Seems like AMD still has some aces up their sleeves. After the lackluster performance of the R600 based cards, a very interesting Radeon HD 2600XT has been spotted. The card features 512MB GDDR4 at 0.7ns which runs at 1430 MHz, which is a large bump when compared to the standard 1100 MHz of a "normal" HD 2600 XT. The core runs at the usual 800 MHz. In addition to this, the card features one DVI and one HDMI port.

Nvidia got a license from Intel to produce 1600MHz FSB products. This is quite logical, since Intel themselves never really made the gaming community happy. With Nvidia making the chipsets Intel makes sure this market stays satisfied. Secondly, just like Intel used ATI chipsets on their boards some time ago Intel will now use Nvidia chipsets in their products.
More surprisingly Nvidia also got a license to use CSI and produce Xeon chipsets. This is quite a major thing since the Xeon chipset market never has been really big. The current platform has some downsides like the memory subsystem and no official SLI/Crossfire support. If the memory issues get fixed by NV (ie dropping FB-DIMMs) is just wishful thinking at the time being, SLI support sounds very obvious though.

The new Intel P35 chipset will make its debut soon. Hardspell has tested the performance of the chipset against Intel's own P965 and NVIDIA's 680i. Their findings show that the P35 chipset exhibits a similar level of performance to the P965 chipset. However, when it is paired up with DDR2-1066 modules, the performance is boosted and exceeds the NV-680i in games.

On May 14th, six days from now, the non-disclosure agreement (NDA) regarding AMDs HD 2000 graphics card lineup will be lifted and everyone will be informed about it by various websites and print magazines. As this day comes closer and closer more and more bits of information and misinformation get published around the internet. The VR-Zone seems to have a comprehensive article in the works right now, judging on the traces they left on their website. There you will find headlines but no pictures or additional text about HD 2400, HD 2600 and HD 2900 products and even one about mobile graphics solutions called Radeon Mobility 2000 Series. Furthermore there is evidence about DirectX 10 demos, special antialiasing modes, Overclocking and 'UnReal Overclocking' - whatever that means. Interestingly there isn't a chapter dedicated to a HD 2900 XTX yet.
Of course we here at techPowerUp! will have a decent review online by May 14th, but don't expect us to come up with a similar approach like the VR-Zone in the meantime.

Uwe Boll, known for producing and directing video game movies like Alone in the Dark and House of the Dead, will start filming on the movie Far Cry next month. Contrary to what you would have guessed and what was planned earlier, to start shooting on Hawaii, Boll instead chose Vancouver, Canada as it's primary setting. It's unknown so far if Far Cry the movie will take place in a tropical environment like the game or if Boll chose a completely different plot.

After losing out to Google in a bidding war to buy online advertising company DoubleClick, Microsoft could be about to acquire Yahoo!, a site best known for its search capabilities. The deal is being reported to be worth as much as $50 billion, and would allow Microsoft a stronger market position to compete with Google in the growing business of online searching. Earlier this week Yahoo! announced that it would be buying a further 80% share in advertising firm Right Media for a sum of $680 million, leaving it in full control of the company, a move which probably increased Microsoft's interest in such a deal. Yahoo!'s shares rose to $32.25 from $28.18 after news of this merger, which could change the face of online searching over the coming years - and may have a significant impact on free online email services considering that Microsoft is in control of MSN Hotmail.

Equipment makers are reporting that the Xbox 360 will be equipped with a 65nm-made Xenos GPU in the fall and that corresponding foundry partner Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company will see benefits. Supposedly an engineering version of the 65nm-made Xenos has been sent out. Production is to start in May.

TSMC projected sales contribution from 65nm would amount to 5% during mid-2007. On a separate note, TSMC announced the introduction of 65nm-made embedded DRAM in March. Embedded DRAM is one of the two dies that comprise the Xenos. In the 90nm version of the Xenos, embedded DRAM is manufactured by NEC.

Some of you may have heard about Wal-Mart's plans to buy 2 million HD DVD players. Wal-Mart has recently stepped up to the plate and denied all rumors. The manufacturing company had posted what looked like an order for $300 million worth of HD DVD players, but in reality, that form is nothing more than a price-check, a figure to see how much it would cost to get that many HD DVD players. So, in short, Wal-Mart is considering getting a gazillion HD DVD players, just not from the supplier that posted an "order".

At this point, it seems like the HD DVD vs. Blu-ray high-definition media war looks a lot like a game of chess. And right now, that game of chess is locked in a stalemate. In an effort to break the stalemate in favor of HD DVD, Wal-Mart has made a cunning move. They are attempting to make HD DVD the first affordable HD medium. They have placed an order for 2 million $299 USD HD DVD players. While a noble effort on Wal-Mart's part, we won't be seeing any of these players until at least late 2008. By then, Blu-ray may have come down in price enough to win the HD media war.

After impressive benchmark results for the Radeon HD 2900 XT, the Radeon HD X2900 XTX (AMD's flagship DirectX 10 card) has failed to impress in the same way. When compared to NVIDIA's 8800 GTX, the 2900 XTX is lagging behind in frames per second when it comes to games such as Company of Heroes, F.E.A.R., Half Life 2: Episode 1 and Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. You can see the results for yourself (as well as pictures of the card) by clicking the images below - all tests were run on an ASUS P5N32-E SLI motherboard with a Core 2 Extreme QX6800 processor and 800MHz Corsair XMS2 RAM. The HD 2900 XTX is based on the same GPU as the HD 2900 XT, but uses GDDR4 memory running at 1010MHz instead of GDDR3 memory running at 800MHz. There aren't any comparisons between the cards when they are overclocked, nor is there any data on DirectX 10 performance, but at present it looks like NVIDIA could be a step ahead of AMD. The card used by DailyTech was a sample released to board members in the second week of April, and the benchmarks were made with the drivers AMD plans to provide when the new cards hit retail.

The title speaks for itself. DailyTech has managed to run through some benchmarks with the ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT 512MB graphics card. The tests were conducted on an Intel D975XBX2 BadAxe2, Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6700 and 2x1GB DDR2-800 MHz. The operating system on the test system was Windows XP, with a fresh install before benchmarking each card. Testing of the AMD ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT was performed using the 8.361 Catalyst RC4 drivers, while the GeForce 8800 GTS used ForceWare 158.19 drivers. All game tests were run with the maximum detail settings at resolutions of 1280x1024.The ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT is expected to be widely available in mid-May, with a suggested retail price of $499.

Despite reports of Microsoft only managing a feeble 244 sales of its new Windows Vista OS, the software giant is now denying that there is any truth in the story. "Recent speculation regarding sales data in China is inaccurate," said Microsoft. "We're pleased with the positive consumer response we've seen around the globe to the security and usability enhancements in Windows Vista--and China is no exception."Although Microsoft has not given any exact figures on sales, it has said that Vista sales in China during the first month after its release were double those that XP had in its first month. Microsoft has been facing some criticism for its new OS, with a big blow coming when PC manufacturer Dell decided to reintroduce XP.

NVIDIA's latest Windows XP ForceWare release notes on page 26(now fixed), appeared to reveal yet another new video card, the GeForce 8800GS. NVIDIA responded immediately to the rumours of this 8800GS model:

The initial release notes for the NVIDIA ForceWare 158 Driver had a typo that referenced a product that does not, and will not exist. NVIDIA has no plans to release a GeForce 8800 GS. We have corrected the mistake and will be replacing the document on our website.

It's no secret that many XP users are holding off any OS upgrades until they see the improvements that Vista's first service pack will have to offer, but Intel CEO Paul Otellini has given quite a firm indication of when that should be. During an earnings conference, Otellini let the release date slip when saying "…the [Vista] deployment [in enterprises] will actually happen when the Service Pack gets released in the fourth quarter time frame, probably the October-November time frame." Microsoft still refuses to give any details itself about when we can expect to see SP1 for Vista, but assuming there are no major delays in its production, it's looking very likely we could see it before next year. As of yet, there are no concrete details about what issues the service pack will deal with, but Microsoft has already hinted that Vista's service packs won't be nearly as major as those provided for Windows XP.

NVIDIA is working on its 45 nanometre part. This year, the company plans to migrate to 65 nanometre as much as possible, but by the end of 2008 it should have 45 nanometre parts ready.

The company first has to shrink its 65 nanometre chips to 55 nanometre as this is the optical shrink and later it will go for 45 nanometre. Intel announced it will go 45 nanometre in late Q4 07 / early Q1 2008, AMD said that for its CPUs it will be able to do it by the mid of 2008.

The good thing about 45 nanometre chips is that on 15x15 square millimetres die you can put 1,350 millions of transistors or roughly twice as much as you can do with 65 nanometre.

After that the next big step is 32 nanometre scheduled for 2010.

A few big retailers and etailers have confirmed that Intel actually can check if you overclocked your CPU. When you burn your CPU Intel asks its retailers and etailers to return the CPU back to its factory. Intel then reads data from a hidden part of the CPU, and instantly finds out if the CPU has been overclocked or overvolted.

Retailers and etailers said that they are not sure about Intel's methods of judging who gets the new CPU, but they said that Intel gets back to them if you overclocked too much, and simply refuses to RMA the part.

Fudzilla claims that the Radeon HD 2900 manages an impressive 102.4GB/s memory throughput. The card uses a 512 bit memory interface and 1600 MHz GDDR3 memory. The core was clocked at 800 MHz. For comparison, NVIDIA's G80 with its odd 384 bit memory controller scores 86.4 GB/s.

The new HD 2900 XTX with GDDR 4 memory clocked at 2200 MHz, as originally planned, can theoretically have 140.8 GB/s. Both cards have twice or close to twice more memory bandwidth from ATI's Radeon X1950XTX card. This card was limited to a now modest 64GB/s.

Editors note: The NDA on the R600 makes it impossible for anyone to release accurate benchmarks of the R600. In fact, the NDA is so strict, we'll be lucky if the leaked R600 pictures have any accuracy. The theoretical memory bandwidth was attained by simple math: 512bit * 1600MHz / 8bit = 102.4GB/s.

Microsoft spent millions of dollars advertising its next generation OS 'Windows Vista' in China, in fact the IT juggernaut threw up the biggest Vista Ad on the 421 meter high Jin Mao tower in Shanghai China. However after 2 weeks (Jan 19 to Feb 2) from launch Microsoft managed to sell a mere 244 copies of Windows Vista. Software piracy is rampant in the middle kingdom and a pirated version of Vista sells for a mere $1 on the streets.

Have you ever played 'Ground Control', the game made by Massive Entertainment from Sweden? I didn't but the interview with Massive's lead game designer Magnus Jansén over at Shacknews immediately made me drool over the upcoming sequel 'World in Conflict'. This real time strategy game won't take place in the science-fictional past-third-world-war setting as the former Ground Control games, instead the cold war in the 1980's is the battleground now.

"If you have war where tanks roll over white picket fences and BMX bikes, it's not just some desert town that's getting destroyed that you can't relate to. You say, 'That's a swing set on fire, I fully grasp the power of this event.' Putting it in the middle of familiar environments immediately gives people a sense of the power and the horror of the war."

Massive adds a lot of really cool features to enhance the visual storytelling effects, for instance if you zoom in on a map really close to your troops you will suddenly pick up the radio transmissions between the units.
The game itself is comprised of three parts, one taking place in the US, the second in the European region and the third place wasn't disclosed yet.
As Jansén says the relationship to the publisher Vivendi is exceptionally good, the funding is there and even patience, it sounds like 'World in Conflict' could easily be one of the best games released in 2007 (this fall, for PC only). Just take a look at the screens and of course the rest of the interview and you will realize it yourself.

We brought news about a suspicion that S.T.A.L.K.E.R. stole from Half life 2 and Doom 3. It now looks like the issue has been resolved, and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. did not steal a thing from the two aforementioned games. Half Life 2, as well as S.T.A.L.K.E.R., use textures from Marlin Studios - hence, the similarity. Furthermore, the IMP_Light texture, which also played part in the scandal as being taken from Doom 3, was, in fact, just a standard Impact Light texture, rather than referring to the Doom 3 monster.

Fuad has word that the upcoming K10 server processor codenamed Barcelona is 50 percent faster in specfp_rate2000 then Intel's quad core Kentsfield. As the CPU speed was not disclosed it will be near the stated 2.5GHz which applies for its fastest desktop counterpart, the Agena FX. The slowest Agena's will however start at 1.9GHz and will have the 95W TDP for sure.

NVIDIA plans to play a "trick" on us all - to compete with ATI's R600 chip, which is hopefully getting closer by the minute, NVIDIA should launch a GeForce 8800 Ultra card. The Inquirer, which we all have a problem trusting now and then, brings shocking news: the 8800 Ultra will be a revamped 8800 GTX card (it will use the same PCB, but a different cooler), and instead of being mass produced, it will be manufactured in "tens of units, not tens of thousands". This should therefore be a swift marketing move: NVIDIA will perhaps be able to claim the crown of performance king, yet us, end users, will not have access to the powerful cards.

It will be difficult to find one card, yet alone two for SLI.

More Radeon HD2900XT benchmarks - Crysis demo and 3DMark06 again - Update

Another day another benchmark score and this time again from a Turkish website. BilgiUstam got some results for 3DMark06 and for the first time from another application: a Crysis demo. They compared the Radeon HD2900XT to a GeForce 8800GTX on the same test platform.

Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6800
Asus P5W DH
2×1GB PC2-6400 (5-5-5-12)
Western Digital Raptor 150To sum it up: While the G80 card was faster in the theoretical benchmark 3DMark06, the R600XT outperformed the G80 card everytime by a slight margin in the Crysis tests.

Update: Here we have some more screenshots from PCINLIFE showing how the R600 card performs in 3DMark06 using 1280x1024 and 1600x1200 as resolution. This time the test platform was powered using an Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 (2x 2.40GHz) and 2GB of RAM. OS was Vista Ultimate together with the ATI Driver 8.351. The whole system managed to get 9685 3DMarks at the 1280x1024 res and 8756 3DMarks at 1600x1200. Not that bad considering the rather slow CPU.
The last shot is from the same setup now with 8x Antialiasing and 16x Anisotropic Filtering enabled. Sadly you can only guess the whole score because the first digit was painted over.

I hope that everyone who is reading this and the other news posts regarding the R600 performance numbers is judging on it with a good portion of common sense. The final cards aren't on the market and the Non Disclosure Agreement wasn't lifted yet.

While we already reported that the X2900 got a name change to the HD 2900 series, The Inquirer sought to find out what happened to the rest of the Radeon line-up. Here are the latest R6x0 rumors, along with their new names.

• RV610LE will be called the HD 2400 Pro. This can support HD playback in 720P (1280x720) resolutions, and comes with up to 256MB of 64-bit DDR2 RAM clocked at 800MHz.
• RV610PRO will be known as the HD 2400 XT. It should come with 128-bit GDDR3 RAM, and support full 1080P (1920x1080) HD playback.
• RV630PRO will be known as the HD 2600 Pro. It is basically an RV610LE with a fancy memory controller, higher clock speeds, and the ability to play 1080P HD content.
• RV630XT will be known as the HD 2600 XT. It is a higher-clocked version of the RV630PRO, with the ability to support higher-clocked and more memory.

All of these cards should come with a native HDMI port, can be ported to AGP, and have HD audio codecs.

Our last findings on how fast R600 cards perform in 3DMark06 caused a lot of buzz. Let's see how the following tidbit shapes up:
The VR-Zone has some numbers they couldn't keep for themselves regarding a Radeon X (sorry...), HD 2900 XT coupled with a Core 2 Extreme QX6700 (quad core) processor. They say with the latest 8.361-RC4 drivers they got around 12K with that R600XT card which is faster 2000 points higher than the scores from FX57.net. They price of this card will be 399USD which would be quite a bargain.