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| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=20739 |  deimos47 (249) Aug 07, 2008 - 10:53 pm
| The difference shown is huge. Who would have thought 3Ghz dual/quad core CPUs could be such a waste of money...? (other nVidia marketing).
Dont recall ragdoll "physics" being as taxing in UT2003, or on X1800 in GRAW. Perhaps can sacrifice precision and frequency of calculations for perfomance (ie Doom3, BF2 fixed rate) Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=20728 | deimos47 (249) Aug 07, 2008 - 10:46 pm
| So how many 5" jumbo floppies am I gonna have to feed into my Commodore64 before I get to see the RAGE title screen?
Also, I accidentally lost floppy #341 of Vista installation for my PDP11.. do I gotta start from beginning?
Seriously folks, whether its 2 DVD or 3 DVD, I seriously doubt it will really affect game quality. Use MP3 instead of WAV. Cut short the cinematics. Dialog, meh, not important since you're driving and need to focus on the road. Stop bundling uncessary adds. And, um I dunno, maybe RAR it up? Presto, you're down to CD size. Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=20716 | deimos47 (249) Aug 07, 2008 - 10:40 pm
| marketing name suggestions:
iGeForce
GTX Knight
nVidia GTX KRZR
GTX 2 Duo v2
Phantom X280
GeForce F430 or 911 Turbo
Flying Spaghetti Monster's Noodly Appendage
(hardcore gamers would know there's nothing faster in teh universe) Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=20716 | deimos47 (249) Jul 29, 2008 - 10:21 pm
| Case: Starbucks
Lucractive. Posh. Hip. Mocha Latte oozing with sweet foamy goodness.
Where are they now: regrouping, shrinking. Brand became diluted. Shic image became too common. Brand failed to inovate and keep up with iced coffees etc. In pricewar desperation to maintain marketshare profit margins shrinking.
nVidia? Since G80 in 2006, too many too similar products... 4 8800GT a GTS, 9600GT and if 9800GTX wasn't confusing enough 9800GTX+ and 9800GT top it off. Are they just trying to flood market with product names, or have they not heard of market segments?
You'd think having played the DX10.1 card early, AMD would have it rough differentiating products. But 9800GT at paltry 600Mhz.. at least make it a silly small increase. Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=20708 | deimos47 (249) Jul 27, 2008 - 08:30 pm
| Re: copy protection
Eventually good folks at valve allowed user to play single player in "offline" mode - having to authenticate only once.
Gears of War - MS Live - other than making you loopy, provided startling online MP - 4 servers and the same "defaultplayer" noobs.
BioShock - not obtrusive, but then again I haven't tried installing on multiple user accounts.. yeah you only get limited installs, and "undo" util only works once per PC. Good thing they recently sensibly dropped copy protection - it was getting confusing what you could/should/couldn't do.
FEAR/Far Cry/Doom3/old days - pop in CD, decipher wavvy characters in booklet, you're good to go.
Unreal4 - is it like supposed to finally do the fancy lighting, soft particle and parallax features UT3 supposed to do. Flag this | Edit this post |
| Siteseeing Link » /news/siteseeingarticle.asp?searchid=4482 | deimos47 (249) Jun 26, 2008 - 05:07 pm
| One cold bitter night, long ago, while driving through blizzard, wipers started struggling to wipe of the snow. I could barely make out the snowplow ahead. I was following its flashing light. But, some wind swept up, I veered and lost sight of the snowplow. Fearing being stuck all alone, I prayed and prayed, until a voice called out in the darkness...
"turn lef on John St."
It was a miracle. Somehow the car knew where I was and told me how to get back home! Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=20586 | deimos47 (249) Jun 20, 2008 - 07:20 pm » Edited on Jun 20, 2008 - 07:22 pm
| Back 1.7 years ago, folks had 2.9Ghz Core2Duo + 8800GTX.. have things really improved that much since then?
Sure you might laugh, but surprisingly most games play very good on 1800XT/7800GTX from 2005.
Heck, I'm sure even that old AGP X800XT AIW in non-64bit P4C compares really well to low end GeForce 8500's..
Yes, with the luxury of 4xAA and even 8xAA, and full 10.1 support for Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=20571 | deimos47 (249) Jun 18, 2008 - 04:49 pm
| Well the way I figure, nVidia had 3 iteration of their DX10 lineup (G80, G92, GTX), and so does AMD (R600, RV670, RV770), so you should be getting a very "optimized" and efficient GPU.
Question on every value enthisiast's minds is probably if R7 is fast enough to warrant an upgrade from RV670/8800GT... Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=20553 | deimos47 (249) Jun 17, 2008 - 04:32 pm
| IMHO, I hope dual-cores stay for a long while.
Quad cores naturally cost about twice as much to make, and priced accordingly. And as they try to push quad core to low-end they push dual core prices down. Great news for the end user who isn't running database server or 3D render farm, who wouldn't see any benefits with quad core anyway.
Its actually quite odd to see many folks on forumns following the marketing trend, and "upgrade" their 2.6Ghz dual core OC to 3.5 with 2.4Ghz quad, and complain why its slower and cant OC as high... cute... Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=20563 | deimos47 (249) Jun 17, 2008 - 04:25 pm
| Gotta definetly agree.. but to clarify: there are many new PC games that are still coming out. Its just that perception of what's "flashy" has changed.
Back in the day, when Xbox was the flagship console, there were many PC exclusive games, that slowly trickled down to consoles, and trying to make do in BF2 on anything less than X800 was brutal. Hence perfect timing of arrival of 6600GT and its massive sales.
Certainly would have helped nVidia if Half-Life3, or FarCry2 was launching alongside their uber black cards. (Age of Conan doesnt count - even low end can play that).
Ofcourse, it doesnt help GTX adds no new must have features, costs a ton, and market is already saturated with super cheap GT's. Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=20562 | deimos47 (249) Jun 13, 2008 - 10:27 pm » Edited on Jun 13, 2008 - 10:30 pm
| When Apple's Holy Grail of creating easy way to make multi-threaded programs, and covert olds ones to multi-threaded bears fruition, we will all be singing praises of ye olde quad core.
Till then, a $50 video card in a HTPC, is doing a much better job at 1080p blu-ray than a quad could dream of. And with all the recent buzz of everything running in parallel on HUNDREDS of processors on your GPU, getting just "4" in a quad kinda seems, well antiquated.
One cant't help but wonder if the real holy grail is to stick a couple SATA connectors on that 8800GT, a few USB, figuring a way to boot an OS on it, and ditch everything else. Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=20515 | deimos47 (249) Jun 05, 2008 - 01:01 am
| I seriously hope Intel isn't naive enough to think folks will upgrade so soon after Core2Duo/Quad.
Also sceptical if chipset/mobo will be good. First new socket in very long time - break in backward compatibility. DDR3 hasn't had spectacular adoption. And recent chipsets - X38, X48 etc - are just rehash of old ones.
Especially concerned how new generation will treat mainstream and enthusiasts since different sockets. Will mobo makers cash in and price Bloomfield sky high? How will Intel stack up new lineup against today's amazing value $70-100 dual cores. Will Intel leave multiplier unlocked down. Will we continue to enjoy crazy overclocking headroom? Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=20517 | deimos47 (249) Jun 05, 2008 - 12:52 am
| No, the real problem is that the trend has been moving towards notebooks, and recently ultra mobile like EEPC.
Look around any campus and all you see is notebooks. Most people realized that rather than big heavy box, its better to use a 13" notebook to get the WOW fix.
Killer apps for PC? No-where in sight (unless HL3 is hiding in top-secret lab with Doom4). Expensive hardware? Market shifting to smaller and cheaper.. hard to justify $700 video card when you can get a whole wii and a notebook for that price. Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=20505 | deimos47 (249) Jun 04, 2008 - 08:08 pm
| Sadly, this *might* be last BIG gpu launch. Some indicators: recent downturn in consumer confidence in the US, subprime mortgages, mass success of cheaper consoles that support more games, shear power and size of these monsters, and ofcourse lack of killer app(s).
Lets face it - rekindling the magic of X800/6800 launch to the tune of must-have for Far Cry/HL2/Doom3.. wont happen again soon. Lots of folks already "upgraded" to xbox360/PS3, or jumped on HD3870/8800GT when Crysis came out.
I just cant see many folks forking over $650 for "almost lifelike" silky smooth rendered pretty girl demos on your desktop, when $650 goes so much further at a motel. Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=20485 | deimos47 (249) May 24, 2008 - 01:27 pm
| 3Ghz dual core and 512MB standard?? Unless you are referring to almighty P4D, there are few 3Ghz dual core, not even X6800. Not everybody buys a >$500 CPU, and video card whenever there is a new one on market.
In fact, like in beginning of DX9 era when most people held onto their GF4 and 8500, most people now are holding onto their DX9 cards, for lack of tangible benefits of DX10 cards. And most games on market like R6:V2 and AC play just fine on 7900 or even X800.
It certainly costs a lot less to dial down resolution or some quality setting a notch or two than dish out almost twice the price of a console on one video card alone. Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=20458 | deimos47 (249) May 13, 2008 - 09:54 pm » Edited on May 13, 2008 - 09:55 pm
| Funcom seems on a good roll. And not just the 1 million beta testers, but a whole history of great games... fond memories...
Journeyman project
The longest journey
Grim Fandango
(*tears*)
Myst
**sobbing** Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=20421 | deimos47 (249) Apr 30, 2008 - 04:37 pm » Edited on Apr 30, 2008 - 04:38 pm
| Kind of like Super Mario Bros.
At first you were awed when you got to 2nd, 3rd etc.. world. You uber pwned those flying fish and bullet bills. And after months and months figured way through those impossible castle mazes.. perfect 10 right?
Well, once you figured out how to warp levels, finish game, play over with beetles instead of goomba's get infinite lives, etc... it kind of took away the charm didn't it?
Bottom line: There isn't a single game I would give anywhere near a 8 let alone a 10 after playing 3rd time through.. and that's why I never do it.
PS: Oblvion didn't even take 20hrs to get tedious.. it was more like 5hrs for me. Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=20394 | deimos47 (249) Apr 24, 2008 - 06:08 pm » Edited on Apr 24, 2008 - 06:11 pm
| » Phenom X3 is not fastest, but doesn't matter
Look again at the game performance graphs..
very few will use 800x600 or 1024x768. This is done to showcase CPU difference. By the time you get to 1600x1200 every game is GPU limited. And, you will be even more GPU limited with slower than 8800GT that was used.
Ofcourse, difference between E8400 and low clock Phenom's would be even bigger if 9800GTX2 was used, but thats certainly not target use of $150 CPU.
Surprisingly, Phenom X3 is perfect with mATX 780G as PVR. Triple core for encoding, and 780G for decoding H264/AVC. Nice and low power.
PS: Not holding breath hoping G45 decoding to match nVidia/AMD's. Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=20394 | deimos47 (249) Apr 23, 2008 - 08:57 pm
| Surfing/email/Word
we had something for things like that on campus - they are called "P3 eMachine PC".
I swear, one time, I was typing so fast, CPU utilization almost hit 30%!
On Pentium3, only common Office problem is crazy intense scrolling/resizing and massive spreadsheets. Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=20394 | deimos47 (249) Apr 23, 2008 - 08:22 pm » Edited on Apr 23, 2008 - 08:40 pm
| AMD rushed with Quad which is tiny portion of market, missing completely mainstream (dual) until today, nearly 2 years after C2D intro.
In 95% of common apps/games, dual core E8400/E8500 are the fastest thing in mainstream market, thanks to high clockspeeds.
Although consumers are clueless and might think 3 for the price of 2, they do get advice from techies and can read benchmark graphs, and short of smooth (bribed) sales-talk, are unlikely to sacrifice performance in 95% of apps/games to get faster product in things they'll almost never use.
X3 may be good compromise but will kill profits since it still costs the same 285mm2 as the X4. AMD needs new 3Ghz+ 45nm two(or even three) core chip specifically focused on mainstream market!!
This would be far better than some crazy 4/6/8 core behemoths that cant scale clockspeeds, requires massive cooling and only benefits the handfull doing encoding/3D rendering. Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=20394 | deimos47 (249) Apr 22, 2008 - 11:13 pm
| "Multi-threading" was first introduced to gamers who bought dual Socket370 Celeron systems. SMP support started sometime around Quake3, but didn't really pick up speed until P4 HT, followed by P4D (d is for dual-core btw).
Back then, AMD should have payed carefull attention. P4D and Athlon X2 may have been great for marketing, but as we recall, did little to improve general performance and game benchmarks. Yes, games like Quake4 benefited, but ultimately at the end of the day, Ghz won.
Secondly, Intel payed a heavy price by adding a 2nd core. Prescott was already sweating bullets, and dual core turned that into a scorching inferno. Assuming sufficient cooling, extra core doesn't limit clockspeed, but doesn't go along with "green" policy either. Finally, Intel transition to 90nm didn't improve clockspeeds or power much. In constrast, AMD's 90nm Venice was heralded as a triumpth. But, almost half-decade since FX53, clockspeeds have stagnated. Unless something drastic is changed, 45nm is unlikely to reverse this trend. And as we've seen with past Athlon's larger cache barely increases performance due to integrated memory controller, although bigger improvement may be realized with DDR3 and its higher latencies. And I hope the "native-quad" mantra doesn't prevent a 45nm dual-core version.
A 3.5Ghz 45nm dual-core Phenom would be vastly better to gamers and 99% of public than an 8 core Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=20247 | deimos47 (249) Apr 01, 2008 - 05:18 pm
| Hey who knows... maybe a week or two nVidia yells surprise, and showers us with proper successors to 8800GTX/Ultra. Maybe even at least the the same 384bit bandwidth they introduced in 2006 *gasp*.
Maelphaedor, just to make sure we're all on page 1: 8800GTX and Ultra both have 2 power and 2 SLI connectors (back then there were lots of triple demonstrations being made).
Considering the surprise/letdown/april's fools joke, makes one wonder what their follow up will be... (*I leave it up to your imagination*) Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=20247 | deimos47 (249) Apr 01, 2008 - 05:09 pm
| » trade-off
In late 2006, long before Vista, while HD adoption was still in its infancy, nVidia released their new top-tier product - 8800GTX. Like, the 6800Ultra (and to some extent 7800GTX) it was a pivotal milestone, raising the bar way up high.
7800GTX->7900GTX was acceptable spring refresh.. you get more processing power, AND more bandwidth, for overall much faster product in all situations.
Problem with 9800GTX is its 256bit, unlike the 8800Ultra which is 384bit. In shader intensive games (majority of cases), the higher shader clock of 9800GTX will win out. But, at very high resolutions, especially in older less shader intensive games, 8800Ultra and even 8800GTX is faster.
Now I dont know about you, but I wasn't terribly excited the last time Intel did this "trade-off" when releasing Prescott - more cache, more Ghz, but hot power-hungry and lower IPC. Nasty foul after-taste...
Had 8800GTS 512MB not existed, at least there would be the #shaders to distinguish 9800GTX. But, the tiny clock improvements really blow of lame and desperate. Why not just cop-out already and do as car company and call it the "all new Mazda 8800 GT 2008 edition", and when 2009 rolls around at least have the decency to pull the clocks up to even number (700). Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=20032 | deimos47 (249) Mar 19, 2008 - 05:46 pm
| I smell headcrabs... this very unusual for the typical Intel we grew up with that released a new CPU generation every 4-5 years, and if you were really good for Christmas you would get a Mhz speedbump or a bit of extra cache.
Yes, Intel has followed AMD's footsteps with L3, HT, integrated memory controller etc, although Athlons had 3 HT links supporting 2 hops and NUMA. Ofcourse they are breaking the good long compatiblity chain LGA775 has offered. And using 1 chip for chipset with uATX will be marketed by Intel as the greatest thing since wonderbread... I'm guessing they think we all forgot about NF3 and numerous SIS single chip chipsets...
Still, one can't help but wonder if such new ambitious projects will be the dawn of some revolutionary changes in marketplace.. Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=19827 | deimos47 (249) Mar 05, 2008 - 08:29 am
| Woah, WallShadows, easy there.. just put the algebra down, and nobody gets hurt.
Intel has been actually fantastic for backward compability recently. Lets look back down memory lane:
Intel forced to recall various P3 chipsets, SDRAM or RAMBUS, choose your poison.
P4 went through unprecendented number of socket and VRM changes. As if it wasn't bad enough Prescott could literally boil you a cup of coffee, every few months newer versions required different power requirements and most motherboard makers had to redesign their boards.
Now:
You can stick Quad core 45nm in a P965 and it will be fine... wow.. just amazing. Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=19839 | deimos47 (249) Mar 05, 2008 - 08:20 am » Edited on Mar 05, 2008 - 08:20 am
| IMHO, perfect time to build that shuttle PC HTPC. AMD, Intel and nVidia all have DX10 chipset with HD decoding either just released (AMD), or soon (Intel, nVidia).
*Intel (unreleased IGP) as usual has serious driver issues, and 3D performance and compatibility is lagging far behind. Poor HD acceleration and quality.
*nVidia (unreleased IGP) puts up impressive gaming scores, and rumour is that PureVideo actually works quite well. Not quite as fast in 3D as AMD's. And many rumours of overheating. Hopefully it will be here soon.
*For once AMD released their DX10 IGP first, and its quite amazing. Perfect score in video quality (HQV) and unprecedented low power. Definetly the fastest IGP ever and HDMI and DisplayPort... but... only AMD CPU: choice of 2 year old X2 or TLB broken Phenom... would have been PERFECT if new fixed Phenom was also launched this week... Flag this | Edit this post |
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