Max Pc Tech

RSS Feed Homepage

Articles: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

Yorkfield R0 stepping to arrive
2008-05-28 16:43:00
Fudzilla - Yorkfield R0 stepping to arrive: "We learned that Intel is about to release a new stepping for its Yorkfield quad-core CPUs. The name will be R0-stepping and this new stepping should be better than the current C1-stepping.The new stepping will arrive with a new batch of Yorkfield CPUs, and let’s hope that this will increase the yields and efficiency of a pair of dual-core 45nm stitched together into a quad-core socket 775 CPU.As we still don’t know what kind of improvement you should expect from it, we're expecting slightly better TDP and thermals, but this doesn’t have to be the case."

AMD Radeon 4800-series coolers pictured
2008-05-28 16:42:00
Fudzilla - AMD Radeon 4800-series coolers pictured: "Chiphell has scored some pictures of the coolers for the upcoming Radeon HD 4800-series from AMD and at first glance, the coolers don't look that different from the current ones. The X2 cooler seems to have scored a heatpipe in addition to having had the second heatsink upgraded to copper instead of aluminum.The single chip high-end cooler also seems to feature heatpipe cooling, although if you look closely it appears to have a pair of heatpipes nestled underneat the plastic shrouding. The cooler for the DDR3 cards appears to be almost identical to that of the early single-slot Radeon HD 3850 cards with what appears to be some cosmetic changes.There's also a picture of what is meant to be the cooler for a mid-range graphics card, which might be called the 4650, but you can draw your own conclusions based on the design.You can find the pictures here as we couldn't locate them over at Chiphell."
More About: Series

Nvidia GTX260 and 280 revealed
2008-05-28 16:38:00
Nvidia GTX260 and 280 revealed - The INQUIRER: "The 280 has 240 stream processors and runs at a clock of 602MHz, a massive miss on what the firm intended. The processor clock runs at 1296MHz and the memory is at 1107MHz. The high-end part has 1G of GDDR3 at 512b width. This means that they are pretty much stuck offering 1G cards, not a great design choice here.The 280 has 32ROPs and feeds them with a six and eight-pin PCIe connector. Remember NV mocking ATI over the eight-pin when the 2900 launched, and how they said they would never use it? The phrase 'hypocritical worms' come to mind, especially since it was on their roadmap at the time. This beast takes 236W max, so all those of you who bought mongo PSUs may have to reinvest if they ever get three or four-way SLI functional.The cards are 10.5-inch parts, and each one will put out 933GFLOPS. Looks like they missed the magic teraflop number by a good margin. Remember we said they missed the clock frequencies by a lot? Here is whe...

More RV770PRO details
2008-05-28 16:36:00
Fudzilla - More RV770PRO details: "We finally have a screenshot that confirms most of the things that we said about RV770PRO, here. Our sources suggested that ATI is talking about a Radeon 4850 512MB name for this card.The card at its top frequency works at 900MHz, as we wrote yesterday, and the GDDR3 memory works at 1000MHz. ATI uses power play, a power saving technique that can drop the GPU clock to 500MHz or 625MHz, depending on the power state.At the same time, the memory also works at three states. The top one is 1000MHz (2000MHz effectively), the second is 993MHz (1986MHz effectively), and the slowest one is 750MHz (1500MHz effectively).You will need 1.123V to make the chip work. Update: After thorough checking, it looks that 900MHz is the top Shader clock."
More About: Details

MSI's 9600GT Hybrid Freezer is overclocked
2008-05-24 11:32:00
Fudzilla - MSI's 9600GT Hybrid Freezer is overclocked: "According to our sources, MSI is prepping yet another version of its N9600GT Hybrid Freezer card based on Nvidia's Geforce 9600GT G94 GPU.The new overclocked card will have the same 1024MB of GDDR3 memory paired up with the 256-bit memory interface. The only difference are at the GPU and the Shader clock of the card. The GPU will be pushed from 650MHz to 700MHz and the Shader clock will be boosted from 1,625MHz to 1,680MHz. The memory will remain clocked at 1,800MHz.Geforce 9600GT features 64 stream processors, and has support for DirectX 10, Shader model 4.0 and PCI Express 2.0. If you have managed to miss this card, it is cooled by Hybrid Freezer cooler that kicks in when the temp of the card goes over 40 degrees, so the card will be silent in idle mode."

RV770 DDR5 is confirmed by AMD
2008-05-24 11:29:00
Fudzilla: "As AMD and the rest of the world knows that GT200 based Geforce GTX 280 and 260 will only support GDDR3, AMD has decided to make a big fuss about its GDDR5 support.They dared to officially tell the world that they do support GDDR5. AMD has also said that it is working together with Samsung Semiconductor Inc., Hynix and Qimonda to bring GDDR5 cards on the market. GDDR5 simply offers far more bandwidth at higher clocks and it should help the new RV770XT to boost some performance.The Executive Vice president of AMD, the one that goes under the name Rich Bergman, has said that “AMD believes that GDDR5 is the optimal way to drive performance gains while being mindful of power consumption. We’re excited about the potential GDDR5 brings to the table for innovative game development and even more exciting game play.” Don’t get too excited.Furthermore, AMD said that GDDR5 affirms its “continued tradition of technology leadership in graphics for AMD” and AMD underlines t...

X-Fi Fatal1ty PRO supports Dolby Digital live
2008-05-24 11:28:00
Fudzilla: "Sound card product manager from Creative Labs Europe has confirmed that X-Fi PCIe 1X Fatal1ty Pro card indeed supports Dolby Digital live 5.1 over the optical port.This is the first Creative card to support this very nice and neat feature. The card supports Dolby Digital live encoding and you can send good X-Fi and EAX powered sound in Dolby digital to your Dolby digital 5.1 compliant decoder, all via an optical cable.This is something that you will get if you are a high-end sound freak and it is something that we really missed on the previous generations.We have been waiting for this since the Nforce 2 Sound storm audio times, and Creative finally decided to implement it."
More About: Live

RV770PRO can reach 900MHz
2008-05-24 11:27:00
Fudzilla: "RV770PRO can work at an astonishing 900MHz. This implies that RV770XT should work even faster. RV770PRO could be called Radeon 4850 512MB, but we are still not sure if this is the fixed and final name. This looks to be the right name.Memory works at up to 1000MHz and we are talking about the 256-bit GDDR3 memory. The sample cards are up and running, and as was the case with previous cards, RV770 has power play and can down-clock the GPU all the way to 500MHz and save some power. The sample card comes with 512MB GDDR3 memory.Remember that ATI is about to sample RV770XT, the fastest version of the same chip that will use GDDR5 memory."
More About: Reach

Logitech announces the V450 Nano mouse
2008-05-24 11:22:00
Fudzilla: "Logitech has announced its new V450 Nano cordless laser mouse aimed at notebook users. The V450 Nano comes with Logitech's advanced 2.4 GHz wireless technology in combination with what Logitech likes to call the 'Plug-and-Forget' Nano-receiver.The receiver itself is very small and will not interfere or even get into your way when plugged into one of the USB ports on your notebook. Other features include 12 months of battery life, advanced laser sensor and a comfortable, ergonomic design with soft rubber grips.The mouse should be available in the U.S. sometime in late May, and Europe should get it sometime in the beginning of July. The suggested retail price stands at US$49.99."
More About: Mouse

RV770XT and PRO are 256-bit
2008-05-24 10:01:00
Fudzilla - RV770XT and PRO are 256-bit: "We've posted that RV770XT will be 512-bit, but our usually very reliable sources misinterpreted some parts of the information. The card is 512-bit internally, as ATI has its internal ring buss memory interface; but externally, we are talking about the 256-bit card.Both RV770XT and PRO will be the same and they will work with 256-bit memory. The RV770XT pairs with 512-bit memory and the ultra high speed should help the card improve the performance, but from what we know Nvidia’s GT200, Geforce GTX 280 will work with the real 512-bit memory controller.GT200 is in a higher league altogether and we believe that GT200 will easily beat RV770XT; but at the same time, it will come with a much higher price, almost twice as high. It’s now less than a month to see these cards in action."

Dunnington 6-core works at 2.66GHz
2008-05-24 09:50:00
Fudzilla - Dunnington 6-core works at 2.66GHz: "Intel's Dunnington is a world's first six-core CPU, and this monster with 16MB of cache will work at 2.66GHz. This will be the fastest iteration, while there will be 2.4GHz Xeons based on this six core design.This CPU will use FSB1066 and it will officially be known as Xeon X7460; and there will be a 2.4GHz version branded as Xeon X7450 that will work at 2.4GHz and have 12MB of cache.The CPUs will be awfully expensive and we also heard it will need a new socket. It is still scheduled for Q3 2008 launch."
More About: Core , Works

Dual-core Atom expected in Q3
2008-05-24 09:49:00
Fudzilla - Dual -core Atom expected in Q3: "We've already reported that Atom dual-core won't make it on the mobile platform in 2008, but it looks that Atom 3xx, which is the branding for the dual core part, should be ready to launch in Q3 2008.We don’t have many details about the clocks, but these two physical cores will support two threads per core or four threads when you add them together and the TDP should be in the 8 to 10W range.Many, including MSI, are planning desktop versions of Atom and we believe that with a properly priced case these small and quiet Atom-based dual core desktops can do really well.In the real world we don’t expect the 1.6GHz dual-core Atom to be faster than a 1.6GHz dual-core Celeron, but only time will tell. On the other hand, Atom 3xx dual core should have much better TDP compared to Celeron dual-core, and this is its key winning bet."
More About: Dual Core , Core

Intel Upcoming Desktop CPU Price Cut
2008-05-24 09:31:00
VR-Zone - Intel Upcoming Desktop CPU Price Cut: "Intel plans to release two new quad cores, Q9650 and Q9400 in Q3 '08 at $530 and $266 respectively. As such, Q9550 pricing will be lowered from $530 to $316 and Q6600 will be further lowered from $224 to $203. Intel also plans to release two new Core 2 Duo, E8600 and E7300 in Q3 at $ 266 and $ 133 respectively. By then, E8500 price will be cut from $ 266 to $ 183, E8400 from $ 183 to $ 163 and E7200 from $ 133 to $ 113."

PowerColor's HD 3870 Football available
2008-05-24 09:22:00
Fudzilla - PowerColor's HD 3870 Football available: "Powercolor's HD 3870, cooled by its PCS (Professional Cooling Series) cooler, courtesy of ZeroTherm, is finally available. This card comes with the new football bundle which includes a Powercolor football.This card works at 775MHz for the core and comes with 512MB of 1ns DDR3 memory clocked at 1,800MHz. With its PCS cooler, this card might even have some room for additional overclocking.The card should be available as of tomorrow, and the lowest price that we could find stands at €120,05. This is a nice way to wait for the European Football Championship that will be held in Austria and Switzerland."

Galaxy prepping low-profile 9600GT
2008-05-24 09:20:00
Fudzilla - Galaxy prepping low-profile 9600GT: "According to the post over at Expreview.com, Galaxy is going to release a new low profile addition to its 9600GT line-up.The new card is based on Nvidia's G94 GPU with 64 Stream processors and it comes with a small low profile cooler. This card should end up working at reference clocks and it will feature 512MB of memory.Since it is a low profile card, it lacks SLI support, but it will provide you with more performance in those tight low profile cases. You won't be able to play Crysis at high resolutions, but this is going to be the best low profile HTPC card that you will be able to get."
More About: Profile

Desktop Fusion comes in 2010
2008-05-24 09:11:00
Fudzilla - Desktop Fusion comes in 2010: "We've learned that Swift is the first Fusion that should launch in second half of 2008 and it will be exclusively a mobile part. After that, at some point in 2010, AMD plans to shift the Fusion CPU with an integrated GPU for desktop.From what we've heard Nehalem generation CPUs will be able to get to market in 2009 for both notebooks and desktop and this doesn't really come as a surprise, as you really need stable and developed 45nm process to be able to make such a complex chip.ATI does have a point with launching Fusion first for notebooks as this market will vastly benefit from such a chip as a CPU with an integrated GPU will be cheaper to produce and it is cheaper to produce one complicated chip than two less complicated ones."

RV730 confirmed
2008-05-24 09:09:00
Fudzilla - RV730 confirmed: "We’ve heard that RV770XT and PRO are the mainstream chips that will also create the high-end R700 card.Last time we checked, there were several chips positioned under the RV770, such as RV740, RV730 and RV710. We’ve also learned that these chips will be launched over time. ATI won’t launch them all at once.We also heard that RV730 board uses board no. B66601, if that helps at all."

RV770XT 1GB card planned
2008-05-24 09:08:00
Fudzilla - RV770XT 1GB card planned: "ATI plans to power RV770XT with 1GB memory, and when it comes to the XT card we are talking about 1GB of quite fast GDDR5. RV770PRO is also possible and will launch in its 1GB iteration, making it possibly more attractive to end users.ATI counts on the good old logic that implies that bigger is better and more memory doesn’t really makes the card much faster, but at least it doesn’t hurt either. The standard RV 770XT and RV770PRO comes with 512MB but some partners will launch 1GB versions.The chip itself can address even more than 1GB but we guess apart from a good marketing buzz you can create with a 2GB card, you don’t really see the performance benefits."
More About: Card

RV770 A12 needs less power
2008-05-24 09:06:00
Fudzilla - RV770 A12 needs less power: "RV770 version A11, which is usually a pre-production version, needed 1.26V to work, and it looks like the ATI boys did improve the A12 chip.The A12 revision, which is the one that ATI usually ships to market, only needs 1.13V, which means it's significantly cooler and can be clocked higher. Both voltages are referring to the samples clocked to 625MHz, but we have a strong feeling that the final units will work at higher than 625MHz.The clock details are something that the company finalizes shortly before the launch. so this is really out in the open."
More About: Power

RV770PRO fan is 0.75 inch wide
2008-05-24 09:06:00
Fudzilla - RV770PRO fan is 0.75 inch wide: "The new cooler for RV770PRO card will be significantly smaller than the one that ATI plans to use with RV770XT card. The PRO fan has a 0.75-inch diameter (1.905 cm).As you can see in the picture, the cooler looks like a single slot design, but this is something that we cannot confirm right now, although it makes perfect sense.The cooler itself is about 17cm long on the longer side and a bit less on the bottom side of the cooler, but we don’t really know the right dimensions. Here is how it will look."
More About: Wide , Inch

MSI shows off P45 board with 8 memory slots
2008-05-24 09:05:00
Fudzilla - MSI shows off P45 board with 8 memory slots: "Not only did Impress have an exclusive preview of the MSI Wind PC, but they also have pictures of a P45 or possibly a P43 motherboard from MSI that we haven't seen so far. The peculiar thing about this board is the fact that it has no less than eight memory slots.Four of the slots are for DDR2 memory, while the remaining four are for DDR3 memory. We're not sure if this motherboard will actually enter production or not, but we'll try to find out more about it at Computex in little under two weeks' time.The rest of the board doesn't look all that special, as it has a single x16 PCIe slot, a single x1 PCIe slot and three PCI slots. However, it does have no less than eight SATA ports and it supports MSI's new OC Jumper, which is meant to improve overclocking on its P45 motherboards."
More About: Memory , Board , Slots

Geforce GTX 280 to launch on June 18th
2008-05-19 13:12:00
Fudzilla: "We've found out what looks to be the launch date for GT200 cards. We are happy to report that both GT200 cards are single chip cards, something that we've suggested back in January.The launch should take place on the 18th of June , just in the middle of week 25, and at current schedule that is two days after ATI's RV770 launch.The name Geforce GTX 280 looks a bit odd, but I am sure that we will get used to it. The only other alternative was to use a Geforce 9900 cliché, but we believe that GT200 deserves a better name. As it's been suggested on many occasions, GT200 chip will have significantly more Shader units and the most frequent number that we heard was 240. We are still working on getting the confirmation of this bold spec.Nvidia just ran out of numbers and it’s starting all over again. It's like resetting the odometer, more or less."
More About: Launch

Phenom 9950 to work at 2.66GHz
2008-05-19 12:47:00
Fudzilla - Phenom 9950 to work at 2.66GHz: "AMD has another 65nm quad-core to launch, and as we suggested before it will call it Phenom 9950. After Phenom 9950 comes Deneb, a new 45nm quad-core that we saw in action at CeBIT. Unlike previously believed, the new Phenom 9950 won't work at 2.6GHz than on rather interesting 2.66GHZ clock.This speed might suggest that the CPU might run at 10x266FSB, but this is something that we will have to confirm.Phenom 9950 was scheduled for a late May launch and it’s most likely to show its face before Computex 08 that starts on June 3rd , or at least at this event. AMD doesn’t plan any big launch but it will make some noise when it gets it out.The new CPU will be out there before RV770 cards and AMD will probably push reviewers to test on its own CPUs."
More About: Work

Razer Launched Goliathus Soft Mat
2008-05-19 12:45:00
VR-Zone - Razer Launched Goliathus Soft Mat: "Razer™, the world’s leading manufacturer of high-end precision gaming and lifestyle electronics peripherals, today launched the Razer Goliathus™, a premium grade soft mat in two versions with three sizes co-developed with global professional gaming teams.Razer Goliathus – US: $14.99, 19.99 & 24.99; Europe: €12.99, 17.99 & 19.99Speed Edition: Advanced cloth weave for maximum speed and effortless controlControl Edition: Heavily textured weave for maximum mouse controlPixel-precise targeting and trackingOptimized for all mouse sensitivity settings and sensor typesRubber base for a secure grip on smooth surfacesDimensions: Goliathus Ω Speed / Control 270mm x 215mm x 4mmGoliathus Speed / Control 355mm x 254mm x 4mmGoliathus α Speed / Control 444 x 355 x 4.3mmAVAILABILTY: May 2008 – Worldwide"

Assassin´s Creed gets Patch 1.02, kills DX 10.1
2008-05-19 12:38:00
Fudzilla - Assassin´s Creed gets Patch 1.02, kills DX 10.1: "Today, Ubisoft launched a new patch for the PC version of Assasin’s Creed. The patch will fix a couple of bugs in the game, among which the bug where Alt-Tab key combination would crash the game. The patch will also introduce post-effects improvements for cards with DX10.1 support and add support for x64 versions of Windows.The thing that Ubisoft doesn't really say is that this patch removes the support for DirectX 10.1, and it causes up to 20 percent performance drop for all Radeon 38x0. Since Assasin’s Creed is Nvidia's The Way its Meant to be Played title as per Nvidia's request, the game somehow lost its ability to run better with DirextX 10.1.It's one thing to choose not to support a feature such as DirectX 10.1 but removing it from the title that obviiously scores better on competitors' cards is immature and despicable, to say the least."

GT200 is GeForce GTX 200 Series
2008-05-19 12:37:00
VR-Zone - GT200 is GeForce GTX 200 Series : "Nvidia has informed their partners about the change in naming for the upcoming GT200 series today. Previously, the marketing name for GT200 is GeForce 9900 series when launched but now it has been changed to GeForce GTX 200 series. GeForce 9900 GTX is now GeForce GTX 280 and GeForce 9900 GTS is now GeForce GTX 260. Nvidia has decided to launch them slightly earlier to coincide with RV770 launch which is around third week of June. However, Nvidia plans to show the GeForce GTX 280 card behind doors at Computex."
More About: Geforce

Alan Wake decides to lie in a bit
2008-05-19 12:34:00
Alan Wake decides to lie in a bit - The INQUIRER: "ALAN WAKE is due to go back to sleep until 2009, with Microsoft apparently resigning itself to the delay.Due to be released in 2008 on the Xbox and PC, Alan Wake was supposed to be a mystery story about a guy who wakes up with no memory and lives in a ghost town, etc, etc, etc. More interesting was the fact it was from Remedy, the chaps behind Max Payne, and who are supposedly going to base the game on a version of the 3DMark engine, with all the spectacular graphics that that entails.The game was scheduled for its first major outing at GDC this year, which it missed - and there is no sign of it this week at Microsoft's Gamers Day in San Francisco, the Vole's showcase for its top 2008 titles.For his part, Microsoft's Xbox man Shane Kim said that, 'We're managing that project with Remedy very carefully... Alan Wake is pretty ambitious. It's taking a very different approach to both story-telling and gameplay.' Which we suspect ...
More About: Alan

AMD To Launch RV770 On June 18th
2008-05-19 12:30:00
VR-Zone - AMD To Launch RV770 On June 18th: "AMD has just confirmed the marketing name for RV770 yesterday which is no surprise to anyone, the Radeon HD 4800 series. RV770PRO is Radeon HD 4850, RV770XT is Radeon HD 4870 and R700 is Radeon HD 4870 X2. AMD will be shipping RV770 GPUs to AIB by end of this month and you can expect different card designs from the manufacturers at launch. AMD is set to launch the Radeon HD 4850 on June 18th and it is definitely a hard one with retail availability on the same day. Radeon HD 4870, however, will be launched a week later on June 25th with retail availability in July due to GDDR5 availability. Radeon HD 4870 X2 will come later in Q3. As for the clocks, we won't be revealing them yet but the RV770XT core clock is not going anywhere above 800MHz."

Arctic Cooling launches Accelero Xtreme
2008-05-19 12:22:00
Fudzilla - Arctic Cooling launches Accelero Xtreme : "Just a day after its debut on the Inno3D i-Chill 9800GTX card, Arctic Cooling has officialy launched its Accelero Xtreme cooler.This cooler comes with three 80mm PWM fans in combination with 107 aluminum fins and five heat pipes. The three 80mm fans have fluid dynamic bearings and they spin at speeds ranging from 700 to 2000RPM.The new Accelero Xtreme 9800 cooler is SLI compatible and, according to the press release, it should reduce GPU temperature up to 29°C more compared to the reference cooler.The new Accelero Xtreme 9800 should be available sometime next month at a suggested price of US $53.95 or €34.95."

Foxconn extends warranty for graphics cards
2008-05-19 12:22:00
Fudzilla - Foxconn extends warranty for graphics cards: "In a never-ending battle for the buyers, partners are constantly changing stuff in order to give their cards some extra value. Foxconn has announced that it is extending its warranty period for graphics cards to three years.According to Foxconn, the overclocked cards with non-reference cooling solutions and longer warranty periods are just the thing consumers like to see. Many AIB partners are definitely going that way, and many of them already offer the longer three-year warranty.Unfortunately, this isn't enough to beat Zotac's five-year warranty period. According to the press release, Foxconn's extended warranty applies to all graphics cards bought after the 1st of May."
More About: Graphics , Cards , Warranty