excellent thermal performance while making it an ideal cooling solution.

The Palit GeForce GTX 470 is also built for future DirectX11 games. It provides an outstanding performance at DX11 benchmark by adopting the latest Fermi architecture and advanced DirectX11 hardware features, including tessellation and DirectCompute. Palit GTX 470 series is designed specifically to support the next generation gaming effect such as ray tracing and also enhance the 3D effect from NVIDIA existing 3D Vision to 3D Vision Surround technology. These specifications will give you a whole new perspective in gaming experience.

According to the Jon Peddie Research, shipments of PC graphics for the first quarter of 2010 increased by 44.3% over the last year. The GPU market share of AMD and NVIDIA have both increased, especially the latter one which showed 96.3% improvements, while that of Intel decreased slightly. However Intel remained the overall winer in unit shipments, thanks to the sales of Clarksdale and Atom.

The quarter also saw the first shipments of integrated processor graphics (IPG), that is to say CPUs with integrated or embedded graphics. JPR predicts we

Bit Tech heard new SSD controllers with SATA 6Gbps support from Indilinx and SandForce won't be ready until the fourth quarter of this year, at the earliest.  ADATA claims it will also ship a Micron chipset-based SATA 6Gbps SSD in Q3 of this year, with a sample slated for public demonstration at Computex in June. ADATA commented that AMD's current SB850 southbridges are the preferential partner for these drives and future SATA 6Gbps SSDs as no current 3rd party chipset (which Intel motherboards are reliant on) provides the same sort of throughput performance. This is something our own test results have shown, too.

As for cheaper SSDs, ADATA claims the latest JMicron 612 firmware update for its S596 improves performance above most Indilinx drives, for a competitive or cheaper price, although everything is still ultimately decided by the whim of NAND.

Monday 26th April/... The car handling in F1 2010, the forthcoming official game of the 2010 FIA FORMULA ONE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP

According to documents obtained by G4tv.com, the suit is being collectively filed by the 'Infinity Ward Employee Group,' comprising 38 developers. They allege that Activision violated California labor codes and deliberately withheld deserved payments related to the success of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 'in an attempt to keep the employees hostage so that Activision could reap the benefit of the completion of Modern Warfare 3.'

I've obtained a copy of a lawsuit filed this morning in the Los Angeles Superior Court by 38 plaintiffs, calling themselves the "Infinity Ward Employee Group," against Activision. The Infinity Ward Employee Group (whom I'll refer to as IWEG throughout the rest of this story) alleges breach of contract, breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, violation of California labor code and more. The group is after a large amount of unpaid royalties.

"Activision owes my clients approximately $75 million to $125 million dollars," said Bruce Issacs, one of the IWEG's attorneys at Wyman & Issacs LLP, over the phone this afternoon. "Activision has withheld most of the money to force many of my people to stay, some against their will, so that they would finish the delivery of Modern Warfare 3. That is not what they wanted to do. Many of them. My clients' entitled to their money. Activision has no right to withhold their money -- our money."

The IWEG contains "a significant portion of the members of the creative team" who "designed, developed and delivered" Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 to Activision. According to the lawsuit, $28 million has been delivered to Infinity Ward employees for bonuses related to Modern Warfare 2, but the suit alleges at least $54 million is still due from 2009 profits alone.

They want more than $54 million, however. The IWEG is looking "to recover between $75 million and $125 million, if not more, in compensatory damages." That number's derived from:

 * Unpaid bonuses from 2009 and 2010 sales generated by Modern Warfare 2 -- fourth quarter 2009 and first quarter 2010, specifically.
 * Bonuses "due and owing to them" past first quarter 2010.
 * "Bonus/royalty/profit participation" related to "technology/engine" royalties, "other special performance bonuses," "other studio bonuses" or "any other bonus/royalty/profit participation."'
 * Lost value on "restricted stock units" that Activision "promised" would vest (read: own it in your own name and purchase it from Activision) when Modern Warfare 2 sales eclipsed Modern Warfare 1, which "has long ago occurred."
 * Money owed as it relates to Modern Warfare 2 "sister games, including but not limited to" the oft-mentioned Modern Warfare 3, "if Modern Warfare 3 is ultimately delivered and marketed."
 * Interest rates related to the above sums of money.

The lawsuit focuses on royalties generated for Modern Warfare 2 following release and the agreement between Infinity Ward employees and Activision for receiving the subsequent bonuses. The IWEG contends the only condition for becoming eligible for said bonuses was delivering Modern Warfare 2 in time for the game's intended November 10, 2009 launch. Modern Warfare 2 did launch as scheduled on November 10 last year, generating $1.1 billion in 2009.

UPDATE: Activision has issued a brief response to the lawsuit:
"Activision believes the action is without merit," said a company spokesperson over e-mail just moments ago. "Activision retains the discretion to determine the amount and the schedule of bonus payments for MW2 and has acted consistent with its rights and the law at all times. We look forward to getting judicial confirmation that our position is right.