GF 9600 GSO: anything and everything Intel: Tukwila delayed, 12,000 optimized programs High end PCI-Express X-Fi AMD GAME!: first of all, the platform

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GF 9600 GSO: anything and everything   Posted on 19/05/2008 at 22:27 by Nicolas - source: matbe

	It’s nothing new that the GeForce 9600 GSO is simply at best (and at worst) only a "flexible" 8800 GS. The GPU/shader clock/memory frequencies of 550/1375/800 MHz are purely indicative and apparently it’s also the case for the width of the memory bus. Normally, this should be 192 bits, which will enable offering cards equipped with 384 or 768 MB; however, ASUSTeK will produce an EN9600GSO MAGIC/HTPD equipped with 512 MB of DDR2. To accomplish this, the Taiwanese giant has chosen to reduce the bus to 128 bits. In addition, we go from 800 MHz to 500 MHz for memory frequency. Thus in the end, we will find ourselves with 41.6% of the officially "recommended" memory bandwidth or this figure divided by 2.5! On the opposite extreme, the same manufacturer will also launch the EN9600GSO ULTIMATE/HTDP equipped with 384 MB of GDDR3. In this case, there will be frequencies of 680/1700/900 MHz and the same double slot dissipation system, called the "Glaciator". Thus, its creator can simultaneously make its more demanding clients happy by theoretically offering a card which is attractive and in addition equipped with more memory for an aggressive price. It would be easy to put all of the blame on a single entity. Large manufacturers like to offer the widest possible range of products to set themselves apart. Almost all sometimes feature cards which we could be tempted to qualify as Ultra LE or equipped with supplementary quantities of memory as useless as they are excessive. They therefore play an active role. However, we can also wonder about the commercial practices of Nvidia. Is this company under a disproportionate amount of pressure from its clients obliging it to make concessions? This would be hard to believe because they claim loud and clear to have more than 85% of the DirectX 10 GPU market. As is often the case, and Nvidia is no exception to the rule, once a downgraded product is no longer in the spotlight, it is used as a dumping ground to sell off all and everything. So is this a rather inelegant way of getting rid of unsold 65nm G92s?

Intel: Tukwila delayed, 12,000 optimized programs   Posted on 19/05/2008 at 19:01 by Nicolas

	According to PC World, the first Tukwila or next generation Itanium will finally not arrive until early 2009 when it was previously a question of late 2008. You may recall it is engraved in 65nm, has four cores on a single die, 30 MB of cache for a total of 2 billion transistors and should function at frequencies as high as 2 GHz. There is still HyperThreading, but the memory controller is integrated to the processor while the latter is relayed to the chipset via QuickPath Interconnect, which will also be used in the Nehalem. Note that according to the Itanium Solutions Alliance which consists of Bull, Fujitsu, Fujitsu Siemens Computers, Hitachi, HP, Intel, NEC, SGI, Unisys, BEA, Microsoft, Novell, Oracle, Red Hat, SAP, SAS and Sybase, there are now more than 12,000 applications and tools available for the Itanium platform. The only thing is that its market share is still remains extremely low and there will have to be new cores, the sincere and massive support of developers and a lot of time for this Santa Clara giant’s high end server solution to attain its objectives.

High end PCI-Express X-Fi   Posted on 19/05/2008 at 17:34 by Marc

	Creative has launched two new X-Fi sound cards in PCI Express format, the Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Professional Series and Champion Series. Up until now, Creative only offered the X-Fi Extreme Audio in PCI-E with limited functions compared to the high end PCI X-Fi. There is now ASIO as well as EAX 5.0 and 64 MB of X-Ram. SNR also changes to 109 dB and, a first for Creative, these cards finally support Dolby Digital encoding. The « Champion » model additionally includes an internal rack, which on its façade gives you access to a micro input and headphone output in its 3"1/2 version as well as RCA jacks on the 5"1/4 version. These cards will be available in the next few weeks for a price of $219 for the Pro model and $299 for the Champion.

AMD GAME!: first of all, the platform   Posted on 19/05/2008 at 17:00 by Nicolas

	After the AMD LIVE! and Better By Design programs, now we have AMD GAME!. Once again, this involves the Sunnyvale company promoting a complete platform consisting of a minimum of a Phenom, Turion X2 Ultra or Athlon X2 5600+ processor, an AMD chipset and a Radeon HD 3650 or higher (the 3400 seems excluded for the moment but no one will complain). Any AMD GAME! configuration will be enough to run the latest games for Microsoft Windows. If in actuality this won’t change anything for the conscious buyer, the new marketing campaign is quite a good idea. While AMD LIVE! was a response to Intel’s Viiv and Better By Design aimed to improve the quality or set a minimal for graphic performances (discreetly putting VIA out of the game), this time the company stresses the one thing they are the only ones to provide at this time: a complete gaming platform. Intel does not yet have a real GPU and Nvidia doesn't have a CPU in its catalogue. AMD GAME! configurations are already available online at Alienware, Cyberpower, iBuypower, Maingear and Velocity Micro. Otherwise, we will have to wait until the second half of the year to see them in stores. ACER, ASUSTeK, Corsair, Qimonda and many others have already pledged their support.