Hardware news !!

[vidiware]

if u havent buyd ur pc buy msi graphics card much more software...

no monitor...i have one already and norway are expencive

[Nyarlathotep]

I really don't care if they ship an extra video cable with the card (as an example). Besides, the MSI video card has the loudest fan, so no thanks. I've heard roumers that in the coming few weeks, there should be a GeForce 4 Ti4600 special edition. This card has golden contacts and carries 256mb of DDRRAM. I do not know if the above is true, but if it is, I'll be the first to have it :)

[Nyarlathotep]

Here are some rumored specs on the new Nvidia cards (GeForce 5):

NV30:

400MHz GPU - The new Ati 9700 runs at 325Mhz

512-bit chip structure

AGP 8X

8 rendering pipelines

Supports 128-256MB of DDR SDRAM

900MHz DDR SDRAM - The new Ati runs at "only" 620Mhz :O

Supports DirectX 9 and OpenGL 1.3

NV35:

500MHz GPU *points towards the Ati's clock speed* :O

512-bit chip structure

AGP 8X

8 rendering pipelines

Supports 128-256MB of DDR SDRAM

1000-1200MHz DDR :O (also supports DDR II)

Supports DirectX 9.1 and OpenGL 2.0

The NV30 should be released in Q3 - early Q4. The NV35 should be released in Q4 - early Q1 2003.

[Vladimir_Harkonnen]

:O

Nice, even those are rumors they sound true here.

[Nyarlathotep]

For you AMD lovers and those who are thinking about buying a new AMD system, read this article about VIA's new motherboard chipset. It's capable of running DDR400 ;)

[Nyarlathotep]

Do you guys find this thread usefull ?

[jacobdouds]

Very useful.

For anyone whos interested, the AMD Athlon XP1800+ runs at a 1.5Ghz, and the 2200 runs at a 1.8ghz etc, so if you want a speed, look into it first.

Also, when first installed, the 1.5ghz for example, will only run at a 1.1, like mine, and to get it going to its full speed, i gotta mess with the jumper switches, which im not so happy to do.

Anyway, to relate this to the thread, look into what the numbers really mean first, and the geforce5 sounds good, very good.

Im getting a geforce4 ti 4600 for a couple hundred dollars in a few months, rather then the normal 1200 price.

[Nyarlathotep]

If you haven't seen it yet, you might want to check out the following thread about the new AMD Athlon processors here.

[Nyarlathotep]

Intel's P4 2.8 currently whoops ass :)

Read it here

[gunner154]

what's the highest MB for video cards? 64MB?

[Oper90]

what's the highest MB for video cards? 64MB?

I believe it's 256MB ... My GForce3 has 128MB.

[Nyarlathotep]

The new ATi cards (9700 series) and the coming new Nvidia cards (NV30 and NV35) are capable of running with 256mb. However, non of the current available cards (including the ATi 9700 pro which is already avialable) has 256mb yet. If the cards are delivered with 256mb, it might be DDR II, instead of the current DDR ram.

[Nyarlathotep]

Here's an overdue update from hardware country:

Motherboards:

For all you AMD fans, there are now several motherboards with the new VIA KT400 chipset. This chipset is capable of running DDR400 memory, although manuafacturers will tell you it's not supported. Next to te memory support, it also has AGP 8x capability. Before the SiS648 chipset (only for the Intel P4) had this capability. In tests, the Asus A7V8X came out as good performer among several motherboards tested. If one wants to buy a mothrboard with this new KT400 chipset, do not stare blind on the DDR400 memory support, as it's performance isn't that overwelming compared to DDR333 memory. If you wish to read in more detail about the boards, go here.

Processors:

Excellent and not so excellent news for the AMD fans (and Intel if you'd like). AMD has announced it's XP 2800 processor, making it the virtual peformance leader of the processor market !! Unfortunately, it will not be available until somewhere in 2003 (probably spring). Unfortunately because Intel has announced (next to it's 3.06Ghz and 3.3Ghz) it's new flagship, the 3.6Ghz processor. For the line above 3Ghz, there are no test results for the Intel processors, hence why AMD is currently the virtual leader. Read more about AMD here. More about the Intel processors here.

Video cards:

Who ever thought ATi was the only card with AGP 8x is wrong. Nvidia has cranked up two versions of their cards to support AGP 8x as well now. The Geforce 4 MX440 and the GeForce Ti4200 (you can recognize them, cause they have 8x behind their types) now support also AGP 8x. Nvidia also cranked up the clockspeeds of the MX440 -8x. Instead of running at 270MHz (GPU) and 400MHz DDR (memory), the new cards are set to 275/500MHz. The Ti4200-8x remains unchanged at 250/500MHz for the 64MB version. The "heavyweights" Ti4400 and Ti4600 remain unchanged. One needs to remember that those cards aren't created for DirectX 9.1, unlike the ATi 900 and 9700 series. You can read more here.

Chipsets:

SiS is coming with a new chipset, next to the recently released 648 chipset. The new chipset is the 658 and only for the Intel P4. This new chipset is, next to Intel of course, the only chipset that supports RDRAM. Difference is with Intel that it only supports 16bits RDRAM, while the new SiS chipset supports 32bits !! Next to RDRAM, it also has all new features, like AGP 8x. For those of you who seek performance above all, think about the Intel P4 3.6Ghz, a mobo with this new SiS chipset and RDRAM (PC1066) running on 32bits.. drool. Read more here.

That's about if for now. Hope you enjoyed it and will be sure to update you with new stuff soon :)

[quoudam72]

Do you guys find this thread usefull ?

Yes like hottubs and bikinis. Glad we have it as a section.

[Nyarlathotep]

There's currently little shocking news. I did find some news about the new AMD clawhammer boards. Funny thing is, that if one wants to upgrade to a clawhammer, besides a new motherboard, he'd probably needs a new case as well. The new clawhammer is going to be fastend with screws on the mainboard (which then needs to be fastend to the case). Anyway, read some here.

ATi has extended it's range of the 9000 series video cards:

Radeon 9700 PRO: The fastest and most expensive card among the ATI models. 8 pixel pipelines, 4 vertex shaders, 128 MB with 256-bit memory bus, DirectX 9 support. Clock speed (chip/memory): 325/310. Official price: $399.

Radeon 9700: The smaller of the 9700 series differs in its lower clock speeds: 275/270. Official price: $299.

Radeon 9500 PRO: The memory interface was reduced from 256-bit to 128-bit, but it can still accept up to 128 MB of memory. Otherwise, it has the same features as the 9700 cards, meaning that it offers full support for DirectX 9. Clock speeds: 275/270. Official price: $199.

Radeon 9500: Again, the memory bus is only 128-bit. The maximum memory is reduced from 128 MB to 64 MB. In addition, 4 pixel pipelines are left out. However, it still offers full DirectX 9 support. Clock speeds: 275/270. Official price: $179.

Radeon 9000/9000 PRO: Based on the technology of the Radeon 8500 (R200). Supports DirectX 8.1.

Tests can be found here.

Also, a test on 17" LCD screens, as they become more and more popular :) Don't look to much to the prices as I think they are a little bit high (you should be able to get them somewhat cheaper).

Always wanted to know how to build your own PC ?. If so, check the following links:

Part 1, the basics.

Part 2, the assembly.

[Nyarlathotep]

Just read some news:

"For 2003, AMD's going to need more than fancy marketing tricks to pull out of this one....and no, it's not going to be Hammer. If it were that easy, wouldn't we all be CEOs? ;0) Hahah...okay, never mind.

AMD'S SHARE OF THE WORLDWIDE processor market fell to its lowest point for four years in the third quarter, figures from Mercury Research suggest. According to the researcher, the company could claim just an 11.6 per cent share of the market in the three-month period until the end of September. This was a drop from 15.6 per cent of the previous quarter and a significant tumble from the dizzying heights of around a 20 per cent market share the company could lay claim to just the year before.

Intel's share was pegged up to 86.8 per cent the researcher said. This was up from 82.8 per cent the previous quarter and from 79.2 per cent the year before.

AMD claimed to have flushed out inventory during the quarter but its dip in market share will trouble the company deeply. The upstart can claim to have sold more chipsets during the same quarter but, with Intel still piling on the megahurtz in its Pentium 4, AMD's Athlon is starting to appear pale in comparison. The company has a few aces up its sleeve of course, for next year, after it trims its workforce and makes a pitch for the corporate space with Hammer. In the meantime, it's just hanging on.

The company is embarked on an expensive ad campaign to make itself a more recognisable brand and is out banging the drum for itself in the US on its AMD Reality Check tour.

In its last quarterly bulletin, the company admitted processor sales of 262 million dollars in its third quarter this year - 31 per cent down on the year before." - Source The Inquirer

Nvidia's NV30 doomed to fail before it's even released ?

Read the article below:

These days ATI Technologies is the indisputable leader among consumer graphics cards, moreover, before the arch-rival from Santa Clara managed to launch their new graphics chip, ATI wants to solidify its current position. Today the company officially issued a press release, telling us that they already have graphics cards equipped with DDR-II memory almost ready to go. ATI also announced a DDR-II variant for mobile graphics and mid-range desktop graphics, code-named DDR-2M, and demonstrated the technology working on a desktop graphics card, according to the statement.

RADEON 9700

[Frodo]

didn't inel just announce the release of the 3.0 ghz processor?

[Nyarlathotep]

didn't inel just announce the release of the 3.0 ghz processor?

Yes they did. But it's known for quiet some time now that they are releasing the 3Ghz processors. The fatest known now and coming out in the spring is going to be 3.6Ghz.

[Nyarlathotep]

The battle of memory. Did you always wanted to know which RAM was best ? Check out this link (which is kinda good news for all Intel lovers).

Another test, but this time having ALL processors that are currently known. Head over here to read all about it.

More about the Nvidia NV30, called GeForceFX.

[Nyarlathotep]

WTH is Hyper-Threading ??

Simply put, HT allows one processor to serve as two physical processors while the OS and other programs are tricked into thinking that there are actually two working physical processors. The benefits are twofold: when multitasking, HT will allow you take about any combination of desktop applications with HT, run them simultaneously and then get some level of benefit depending on the application you are running, measured by task-completion benchmarks.

For example, you put on a slide show with music. While encoding the music, you manipulate images at the same time. The encoding process in the background is going to finish faster. While you will still have a quick responsive imaging experience in the foreground, in the past you may have had to wait and may not have had a responsive environment. And in some cases, the foreground application may have ground to a halt.

For office applications, virus scanning and encryption cranked up to the maximum take up IC computing power. When you are working on basic tasks in the foreground with a simple virus scan operating in the background, opening up a large PowerPoint file can take a lot of time. But instead of taking several minutes without HT, opening up the PowerPoint presentation might just take a few seconds.

Source - Tomshardware

[Cybopache]

Hi Doc!

Very useful tread,keep up the good work ;D

I`m about to upgrade my system and have got an offer for:

Motherboard: ECS P4S5ATX,with sis 645 chipset,both sd & ddr ram.

Prosessor :Intel Celeron Willamette 2000mhz,in-a-box

Cabinett ;Codegn miditower atx 6066.

this come for about 200

[Nyarlathotep]

If it's $200 it's a fairly good deal. It wouldn't by my first choice though (don't like celeron processors).

I'd say look at what you have now and compare to it to what it could be if you take the offer. If you gain a lot, I'd say go for it. It's certainly worth the price.

[Cybopache]

Thanks Doc!

Well I now have an Amd K6 III-455mhz,so i think I will gain pretty big,so I think I go for it.

Cybo.

[Cyborg]

I got the ATI Radeon 9700 PRO card early december. It is truly great on new games! It is much faster than my old geforce card, but it has a problem: Because it's new technology some games won't work on it. Some games will have many bugs in them.

I have experienced this. However, you can test the directx9 features if you have the card because ATI has already some time ago launched test samples of a car and much other stuff and there is no word good enough to describe how sweet the graphic is. :)

[Nyarlathotep]

Some video card news from ATi:

The Inquirer has the first details about ATI's upcoming R350 GPU. It is now expected that ATI will name the card Radeon 9800 or Radeon 9900. It should be a .13 micron product, and ATI should be getting final silicon from TSMC within the next week. ATI is apparently aiming for 400/800MHz speeds for the GPU and memory, although there may be different versions with different clock speeds. It wouldn't be surprising to see a high-end card with 375MHz clock and 128 MB RAM, and an ultra high-end card with 400MHz clock and 256 MB RAM. Surprisingly, the R350 may beat the GeForce FX in 8 out of 10 benchmarks. ATI is almost certainly planning on launching this card the moment that GeForce FX cards become available in early March, and these cards may be on store shelves within a month of the GeForce's availability. It isn't known what the pricing of these cards will be, but neither the GeForce FX nor the R350 will be inexpensive. It looks like the GeForce FX moment as the undisputed king-of-the-graphics-cards will be vanishingly brief. - Source - Geek.com

Another part of the story can be read at the inquirer.