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AMD

Submission + - New AMD HD 5970 GPU peaks power and performance (pcper.com)

Submitted by Vigile
Vigile writes: The AMD GPU team has definitely been dominating NVIDIA lately with both the release of the Radeon HD 4000-series and the Radeon HD 5000-series that was the first to include DX11 support and new Eyefinity multi-monitor gaming technology. AMD's latest addition is a dual-GPU variant called the HD 5970 that basically runs a pair of 5800 cards in permanent CrossFire mode on a single PCB. The gaming performance is incredible but might be overshadowed by the significant amount of overclocking headroom AMD left on the card for users that want to get 15-20% more out of their rig at the cost of 33% additional power consumption. If 400 watt GPUs and $599 price tags are something you can deal with, this card will impress just about any gamer.
Graphics

Submission + - Lucid HYDRA Open GPU Scaling Tested (pcper.com)

Submitted by Vigile
Vigile writes: Lucid is a small company that seemed to promise the impossible: truly open GPU scaling performance across platforms and GPU vendors. Since late in 2008 Lucid has been talking about and showing off its HYDRA Engine technology that combines a hardware and software layer to facilitate DirectX game 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 the 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.
Data Storage

Submission + - Intel adds TRIM to SSDs, bumps write speeds (pcper.com) 3

Submitted by Vigile
Vigile writes: Intel is releasing an update for some existing solid state drives that should improve performance in quite a few circumstances. First, as promised by Intel upon their introduction, the "G2" X25-M is getting support for the TRIM command that enables the operating system and SSD to improve performance by keeping track of deleted flash blocks. This TRIM update will only be applied to the "G2" 34nm SSDs — users that bought the first Intel X25-Ms are out of luck. The other big news is a boost in write speeds on the X25-M G2 drives — from 80 MB/s to 100 MB/s. There is one big caveat though — this speed boost ONLY applies to the 160GB model of the 34nm X25-M, not the 80GB model. There appears to be no technical reason for this differentiation as both drives use the same controller and flash memory but Intel obviously chose to force the market to lean towards the larger drive. It's also interesting to note that Intel was able to "flip a switch" and boost write speeds on identical hardware: how much more headroom can they unlock on these SSDs?
Nintendo

Submission + - Next Nintendo handheld to be NVIDIA Tegra powered (pcper.com)

Submitted by Vigile
Vigile writes: When you sell over a 100 million handheld gaming systems, everyone wants to be involved in your success; just ask Nintendo. As a company with many different obstacles in its path, NVIDIA could definitely use the boost in revenues that would come from partnering with a company like Nintendo on a handheld system and it looks like the Tegra processor will make that happen. The NVIDIA Tegra processor is an SoC that runs a set of ARM cores, a GeForce-based graphics core and an HD video processor capable of 1080p output that would definitely give the current Nintendo DS/DSi systems a performance boost inline with the Sony PSP. The "Nintendo TS" as it has been dubbed will apparently be ready for a late winter 2010 release and should put a spark in the mobile gaming market and give Nintendo's developers the power to bring higher quality games to the platform.
AMD

Submission + - AMD Radeon HD 5870 adds DX11, multi-monitor gaming (pcper.com)

Submitted by
Vigile
Vigile writes: "Few people will doubt that PC gaming is in need of a significant shot in the arm with the consistent encroachment of consoles and their dominating hold on developers. Today AMD is releasing the Radeon HD 5870 graphics card based on the Evergreen-series of GPUs first demonstrated in June. Besides offering new best-in-class performance for a single-GPU graphics board, the new card is easily the most power efficient in terms of idle power consumption and performance per watt. Not only that but AMD has introduced new features that could help keep PC gaming in the spotlight including the first DirectX 11 implementation and a very impressive multi-monitor gaming technology called AMD Eyefinity. The review at PC Perspective includes the full gamut of gaming benchmarks in both single- and dual-GPU configurations as well as videos of Eyefinity running on three 30" displays."
Intel

Submission + - Intel Lynnfield CPU brings power and lower price (pcper.com)

Submitted by Vigile
Vigile writes: While the Intel Nehalem processors have been known as the fastest on the market since their introduction last year, the newly announced Lynnfield CPUs offer competitive performance at a much lower price point. Lynnfield processors are the first to integrate 16 lanes of PCI Express 2.0 directly on the CPU die, though performance differences between it and traditional chipset-based PCI Express are minimal. Lynnfield also reduces the number of memory channels from 3 (on current Nehalem parts) back down to 2 so you will only need a dual-channel memory solution for optimal performance. Intel is branding these new parts as both Core i7 and Core i5 which could cause some confusion with the existing Core i7 lineup but performance and power consumption testing of the new Core i5-750 processor show some impressive results for under $200.
Data Storage

Submission + - Why size matters for your SSD purchase (pcper.com)

Submitted by Vigile
Vigile writes: Performance analysis on solid state drives is still coming into clarity as more manufacturers enter the fold and more of the drives find their way into users hands. While Intel's dominance in the SSD market was once undoubted, newer garbage collection methods from Indilinx and Samsung are now balancing performance across the the major players. What hasn't been discussed in great detail yet is the effect that drive capacity can have on overall performance. Some smaller drives (64GB versus 128GB) will actually use fewer data channels from the controller chip and thus will have lower transfer speeds. In this article drives using controllers from Indilinx, Samsung and Intel are compared.

Comment Re:Bye, bye. (Score 1) 881

by auld_wyrm (#28978177) Attached to: Murdoch Says, "We'll Charge For All Our Sites"

For the most part though aren't the majority of news stories, whether they hook to the left or swing to the right, simply a complete reprint of an Associate Press story? Local news is best grabbed via a local paper level, they will provide much more comprehensive stories than a large news media empire; the large media empire really hasn't the space or time to cover small local interest stories. Those local newspapers are struggling, but haven't died as they provide a unique service to their own particular communities. That assumes that they haven't been digested by a large media entity.

That local paper provides a unique service that I cannot acquire elsewhere. The larger media for the most part do not. The same story is available from a large variety of services, the only difference being a slightly different cut and paste editing job. The investment of that large media empire is their subscription to the AP and the time it took to cut and paste the story into their own paper. I am happy to pay to access local news because it is a unique service.

If those media empires decided to provide a unique service, like say reintroducing that severely endangered animal, the Investigative Reporter, who will not only tell you what is happening, but also the events which lead to it happening and how those events were able to occur, plus how this might affect future events; then I might just change my mind and pay for content. As it stands right now, I'll get my country/world level news for free (apart from watching ads on every available piece of space around said news) via RSS and websites that give me cut and paste AP stories for free.

It would also help sway me if their grammar was better than mine.
Data Storage

Submission + - Intel 34nm SSDs lower prices, raise performance (pcper.com)

Submitted by Vigile
Vigile writes: When Intel's consumer line of solid state drives were first introduced late in 2008, they impressed reviewers with their performance and reliability. Intel gained a lot of community respect by addressing some performance degradation issues found at PC Perspective by quickly releasing an updated firmware that solved those problems and then some. Now Intel has its second generation of X25-M drives available, designated by a "G2" in the model name. The SSDs are technically very similar though they use 34nm flash rather than the 50nm flash used in the originals and reduced latency times. What is really going to set these new drives apart though, both from the previous Intel offerings and their competition, are the much lower prices allowed by the increased memory density. PC Perspective has posted a full review and breakdown of the new product line that should be available next week.
Data Storage

Submission + - SATA 6G launch delayed due to faulty Marvell chips (pcper.com)

Submitted by Vigile
Vigile writes: More than simply a faster 6.0 Gb/s data throughput speed, the SATA 6G standard offers improved NCQ support, better power management and a new connector to support 1.8-inch drives. While modern day spindle-based hard drives struggle to keep up with SATA 3G speeds, the advent of modern SSDs are nearly saturating the existing standard and a move to SATA 6G was welcome in the hardware community. It looks like that technology will be delayed though as the only chip supporting the standard today, the Marvell 88SE9123, is having major issues. Motherboard vendors including ASUS and Gigabyte, who had planned on releasing SATA 6G technology using the chip on Intel Lynnfield platform motherboards later this summer, are having to remove the Marvell 88SE9123 and redesign their boards at the last minute due to significant speed and reliability issues.
AMD

Submission + - SLI on Life Support on the AMD Platform (pcper.com) 2

Submitted by
JoshMST
JoshMST writes: "For years AMD and NVIDIA were like peas and carrots, and their SNAP partnership proved to be quite successful for both companies. Things changed dramatically when AMD bought up ATI, and now it seems like NVIDIA is pulling the plug on SLI support for the AMD platform. While the chipset division at AMD may be a bitter rival to NVIDIA, the CPU guys there have had a long and prosperous relationship with the Green Machine. While declining chipset margins on the AMD side was attributed to AMD's lackluster processor offerings for the past several years, the Phenom II chips have reawakened interest in the platform and they have found a place in enthusiasts' hearts again. Unfortunately for NVIDIA, they are seemingly missing out on a significant revenue stream by not offering new chipsets to go with these processors. They have also curtailed SLI adoption on the AMD platform as well, which couldn't be happening at a worse time."
Data Storage

Submission + - Solid State Drives tested with TRIM support (pcper.com)

Submitted by Vigile
Vigile writes: Despite the rising excitement over SSDs, some of it has been tempered by performance degradation issues. The promised land is supposed to be the mighty TRIM command — a way for the OS to indicate to the SSD a range of blocks that are no longer needed because of deleted files. Apparently Windows 7 will implement TRIM of some kind but for now you can use a proprietary TRIM tool on a few select SSDs using Indilinx controllers. A new article at PC Perspective evaluates performance on a pair of Indilinx drives as well as the TRIM utility and its efficacy.
Handhelds

Submission + - NVIDIA Tegra SoC to power new Zune HD (pcper.com)

Submitted by Vigile
Vigile writes: Last month Microsoft announced the upcoming Zune HD with an impressive set of specifications including a 3.3-in 480x272 OLED multi-touch screen, support for 720p output over an HDMI connection, HD radio receiver and more. What wasn't known at the time was that NVIDIA's new system-on-a-chip known as Tegra would be powering the entire device. With impressive specifications like the ability to playback an SD video stream using just 150mW of power and output audio using just 20mW, Tegra could actually give the Zune HD a competitive advantage over the iPod touch for the first time. Additionally, with Flash acceleration coming to the Tegra platform very soon, the Zune HD will finally have a killer feature unavailable to iPod/iPhone users.

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