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:: PC Perspective . News Archive
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.:News Archive ( 3/2010 )
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: Legit Reviews | Subject: Mobile
The ASUS UL50Vf has a Core2Duo SU7300 @ 1.3 GHz, 4 GB DDR3 1066MHz and a Mobile Intel GS45 Express Chipset with ICH9M but the start of the notebook is the NVIDIA GeForce G 210M with 512MB GDDR3 and Optimus Technology. That means that your nVIDIA GPU will have the ability to turn its self off and on as your programs demand it. That pushes the average idle battery life into the realm of the netbook though perhaps not the full claimed 12 hours. Under load the battery life is reduced but still beats some Eee systems and other notebooks. Drop by Legit Reviews for the full story.
"ASUS is really stepping up to the plate by taking one of their best-selling notebooks that offers advanced power savings and adding to it even more advanced artificial intelligence that is NVIDIA Optimus. NVIDIA Optimus takes the worry and task of manually switching between integrated and discrete graphics away from the user and handles it on-the-fly. This is a perfect match for the average user that just wants results when necessary and wants the extra battery life. With these users in mind, the UL50Vf is a perfect match with NVIDIA Optimus and GeForce G210m graphics..." Here are some more Mobile articles from around the web:
Josh Walrath | Source: AMD | Subject: General Tech
The past several weeks have been a busy one for AMD. The release of the 890GX was perhaps the highlight, and being able to claim the first native SATA 6G implementation (well ahead of Intel) is a big feather in AMD's cap. The release drivers for AMD's latest southbridge AHCI functionality were dated back from an October/Novermber 2009 timeframe, so they were not exactly up to date considering the new hardware that was brought to the table with the SB850 southbrdige. In terms of IOPS performance, the new SB850 southie performs on par with what we are seeing from Intel these days with the ICH10R. Where the controller falls down a bit is with its write performance, especially random writes. Well, it seems as if AMD has noticed this themselves, and have released a brand spankin new AHCI driver which should help overall performance with this new controller. We also know that many of the motherboard manufacturers have updated the BIOS on their 890GX parts, and that again helps to improve overall southbridge performance. The new driver can be found at http://game.amd.com.
Two of the first SB850 enabled motherboards from MSI (left) and Gigabyte (right). Currently I am re-doing some of the SB850 tests with the new Western Digital 1TB SATA 6G drive, and the performance is a pretty big step up from the last couple generations of hard drives (admittedly, the Seagate 7200.11 that I previously used is a bit long in the tooth). From speaking with AMD, they are getting much better performance on their reference board than we are seeing with the current retail examples. If this is true, then we can expect further BIOS updates in the future to get SB850 performance where it needs to be. Considering the sorry state of AMD's southbridges in the past with regards to I/O performance, this could be a bigger deal for AMD than just the fact that it supports SATA 6G. The second part of this deals with AMD's beta drivers for OpenGL 4.0 functionality. This is actually a bit of a surprise, as NVIDIA has typically blazed the trail of next generation OpenGL/OpenCL support in their drivers. This is of course more interesting to software developers than end users, due primarily to the lack of OpenGL applications for end user use. What is perhaps most interesting about OpenGL 4.0 is that it is fully supported under Windows XP, and encompasses most of the functionality that we see in DX10/DX11. While we are not seeing OpenGL support in gaming as much as we used to, perhaps that will change due to Steam opening up on the Mac and Valve porting their games over to that platform using OpenGL. Throw in the PS3 and its OpenGL support, perhaps we will see a bit of an OpenGL on the PC Renaissance? I certainly wouldn't mind that idea, especially the whole OpenGL 4.0 on Windows XP! OpenGL 3.3 is support on the Radeon HD 2000 through 5000 series of cards, while OpenGL 4.0 is only supported on the latest HD 5000 series. The drivers can be found here: http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles/Pages/Catalyst-OpenGL-preview-driver.aspx In our final topic for today's AMD news brief, it seems as if Gigabyte might be attempting to pull a bit of a fast one. Not dishonest mind, but just sorta funny. AMD is going to release the rest of the 800 series of chipsets this month, but before that is happening Gigabyte sorta jumped the gun. They are offering a AMD 790X based motherboard using the SB850 southbridge. The board's features match what we would expect the upcoming AMD 890X to have, but Gigabyte has a nice head start on the competition by classifying this board as a AMD 790X product. Except the name of the motherboard is GA-890XA-UD3. One difference between this board and the 890GX is the lack of the integrated video portion, giving the board perhaps a smaller power draw overall. The other is the use of a 8+2 power phase array, which could enable slightly better overclocking than the 4+1 enabled 890GX board from Gigabyte. 
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: AnandTech | Subject: Storage
The 40GB Intel X25-V requires a $123 investment, while the 80GB Intel X25-M G2 will cost you $224. That puts a pair of X25-V's into about the same price range as a single X25-M and buying a pair opens up options for setting up those drives. A single X25-V is slower than a single X25-M but what happens if you put them into a RAID-0 setup? You do lose support for TRIM, but AnandTech has a trick to take advantage of Intel's own garbage clean up. What does it do to the performance? Read the full review to find out.
"Not to sound like a broken record, but with the exception of OCZ's Vertex LE, not much has changed in the SSD market over the past couple of years. Intel still seems like the safest bet, and these days they're even offering a pretty compelling value. The 80GB X25-M G2 is finally selling for reasonable prices and earlier this month Intel launched its first value SSD: the X25-V. Priced at $125, the X25-V gives you much of the performance of the X25-M but at a lower cost and capacity point. It's a great way to safely transition to an SSD." Here are some more Storage reviews from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: The Escapist | Subject: General Tech
Not many got a StarCraft 2 beta key, but some of those that did are putting together overviews of how the game has changed and what is new and what has stayed the same. While not quite as strange as some Zerg videos, the Escapist Magazine has assembled a look at the Zerg. If you have yet to encounter the changed Zerg Queen you definitely have to check this video out.
"Team Escapist submits to the Overmind to swarm with the Zerg race from the Starcraft 2 beta." Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: PC Perspective | Subject: General Tech
If you think the following specs sound better than sliced bread ...
Ryan has teamed up with Intel and iBuypower to provide this system to one lucky winner who heads straight to the PC Perspective contest page and submits themselves to the incredibly onerous steps required to get up to 4 chances to win! The contest is over on April 3rd, so don't take too long to decide to throw your name in the hat. If that system is not up to your specs then you'll just have to piece together a Dream Machine of your very own, though you will have to foot the bill yourself.
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: Tech ARP | Subject: General Tech
KB971033 already has a bad name, we knew that it was the evolution of Windows Genuine Advantage and that it phoned home to Redmond to report on the status of your Windows license. However, have you heard of the anti-terrorism file scan that it does? According to information from TechARP, this update initiates a heuristic-based scan for potential "terrorism-related" materials and if they are found
then a lot of personal information about your PC will be headed off to Redmond and presumably Washington. This update is of course global and not limited to US citizens. Check out what else they learned by following the link.
"We just learned some troubling news about the recently-released anti-hack update for Windows 7 as well as the upcoming Microsoft Windows 7 Service Pack 1. From what we understand, this could also involve new updates for Windows Vista and Windows XP. First of all, the new Windows 7 anti-hack update does more than just scan for anti-activation exploits. It also performs a simple heuristic-based scan of all storage media..." Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: futurelooks | Subject: General Tech
It might only be useful for contacting your fair weather friends but it will certainly save you on batteries. The Scosche solCHAT II is a solar powered Bluetooth speakerphone, specifically designed for hands free conversation while driving there are plenty of applications for a Bluetooth speaker with a DSP microphone. If you can think of a use, be it driving or otherwise, check out Futurelooks for an in depth look.
"I had the opportunity to try out the first Scosche solCHAT solar-powered Bluetooth speakerphone a while ago and was generally pleased with what it had to offer. The second-generation Scosche solCHAT II (CBHSOL2) takes on the exact same form factor, but it comes with a few minor upgrades worth noting." Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: PC Perspective | Subject: Case and Cooling
The newest case off of Lee's testbed is the Antec P193, an updated version of the P190 that incorporates a few additions and modifications. For instance the 200mm fan has been moved slightly to give more room on the inside of the case and some changes to the doors and vents to offer better air flow. With 11 drive bays the case is rather tall which could lead to some problems for people who own a PSU with short cabling. It is also very heavy at 36lb empty. Those are the only two downsides to a very well designed case, check out why it won a Gold Award in the full review.
"The Antec P193 advanced super mid-tower case should appeal to a large number of PC enthusiasts. It features excellent build quality with sleek styling. The P193 is a relatively large mid-tower chassis that provides 11 storage bays and offers several incremental improvements over the original P190. The four bundled fans can be adjusted to deliver the right balance of airflow to noise thanks to the integrated speed controls. Along with more room and improved airflow the P193 also accepts Antec's proprietary CP series PSUs as well as standard ATX power supplies." Here are some more Cases & Cooling reviews from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: Bjorn3D | Subject: Motherboard
The Gigabyte 790XT-USB3 sees a nice update to a 790X based board with the addition of USB 3.0. In a way it seems an obvious choice as USB 3.0 devices are becoming popular and are not that expensive, while SSDs are and they are the only devices that can actually make use of SATA 6GB/s. Those who can afford the more expensive 890GX are more likely to invest in an SSD that those looking for a less expensive 790X board. Bjorn3D was a bit puzzled over the overclocking; it seemed more like a 770 board than a 790X. If you are looking for inexpensive USB 3.0 support and don't have the spare PCIe slots to fit in an add on card, then check out this review.
"With the recent introduction of USB3 and SATA 6 Gb/s the 790X chipset was really showing its age. Today we have Gigabyte's update to the 790X platform. This new board supports USB3. This drastically improves the transfer speeds of USB devices that use the technology. This also future proofs the board a little bit. Since AMD has just released their 890GX chipset, this seems a bit late. Physically speaking this board is not that different from a 890GX. It supports DDR3 and USB3. Since this board is based on the SB750, the SATA 6 Gb/s interface is not standard. Thus this board lacked SATA 6 Gb/s support, but thats not that bad considering that unless you are going to use a SATA 6 Gb/s SSD the SATA 6 Gb/s interface is not that beneficial. This certainly makes the board an attractive buy for someone planning on using SATA 2 drives looking for USB3 support. Lets take a closer look at what else is on this board." Here are some more Motherboard articles from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: [H]ard|OCP | Subject: General Tech
With the arrival of Fermi fans of nVIDIA can finally experience multiple monitor resolutions in gaming and general computer usage. The problem is that nobody has really finished a review looking at the performance of the cards in multiple monitor set ups. Partly that is because you need SLI in order to support more than 2 monitors, partly because 3D Vision on multiple monitors might not be ready for prime time yet. In the meantime, EyeFinity is here and has moved up to 6 monitors. Drop by [H]ard|OCP to see what they did with their 6 monitor setup.
"AMD has given us the 5870 2GB Eyefinity 6 video card to play around with. We run 6 displays set up for gaming off a single GPU 5870 2GB video card and show you what it delivers. The full review is coming, this is only a look at what kind of gaming experience a 3X2 Eyefinity display configuration will deliver." Here are some more Graphics Card articles from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: The Register | Subject: General Tech
Back in the beginning of March we heard about a vulnerability in IE6 and IE7 that offered drive by malware infection. Visit a website with a certain bit of code and your browsers inbuilt vulnerability will allow the silent installation of malware of their choice. The Register has heard that this Tuesday Microsoft will be releasing a patch to plug that vulnerability, so if you know anyone that hasn't abandoned older versions of IE, you should tell them to consider applying the update.
You should also make sure that any emails from Adobe about upgrading your software go unread. "Microsoft has announced plans to release an out-of-sequence patch, designed to resolve a zero-day vulnerability in Internet Explorer. A cumulative update to Internet Explorer (MS10-018) plugs a security hole in IE 6 and IE 7 exploited by hackers over recent weeks. The latest version of Microsoft's browser, IE 8, is not vulnerable to the flaw, which Microsoft first acknowledged was a problem on 9 March." Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: Digital Trends | Subject: General Tech
The Ozone Smog mouse bears a remarkable similarity to both the Cyber Snipa and Ace with some individualized tweaks. The overall shape almost appears shortened as the mouse is quite tall and has an rest for your thumb and one for the fingers on the outside of your hand. It sports adjustable weights an LED panel above the thumbrest indicates which of the four sensitivity levels you are currently using as well as LED indicators for which mode you are using and 'headlights'. Unfortunately for Ozone they chose ceramic feet, which worked well on large movements but the friction drove Digital Trends crazy when they tried any small movements.
"Is there any less appropriate name for a product in the green-crazed marketplace of 2010 than the Ozone Smog? Unless some other hapless company is marketing a mouse known as the Barbaric PuppySlayer, we think not. Unfortunate product name aside, the Smog gaming mouse from Spanish upstart Ozone sets its sites squarely on the likes of Logitech and Razer by offering a full- featured gaming mouse at a price more in line with these competitors' entry-level offerings." Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: futurelooks | Subject: Memory
As the name implies, the OCZ DDR3 PC3-12800 AMD Black Edition Ready 4GB Dual Channel Memory Kit is optimized for Black Edition AMD CPUs. It integrates its self with AMD's OverDrive utility allowing you to pick various profiles with the click of a mouse; if your motherboard offers support which not all do. From the review Futurelooks posted, it seems that these DIMMs offer more in the way of convenience than they do speed. An overclock of 1776MHz at 8-8-8-20 timings is not
terrible, adding 116MHz is nothing to sneeze at, but somehow seems disappointing in a
DIMM specifically designed for an unlocked CPU.
"There are no shortage of RAM kits in the marketplace. From a broad selection of speed ratings, to assist in overclocking, to the total amount of RAM you want. There are even RAM kits certified to work perfectly with either an NVIDIA SLI or ATI CrossFire setup. Though multi-card video card configurations can make overclocking difficult, so can a mis-match between the RAM and chipset. So why not produce RAM kits that are certified to work with, and be able to be overclocked on, certain chipsets and CPUs OCZ seemed to have been wondering the same thing with this AMD Black Edition Ready 4GB DDR3 Kit." Here are some more Memory articles from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: Think Computers | Subject: Case and Cooling
If you are anxiously awaiting the April arrival of Fermi you had better double check your PSU. Based on the findings of many sites, the GTX 480 and 470 are both very power hungry cards and the spikes on a full load may be more than your PSU can take. If you are going with a single card then 750W is probably the lowest you want to go and you are going to want a good 750W PSU. One choice is the Antec Truepower New 750W PSU, which is 80+ Bronze Certified, sports some modular cabling and a silent 120mm fan. Its four 12V lines are all 25 amp maximum and Think Computers testing showed the power that they generate to be quite stable. Follow the link for the full review.
"Antec’s Truepower line of power supplies has been around for several years now. ThinkComputers really liked theTruepower Quattro 1000W and the 850W. The former was one of the first recipients of my Editor’s Choice Award. The Truepower New 750W was released last year, but we’ve got a fresh review of this 80PLUS Bronze certified unit with a 120mm PWM fan and partial modularity." Here are some more Cases & Cooling reviews from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: TechREACTION | Subject: General Tech
nVIDIA's soft launch of the GTX 480 and GTX 470 took place at PAX East, which gave TechREACTION a chance to sit down and chat with Bryan Del Rizzo after the announcement. They talk about the delays and rumours over the past few months as nVIDIA fed out information about Fermi, along with where he feels Fermi will fit into the current market. Drop by and see what nVIDIA feels about their newest processors after the link.
"After the Nvidia GeForce GTX 400 series launch event, I was lucky enough to grab an interview with Nvidia’s Senior PR Manager of Consumer Products, Bryan Del Rizzo. Bryan was kind enough to give us sometime and answered each of my questions in a detailed manner, which we appreciated. Here is what he had to say…" Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
Ryan Shrout | Source: General | Subject: Graphics Card
I know, I know, we've been posting a lot of news and information about the recently released GeForce GTX 480 - but what else are we going to talk about over the weekend where my Alma Mater is left a tattered version of itself thanks to West Virginia? Anyway...
I came across this interview at TechReaction with NVIDIA's Bryan Del Rizzo that I at first overlooked but after giving it a read found it had some interesting quotes worth visiting. Take a look at some highlights: TechREACTION.net: Given the presentation today, it’s pretty clear that you guys are putting a strong focus on gaming. But originally, before the product was officially launched, people were talking about how the GPU was really geared towards Tesla environments.
Bryan Del Rizzo: ... So people came to GTC or they looked at the presentations for GTC, and they said “Well, what the crap? Nvidia’s leaving the gaming market?” Haha, no! It wasn’t a gaming conference, it was an HPC conference. So people didn’t grasp that, they need to understand that we’re doing all of this great stuff, and a chip can have many forms and functions, it can have many flavors. For some reason a lot of people didn’t seem to get that.
This definitely WAS the reaction from both the fans and media after the conference last year. I think NVIDIA deserves some of the blame for this fact though for not realizing that many of the media on-hand EXPECTED to see information about the GeForce variant during the event. That didn't happen, but rather than say "hey, we'll have gaming details for you in January" NVIDIA decided to say nothing at all, leaving gamers everywhere to speculate on the reasons why. TechREACTION.net: So they figured it just had one thing it was geared toward and that was it?
Bryan Del Rizzo: Yea, and the chip we’re designing for GeForce is dramatically different than the chip we’re designing for Tesla. TechREACTION.net: So there are hardware differences between GeForce and Tesla then? Bryan Del Rizzo: Of course, the easiest one is double precision. There aren’t any games, there aren’t any user applications today that use double precision. But in the medical markets, in the HPC field, that’s dramatically important to them. So we’re not going waste the time and waste silicon space, and all that kind of stuff, providing a feature to gamers and incurring a cost for them, that they don’t need or possibly want. 
3 billion transistors. Probably the same for Tesla as they are for GeForce. I take some issue with this because everything we have learned about Fermi and the GPUs coming out of NVIDIA based on it is that they are essentially the same part used in the Quadro, GeForce and Tesla lines of products. Bryan's point about gaming and gamers not really needing double precision calculation support is true but to say that GF100 is someone how a smaller, re-spun chip that with "less wasted silicon space" would be incorrect I think. We have never seen NVIDIA do this before - GT200-based Tesla, Quadro and GeForce products are known to be based on the same GPU core with memory differences and validation changes; but not much else. If somehow NVIDIA did actually completely respin the GPU to remove double precision from the GF100 line then this would be a noticeable corporate shift meant to keep hardware vendors from replacing expensive Tesla-branded cards with lower priced GeForce options. TechREACTION.net: Some news sources have suggested that there are more Fermi-based GPU’s due sometime in June / early Summer. Is there any credibility to that?
Bryan Del Rizzo: Well, actually there probably is because I think one of our executives in the financial offices said that you can expect other variants of the GeForce family sometime in the second half of this year. So, based on what they said that probably is true. ... So you can figure that we’re going to have some more mainstream products with that, and you can figure that we can probably fit some cool stuff on top of that as well. So, expect the unexpected. Many have speculated that in GF100's current form, taking the traditional route of standard lower-priced and lower-performing GPUs might not work due to the high power demands they would have compared to the competition from AMD's 5600/5500/5400 line of cards and even NVIDIAs own G9x parts. If this is true then Bryan is probably referring to a re-spun Fermi GPU that would hopefully bring yields up and power down and thus enable the normal "huge monolith to smaller GPU" transition. Does that mean that the GTX 480s and GTX 470s that will be sold next month are going to be replaced by potential GTX 485s and GTX 475s? It seems pretty likely. TechREACTION.net: Previously you’ve had dual GPU cards such as the GTX 295. Do you have any plans to do the same thing with the GTX 480 GPU?
Bryan Del Rizzo: So we can’t comment on that today, we haven’t announced any product. But I have to kind of laugh because when we launched the GeForce GTX 285, there were a lot of rumors that said we couldn’t do a dual GPU product with that chip. They said it was architecturally impossible, it was too power hungry, it would just be impossible to do. And of course we brought the GTX 295 to market; it did really well! (laughs) So, if you look at the history of Nvidia, you can probably pretty much figure out what we’re going to do, but I can’t give you a confirmation on that today. 
GTX 295 above. Would a dual-GPU variant of GTX 480 require a 1.21 gigawatts power supply? What Bryan fails to mention here is that the GTX 295 did not use the same GPU as the GTX 280; the GPU of which the media claimed NVIDIA would be insane to offer a dual-GPU variant of. Instead, the GTX 295 was the first graphics card to use the 55nm version of GT200, later found in the GTX 285, and thus was able to run on much lower power than the original 65nm GPU. Personally, I think we can all agree that making dual GPU version of the GTX 480 as it stands today would be a bad idea and if/when we see that Fermi dual-GPU card it will be based on a much more refined version of the architecture. The interview with Bryan Del Rizzo over at TechReaction.net has a lot more goodness to read if you are interested so I suggest you all give it a look.
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: [H]ard|OCP | Subject: Graphics Card
At some time during the week of April 12, 2010, Fermi will actually arrive. Until then you have to live vicariously through hardware reviews, but there is more than a few of them around the interwebs.
The best place to start are the faults in the Fermi architecture and the GTX 470 and 480 as the rumours preceding the launch of these cards can finally be confirmed or denied. As has been mentioned many times previously this card is hot. The GPU its self, underneath the heatsinks and fans sits at a balmy 93C which ought to make owners of 4870's and 5870's feel a little better. That is a significant amount of heat to have to distribute especially if you are thinking about an SLI setup, which you might when you see how effective that is. In his testing Ryan noticed that idling, the single GTX 480 drew just a bit more than the HD 5970 but 137W more than an HD 5870. At load you can expect 78W of additional power draw compared to the HD 5870. Suddenly kilowatt class PSUs make a lot more sense. There is good news, in that the performance of the GTX 480 is comparable to the semi-mythical HD 5970. AMD's dual GPU card is almost impossible to find and when it is spotted, its price could be far above the MRSP of $699. If nVIDIA can hit their announced price of $499 will spell big trouble for AMD on two fronts. It is much less than the HD 5970 and hopefully it will be easier to find, so many gamers with the cash will choose nVIDIA's solution. Bigger trouble lies in the performance contrast with the HD 5870 as the GTX 480 is simply a better card and should only cost about $50 more. [H]ard|OCP reveals the second front that NVIDIA has claimed victory on. The SLI scaling is incredible, easily surpassing the HD 5970 in any situation and allowing the usage of AA at very high resolutions. Those with an SLI system gain access to 3x1 display NV Surround, the equivalent of EyeFintiy but with two big differences. No DisplayPort adaptor or monitor is required, you can have an all DVI setup. The second advantage requires a bit more of a cash investment, but if you pick up their 3D Vision kit you might even be playing on 3 monitors in 3D. Of course, the cards themselves will set you back about $1000 and there is the small issue of powering them and cooling your system. "Fermi is finally here! We put the new GeForce GTX 470 and GeForce GTX 480 video cards through the paces in four of the latest and most demanding games recently released. We find time for GeForce GTX 480 SLI as well. We compare these to the Radeon 5850, Radeon 5870, and the Radeon 5970." Here are some more Graphics Card articles from around the web:
Ryan Shrout | Source: General | Subject: Graphics Card
Some of you will claim that getting benchmark numbers from a company that sells NVIDIA products (as well as AMD products) isn't the best idea; to each their own but we happen to know this "Morley" fella from MAINGEAR pretty well and I think his results are reliable. Either way, the data he is providing in his most recently blog post is interesting to evaluate. Morley took a set of three GeForce GTX 480s, the very same reference cards that we reviewed yesterday, and ran some benchmarks to see how dual- and triple-SLI configurations scaled.
Definitely a sexy looking configuration from MAINGEAR.
Looking at the top image quality settings, Morley gets scaling percentages of 76% by adding a second GTX 480 and then sees another 23% or so adding in the third card. Crysis Warhead sees similar performance gains with an 86% boost adding the second GPU and another 35% with the third card.
The Unigine Heaven 2.0 benchmark that Morley ran in its most difficult tessellation mode sees slightly better scaling of performance: 88% in average frame rate by adding a second GTX 480 and then another 37% with the third card.
Obviously the scaling results by adding a second GPU are worth noting and could be worth the investment for some gamers out there. I think adding in yet another $500 graphics card for a 20-30% boost of additional power is more than a stretch. Will NVIDIA let us run 6 displays on that configuration though...? I don't think so but the thought might change our mind on the viability of a 3-Way SLI system. There are other considerations for potential multi-GPU customers: why kind of cooling solution will you need for three GTX 480s and is the 1200 watt power supply you have your eye on even going to be enough?? Morley says he'll be adding HD 5970 and quad-GPU HD 5970 CrossFire results soon, so keep an eye for that. We are also testing some multi-GPU configurations of these cards though we weren't lucky enough to fall upon a third GTX 480 or GTX 470 yet. Soon, my friends, soon. UPDATE 3/28 Chis Morley at MAINGEAR updated his results to include some data from not only a single HD 5970 but a pair of them for a total of four AMD GPUs to compare against the NVIDIA SLI configurations. 
In the Far Cry 2 results you can see that the single HD 5970 is actually very competitive with the single GTX 480, as we saw in our testing. Adding in the second card pushes the AMD configuration up above the pair of GTX 480 cards in both 0x and 4x AA modes but the scores are about even at the top 8xAA setting. Even with a third GTX 480 in the, the NVIDIA configuration is only faster on the 8xAA test run.
Morley has a few more benchmarks over on his blog with these configurations so check them out if you are interested.
Ryan Shrout | Source: PC Perspective | Subject: Graphics Card
-- The eagerly anticipated ASUS ENGTX400 series powered by NVIDIA’s ground breaking GF100 GPU offers gamers’ unparalleled 3D realism along with incredible CUDA Compute performance. --
Fremont, CA (March 26th, 2010) - Long awaited by gamers, overclockers and demanding enthusiasts, the latest generation GF100 graphics processor from NVIDIA is finally here. ASUS is the first to release fully-optimized GTX480/470 graphics cards with customized features that deliver advanced hardware support and performance in the most demanding Microsoft DirectX 11 based gaming titles or applications that can harness the power of CUDA. Gearing Up for Action ASUS is excited to release two new cards for the GF100 product launch today. The flagship ENGTX480 utilizes the GTX480 core with an impressive 700MHz core clock speed, 15636MB of GDDR5 memory, and a 384-bit memory interface. The mid-range ENGTX470 ships with a 607MHz core clock speed, 1280MB of GDDR5 memory, and sports an impressive 320-bit memory interface. Both cards offer amazing gaming performance, but gamers are not the only ones to benefit as the next generation NVIDIA CUDA architecture allows a new level of GPU compute performance in numerous non-graphics applications. Pushing the boundaries of performance Both new graphics boards feature ASUS’ focus on innovation and passion to provide the best gaming and overclocking experience possible via GamerOSD and Voltage Tweak applications. GamerOSD is an award winning in-game application allowing for frame rate monitoring, screenshots, in-game video capture or on-the-fly overclocking. 
ASUS’ exclusive Voltage Tweak functionality can be enabled and controlled via the Smart Doctor application, covering almost every possible overclocking and overvolting scenario envisioned by users. Additionally the extensive fan control configurations in Smart Doctor allow for complete control of cooling performance of the card, users can even set their own fan ramping profiles. Ready to Amaze Consisting of over 3 billion transistors, double the CUDA cores of previous GTX 200 GPUs, and full DirectX 11 support, GF100 is designed for groundbreaking graphics performance. With a revolutionary new scalable geometry pipeline and enhanced anti-aliasing capabilities, GF100 delivers both unrivalled performance and breathtaking image quality in games and media playback. Combined with NVIDIA’s CUDA and DirectCompute parallel processing capabilities along with NVIDIA PhysX, NVIDIA SLI and NVIDIA 3D Vision technologies, the ASUS ENGTX480/470 graphics cards enable a totally immersive user experience on the personal computer. Visit usa.asus.com for further information and specifications.
Ryan Shrout | Source: PC Perspective | Subject: Graphics Card
If you are anybody in the world of graphics card, you are busy pimping your iteration of the GeForce GTX 480 and GTX 470 from NVIDIA. As NVIDIA partners, there really hasn't been much to be excited about for quite a while - AMD has really been dominating the world of enthusiast graphics since September 2009. Galaxy announced their GF100 options yesterday as well!
 GALAXY GeForce GTX480: the fastest gaming GPU in the world!
Galaxy is proud to launch the fermi-based graphics card named GALAXY Geforce GTX480. next-generation gaming has arrived. GeForce GTX 480 gives your games an adrenaline shot with the world’s fastest performance and futuristic, visually-stunning graphics. GeForce GTX 480 brings games to life through incredible DirectX 11 tessellation Performance and advanced cinematic effects like motion blur and depth of field. Experience 3D worlds littered with debris and consumed in fire and smoke with NVIDIA PhysX effects [running at twice the performance of prior generation GPUs]. Completely immerse yourself in the game with NVIDIA 3D Vision Surround* technology powering three HD displays in jaw-dropping stereoscopic 3D. And when you finish, sit back and interact with ray traced 3D renderings so realistic you won’t believe your eyes. Arm yourself for the future of gaming. GeForce GTX 480: pure adrenaline meets visual bliss. Galaxy GeForce GTX470 : Born for PC Enthusiasts. Galaxy is proud to launch the fermi-based graphics card named GALAXY Geforce GTX470. Which is Next generation architecture delivers incredible gaming performance at maximum resolution and quality settings. Compared with the black reference board of GTX470, Galaxy has employed gray frosted design as an extra touch of styles and toughness. The card is marked with an eye-catching tag of "Fermi GPU inside". Fermi is the codename of new-generation architecture. Galaxy is also thoughtful enough to label nearby the power connector that "at least 550W of power supply is required" With DirectX 11 support, NVIDIA PhysX technology, mini-HDMI 1.3a output and NVIDIA CUDA technology with CUDA C/C++, DirectCompute 5.0 and OpenCL, the GTX470 is born for PC enthusiasts and gives your games an adrenaline shot with screaming-fast performance and futuristic, visually-stunning graphics. World’s fastest gaming GPU delivers unparalleled 3D realism and immersion - Next generation architecture delivers incredible gaming performance at maximum resolution and quality settings. - Faster performance than any GPU on the market in today’s and tomorrow’s games. - New high-speed 32x anti-aliasing smoothes edges for top notch visual quality. - Support for up to 3-way NVIDIA SLI technology for the ultimate gaming performance.* - Revolutionary DirectX 11 technology and NVIDIA CUDA architecture bring games closer than ever to cinema-quality effects and visuals. - NVIDIA PolyMorph Engine, the geometry processing engine built from the ground up for DirectX 11 tessellation, enables incredibly detailed game characters and terrain with blazing performance. - New CUDA GPGPU architecture accelerates image processing effects such as motion blur, depth of field,transparency, and soft shadows for truly cinematic visuals. - World’s first consumer GPU to enable interactive ray tracing for ultra photo-realistic scenes. - NVIDIA PhysX technology brings games to life with dynamic, interactive environments. - 2 times the PhysX performance over prior generation GPUs for dynamic game effects such as turbulence,fluids, and smoke. - New NVIDIA GigaThread scheduler allows 10 times faster switching between graphics and physics processing, enabling more complex effects to be rendered in real time. - New NVIDIA 3D Vision Surround technology expands your gaming real estate across three monitors in full stereoscopic 3D for a truly immersive gaming experience.** - GeForce GTX 480 provides maximum graphics horsepower for triple screen 1080p 3D Vision gaming. - NVIDIA Surround technology also supports gaming across three non-stereo displays at resolutions up to 2560x1600.** Next generation CUDA architecture unleashes the computational power of your GPU to tackle the most intensive multimedia applications - Twice the CUDA cores over prior generation GPUs and an innovative memory architecture deliver incredible performance in GPGPU applications. - Upscale videos from standard definition to high definition using the GPU. - Clean up movies in real-time with the click of a button. - World’s most open GPU computing platform, with complete language and API support including CUDA C/C++,DirectCompute, OpenCL, Java, Python, and Fortran for the broadest compatibility with GPU-accelerated applications. - Full support for GPU computing under Microsoft Windows 7.
Ryan Shrout | Source: PC Perspective | Subject: Graphics Card
You know, in truth, I have rarely been a fan of water cooled graphics cards. They are much more complex to install and tend to force you to stick with one GPU for longer than you might otherwise. Just not my style - I'm an upgrade and run kind of enthusiast.
However, EVGA's announcement this morning of the FTW Edition of the new GeForce GTX 480 and GTX 470 has me intrigued - as I think you would have to be after seeing the amount of power that these graphics cards are using during average everyday gaming. 
If the advertised results we see on their product page are accurate, EVGA's water cooled configuration could give us as much as a 40C temperature difference than the 90C or so results I saw with our stock coolers during initial testing. Not only that but these cards are going to be slightly overclocked as well: 750 MHz core, 1500 MHz shader and 3.8 GHz memory speeds. (Compare that to 700 MHz core, 1401 MHz shader and 3.7 GHz stock speeds.)
Of course the prices are going to be noticeably higher with these cards than with stock configurations: the EVGA GTX 480 FTW will run you about $649 while the GTX 470 FTWwill cost $499. Those are $150 premiums over the standard prices so you better be sure this is GPU configuration you want. 
It's nice to see options like this available right at the launch period and I believe these will be ready just shortly after the April 12th general availability time frame.
Ryan Shrout | Source: PC Perspective | Subject: Case and Cooling
In case you somehow missed that icon at the top of the page, our review for the GeForce GTX 480 and GTX 470 is now live! If you want to see a short video review in addition to the full text review, check it out below.
More Reviews: Jeremy will have a LOT more later tonight!
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: PC Perspective Forums | Subject: General Tech
After a bit of a delay, the Hardware Leaderboard has crawled out of the ancient past of one month ago, almost 12 months in PC years. It sees the arrival of the first 6 core processor in the Dream Machine; one expensive and powerful piece of computing power. The Podcast is also back after a one week hiatus caused by the difficulties of attaining broadband speeds in the uncharted wilds of Florida. Thankfully Ryan returned with all limbs and other parts still intact. Meanwhile Ryan's blog hasn't seen action in almost 2 years, and that was the one and only post for '98!
One thread that isn't lazily languishing is the thread that could net you a new Core i7 980X system totally free. As long as you reside on the planet Earth, so no molemen or those lucky people residing in LEO, and have posted more than once to the PC Perspective forums, you can win. Read through the contest rules to find out 3 more ways to enter, giving you a maximum of 4 entries that might be chosen as the winner. Other contests are not anywhere near as fun to win. P.S. The answer is ... very soon.
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: t-break | Subject: Mobile
IBM's ThinkPad series, now brought to you by Lenovo, has an iconic no nonsense business like look. Square edges, a matte black coating, they are probably one of the most recognizable pieces of tech on the planet.
That era might be over, the introduction of the Edge series deviates from what a ThinkBook was and perhaps signals where the future of these laptops might be. Rounded corners, a new type of keyboard and a piano finish on the exterior show the evolution of the external design. Read on at t-break to see how the internals have been modified for this new series. "The ThinkPad Edge tries to update the classic ThinkPad design with rounded corners and a new keyboard. We take a look at the 15" model and find out if its worthy." Here are some more Mobile articles from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: Overclock3D | Subject: General Tech
If you have big ears, or as OC3D points out, if you played rugby or boxed then the new SteelSeries Siberia V2
headset is worth a look as the headset sports rather large earcups. It sports a retractable microphone which can be pulled out of the left earcup when needed and slides back in when not in use as opposed to swinging up and sticking out from your head at an odd angle like most do. The sound quality made OC3D quite happy, both in audio reproduction and usage in Skype and gaming conversations. The second time was the charm for SteelSeries.
"SteelSeries have updated their popular Siberia headset. Does it improve on the already great Siberia?" Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: PC Perspective | Subject: Storage
As Al mentioned on the PC Perspective podcast, he has been spending a lot of time with a new SSD from Plextor, a company synonymous with CD/DVD burners in many techies minds. They have moved on from that segment with the recently released Plextor PX-128M1S SSD. Inside is a
Marvell 88SS8014-BHP2 controller, 128GB of Samsung flash storage and 64MB of HYNIX DDR SDRAM. It does not support TRIM, but the Marvell controller proved to be talented at garbage cleaning all by its self. By the end it becomes clear that the drive has a nice price but its performance cannot match some other drives costing roughly the same.
"These new drives from Plextor offer decent performance at a good price. While we would have liked to see the top-tier optical media company come out swinging with a newer generation controller, not everyone has such resources at their disposal. The Micron C200 controller, while dated, does its job well and maintained rock solid read speeds regardless of workload. The older technology, while considerably cheaper, is easily bested by the competition." Here are some more Storage reviews from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: Ars Technica | Subject: General Tech
Ars Technica visited the Microsoft Research TechFest to see what Microsoft has planned for its future. Cloud computing was a big topic, in a variety of ways from software to allow power saving on virtual machines to what they are calling a personal cloud mouse allowing you to interact with a personal cloud as if you were within it. This makes much more sense when you watch the video and research the complimentary projects like mobile to mobile networking. The information is all in the videos you will find by following the link.
"Microsoft Research's TechFest is essentially a glimpse into a Microsoft future. It's an annual showcase of the various technologies that the company's researchers have been working on. The 2010 event that took place earlier this month featured a few prototypes that we've already seen before, but there were also many that have only just started to emerge out of Microsoft's research labs around the world, including labs in China, India, the UK, and the US." Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: iXBT Labs | Subject: Processor
We do tend to focus more on the evolution of desktop processors here at PC Perspective, but the server side of the silicon world has been benefiting from the same jumps in technology. The Xeon X5680 is 32nm Gulftown CPU, sitting in an LGA1366 socket and has 6 cores. It has a TDP of 130W at its full 3.6GHz speed and presumably a little less at its non-boosted speed of 3.33GHz. iXBT Labs examines the effect of extra cores on performance and tests the efficiency of the die shrink when it needs to deal with that extra pair of cores.
"The transition to the 32nm process technology let Intel painlessly increase the number of cores. The updated Xeon 5600 series is either better or at least not worse than the Xeon 5500 one. The performance of dual-socket machines has been elevated to a new level, which is great. What's even better, the transition to new dice can solve another problem, i.e. reduce power consumption." Here are some more Processor articles from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: AnandTech | Subject: Motherboard
AnandTech is taking a close look at the comparative performance of the storage subsystem on the AMD 890GX and Intel X58/P55, specifically the performance of a SATA 6G Crucial RealSSD C300. AMD has gone for native support of SATA 6GB/s, the controller is a part of the 890GX chipset and its PCIe 2.0 lanes. Intel uses a Marvel add on chip in some cases, if they did not then support for SATA 6GB/s comes from a PCIe 2.0 add in card.
With two very different ways of handling the transfer of data, find out what the strong points of each and more importantly which offers the fastest performance by reading their full article. "All performance improved, but we’re still looking at lower performance compared to Intel’s 3Gbps SATA controller except for random read speed. Random read speed is faster on the 890GX (but slower than X58). The best part of it all is that I no longer had to disable CnQ or C1E to get this performance. I will note that my performance is still lower than what AMD is getting on its internal reference board and the performance from 3rd party boards varies significantly from one board to the next depending on board and BIOS revisions. But at least we’re getting somewhere. In testing the 890GX, I decided to look into how Intel’s chipsets perform with this new wave of high performance SSDs. It’s not as straightforward as you’d think." Here are some more Motherboard articles from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: Pro-clockers.com | Subject: Case and Cooling
Pro-Clockers takes a look at a different sort of casing, intended as a test bench but certainly a choice for a more permanent housing in a setting with no kids, pets or clumsy people bearing liquids. The Microcool Banchetto 101 does not look like a utilitarian test bench casing with its acrylic, aluminium, steel and chrome design, it is rather attractive looking. It is not an enclosure, your components are exposed to the air and anything flying through it. It requires a little extra care but considering the benefits in cooling and ease of swapping components it is safe to say the Blachetto is going to find a place in more than just reviewers homes.
"Microcool Banchetto is one of the best looking open-air cases out there. When early pictures of the first proto-type surfaced some time ago, people have been drooling over it. I remember seeing in on one of my favorite forums a couple of years ago I knew I wanted to get my hands on one. All this time later Fredrico and Kristi from Microcool have given me this great opportunity. Fully assembled the Banchetto is one elegant structure as it is comprised of thick acrylic sheets, aluminum and steel." Here are some more Cases & Cooling reviews from around the web:
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