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Buying Guides, Guides, Hardware, Holiday Shopping Guides, Opinion

Which Computer Should You Buy?

Buying a computer is more complicated than it needs to be. If you are a gamer or a computer enthusiast, this post is not for you. Stop now and move along to your next article. I wrote this article to help those who think buying a computer is challenging because of all the choices, options, and hardware to consider. One reason I believe Apple has done so well over recent years is by bringing a simplicity to the buying process that just isn’t there for traditional Windows-based PCs. Most people I know buy and use these traditional Windows-based PCs, and I hope this article can help take

3D, AMD, Business, Companies, Graphics, Hardware

Catalyst 9.3: ATI now loves Folding@Home

Back in late October, I wrote a piece where I took some 24 cards and did a test run using couple identical work units and saw that a $49.99 GeForce 9600 GSO (now known as the GeForce GT130 inside those new Mac Pros) is beating the living daylights out of ten times more expensive 4870X2. This brought a lot of attetion and the company started to address the issue. ATI’s poor performance in Folding@Home client was mostly due to different hardware capabilities of Radeon X1K, Hd2000, HD3000 and HD4000 series. But after couple of months of hard work on code optimization, ATI managed to crack

3D, AMD, Apple, Business, Companies, CPU, Graphics, Hardware, Intel, Software Programs

Youtube video shows OpenCL running on Nvidia GPU

It looks like OpenCL is getting ready for prime time. A reader from across the English Channel contacted us with a link to Youtube video that showcases OpenCL being processed on a GPU. If I recall correctly, a while ago AMD claimed world’s first OpenCL demo, but it was done on a single core (and then scaled up to all four) on a Phenom II X4 CPU. If this video is correct, Nvidia gets the pole position for being the first company to demonstrate OpenCL working on a GPU, which is “usage as intended”. Judging from the video, Nvidia showed Nbody simulation changing following parameters:

AMD, Business, Companies, Graphics, Intel, Software Programs

New Everest utility supports OpenGL 3.0

Early this morning, I received word from Tamas Miklos, author of EVEREST. This popular system benchmark and utility just got a major upgrade, supporting several new and useful tests. In fact, this is the very first benchmark that checks your compliance with OpenGL 3.0 API, but it doesn’t stop there. GPGPU devices information is also added, supporting both ATI Stream and Nvidia CUDA APIs. Given the speed of development, we might even get GPU-independent GPGPU benchmark, who knows. New feature is also Alert – sensor monitoring utility that triggers audio visual alert on overheating, voltage drop, overvoltage or cooling fan failure. This might prove quite

3D, AMD, Business, Companies, Graphics, Hardware

ATI slightly cuts prices, releases new drivers

In a never-ending battle to raise interest of both partners and distributers, ATI silently introduced latest series of price cuts. If you’re an AIB that buys boards from ATI, you might want to hear that some partners are getting nice $5 discount on Radeon 4830, which now is repositioned in order to “re-jig the product stack”. Given the fact that current retail price is as low as $79.99 (after rebate) in North America and €89.99 in Europe, this additional price decrease should bring the price down to $69/€79 level. This puts additional pressure on Nvidia’s 9800 series, and it seems that the battle now is

3D, Business, Hardware

Germans test latest Matrox hardware

Point a finger at your brain and ask yourself, when was the last time you heard about a review of a Matrox graphics card? Yep, my thoughts exactly… see, telepathy works. 🙂 Courtesy of legendary German site 3DCenter.Org, we can see what Matrox is actually… manufacturing these days. Fellow journalists spent some time with Matrox M9125 graphics card, and compared it to graphics cards from ATi, Nvidia, Intel and S3. Five-vendor GPU test… when was the last time you saw something like this? Agree, trip down the memory lane… Anyways, the boards that this card tested against were Radeon 3450, X4500, GeForce 7300GT and 8400GS

3D, AMD, Business, Companies, Graphics, Software Programs, VR World

UPDATE: AMD prepares Radeon 5600 and Radeon 5800

In the wake of global economic recession, standing still is not the way out of the woods. Thus, AMD GPG is getting ready to launch 40nm refreshes of their Radeon 4600 and 4800. We haven’t received confirmation about names of the products, but the naming should be Radeon 4700 and Radeon 4900 series, with 5800 series reserved for the DirectX 11 part. Of course, AMD might be inclined to change the name and advance to 5000 series immediately, but we’ll see. RV740 and RV790 should be considered as a trial run for TSMC’s 40nm process, currently “the most advanced manufacturing process” on Earth. Yes, it

AMD, Business, Companies, VR World

Analysts lower expectations for AMD, disclose overly payment for ATI

AMD will report yet another set of weak results, but this was expected due to global economy being in the toilet.

3D, AMD, Business, Companies, Graphics, Hardware, Software Programs

Ultimate GPGPU hacking application is here!

Use your GPU to crack a WLAN password…ultimate GPU Computing application is here…

AMD, Apple, Business, Companies, CPU, Gaming, Graphics, Hardware, Intel

Message to The Industry: We live in a different world…

Growing trend in the IT industry is talk about exclusiveness and how some companies and parts of the market are going to die. However, the world, and especially the IT industry actually operates on the different principle – inclusiveness.

3D, AMD, Business, Companies, CPU, Gaming, Graphics, Hardware, Intel, Microsoft, Software Programs

New Steam survey confirms Intel, Nvidia dominate the market share

Developing a game and want to know what gamers use? Valve Corporation gathered more than 15 million users of their Steam digital distribution platform, but probably the most interesting part is world famous “Steam Hardware Survey”. How many people use high-end hardware? What kind of displays do gamers use? We analyze last last six months…

3D, AMD, Apple, Business, Companies, CPU, Gaming, Graphics, Intel, Software Programs, VR World

GPGPU is the future: Khronos releases OpenCL API

With Khronos group officially launching the OpenCL 1.0 specification, GPGPU computing is now officially covered with a open-source, royalty-free cross-platform API that enables parallel programming on the GPUs, regardless from whom they’re coming from.

3D, AMD, Business, Companies, Hardware, Internet, Software Programs

ATI and Folding working on F@H 1.2.1: Performance, stability updates

Catalyst 8.12 drivers are set to debut next week, and as you probably know, this is no ordinary update. AMD GPG is bringing its STREAM middleware platform and updated libraries to every user of their GPGPU-enabled products (R520 “Fudo” chip aka Radeon 1800 and newer). As a part of AMD STREAM, ATI will release its own video transcoder for free. Given the limitations and performance that Badaboom has, I wonder did ATI decided to do something more in “formats supported” area. 😉 On the Folding@Home front, there are great expectations from this upcoming driver, especially if you own Radeon 4800 series product. ATI worked hard

3D, AMD, Business, Companies, Graphics, Intel

ATI and Nvidia cards for 2009 will be monsters

As the 2008 is drawing to a close, our thoughts are turning towards 2009 and what incredible hardware will come at our doorsteps. Upcoming year will bring a breeze of competitiveness, with AMD and Intel fighting for enthusiasts hearts and minds in the world of CPUs. GPUs will see a tough three-way battle between AMD GPG (ex-ATI), Nvidia and newcomer Intel with its Larrabee cGPU. But one of main building block was launched yesterday, in 2008. Hynix introduced a chip with a friendly and “easily understandable” name: H5GQ1H24AFR. Even though the name looks like something that ENIGMA would encrypt, we’re talking about 128MB (1Gbit) memory

3D, AMD, Business, Companies, Graphics, Hardware

UPDATED: Nvidia’s “deadly” flaw and how to fix it – no more squealing!

It is no secret that I am huge fan of Folding@Home project, or that I love to play computer games (when I find time :-(. Both of these activities put high amounts of strain on components inside the computer, and any weakness in product design can be easily discovered. This tale speaks of a company that makes great chips, but also has a serious design flaw: PCB design. As long as story about “Built by Nvidia” components was told, there were isolated cases of “squealing”. This squealing is caused by vibration of copper coils, and is not present on products designed by people that take

3D, AMD, Business, Companies, Graphics, Hardware, Intel, Memory & Storage Space

ANALYSIS: Why will GDDR5 rule the world?

This memory standard will become a pervasive memory during next four years in much more fields than “just” graphics. Just like GDDR3 ended up in all three consoles, network switches, cellphones and even cars and planes, GDDR5 brings a lot of new features that are bound to win more customers from different markets. Background The reason for development of radical ideas inside GDDR5 lies in the fact that ATI was looking at future GPU architectures, and concluded that the DRAM industry has to take a radical step in design and offer interface more flexible than any other memory standard. Then, ATI experienced huge issues with

AMD, Business, Companies, Graphics

ATI vs. Nvidia: Payback is a beach

Following newly introduced Saturday Light Special, I’ve received an e-mail from anonymous source (yes, I know who you are 😉 ), linking to a YouTube video which portrays the fall of a cute little dinosaur named “G4saurus Defectus”. Pun is definitely intended, and personally, the world would be a better place if the author didn’t mention some of the things which ATI copied badly (anyone remembers the historical SNAFU patchwork called Crossfire pass-through cable… ah, right. Never existed), but the video is a laugh. Over the past several years, it looks like we haven’t seen anything but bashing of the red team, and now the

3D, AMD, Business, Companies, Graphics, Hardware

UPDATE: 55nm GT206 GPU powers both GTX290 and Quadro FX 5800

The honor of being the first product powered by 55nm G200-302 chip (a.k.a. GT206/212) went to Quadro FX 4800/5800, products that launched with a lot of fanfare earlier today. Besides Quadro FX 4800 and 5800, the new 55nm GPU will also power GeForce GTX 270 and 290. Essentially, we’re talking about the same parts. Quadro FX 4800 is nothing more but GTX270 with double the amount of video memory, while Quadro FX 5800 is equal to GTX290, but with four times the video memory. ATI is not sleeping, as the company is preparing an RV790 part , beefed-up version of already existing RV770 chip. G200-302

3D, AMD, Companies, Graphics, Hardware

Nvidia officially unveils civil “CX” and FX5800 monster

Last week, I did a short piece about the way how Nvidia is trying to bridge the 32-/64-bit divide, and today, the company officially unveiled Quadro FX 4800 and FX 5800. Quadro FX 4800 shares a lot of similarities with Adobe-oriented CX, but features 216 shaders (yes, GTX-260 brother here, if my sources were correct) and 1.5 GB of GDDR3 memory. But the star of the today’s launch is FX 5800, the new flagship of Quadro fleet. In a way, we already know everything about FX 5800, since Nvidia demonstrated the product back in August at Siggraph 2008, followed by Nvision 08 – so, specs

AMD, Business, Companies, Graphics, Intel

AMD keeps on killing its saviors, continues malicious benchmark practice

When it comes to AMD, this is the one company that is really a talent when it comes to destroying its own golden gooses. Sometimes out of knowledge, sometimes out of pure malice, the company’s heart is far from one that was the core when Colonel Sanders was in charge. The company that Sanders lead was always on the edge, but it was that edge that created AMD K7 and K8 architecture (NexGen), it was the edge that went into sponsorship deal with Ferrari and commanded with 45% of 4P server space (for a while). Reactive AMD was the one that stopped investment in 65nm