Spare a thought for AMD and NVIDIA. They have been happily smacking each other upside the head for a decade. But at least they have been doing so safe in the knowledge that their GPUs are distinct from – and inherently superior in graphics processing terms – to CPUs.
At least, that used to be the case. Intel has now unveiled Larrabee, a co-processor based on an entirely new approach to graphics processing. If Intel has done its sums correctly, not only will the very definition of the GPU be unceremoniously defenestrated, but also AMD and NVIDIA's graphics chips could even be pummelled to the very brink of existence.
If that sounds like hubris, try this for size. Larrabee could also tear up the rulebook for CPUs, too. That's right, a single new architecture might just take over as ultimate all-round processor, eventually cannibalising sales of Intel's own conventional CPUs.
What exactly is this deathly destroyer, this harbinger of doom made ma... More »
The first bit of “Fusion” that AMD is releasing today is an in-house designed software utility that was described to us as being able to “turn a mainstream PC into a lean, mean gaming machine.”
Essentially, this Fusion Gaming tool is a utility that automates many of the tweaks that hardcore enthusiasts carry out in order to free up system resources for the purpose of maximizing gaming performance. The utility works by temporarily disabling background services and processes, freeing up memory and CPU cycles in an effort to make games run more smoothly.
AMD demonstrated the application to us clicking the gigantic “Fusion” button on a Windows Vista desktop, which immediately shut down usually active applications such as Skype, Google Talk, as well as many other background services. The utility will not, however, override any applications that have a shutdown or save dialog, meaning that clicking the button will still allow Microsoft Word to prompt if ... More »
Facing tough competition from a red-hot console market, developers are looking online in a bid to keep computer-based gaming alive.
There was a time when personal computers were the tools of choice for hard-core gamers. But four years ago, on the brink of the release of the PlayStation 3, Wii and Xbox 360, analysts were proclaiming the death of PC gaming.
These new consoles – well, Sony's PS3 and Microsoft's Xbox – were more powerful than the computers at the time, and were integrating with home entertainment systems to provide high definition experiences beyond just gaming. Nintendo, meanwhile, offered a completely new approach to gaming with its Wiimote controllers.
And this year, Electronic Arts decided to kill the PC versions of many of its popular sports titles, including Madden NFL 09, Tiger Woods PGA Tour and NBA Live. LucasArts is releasing The Force Unleashed, its new Star Wars title, on every platform except PC.
No doubt you’re familiar with the Universal Serial Bus – we ranked it as our top PC innovation of all time. But what do you know about the next version of this ubiquitous interface? USB 2.0 (otherwise known as USB Hi-Speed) boosted the original 12Mbps data rate to 480Mmb/s over eight years ago, and now USB 3.0 (dubbed USB Superspeed) is set to multiply that bandwidth tenfold.
The USB Implementers Forum (led by Intel) released the USB 3.0 spec to hardware partners last week after some reported disputes with AMD and Nvidia (who, afraid Intel would have a jump start in incorporating the tech in chipsets, threatened to develop their own USB standard). But how does this affect you? We dug up some new information about USB 3.0, got our hands on the new connectors, and even took a look inside the new cables.
USB 3.0 will be backwards-compatible with USB 2.0 Like the upgrade from USB 1.1 to 2.0, the new 3.0 connectors and cables will be physically an... More »
The Crysis Warhead system requirements have been revealed at the EA Store. As expected they are pretty much the same as the Crysis system requirements, the only difference is the required HDD space:
CPU: Intel Pentium 4 2.8 GHz (3.2 GHz for Vista), Intel Core 2.0 GHz (2.2 GHz for Vista), AMD Athlon 2800+ (3200+ for Vista) or better
RAM: 1GB (1.5GB on Windows Vista)
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT, ATI Radeon 9800 Pro (Radeon X800 Pro for Vista) or better
VRAM: 256MB of Graphics Memory
Storage: 15GB
Sound Card: DirectX 9.0c Compatible
ODD: DVD-ROM
OS: Microsoft Windows XP with Service Pack 2 or Microsoft Vista
DirectX: DX9.0c or DX10
If the rumors are to be correct, the Intel Core i7 and Intel Core i7 Extreme Edition processors will officially be announced August 11 with an expected launch date of Q4 2008.
Nahalem is expected to be initially manufactured with a 45nm process and be available with two, four, or eight cores, for up to 731 million transistors in the quad core variant. A very exciting aspect of the new architecture is the new integrated memory controller, called the Intel QuickPath Interconnect, with DDR3 SDRAM support, which will eliminate the bottleneck that was the front side bus and which had been haunting Intel for years.
This should result in a substantial performance increase despite Intel’s competition, AMD, having been using an integrated memory controller in their processors for years.
Another feature of Nahalem will be the re-introduction of Hyper-Threading technology, which was used previously in the Pentium 4 series of processors. Hyper-Threading al... More »
AMD announced that it has started shipping the new 790GX graphics chipset targeted at gaming enthusiasts. The chipset features enhanced SB750 southbridge, ATI Radeon HD 3300 chip integration, scalable ATI CrossFireX graphics technology, and Phenom chips with higher overclocking thanks to the new 'Advanced Clock Calibration' technology.
The 790GX is slotted below AMD's existing 790FX chip, which is targeted at the high-end gaming segment. AMD claims the 790GX chip is the world's fastest motherboard GPU (mGPU), with Mark 3D Vantage entry mode scores in excess of 2900.
The new Advanced Clock Calibration technology allows 790GX chipset to overclock Phenom CPU systems at clock speeds higher than 3.0 GHz by "significant tuning enhancements" on the new SB750 southbridge for better performance. The SB750 southbridge has been introduced to the 790GX chipset for optimum performance with Phenom processor based systems.
As the article goes.. Intel has unveiled details of the chip that will spearhead its move into computer graphics. It has revealed blueprints for the Larrabee chip that is scheduled to first appear in finished products in late 2009 or early 2010. Larrabee will be a stand-alone graphics processor unlike the onboard chips it produces for many PC makers.
The move will bring Intel into direct competition with graphics specialists Nvidia and the ATI division of AMD. Intel is aiming to put Larrabee into graphics cards for PCs that help show games and video in very high detail. Like existing graphics chips from Nvidia and ATI, Larrabee is expected to have many separate processing cores onboard.
So far Intel has not said how many processing cores Larrabee will have onboard at launch or in subsequent generations. Future Nvidia and ATI graphics chips are expected to be made up of several hundred cores. While Intel will initially target the PC graphics card market, it e... More »
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