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OEM success/SLI/PCI-E
FiringSquad: ATI has secured multiple design wins from tier one OEMs such as Dell. Has this come at the expense of the retail market?
Paul Ayscough: The reality is the graphics market has grown substantially over the past few years and so has the demand for our products – particularly at the high end. With top-tier OEMs like Dell now offering high end gaming machines it creates new business opportunities for ATI. ATI enjoyed tremendous OEM success with the transition to PCI Express. This OEM success has placed increased constraints on our capacities. With new products like the X800XL and X850 series shipping in volume we expect quick and wide retail availability going forward.
FiringSquad: ATI’s last two product introductions, the RADEON X700 family and RADEON X850 series, are currently only available for the PCI Express interface only. Why did ATI choose to provide parts for the PCI Express market first when the AGP interface has an established base of millions of users?
Paul Ayscough: PCI-E represented a huge inflection point for the PC market. Through significant investments and a close development relationship with Intel, ATI capitalized on this transition. That being said we have not forgotten about the massive installed base of AGP users. Stay tuned over the coming weeks, as we will have some exciting new product announcements in AGP area. We understand that the AGP installed base of enthusiasts will be around for some time – and we want to ensure the very best experience for this group of gamers too!
FiringSquad: Valve’s Half-Life 2 is clearly ATI’s most prominent Get in the Game title – what other games and software developers is ATI working with that we’ll see in the next 6-12 months?
Paul Ayscough: ATI is working with a number of the industry’s leading game and application developers and will have some exciting announcements here soon. Two very cool ones to watch out for in the near future are the Matrix Online and Act of War.
FiringSquad: NVIDIA’s SLI technology has drawn a lot of buzz from both end users and the media alike. Has ATI run any projections on how large this potential market may be?
Paul Ayscough: This is a very interesting area, one where 3DFX tried to capture.
I personally believe that there is a market for ultra high end PC gaming technology and these users are important to address as they influence buy decisions. We feel we currently have the right the right products with the RADEON X850 XT Platinum Edition. Watch this space for future announcements!
FiringSquad: So you do have a strategy.
Paul Ayscough: Yes, we do have a strategy, one we will share at the appropriate time!
FiringSquad: Is this type of technology important for mindshare amongst the high-end gamers?
Paul Ayscough: That’s a difficult question to answer. The reality is this market moves at a breakneck pace – significantly increasing performance (in many cases doubling) every six months.
There is always going to be a segment of gamers that demand the highest performance possible with money being no object. The majority of gamers don’t behave in this manner. They upgrade when the technology offers compelling performance and feature improvements over the previous generation. So there’s actually multiple ways of grabbing mindshare at the high end and this will continue to be a priority moving forward for ATI.
Batman: Arkham City PC Review Batman: Arkham City is the sequel to 2009’s smash-hit action game Batman: Arkham Asylum. As the name suggests, you will be reprising your role as the Caped Crusader and going against an even larger 'prison' filled with Gotham's criminals and villains. A textbook example on how to do a proper sequel, Arkham City takes what worked in the original, excised or improved upon what didn’t, and elevated everything to an even greater scope. The PC version suffered from a few months of delay, but in that time, Rocksteady worked closely to NVIDIA to implement some familiar technologies from the last game, such as PhysX and 3D Vision, along with new DirectX 11 optimizations. But how well was the whole package executed? Read on to find out!
Saints Row: The Third PC Review Saints Row is one of most unique series of games to build upon the open-world action template forged by Grand Theft Auto, and has met with plenty of critical and commercial success since it began on consoles back in 2006. This latest iteration, titled Saints Row: The Third promises the most outlandish fun and freedom of customization of them all, and in a much more PC-friendly package than its predecessor. Does it live up to those expectations and, more importantly, is it worth the price of admission? Find out in Will's latest review!
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim PC Review The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is Bethesda Softworks’ latest offering in their series of epic fantasy RPGs, as well as one of the most highly-anticipated PC titles of 2011. As the Dovahkiin, or Dragonborn, prepare to take the fight to the mythical beasts that have returned to the realm after centuries of slumber, all the while exploring a huge and highly-detailed open world.
The PC version of the game promises enhanced graphical fidelity, standard RPG trimmings such as hotkeys and quick-save, as well as unbridled mod support, something we’ll all be thankful for once they release that SDK. Skyrim has already sold millions of copies and set records for play-time on Steam... Find out why in today's review, which happens to be one of the biggest and most in-depth articles on the subject out there!
L.A. Noire Complete Edition PC Review L.A. Noire, as the name clearly states, is a video game built on the tropes of one of the greatest periods of American cinema: film noir. Developed by the now defunct Australian developer Team Bondi and published by Rockstar Games, this title has been out on consoles for a full six months before finally making its way to the PC. This “Complete Edition” of the game features improved graphics, keyboard/mouse controls, and every bit of previously-released DLC for free. But was it truly worth the wait? Read on and find out!
Intel Core i7-3960X Sandy Bridge-E Performance Review
Today marks the launch date for Intel’s Sandy Bridge-E line of processors, a new family of high-end Core i7 products based on the LGA 2011 platform. This new socket is poised to replace the existing LGA 1366 specification used by the more powerful Nehalem and Westmere parts from the past couple years, specifically Bloomfield and Gulftown, the Core i7-9xx+ line of CPUs.
With 6 cores, 15MB of cache, and support for quad-channel DDR3-1600 memory, the Core i7-3960X sounds like quite a catch. Want to know more about it and how it performs? Read on!
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Xbox 360 Review
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Stronghold 3 Review
The latest sequel in the long-running real-time strategy franchise from FireFly Studios, Stronghold 3 is all about building your dream castle and defending it against sieging enemies. Almost exactly one decade after the first game was released, this new title promises a return to the classic and well-received gameplay that has been strayed so far from in more recent iterations. Does it live up to those expectations? Will (AKA Synchronous Failure) tells us all about it in his first official FiringSquad review, so read on!
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Equal parts action and strategy, this is a tower defense game that not only puts you in command, but on the front lines of combat, as well. Slaughter thousands of orcs, ogres and other vile creatures of fantasy that invade your fortresses through 24 levels of the story-based campaign. With high levels of replayability thanks to its scoring and leaderboard functionality, multiple difficulty levels, and various styles of play, it sounds a steal at only $15. Does it deliver on all that’s promised, though? Read on and find out!
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