Dual Graphics Acceleration in Parallel?

May 13 2004 @ 07:30AM by haysonw

With nVidia and ATI battling it out to see who can be king of the hill, Alienware (with a little help from intel) has developped a way to couple two graphics cards to allow combined graphics acceleration from an "array" of graphics cards.

Video Array is an accelerated graphics processing subsystem that will allow users to add multiple, off-the-shelf video cards to their Alienware computer systems and have both cards process graphic commands in parallel. Understanding the wide-ranging wants and needs of its customers, Alienware designed its solution so that it is not tied to any one specific video card. This design will allow users to take full advantage of the fastest video card on the market for a significant performance increase.

Get a more in depth look at ArsTechnica

 

Radeon X800Pro Limited NA Release

May 12 2004 @ 12:05PM by haysonw

The Inquirer reports that a limited number of Radeon X800Pro cards are to be released in the US and Canada sometime this week. Only a small number of cards are to be released however. Either way, ATI beats nVidia to the punch as the Geforce 6800 cards aren't to be released by the time the X800Pro's hit the shelves.

ATI said it will be able to ship the cards on those small quantities distributed in US and Canada. It even has a small fab that could make dozens of cards and might do that as well.
As you already know ATI will first have Radeon X800PRO available at $399, and the X800XT Platinum will follow at least a month after its PRO brother.

Check out the brief summary at The Inquirer

 

Unreal3 & NV40 Sneak Peak Video

Apr 24 2004 @ 07:30PM by haysonw

For those of you who want a sneak peak at gaming in the future, check out this video demonstration unveiled at the NV40 launch. It shows a glimpse of the future of gaming with the innovative Unreal3 engine with 10,000 poly models this could just be what we'll be playing in the (hopefully near) future ;)

Prepare to be blown away with this video at BeyondUnreal.com

 

NV40 Prices

Apr 13 2004 @ 08:06AM by MikeC

The Inquirer reports on some speculative prices of NV40 cards. These reports brought to you by Korean website Darkcrow also has some details on NV40 specs.

"KOREAN WEB SITE Dark Crow is saying that when Nvidia launches its NV40 tech this week, it will charge $399 for the 6800 Ultra and $299 for the non Ultra."

Read the article
NV40 specs

 

NV40 Scores

Apr 06 2004 @ 06:29AM by MikeC

The Inquirer has posted some alarming results for the NV40. 3DMark2003 scores are in the 12000 region. This is disturbing to ATi fans since at CeBIT 2004, ATi was reported saying that anything over 10000 would be a dream.

"In back rooms at the CeBIT Messe, we heard talk of 3DMark03 scores of "over 10,000 3DMarks" for both ATI's R420 and Nvidia's NV40 but, for various reasons, we weren't particularly confident in our source. However, in light of today's news, we'll mention that that same source said that the ATI R420 was somewhat slower, though "not by much"."

Read the article

 

New ForceWare Drivers

Apr 01 2004 @ 01:33PM by MikeC

nVidia has just released a new version to their ForceWare drivers. Version 56.72 features include:

Adds support for GeForce 5700 and GeForce 5700 Ultra

Microsoft® DirectX® 9 and OpenGL® 1.5 support

Supports application profiles for custom image quality and performance modes for all of your applications and games.

NVIDIA nView 3.5 Multi-display technology

Advanced Microsoft® Internet Explorer® popup blocker

Industries only Display Gridlines technology

Improved HDTV Y Pr Pb component out support for 480i, 480p, 720p, and 1080i formats*

Grab them while they're hot.

 

Galaxy Zeus 5900 XT Review

Mar 31 2004 @ 12:50PM by MikeC

Guru3D takes a look at a GeForce FX 5900 XT from Galaxy.

"High quality cooling for sure. What's nice to see is that the memory is 2.6ns BGA Hynix memory. BGA stands for Ball Grid Array. The 5900 was a magnificent overclocker reaching 475 MHz for the core frequency and check this out ... 880 MHz for it's memory."

Read the review

 

MSI GeForce FX5900XT-VTD128 Review

Mar 25 2004 @ 07:45PM by MikeC

HotHardware reviews MSI's GeForce FX5900XT.

"We've just posted a review on HotHardware of the latest card to arrive in our lab powered by a mainstream GPU, the MSI GeForce FX5900XT-VTD128. This card is equipped with 128MB of RAM, it has a near silent cooler and it's got video-in / video-out (ViVo) capabilities as well. If you think any of your readers are in the market for an affordable gaming video card, with a few extra bells and whistles, they'll want to check this one out..."

Read the review

 

NVIDIA Launches Comprehensive Shader Model 3.0 Developer Kit

Mar 25 2004 @ 06:46AM by MikeC

Nvidia seems to be gearing up for their next generation with the launch of this new Developer Kit.

?The latest NVSDK gives developers the software tools they need to create and deploy advanced shader effects more quickly and efficiently,? said Mark Daly, vice president of content development at NVIDIA. ?With tools like FX Composer, developers actively working with DirectX 9.0 are encouraged to push the envelope with new levels of visual effects, knowing that NVIDIA will soon deliver a high-performance graphics hardware platform that is able to exploit DirectX 9.0 to its fullest.?

Read the press release

 

NVIDIA's GeForce FX 5700 Ultra with GDDR3

Mar 25 2004 @ 06:35AM by MikeC

TechReport reviews nVidia's newest card on the market. Their FX5700 Ultra with GDDR3. See how this new memory improves this mid range card.

"Although the GeForce FX 5700 Ultra is already familiar, NVIDIA's new spin of it provides an early look at GDDR3's potential for graphics implementations. Read on to see what GDDR3 does for the 5700 Ultra, and what the new memory type could do for next-gen graphics products."

Read the review

 

ATI All in Wonder Radeon 9600 Review

Mar 25 2004 @ 06:33AM by MikeC

TweakNews takes a look at the ATi AIW 9600.

"With yet another All in Wonder weapon in its arsenal, ATI is yet again proving to the market that it has no intention of slowing down and taking it easy. Sure they have taken a huge market share that has been held tight by their rival for years, but ATI is not stopping. With a product cycle coming close to the lifespan of a suicidal lemming, it seems that every time I have a review of an All in Wonder written and finalized, there is another one at my door waiting for some attention."

Read the review

 

Last AGP 8X cards

Mar 24 2004 @ 06:13AM by MikeC

Digitimes has an article out with some details on the next ATi and nVidia cards. Apparently these are the last AGP8X cards that will be rolled out on the market as they are preparing to migrate over to PCI Express.

"The two new chips are ATI?s R420 and Nvidia?s NV40. Both chips were highlighted at CeBIT 2004 held in Hannover, Germany, this week. The two chips will be the last generation mainstream AGP8X chips before the PCI Express chips take the reins, said the sources."

Read the article

 

ForceWare ImageSharpening Bug Fix

Mar 11 2004 @ 06:52AM by MikeC

Guru3D has released a patch to fix a minor little bug that might be annoying some of you out there. This patch works in conjunction with the RivaTuner! software and the new ForceWare drivers.

"Guru of 3D released a small ImageSharpeningBugfix patch script that corrects control panel's code and eliminates the annoying image sharpening bug that is still not fixed by NVIDIA in the control panel. So if you are annoyed with image sharpening problem you may fix the problem with this script ."

Installation and download instructions can be found here.

 

nVHardPage updated v1.95.1b

Mar 10 2004 @ 07:19AM by MikeC

This piece of software lets you tinker with some of the features in your ForceWare control pannels. Overclocking, Direct3D and OpenGL tweaking, etc.

New features include:

• added override function for detection 2D/3D
  
• overclocking mode
  
• added override control for:
  • pixel shader
    
  • vertex shader
    
  • multitexturing
    
  • antialiasing
    
  • anisotropic filtering
• added support for new ForceWare drivers rel.55
  
• added force mipmaps control for Direct3D
  
• added application profile page control
  
• added new skin
  
• updated Performance monitor option
  
• integrated skin selection into main program
  
• improved Spanish translation
  
• fixed few bugs in user interface
  
• some others small fixes and changes

Grab it here if you need it.

 

nVidia cuts prices

Mar 09 2004 @ 06:11AM by MikeC

Well, that is on their MX 4000 chips. They want to maintain their market share in entry level video cards. This won't really affect all the power users out there, or people looking for power machines, but will help out those people who are looking to buy their first computer, or just need something for internet browsing and word processing.

"Nvidia has lowered the prices of its GeForce4 MX4000 chips to US$17 per unit from the previous range of between US$18 and US$19, aiming to maintain its market share in the entry-level segment, according to sources at Taiwanese graphics card makers."

Digitimes has the article.

 

Gigabyte FX5700 Ultra Review

Mar 09 2004 @ 05:54AM by MikeC

Gruntville reviews Gigabyte's FX5700 Ultra videocard.

"I received a Gigabyte Nvidia FX 5700 Ultra (GV-N57U128D) for review. Gigabyte states, ?GV-N57U series provides studio-quality color and incredible cinematic gaming effects, without breaking the bank.? I have to agree that $185.00 is a great price for a performance level video card that ?guarantees powerful 3D blazingly fast performance to the performance users.? Before getting excited about the price, I need to determine if this performance card?can really perform."

Click here for the review.

 

ATi All In Wonder Radeon 9200 Multifunction Videocard Review

Mar 03 2004 @ 05:58AM by MikeC

TweakNews reviews the ATi Radeon 9200 version of their All in Wonder lineup.

"Today I will be reviewing ATI's latest All in Wonder flavor, the Radeon 9200. With an extremely competitive pricepoint set in the US$150 range, ATI's goal is to bring an affordable complete multimedia videocard to the occasional DirectX 8.1 gamer."

Read the review

 

HDTV on your PC

Feb 29 2004 @ 10:12AM by haysonw

Most of you out there are already drooling over HDTV on your home entertainment systems, and now you can enjoy that high definition digital experience on your PC with a new HDTV Tuner card from ATI. If you're into capturing episodes onto your pc or are building your own pvr from scratch then this might be what you're looking for.

While we are all sitting and watching the 3D Graphics card battles rage on, in the PC TV Tuner industry, competition is a little less prominent. While a lot of enthusiasts are caught up in the hype of whose video card is faster and which one has the better image quality, there are other developments going in adjacent markets, that sometimes catch us off guard. The latest of these developments is ATi's recent announcement of their new HDTV Wonder TV card that can deliver a High Definition Television experience to the PC.

More news at HotHardware.com

 

Abit's Radeon 9800 XT Review

Feb 25 2004 @ 06:40PM by MikeC

HotHardware reviews Abit's variant of the 9800XT complete with the HL2 voucher. ^_^

"Last month, when Abit announced that they'd be introducing a new line of graphics cards powered by ATi's Radeon line of GPUs, we all stoop up and took notice. With Abit's reputation for producing products targeted squarely at enthusiasts, hopes were high that they'd do something to truly differentiate their cards from the competition. Well, we just finished our review of the first Radeon to come out of Abit, their 9800 XT. Click the link below and see if Abit worked their usual magic..."

Read the review

 

nVidia moves to 0.11 micron

Feb 24 2004 @ 11:47AM by MikeC

nVidia announced today that they will be moving to 0.11 micron technology on their next generation graphics cards.

"Santa Clara, CA and Hsin-Chu, Taiwan ? Feburary 24, 2004 ?
NVIDIA Corporation (Nasdaq: NVDA) today confirmed that it will be one of the first semiconductor companies to manufacture select up-coming graphics processing units (GPUs) at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company?s (TSMC?s) (TAIEX: 2330, NYSE: TSMC) 0.11 ìm (micron) process technology. NVIDIA will combine TSMC?s 0.11 micron process with its own innovative engineering designs, to deliver high-performance and low-power consumption in a graphics processor."

Press Release

 

MSI FX5950 Ultra

Feb 24 2004 @ 09:34AM by haysonw

R&Blackness Mods were lucky enough to receive a blazing fast FX5950 Ultra video card and they put it through it's paces to give us a glimpse of what it's capable of. Decent bundle with this one, so you may wanna check it out if you're looking to upgrade.

Tonite we are having a look at one of the heavy weight champions amongst video cards. MSI sent us their FX5950 Ultra video card for a little test run. This card seems to be a monster by just having a look at the cooler on the card itself. We will compare it to some other commoon cards that are popular on the market at this moment. We will test this in some games and some overclocking of course so this should be interesting.

RBMods has the review.

 

ATI R420 details

Feb 11 2004 @ 06:02AM by MikeC

The Inquirer has some more details concerning ATi's next videocard, the R420.

"ATI is preparing a R420 AGP swizzle stick for Q2 this year. Cards will use GDDR 2 memory 256MB at 256 bits. It's possible to use 128 implementations as well. This chip be able to support DDR, DDR2 and GDDR3 so whenever it's ready ATI can make it work with its current memory controller. They will of course use 8x32MB chips."

Click here for more details.

 

ATI Radeon 9600XT Review

Feb 11 2004 @ 05:53AM by MikeC

GruntvillE reviews ATi's mid range video card, the Radeon 9600XT

"This one was actually a tough call, but when you take the stock overclock of the HIS into consideration I truly believe the ATI performed quite well. When it comes down to which card you would want for your money it?s really a personal decision. In my opinion, for less than two hundred bucks this card is a steal."

Read the review

 

MSI FX5700 Ultra-TD128 Review

Feb 11 2004 @ 05:50AM by MikeC

Viper Lair reviews MSIs GeForce FX 5700 Ultra.

"Not everyone has the cash to blow on fancy 400$ video cards, but 100$ cards won't get the job done for those fancy pixel shader games. The FX5700 Ultra is one card that meets you halfway."

Read the review

 

Chaintech GeForce FX 5700 Ultra Reivew

Feb 10 2004 @ 02:38PM by MikeC

TweakTown reviews nVidia's mainstream videocard from Chaintech, the AA5700U.

"Yesterday we compared the performance of nVidia's GeForce FX 5950 Ultra against ATI's Radeon 9800 XT. Today we step down a class to the mainstream segment and put nVidia's GeForce FX 5700 Ultra, in the form of the AA5700U from Chaintech, against ATI's Radeon 9600 XT. Let the mainstream VGA battle begin!"

Read the review