Ik vond net een alarmerend bericht over het feit dat, hoewel matrox het nog goed doet, ze toch bang zijn dat ze te veel vertrouwen van klanten hebben verloren (o.a. door de OpenGL icd voor de G200). Er circuleren nu geruchten dat ze ATI gevraagd hebben om een bod te doen:

Has the For Sale sign gone up at Matrox? I suppose that's something we'll have to wait and see over the coming months. Matrox it would seem are at a real crossroads and they have to adapt to survive, its survival of the fittest here as anywhere else. There are encouraging signs, the G400 in it's various guises is looking on paper (admittedly only Matrox's paper at the moment)like it is going to be a real winner, Tech Support is becoming fighting fit but Matrox really must do something to nurture customer relations

AGN Hardware heeft een review van de super vette Seagate Cheetah 18LP schijf geupt. Hij is errug snel:..

The results speak for themselves: the Seagate Cheetah 18LP is simply the fastest drive ON THE PLANET! In WInbench 99 testing, we found that the 3rd gen Cheetah offered between 4-6% performance increases in the overall disk scores. There were a few indivdual; tests that clearly made use of the larger Cache on the Mako, but this was still not enough to outperform the Cheetah 18LP overall. In our hands, we found the 18LP to be as much as 13.7% faster than the Mako IBM drive in SiSoft Sandra 98 testing. Yes folks, this 3rd generation Cheetah is almost 14% faster than a 2nd gen. drive with 4 times the Cache. Sandra showed that the Cheetah outpaced the Mako in all tests except the Sequential write test, where the larger Cache on the Mako help to keep the drive on task with the Cheetah.

Nog een 21" monitor review bij AGN Hardware. Ditmaal is de Hitachi Superscan 813 aan de beurt:

personally thought that the SuperScan 813 display had the best picture of all the models we looked at.  Performance wise, the Hitachi unit was even slightly better than the Viewsonic we were so fond of, but had a few less features (hence the Gold Award was given to the Viewsonic, and the Hitachi come in a very close second).

At 1600x1200 then unit was quite comfortable at 90Hz.  Text quality was superb with no detectable sizzle and a bright crystal clear picture.  I can not stress enough how clean, clear and beautiful the picture was on this unit.

The Hitachi 813 was more than capable of all the resolutions we threw at it, including some non-standard resolutions derived with Re2Flex from Metabyte.  The Unit was even capable of 1800x1440 @ 75Hz making it quite comparable to the Viewsonic display.

Zie AGN Hardware voor meer 21" reviews (Viewsonic, Optiquest, Sony en Iiyama).

Anand heeft het voor elkaar gekregen om een half jaar na de introductie van de Monster Fusion nog een review van deze kaart te schrijven:

With the Banshee nearing the end of its product cycle, it may not seem like a wise decision to buy one now. Remember though, the Banshee was brand new just over six months ago and now, prices are dropping to almost half of what they were back then (about $70 after rebate for the Fusion if you look around). Then again, Voodoo3 2000 boards are already showing up for not a lot more money, but with much greater performance. The Banshee is still a great buy for lower end systems and especially Super 7 systems. Basically, the decision comes down to whether or not you want a Banshee based card. If so, the Monster Fusion is the fastest Banshee card around, so this would definitely be the one to get.

Sharky Extreme heeft nog meer info over de beschikbaarheid van hoger geklokte Ultra TNT2 parts. Hier een plak:

"It is not entirely accurate to assume that Ultra products will be delayed behind regular TNT2 products. Let me explain in an overly simplified way, how the process works.

The factors that influence this decision are too numerous to catalogue, but let me give you a few sample scenarios. The first thing that can delay the faster parts is the completion of the screening program. For example, you could be testing parts at 143MHz for a couple of weeks or more before you put a 183 MHz test into place. In this case, you have a decision, do you start to ship the slower parts while you wait for the test program to be put in place for the faster parts, or do you hold shipment on the slower parts until you start to receive the faster parts. In most cases, since revenue is a good thing, you start to ship as soon as possible. But, this is by no means a hard and fast rule. On the other hand, you could also put the speed binning program into place very early, this would allow you to get fast parts at the same time you got the slower parts.

Another factor that can delay the faster part to market is the yield and build plan. If the fast part is low yielding, then you MAY not have enough to ship, so you MAY have to wait until you have a sufficient quantity. Its not only the yield that influences this, but the total number of chips built. If the yield of fast parts is 10%, and you build a total of 100K parts, then you yield 10K fast parts. 10K parts may not be enough parts to justify a launch. Different companies will respond to this situation in different ways. Some will wait until they have enough; some will ship what they have. So it's a combination of the absolute number of chips built, the yield of fast parts, and the product launch philosophy. For example, if you had a 10% yield, but were building a Million chips, that would yield 100K fast parts. Some companies would consider 100K parts enough to justify a launch.

So, I think you jumped to a conclusion that may not be true for all manufacturers. Some could ship the Ultra first, some could ship them at the same time as regular TNT2, and some could ship them later.

Check SE voor meer info.

Westwood Studios, die zegt hard bezig te zijn met het maken van de opvolger van Command & Conquer/Red Alert, heeft een probleem, vanmorgen is de 'lead designer' opgestapt naar een ander bedrijf.

Check deze link voor meer info.

Ik lees net op CPU Central dat we nog wat langer zullen moet wachten voordat de MSI socket 370 riser cards met dual jumper te koop zullen zijn. Met de kaart van Powerleap wil het ook al niet vlotten:

For those of you who have been waiting for MSI's new MS-6905, it looks like you'll have to wait a little while longer. I've received word that MSI has decided not to begin selling their new v1.1 of the MS-6905 until they get rid of their existing stock of the old ones. I believe that MSI still has more than a thousand of the old adapters floating around in Taiwan.

I personally don't believe in this business policy, and I'm sure that none of you do either. Unfortunately, the only real alternative to the new MS-6905 is PowerLeap's PLII, which also isn't available yet. So either way, we still have a bit of waiting to do.

PC Velocity heeft een review van de Team Fortress add-on voor Half-Life, die in feite niet meer is dan een Half-Life port van de oude Quake1 versie. Anyway, hij's gratis en dat is goed. Hier een stuk over de gameplay:

I never played much TF for Quake, and I stayed away from other class-based team games in my years of online multiplayer gaming (I'm not sure why, but it just happened that way) so TFC has been a real joy for me. I first started it up, chose a random class, and played around a bit. I decided on another class, and was delighted to find out that I had to completely change my strategy to do anything useful. I then realized that after more than a year of Quake II CTF, class-based gameplay is really worth something. Unlike Q2 CTF, there is no way to grossly power up - when you walk out of your resupply room, that's about as powered up as you're going to get. I really enjoyed this because TFC isn't a battle to hoard all the Techs or the Quad Damage. Brains and combat skill will keep you alive, not just an arbitrary item that gives you more offensive or defensive power over the other players.

Gamespot UK heeft een review gepost van een pre-production sample van de Ultra TNT2:

Prices have not yet been announced by any of the board manufacturers, but it's expected that the cards will cost from between £150-£200. STB, who recently bought 3DFx, is already selling Voodoo 3-based cards for as little as £99 - although, in both PCI and AGP 2X versions. This could make it hard for the TNT2 boards to compete at the lower end of the market in terms of value for money, but if the likes of Creative and Diamond take up the TNT2 cause, the chip should well mount a serious assault on 3DFx's dominant position.

It's clear that if Nvidia does fail in its quest to dislodge 3Dfx from the top 3D graphics slot, it certainly won't be because TNT2-based cards aren't a match for Voodoo 3 in performance. We found the Ultra TNT2 VIP card offered super-image quality and excellent performance, while it was also easy to install and seemed to offer good driver support - at least for the relatively small number of games we tested it upon.

nVidia houdt een contest waarbij je een naampje moet verzinnen voor hun next generation videochip (de NV10?). Je kunt er een TNT2 Ultra mee winnen. Hier heb je de info van Planet Riva:

Derek of NVIDIA sent a little more news my way, this time on a contest that they will be running for the next 2 weeks, up til May 2nd, 11:59 PM PDT. NVIDIA is looking for a name for their next graphics chip, and here's your chance to tell 'em what's what! Here's a few of the details:

"We are giving the user community the opportunity to leave their mark on the future of PC graphics by sponsoring a "Name That Chip" contest. We are asking end users to submit creative and new ideas for future NVIDIA product names. What's in it for the user...well, the 5 best entries (which will be judged by a panel here at NVIDIA) will receive a RIVA TNT2 Ultra-based graphics accelerators."

Je kunt je entry hier inzenden.

Unreal Tournament.net heeft een screenshots van de wapens in UT. De info:

To clarify one point right from the start: all of Unreal Tournament's weapons are new. Some are brand spankin' new and others - weapons that had their origins in Unreal - have returned looking twice as pretty and acting twice as lethal. A good example is the Ripper. Like Unreal's Razorjack, it shoots razors. But the similarities end thereƒand the same goes for most of the other weapons appearing here. Of course, UT also sports three brand new weapons that have never been seen before: the IMPACT Hammer, the Redeemer, and the Pulse Blaster. The one thing all of these new weapons share is the ability to deliver the most visceral and gut-wrenchingly brutal gameplay. We're going to be releasing the info on these weapons over the course of the coming weeks. Once a week, we'll update with new screens descriptive text for two new weapons. So you'll have to come on back every Friday for the next six weeks to find out about them all! It's a slow process, we know, but - oh boy - is it worth it!

Check de pics.

AGN Hardware heeft het derde deel in z'n 21" monitor roundup gepost. Dit keer is de Liyama Vision Master Pro 502 aan de beurt:

he unit uses the brilliant Diamondtron CRT but only offers a meager .28 dot pitch, which sets it at the bottom of our line up in that category.  The display is capable of running 1600x1200 at 85Hz.  With a 20" viewable area and a maximum scan rate of 160Hz this unit fit's the bill on both size and refresh rate. The VMP 502 includes BNC connectors, which provide much better color and quality than traditional 15 pin cables.  WE suggest you use these connections if you can. Size-wise, the VMP 502 is one of the largest monitors we looked at.  Like we said before, all 21" monitors look like monsters, but this was the largest display we saw weighing in at a full 75lbs. and measuring 19.43 × 19.3 × 19.3 inches.

Firingsquad heeft een review van de AOpen MX3L micro-ATX moederplank. Het ding heeft onboard audio [bah] en soft BIOS [jippie]. Niet echt interessant voor power users lijkt me, maar uiteraard heeft Firingsquad wel info over z'n overklokbaarheid [altijd]:

This system doesn't lend itself to too much overclocking. This is based somewhat on the fact that it is an LX chipset based motherboard, and thus does not have a 100 MHz FSB setting. The only options for bus speeds are 66, 75, or 83. In a way, this is both good and bad. The good is that you have functional overclocking options, though they are relatively mild by overclocking standards.

The bad is that you are effectively limited to 2 bus speeds (besides the factory 66 MHz). This rules out the possibility of getting your Celeron 300 to 450, or your 366 to 550, etc. For those of you who are hardcore overclockers, or want to be hardcore overclockers, this may not be the right path for you.

Otherwise, overclocking is fairly easy with this board, since it is a pseudo-Softmenu in that you set the appropriate bus setting in BIOS and just see if it will boot up. The BIOS for this particular motherboard does an automatic multiplier setting check, and will set the multiplier accordingly. This is really a moot point, since Intel has ruled out the notion of multiplier overclocking anyway.

Tweak3D heeft een zooi Turok2, GLQuake en QuakeII benchmarks gepost waarin de performance van de TNT2 vergeleken wordt met de V3-2000, V3-3000, V2, V2 SLI en TNT1. De TNT2 doet het redelijk, maar blijft meestal achter de V3-3000. Omstandigheden waren ook niet bepaald ideaal voor de TNT2:

NVIDIA's TNT-2 has arrived! Okay, so it will actually be near a month before all of you will even see this chip. Here are some very early benchmarks I ran for those who just could not wait. (believe me, there were a lot of you!) These results are not final, in fact, far from it. The drivers are the old Detonator drivers from 1-27-99, and VSYNC was not disabled. (I just couldn't get it disabled...) I believe the refresh rate is 75 Hz for all resolutions. Before I post a TNT-2 review, I will have everything working. Remember - THESE ARE PRELIMINARY!

Daikatana krijgt support voor A3D (1.0 & 2.0) en EAX. Check deze .plan update @ Daikatana Headquarters:

First, I have a new interview up at PlanetDaikatana.

http://www.planetdaikatana.com/interviews/mikem-01.shtml

In this article I failed to mention anything about A3D which caused a flood of

email. We currently do support A3D 1.0. Soon we will have support for A3D 2.0

as well. Anyone with a card that supports A3D, D3D, or EAX and has a set of 4.1

or 5.1 speakers will have an awesome sound experience! At the time of the

interview I was working strickly with the EAX features of the SoundBlaster Live!

I now have a test computer with a Live! and one with an MX-300 so I can test

equally and they both sound great!

My tasks lately have been: Fixing sound problems in the engine, working on the save

and load routines, and tweaking monster behaviors and weapons.

We are showing single player stuff at E3. Stay tuned.

Op Bleem.com kun je een nieuwe demo van de Bleem Playstation emulator downen. De info:

FASTER! MORE GAMES!

That's right, bleem! is even better than before. By popular demand, CASTLEVANIA (u/c), TOMB RAIDER 2 (u/c) and STREET FIGHTER COLLECTION (j, probably u/c too) all work. And we've continued to optimize and make bleem! even faster - download it below.

WHAT DO YOU GET?

This official bleem! demo is designed to show you just how bleem! will run on YOUR system, with YOUR hardware and games. Unlike most programs, it's hard to set "minimum system requirements" for bleem! that will be accurate for every user. Since bleem! is like running HUNDREDS of programs instead of just one, your performance can vary according to the complexity of the game you're playing and the hardware you own. With this demo, you'll be able to see just how your favorite games behave on your system.

But this IS NOT a full version of bleem!. While we'd love to give you the opportunity to try ALL of bleem!'s bells & whistles, we all know that any full-featured demo would be cracked in ten minutes, and all over the web seconds after that. So we've had to take some stuff out, because we'd really, really like you to buy it.

Sega zal op 9 september van dit jaar z'n nieuwe Dreamcast console releasen. De verwachte prijs is 199 dollar:

Sega is aiming to launch the Dreamcast on September 9 of this year, at a MSRP of $199! Backing the system will be a $100 million ad/marketing campaign. The Dreamcast will include a 56K modem and a 200MHz 128 bit processor. It will also be able to run games written for Windows CE. In fact, 2 of the 12 games planned for availability at launch are WinCE games. The console will also launch in various parts of Europe for around US$300. Unfortunately for Sega, the hype surrounding Dreamcast has largely been stolen by Sony and the anticipated specs for PSX2, which is not even due for release for a full year after the Dreamcast. Read the full story at News.com.