Thresh's Firingsquad heeft een hands-on preview van de SLI-technologie van Metabyte waarmee ze zo'n beetje alle videochips in een soort SLI configuratie gezet kunnen worden. Hier even een stukje :

The setup Metabyte had for us was demonstrating proof of concept, or in less pretentious talk, "this thing is real and it exists now." The setup was a Pentium II 400 with two modified 3DFX Banshee cards, pimpin' the Stepsister technology. Before we got on with the demo, we had a few questions about the technology that our hosts were more than happy to answer.

Kenn: First, the term "SLI" is technically a misnomer. "Scan Line Interleave," is the technology used for 3DFX's current Voodoo2 3D-only chipset. With true SLI, one card renders all of the even horizontal scan lines, while the second card draws all of the odd scan lines. As you can imagine, this leads to an even load distribution between the two cards, and theoretically doubles the fill rate and triangle rate.

However, before everyone goes around half-cocked about double the performance, remember that any kind of "SLI" will share many of the characteristics of a standard Voodoo 2 setup. You'll definitely see a big jump in performance, but depending on where your bottlenecks are, you may or may not see close to two times the performance.

En hier staat de rest...

Dukeworld heeft z'n Duke Nukem Forever FAQ upgedate. Hier een stukje over de release date:

DNF will be released "When It's Done." What this means is that 3D Realms will not release the game until they are sure it is the best first person shooter ever. There is no exact date, and any dates currently offered by anyone are purely speculation. If you're interested in more information on why a release date can not be nailed down this far in advance, see http://www.3dportal.com/?features/editorials/releasedates/.

Next Generation Online heeft een exclusieve preview van Descent 4. Hier wat info:

Descent 4 will not surprisingly feature multiplay capability, following in the footsteps of an increasing number of first-person shooters. "As to what people prefer, I think there will still be plenty of people who don't play multiplayer games," Kulas volunteered. "But there are many people who only care about multiplayer games and we have to satisfy both camps. I do think we'll be offering interesting innovations in the single player game, and I'll consider Descent 4 a failure if people don't think the single player game is great."

PC Magazine heeft een screenshot van Windoos 2001. De info:

This sneak peek at Microsoft's "Neptune" interface shows the highly simplified and Web-centric approach Microsoft will be taking to make PCs easier to use for the millions who have yet to get started with computing and the Internet.

En de rest...

De Heatsink-Guide heeft een errug handig artikel in elkaar geknutseld waarin wordt uitgelegd hoe je een Celery Sandwich kunt bouwen zonder allerlei heftige gaten te moeten boren. Hier wat info:

Some time ago, I have published an article about how to build a "Sandwich" cooler for Celeron CPUs. I received a lot of feedback about this topic, and very many people were interested in "Celery Sandwiches". However, the problem was that it used to be quite complicated to build such a unit - e.g. there was drilling involved, which many didn't like :-).

Now, I have found an easier solution! If you use two specific P2 heatsinks - an AOC AT-P2-6B, and a Global WIN VEK12, then you can build your sandwich cooler in only five minutes - no tools are required, except a screwdriver! This sandwich cooler takes advantage of the AOC AT-P2-6B's very special clip concept, which is very suitable for building sandwich coolers.

CD-ROMs drijven zich tot steeds hogere snelheden. De snelste drive op dit moment is de Kenwood Tech True 52X met Zen Research's TrueX technologie. Planet Hardware heeft een review van dit beesje:

With a generous 2048K data buffer (most drives have 256K or 512K), along with constant disc velocity make this drive one ,if not THE, top performer out there. One can't be positive that it lives up to the "Equivalent to a 75X Max drive - if one existed!" claim from Kenwood Tech, but it sure beats the pants off other 50X+ drives out there now. To put it in perspective, this drive beat out several SCSI-based high speed drives I tested it against, and literally screamed past every other EIDE based CD and DVD drive it had the chance to race.

Overclockers.com heeft een CPU Cooler test op z'n site geparkeerd:

This review is designed to measure the relative performance in an apples-to-apples comparison of one of the most critical elements in your overclocked system - the Heatsink.

Verder is de review erg kort, maar wel met een handig tabelletje waarin de coolers op een rijtje gepleurd worden.

Thresh's Firingsquad is er weer snel bij en heeft een preview van de Metabyte Stepsister TNT SLI. Tresh en Kenn hebben een demonstratie van het ding gezien, het bewijs voor het bestaan van de Stepsister! Ze hebben zelfs benchmarks uit de demonstratie kunnen trekken:

Of course, these benchmarks are designed to show off the technology in the best possible light. This means fill-rate and vertex-limited applications. A game such as Forsaken, which runs at up to 100fps at lower resolutions on standard equipment, is certainly not CPU-limited, and execution time is not held up in the geometry process, as in id's upcoming Quake III arena.

You can see this more readily in the two 3DMark tests. Remember, this shouldn't be taken as a complete 3Dmark score, as the only tests run were Game 1 (Race), Game 2 (FPS), and Fill Rate 1 (Single Texture). However, you can see that the benefits of PGP are readily apparent. Again, remember that even Voodoo2 SLI doesn't deliver the ideal 2x performance. Expect a 30-40% increase in framerate for a COU-limited game such as Quake II. As with 3DFX SLI, PGP performs its best at high resolutions, which explains the 1024x768 setup.

Voor meer info moet je ff langs fietsen bij Tresh's Firingsquad.

Guillemot en nVidia zijn vriendjes geworden. Hier wat info uit de press release op Yahoo:

NVIDIA(TM) Corporation (Nasdaq: NVDA - news) and Guillemot Corporation announced today that they have entered into a strategic partnership for future generations of 3D graphic processors.

The ultimate goal of this alliance is to leverage the strengths of both companies and deliver a broad family of products which will extend both NVIDIA's and Guillemot's leadership position in their respective markets.

``Guillemot has a strong reputation for maximizing 3D technologies for different markets,'' said Jen-Hsun Huang, president and CEO at NVIDIA. ``With our dedication to providing unprecedented power and quality, NVIDIA is a great match for Guillemot's customer base who demands the best quality graphics for entertainment, education, business and e-commerce software applications.''

This strategic relationship provides Guillemot with access to NVIDIA's hardware, software and development tools to maximize both image quality and performance. Guillemot's 3D accelerator boards have been quality tested and optimized to take advantage of the RIVA family of 3D processors and will bear the NVIDIA logo on the package. In addition, the agreement allows both companies to share future technical developments. As a result, the alliance is expected to provide an ongoing release of optimized 3D accelerator boards designed using the latest hardware from NVIDIA.

``We take great pride in the way we have applied our extensive knowledge in multimedia peripherals to this new graphics accelerator line. Using NVIDIA's TNT technology, we will be able to design a unique way for PC manufacturers to differentiate their multimedia capabilities with a single platform,'' said Claude Guillemot, president of Guillemot Corporation. ``NVIDIA is known for providing outstanding graphics solution for performance users with intensive multimedia and graphics needs.''

Voor 3Dfx begint te toekomst er steeds minder blij uit te zien. Aanvankelijk hadden ze nog gedacht met Guillemot en Elsa een contract of te sluiten, zodat die de V3tjes in Europa konden afzetten (STB betekent hier namelijk helemaal niets). Ze te zien heeft Guillemot dikke scheit aan 3Dfx en kies voor nVidia :).

The Techs hebben een artikeltje in elkaar gepoot waarin wordt uitgelegd hoe je een moederplank in je systeempje moet bouwen. De intro:

You've just received your brand new top of the line motherboard, that you want to use to overclock your Celeron or Pentium II processor, in the mail. So you take your computer in to your local computer store and have them install it for you right? WRONG! Why pay somebody else to install something that you yourself could do for free? While it may seem like a complex task to complete, with a little guidance from this article you'll find you have the motherboard up and running in a matter of minutes and all you need is this guide and a phillips head screw drive! Now that you know what you need lets move along to the installation.

3DNews.net heeft de game industry wat zitten pollen over wat zij denken van multiplayer only games. De vraag:

1999 seems like it will be the first really big year for online only games. Is this wise for game makers to do, or should most games come with both solo and multi-player capabilities?

En het antwoord van id Software:

PERSONALLY I think it's very wise for the consumer. It gives the developer the proper focus to make a particular target audience happy (i.e. multi or single player). It also gives the consumer a better idea of what to expect in terms of quality. Half Life is a good example of a single-player-before-multi-player mentality. Arena will be the other side of the coin. Multi-player does have to have a single player A.I. controlled mode, single player doesn't HAVE to have multiplayer. Meer meningen vind je in het Industry Interview op 3DNews.net. Reacties (0) Lees meer Games Nieuwer Zondag 28 februari 1999 Ouder Vrijdag 26 februari 1999 Apple iPhone 17 LG OLED evo G5 Google Pixel 10 Samsung Galaxy S25 Star Wars: Outlaws Nintendo Switch 2 Apple AirPods Pro (2e generatie) Sony PlayStation 5 Pro Adverteren Contact Over Tweakers Huisregels Algemene voorwaarden Privacy Cookies Cookievoorkeuren wijzigen Volg op Bluesky Volg op YouTube Volg op Instagram Rss-feeds Tweakers Discord Tweakers is onderdeel van DPG Media B.V. Alle rechten voorbehouden - Auteursrecht © 1998 - 2026 • Hosting door TrueFullstaq