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Graphics

GeForce GTX 670 grabs the gaming crown->

Submitted by Dr. Damage
Dr. Damage writes "Nvidia first unveiled the more expensive graphics cards in its new GeForce lineup, but today, the GeForce GTX 670 arrives, and The Tech Report says there's no reason to buy anything else. They prove it by driving a six-megapixel, triple-monitor array competently with a single video card and measuring performance using some intriguing, latency-focused metrics."
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Comment: People want iPads, not tablets (Score 2) 584

by Makarakalax (#38470758) Attached to: Why 2012 Will Be the Year of the Android Tablet

People want iPads, not tablets. People don't even know what "tablets" are. Apple have defined a new market, most people buying iPads aren't really sure why they want them yet. It will be impossible for the competition to win over mindshare until they have something *better* than the iPad has. Price will not convince many because as said, people don't want tablets, they want iPads.

This will probably change. But it will take a few years yet IMO. Think about how long it took for people to know why they wanted a PC. This is different (people understand why they want a computer nowadays), but it will still take time.

Comment: Imperial units are more human (Score 1) 2288

by Makarakalax (#35890942) Attached to: Why Does the US Cling To Imperial Measurements?

I'm a Brit so metric is our thing.

However I realised a long time ago that imperial units are better for people. Not better for science, obviously. Not better for engineering, of course. But better for people.

5 foot is a much more human number than 1.5 meters.

The difference between 15 and 20 celsius is the difference between a cold and a warm day. The temperature varies 15 degrees here in England through out the year. 15 units is not enough to convey meaning! Fahrenheit, as totally weird a scale it is, has a greater meaningful range when it applies to knowing if you should go to the beach or not.

500 grams of mince? 500 units for cooking?! Give me cups and pounds anyday.

A foot is a good unit of measurement. I can pigeon step to measure things.

AMD

Dual-GPU monsters face off, raise questions->

Submitted by Dr. Damage
Dr. Damage writes "Nvidia's new GeForce GTX 590 poses an interesting question to the subset of folks who buy $700 dual-GPU graphics cards: does performance rank above all else, or do considerations like board size and noise levels matter more? This latest high-end GeForce isn't quite as fast as AMD's similarly outrageous Radeon HD 6990, but it's smaller and substantially quieter. Based on the numbers, the Radeon's louder fan may be easier to hear than the card's slightly higher frame rates are to see."
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Intel

32nm Xeons improve performance, power efficiency->

Submitted by EconolineCrush
EconolineCrush writes "Intel's Xeon 5600 series is the latest batch of CPUs to tap the company's cutting-edge, 32-nano fabrication process. Code-named Westmere-EP, these new server and workstation CPUs add two cores and 4MB of cache per socket while remarkably staying within the same thermal envelopes as their predecessors. When pitted against the last Xeon generation, the new chips predictably offer better performance and power efficiency. Intel's power-optimized Willowbrook server motherboard may be even more impressive, as it enables a dozen-core Xeon L5640 system to consume just 66W at idle."
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Apple

User reports searing-hot iPad, melted cord-> 3

Submitted by J. Dzhugashvili
J. Dzhugashvili writes "A member of the Tech Report forums reports that his iPad's charging cord literally melted in the middle of the night, and the iPad it was connected to became searing hot—hot enough that the user dropped it and caused some damage. Melted charger cables and searing-hot (or combusting) batteries are nothing new, and they've led to mass battery recalls in the past. After getting in touch with Apple, however, the user was simply told he was responsible for damaging the device by dropping it, and that the iPad was out of warranty for having jailbroken software installed."
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Apple

iPad melts charging cord, nearly combusts-> 1

Submitted by EconolineCrush
EconolineCrush writes "Apple might have an answer for the iPhone 4's antenna issues, but a potential problem with the iPad could be tougher to fix. At least one user's iPad nearly combusted while the device was plugged in, melting the charging cable in the process. Similar problems prompted mass notebook battery recalls a few years ago, although this seems to be the only case of iPad-related melting reported thus far. Have any Slashdot users observed similar behavior with their iPads?"
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Networking

Wireless PCIe to enable remote graphics cards-> 1

Submitted by J. Dzhugashvili
J. Dzhugashvili writes "If you read Slashdot, odds are you already know about WiGig and the 7Gbps wireless networking it promises. The people at Atheros and Wilocity are now working on an interesting application for the spec: wireless PCI Express. In a nutshell, wPCIe enables a PCI Express switch with local and remote components linked by a 60GHz connection. The first applications, which will start sampling next year, will let you connect your laptop to a base station with all kinds of storage controllers, networking controllers, and yes, an external graphics processor. wPCIe works transparently to the operating system, which only sees additional devices connected over PCI Express. And as icing on the cake, wPCie controllers will lets you connect to standard Wi-Fi networks, too."
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Hardware

Barebones nettop runs XBMC, makes good budget HTPC->

Submitted by EconolineCrush
EconolineCrush writes "Bargain-priced nettops have intriguing potential, but you usually have to accept the manufacturer's default configuration. Not so with Zotac's Zbox HD-ID11, which is available as a barebones affair sans hard drive, memory, and operating system. The Zbox comes with a dual-core Atom CPU, an Ion GPU with HD video and Flash acceleration, 802.11n Wi-Fi, and even Gigabit Ethernet. Although Wi-Fi reception is a little flakey, the system runs nice and quiet and handles HTPC duties and light gaming with aplomb. The Zbox also plays well with XBMC Live, making it easy to roll your own home-theater PC without paying the Windows tax, which counts for a lot given the nettop's $220 street price. This could be the ultimate budget HTPC for savvy DIY types."
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Games

PhysX API mired by poor optimization, x87 code->

Submitted by EconolineCrush
EconolineCrush writes "Nvidia has long pushed its PhysX game physics middleware as a prime candidate for GPU acceleration. However, it seems that the company may have also taken steps to ensure that PhysX performs poorly when run on a modern CPU. Despite the fact that physics calculations lend themselves to parallel processing, games tend to implement PhysX with a single thread. PhysX also relies largely on x87 code rather than SSE instructions. The latter should run faster and make life easier for developers, and Nvidia has taken advantage of similar instructions with its console-specific PhysX implementations. But not on the PC, which smells like a willful attempt to hinder PhysX performance on anything but an Nvidia GPU."
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Let he who takes the plunge remember to return it by Tuesday.