MSI, the global leading brand of All-in-One PCs, has released its new touch model- Wind Top AE2070 in response to the increasingly demand of touch capability. The perfect 20-inch, multi-touch LCD screen with MSI proprietary "Wind Touch 4" smart user interface and value-added software allow you to connect social networks and embrace the digital life all at one move of your finger tips.

The built-in Intel 2nd generation Dual-core Processor G620 and Intel HD Graphics 2000 deliver breathtaking graphics performance you can enjoy seamless videos and vivid image in the best response time. Wind Top AE2070 also provides hardware upgrade options so you can customize the AE2070 with Intel Core i3 CPU or NVIDIA GeForce GT540M high-performance graphic card based on your own need. Experience the revolution of all-new touch control technology from now on.

Are you still messing around with one of those old-style keyboards? In the heat of battle, do you sometimes find that you left the game, because you accidently hit the Windows "Start" key and by the time you get back, your character is already dead? If so, MSI has heard your cry. It got together with leader in professional gaming equipment manufacturing SteelSeries to forge a keyboard for the serious gamer. Not only is the new keyboard much more durable, the Windows key has been moved to the right side of the keyboard where you're less likely to strike it when the adrenaline's pumping. The GX780 also comes with a 30-color LED backlit keyboard with five modes to throttle up your visual experience.

Eric Kuo, associate vice president for global sales, MSI Notebook, notes that the GX780 not only sports Intel's second generation Core i7-2630QM quad core CPU and nVidia's DirectX 11-supporting GeForce GT 555M discrete graphics card, it also has four DDR3 slots and accelerated dual hard disk architecture endowing it with impressive computing powers, making it equally suited for the digital content creator as it is for the serious gamer. The GX780 also comes with smart wrap around sound courtesy of Dynaudio and THX TruStudio Pro and a 17.3" full HD high resolution display to guarantee the ultimate multimedia experience.

NVIDIA today released its first WHQL-signed 270 Series GeForce software suite. The package provides the latest driver software for GeForce discrete, integrated, and notebook GPUs, ION GPUs, GeForce HDMI audio, and the latest stable releases of NVIDIA PhysX, and NVIDIA 3DVision. Version 270.61 WHQL packs official support for the recently released GeForce GTX 590, GTX 550 Ti, GTX 560 Ti, supermassive performance increases (such as 516% in Dragon Age 2 (GTX 580 SLI 2560x1600 8xAA/16xAF Very High, SSAO on)) specific to GeForce 400 and 500 series; and of course, a stable version of NVIDIA's driver auto-update software.

DOWNLOAD: NVIDIA GeForce 270.61 WHQL.

A list of changes follows.

Rovi Corporation today unveiled Roxio Game Capture and Roxio PC Game Capture, two affordably priced products that offer a straightforward way for gamers to quickly and easily capture and share PC and console game play videos.

In-product tutorials help everyone get set up quickly and immediately begin to capture and showcase their latest campaigns, adventures, ball skills, and race sequences. Gamers may use the products to post their high scores, tips & tricks, game reviews, or even a feature-length movie, or Machinima, based on game play footage. See the products in action here.

AMD today announced that leading original design manufacturers (ODMs) are choosing AMD's 2011 low-power platform for a new generation of PC designs ranging from ultrathin notebooks to all-in-one desktops. Nearly two dozen unique ODM whitebook and high definition PC (HDPC) designs based on the AMD C- and E-Series Accelerated Processing Unit (APU) are expected to be available for distribution and purchase in the first half of the year.

"AMD Fusion APUs provide significant advantages in power and design simplicity over competing multi-chip solutions, translating into unique and innovative PC form factors, and ultimately an amazing user experience," said David Kenyon, corporate vice president, Worldwide Channel Marketing, AMD. "We are working closely with our ODM partners to help them build the small-form-factor, long-battery-life PCs that can help them differentiate from the competition and succeed in today's competitive market."

AMD today announced availability of the updated AMD Accelerated Parallel Processing (APP) Software Development Kit (SDK) v2.3 with full support for the first AMD Fusion Accelerated Processing Units (APUs), OpenCL 1.1 and AMD Radeon HD 6900 Series graphics. AMD APP technology enables AMD GPUs and CPUs to work together to run many demanding computing tasks faster than possible with just the CPU alone.

AMD Accelerated Parallel Processing SDK v2.3, previously known as the ATI Stream SDK, empowers software developers to write new applications that can take full advantage of the parallel processing power of heterogeneous computing platforms, such as those based on new AMD E-Series and C-Series APUs that combine a multi-core CPU and DirectX 11-capable GPU on a single die.

ZOTAC International, a leading innovator and the world's largest channel manufacturer of graphics cards, motherboards and mini-PCs, today introduces three new do-it-yourself friendly mini-ITX platforms - the new ZOTAC ION-ITX R, S and T-series. The new ZOTAC ION-ITX R, S and T series reinvigorates the ION-ITX series with an added boost of graphics power.

Next-Generation NVIDIA ION graphics and a dual-core Intel Atom D525 processor combine to deliver a perfect balance of performance and energy-efficiency in the new ZOTAC ION-ITX R, S and T series. High-definition video playback capabilities enable the ZOTAC ION-ITX R, S and T series to deliver a premium multimedia experience with hardware decode acceleration for smooth playback of high-definition Blu-ray 3D and streaming Internet video content.

GIGABYTE, a leading manufacturer of motherboards and graphics cards, introduces a powerful new addition to its Super Overclock Series: GTX 460 SOC (GV-N460SO-1GI). To qualify for Super Overclock Series, a GPU must go through GIGABYTE's innovative GPU Gauntlet Sorting process and it must be equipped with Ultra Durable VGA or VGA+ boards. Designed specifically for overclocking competition and gaming battle, GIGABYTE's secret weapon GTX 460 Super Overclock Edition is built with NVDIA GeForce GTX 460 GPU.

Based on 40nm processor and advanced GDDR5 memory technology, the powerful new GPU consists of ground-breaking features including Microsoft DirectX 11 and NVIDIA PhysX which leads to incredibly immersive HD gaming experience and unrivaled performance. GV-N460SO-1GI also features WINDFORCE 2X, 7 phase PWM design, OC Guru graphic card smart tuner and voltage read point.

NVIDIA announced today the expansion of its award-winning line of NVIDIA Quadro professional graphics solutions based on the NVIDIA Fermi architecture. The mid-range Quadro 2000 with 192 NVIDIA CUDA processing cores and the entry-level Quadro 600 with 96 CUDA processor cores now bring the computational and visualization benefits of the breakthrough Fermi architecture to all segments of the market.

The Quadro 2000 delivers 1.5 times the geometry performance of the previous Quadro graphics processing unit (GPU) mid-range solution and utilizes the new NVIDIA Scalable Geometry Engine technology to deliver dramatically higher performance across leading CAD and DCC applications such as SolidWorks and Autodesk 3ds Max.

AMD today launched the most powerful processor ever created, found in its next-generation graphics cards, the ATI Radeon HD 5800 series graphics cards, and the world's first and only to fully support Microsoft DirectX 11, the new gaming and compute standard shipping shortly with Microsoft Windows 7 operating system. Boasting up to 2.72 TeraFLOPS of compute power, the ATI Radeon HD 5800 series effectively doubles the value consumers can expect of their graphics purchases, delivering twice the performance-per-dollar of previous generations of graphics products. AMD will initially release two cards: the ATI Radeon HD 5870 and the ATI Radeon HD 5850, each with 1GB GDDR5 memory. With the ATI Radeon HD 5800 series of graphics cards, PC users can expand their computing experience with ATI Eyefinity multi-display technology, accelerate their computing experience with ATI Stream technology, and dominate the competition with superior gaming performance and full support of Microsoft DirectX 11, making it a "must-have" consumer purchase just in time for Microsoft Windows 7 operating system.

"With the ATI Radeon HD 5800 series of graphics cars driven by the most powerful processor on the planet, AMD is changing the game, both in terms of performance and the experience," said Rick Bergman, senior vice president and general manager, Products Group, AMD. "As the first to market with full DirectX 11 support, an unmatched experience made possible with ATI Eyefinity technology, and ATI Stream technology harnessing open standards designed to help make Windows 7 that much better, I can say with confidence that AMD is the undisputed leader in graphics once more."

The CUDA architecture continues to blaze a trail as the leading platform for developing and running GPU Computing applications, with support for C, OpenCL, DirectX Compute, Fortran and other languages and APIs. The latest CUDA 2.2 Beta contains a host of significant new features, including:

Hardware debugger for the GPU
Linux developers can now use a debugger on CUDA-enabled GPUs that offers both the familiar interface of the popular open-source GDB debugger and the ability to debug kernels as they execute on the GPU. The GPU-side debugger has all the features that developers expect from GDB, including the ability to have breakpoints, watch variables, inspect state, etc., as well as additional functions for CUDA-specific features.

VIA Technologies, Inc, a leading innovator of power efficient x86 processor platforms, today announced the first expansion HD module for the VIA EPIA-P710, the VIA P710-HD. Featuring the powerful 4300E embedded graphics processor from S3 Graphics, this first Pico-I/O module for stackable Pico-ITXe boards delivers Hi-Def video playback and advanced graphics in an extremely low power, compact form factor.

With multiple display support including dual DVI and HDMI, the VIA P710-HD module opens up a new realm of possibilities to system integrators of multimedia intensive embedded applications. Sophisticated digital signage, arcade gaming, kiosk and POI applications can now take advantage of multiple digital display configurations and cutting edge Hi-Def playback of resolutions up to and beyond 1080p.

Microsoft's Ben Basaric, product marketing manager for Windows products, confirmed to PC Games Hardware that the next major update to the DirectX API, DirectX 11 would accompany Windows 7, the next major consumer operating system software by Microsoft. This, overwriting his own statement given to the website earlier that he wasn't sure if DirectX 11 would be ready to ship with the OS upon its launch. Furthermore, he also indicated that Windows Vista will have access to the updated API, although not sure at what point in time.

Microsoft has released its latest update to the DirectX end-user runtime. The update patches DirectX installations on all current Microsoft PC, workstation and server operating systems. Microsoft releases updates to the DirectX end-user runtime on a bi-monthly basis, with security, performance enhancements and features usually forming the update. The latest update or the entire redistributable (for offline installations) can be downloaded from Microsoft here.

Microsoft has released a handful of details about DirectX 11, the latest version of the company's API.

• Full support (including all DX11 hardware features) on Windows Vista as well as future versions of Windows
• Compatibility with DirectX 10 and 10.1 hardware, as well as support for new DirectX 11 hardware
• New compute shader technology that lays the groundwork for the GPU to be used for more than just 3D graphics, so that developers can take advantage of the graphics card as a parallel processor
• Multi-threaded resource handling that will allow games to better take advantage of multi-core machines
• Support for tessellation, which blurs the line between super high quality pre-rendered scenes and scenes rendered in real-time, allowing game developers to refine models to be smoother and more attractive when seen up close

We are barely into experiencing DirectX 10 / 10.1 games with proper levels of detail with upcoming titles demanding hardware, and Microsoft already has plans for DirectX 11, the next big version of this API set. Microsoft will show off DirectX 11 at the XNA Gamefest which is scheduled to take place on July 22 and 23 in Seattle, United States. This year's Gamefest is to be centered by DirectX 11 and the advancements that are proposed to be brought about.

Thankfully Microsoft isn't doing a 'Vista' this time around, this new multimedia and gaming API will be built for both Windows Vista and the upcoming Windows 7 operating systems. The API could be released to public anytime in late 2009.

There are several implications of this:

NVIDIA Plans to Nuke R700?

Let's face it, the ATI RV770 and its derivatives have become a rage. Everybody loves this chip and wants a card based on this, be it the card that made NVIDIA slash their prices, the HD4850 or the HD4870 which rivals the GeForce GTX 260 at a decent price. In surveys conducted by several websites, be it TweakTown or Hexus.net, majority community members chose ATI as a brand over NVIDIA, rougly indicating that the HD4000 series has done an excellent repair job with ATI and its brand value.

Nothing (exciting) is going NVIDIA's way these days, their notebook graphics division has taken a beating over the recent faulty parts issue. The NVDA stock is a little volatile at the stock market these days, after the company announced it predicts weaker earnings this quarter financial year. Here's something to ponder: If NVIDIA predicts weaker earnings, how come talks are they have something to counter the R700, which AMD already made statements about, saying it will "overwhelm the GeForce GTX 280"?

Microsoft has released a new update for DirectX, which is recommended for all users of Windows 2000 and newer (including Vista and Server editions). You can download the web installer here (validation required), or the 69.5MB redistributable version here. There doesn't seem to be any information about the changes in this version, although they are most likely to be minor performance and security updates.

Microsoft has just released the November update for DirectX 9.0c. At present only the end-user web installer is available, but this is the version which should suit most techPowerUp! readers best anyway. Although it's only a minor update, everyone should update to prevent any potential problems in new games and to ensure full compatibility with future drivers. The download is between 10KB and 212.6MB depending on how up-to-date your current version of DirectX is and it is for all versions of Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003 and Windows Vista. Download here.

With the release of Windows Vista, DirectX10 almost seems like old news now. XNA techs are acting like it as well. At CeBIT, they discussed their plans for DirectX10.1 and DirectX11. I'll keep it simple for everyone.

• DirectX10.1 will work on fixing various coding issues, will force compatible hardware to be capable of a certain level of AntiAliasing (4x?), and will accelerate various methods of texture rendering.
• DirectX11 takes all the issues Microsoft noticed as DirectX10 started making it's way to market, and addresses them. DirectX11's main goal is to change the way textures are rendered, to help bring the cost of developing games down. Microsoft also plans on implementing a feature I think will become very significant for gamers who can't run their games at one specific setting, erm, setting. Basically, DirectX11 will detect when a game goes below a certain framerate, and then turns down settings to help compensate.

Editors note:
I'd like to remind everyone that these are merely plans for future versions of DirectX, which will come out in either several months, or a few years. Don't expect this to be something you'll see hosted on Microsoft's download site say, tomorrow night.