10062968
submission
Vigile writes:
AMD might be at disadvantage in terms of processor performance but their chipset division is still making strides to improve over what Intel offers. The new AMD 890GX chipset not only integrates a slightly improved ATI Radeon HD 4290 graphics core but also is the first chipset to natively support SATA 6.0 Gb/s storage technology via the new SB850 south bridge. The 890GX will be the first to officially support AMD's upcoming 6-core 'Thuban' processors due out later this year. The 890GX graphics core also includes AMD's UVD2 (unified video decoder) technology that accelerates the decode process of two independent video streams on picture-in-picture Blu-ray titles making it great for HTPCs as well.
9926034
submission
Vigile writes:
The AMD Radeon HD 5000-series of graphics cards has been picking up steam since its initial release back in September of 2009 starting with the high-end offering, the HD 5870. Since then AMD has debuted at least 8 more card configurations that range from $59 to $659 depending on your GPU needs. Today AMD is releasing the latest mid-range offering called the HD 5830 that will sell for under $250 yet offer features that NVIDIA's top options can't match including multi-monitor gaming and DX11 support. PC Perspective has not only a complete performance evaluation of that card but more details on the anticipated HD 5870 Eyefinity Edition that will include support for 6 displays connected to a single graphics card.
9800292
submission
Vigile writes:
A lot has been written about Lucid's HYDRA technology and its goal of creating a completely vendor-agnostic and platform-independent multi-GPU scaling solution but now that you can actually buy a motherboard with support for it how does it stack up? The proposed solution still holds a lot of promise including a hardware PCI Express logic and bridge chip that works with the standard motherboard chipsets and a Windows driver that is responsible for intelligently breaking up the workload between different graphics cards but it seems the execution is lacking. In PC Perspective's review of the MSI Big Bang Fuzion motherboard that implements HYDRA, NVIDIA-to-NVIDIA scaling when using non-identical cards actually impressed though AMD-to-AMD scaling and the holy-grail that was to be cross-vendor scaling produced results that were well under expectations. Repeated driver iterations have improved performance and stability somewhat but it seems the dream of seamless multi-GPU scaling is still a ways off.
9764500
submission
Vigile writes:
The idea of having a "Limited Edition" solid state drive might seem counter intuitive but regardless of the naming, the new OCZ Vertex LE is based on the new Sandforce SSD controller that promises significant increases in performance, along with improved ability to detect and correct errors in the data stored in flash. While the initial Sandforce drive was called the "Vertex 2 Pro" and included a super-capacitor for data integrity the Vertex LE drops that feature to improve cost efficiency. In PC Perspective's performance tests the drive was able to best the Intel X25-M line in file creation and copying duties, had minimal fragmentation or slow down effects and was very competitive in IOs per second as well. It seems that current SSD manufacturers are all targeting Intel and the new Sandforce controller is likely the first to be up to the challenge.
9428142
submission
Vigile writes:
Transformers jokes aside, NVIDIA's newest technology offering hopes to radically change the way notebook computers are built and how customers use them. The promise of both extended battery life and high performance mobile computing has seemed like a pipe dream and even the most recent updates to "switchable graphics" left much to be desired in terms of the user experience. Having both an integrated and discrete graphics chip in your notebook does little good if you never switch between the two. Optimus allows the system to seamlessly and instantly change between IGP and discrete NVIDIA GPUs based on the task being run including games, GPU encoding or Flash video playback. Using new software and hardware technology notebooks using Optimus can power on and pass control to the GPU in a matter of 300ms and power both the GPU and PCIe lanes completely off when not in use. This can be done without being forced to reboot or even close out your applications making it a hands-free solution for the customer.
8870192
story
Vigile writes
"When the OnLive cloud-based gaming service was first announced back in March of 2009, it was met with equal parts excitement and controversy. While the idea of playing games on just about any kind of hardware thanks to remote rendering and streaming video was interesting, the larger issue remained of how OnLive planned to solve the latency problem. With the closed beta currently underway, PC Perspective put the OnLive gaming service to the test by comparing the user experiences of the OnLive-based games to the experiences with the same locally installed titles. The end result appears to be that while slower input-dependent games like Burnout: Paradise worked pretty well, games that require a fast twitch-based input scheme like UT3 did not."
8850298
submission
Vigile writes:
When the OnLive cloud-based gaming service was first announced back in March of 2009, it was met with equal parts excitement and controversy. While the idea of playing games on just about any kind of hardware thanks to remote rendering and streaming video was interesting, the larger issue remained of how OnLive planned to solve the latency problem. With the closed beta currently underway, PC Perspective put the OnLive gaming service to the test by comparing the user experiences of the OnLive-based games to the experiences with the same locally installed titles. The end result appears to be that while slower input-dependent games like Burnout: Paradise worked pretty well, games that require a fast twitch-based input scheme like UT3 did not.
8738396
submission
JoshMST writes:
NVIDIA is late to the party with DX11-ready graphics hardware, but they are
hoping to make up for it with a very unique and different design than the
competing AMD Radeon GPUs. The GF100 GPU is
essentially the same hardware that was detailed in the
Fermi release late last year, but only now do details emerge on how the
hardware is targeted at the gaming market. A total of 512 processing cores
are combined with a new PolyMorph Engine that performs the necessary
tessellation for DX11 but in a new, less serialized manner. The chip is
going to be big and we already know that it is going to be power hungry,
but until actual products and benchmarks are revealed, the final answer
between AMD and NVIDIA this generation will be up in the air.
8678274
submission
Vigile writes:
The new AMD Radeon HD 5670 launches today and it is the first graphics card to bring DirectX 11 support to the sub-$100 market and offers next-generation features to almost any budget. The Redwood part (as it was codenamed) is nearly 3.5x smaller in die size than the first DX11 GPUs from AMD while still offering support for DirectCompute 5.0, Eyefinity multi-monitor gaming and of course DX11 features (like tessellation) in upcoming Windows gaming titles. Unfortunately, performance on the card is not revolutionary even for the $99 graphics market though power consumption has been noticeably lowered while keeping the card well cooled in a single slot design.
8630176
submission
Vigile writes:
The new AMD Radeon HD 5670 launches today and is the first graphics card to bring DirectX 11 support to the sub-$100 market and truly offers next-generation features to almost any budget. The Redwood part (as it was codenamed) is nearly 3.5x smaller in die size than the first DX11 GPUs from AMD while offering support for DirectCompute 5.0, Eyefinity multi-monitor gaming and of course DX11 features in upcoming Windows gaming titles. Unfortunately, performance on the card is not revolutionary even for the $99 graphics market though power consumption has been noticeably lowered while keeping the card well cooled in a single slot design.
8369068
submission
auld_wyrm writes:
In what will likely be the first of several new sets of product announcements from ASUS at this year's CES, we have some of the first images of the new ASUS ROG G73Jh gaming notebook and the collaborative effort between the ASUS and Bang & Olufsen, the NX90Jq with a 18.4-in 1080p and special B&O speakers. Check out what the high end notebook market is shaping up like for 2010!
7723766
submission
Vigile writes:
Even though the unit is a read-only engineering prototype, the guys at PC Perspective were impressed with the performance the first SATA 6.0 Gb/s SSD offered over the competition. The Marvell drive was meant to demonstrate the controller technology the company has developed as an end-to-end SATA 6G proponent, and it does so nicely. With burst speeds as high as 350 MB/s (which is 90 MB/s faster than the current stop SSDs) and sustained read speeds going as much as 175% faster than the best spindle-based hard drives available today, the SATA 6.0 Gb/s spec looks to extend the performance lead for solid state drives greatly in 2010.
7477476
submission
Vigile writes:
Intel unveiled a completely new processor design today the company is dubbing the "Single-chip Cloud Computer" (but was previously codenamed Bangalore). Justin Rattner, the company's CTO, discussed the new product at a press event in Santa Clara and revealed some interesting information about the goals and design of the new CPU. While terascale processing has been discussed for some time, this new CPU is the first to integrate full IA x86 cores rather than simple floating point units. The 48 cores are set 2 to a "tile" and each tile communicates with others via a 2D mesh networking capable of 256 GB/s rather than a large cache structure. There are more details on the design and its massive die size in this summary at PC Perspective.
7256826
submission
Vigile writes:
Everyone seems to love Drobo storage products, especially the new additions to their line, but some remain hesitant to move to an external solution using a non-standard RAID level. PC Perspective's destroyer of SSD's took a crack at the DroboPro, doing his best to trip it up, and exploring all of its features in detail. As it turns out the DroboPro got the better of the tester and was able to survive all sorts of simulated destruction including yanking out the power cord during streaming writes to the unit. The unfortunate part is that the DroboPro is limited to iSCSI, Firewire, USB and eSATA connections for a steep $1495 retail price.
7218496
submission
Vigile writes:
Lucid is a small company that seemed to promise the impossible: truly open GPU scaling performance across platforms and GPU vendors. Lucid has been talking about and showing off its HYDRA Engine technology that combines a hardware and software layer to facilitate DirectX performance scaling based on individual objects and task division rather than alternate frame rendering. This method allows HYDRA to use different GPUs of varying performance levels and scale accordingly. PC Perspective was able to get some time with a reference system and benchmark a few games and different GPU combinations including identical NVIDIA cards, NVIDIA cards of different GPU generations and even a configuration using an ATI and NVIDIA graphics card simultaneously, all improving game performance to some degree. Though there were some inconsistencies in compatibility the overall impressions were favorable and point to a successful launch later this winter.
