Ja ja, het was even heel stil rond "Tomzilla" maar hij heeft weer een Monday Blurb geschreven. Dit keer lult hij (naast zijn slechte medische toestand en dat Q3Test benchmark gedoetje) o.a. wat over de 3dfx Voodoo4 en de nVidia NV10:

The crowd of the 3Dfx-followers is nowadays talking a lot about 'Napalm' and 'Voodoo4'. Unfortunately the presentation 3Dfx gave last week only showed some nifty, but of course completely proprietary new 3D-features like e.g. motion-blur. The only way to make those features useful would be to talk 3D-game developers into using those, but 3Dfx couldn't even answer if they are trying to get those features implemented into DirectX 7. We can certainly remember the times when games were based on the also 3Dfx-proprietary Glide-engine. At the time when that was true the best, and for 3D-gamers only real, 3D-cards came from 3Dfx, so that it wasn't that hard for a game developer to choose the 3Dfx-engine. Times have changed though and will even change more soon. Right now, the best 3D-cards are not necessarily carrying a 3Dfx-chip, NVIDIA's TNT2 is at least as strong in the market as Voodoo3 and then there's the Matrox G400 as well. Times will get even worse when NVIDIA releases NV10, the very soon upcoming 3D-super chip. This chip will make anyone else in the 3D-chip business look damn old. Believe me, I've seen what NV10 can do and you'll find a lot of detailed information about NV10 at Tom's Hardware pretty soon. I dare to say that 3Dfx will not be able to compete with NV10 anymore, nor will anybody else I could think of right now. NV10 is that strong, that it will even be a tough product in the OpenGL-workstation market. Wait and see.

Ook zal er volgende week een mega 32 3D-Card Roundup op Tom's Hardware Guide verschijnen, en zelfs een "ultimate Athlon/K7-artcile".

Over bij 3D Alpha is ook een beetje info te vinden over het nieuwe wonder sjippie waar Bitboys ons gisteren mee lastig viel. Hier heb je een gedeelte:

Rather impressive for a chip that many claimed was not even going to be released. The Glaze3D also includes the majority of the features that 3dfx has been bragging about lately with it's T-Buffer technology. That, coupled with a 15 million triangle per second capability, must be making the competion very worried. Indeed, it is possible that the chip will require a very powerful CPU to produce these fill rates, but with the race between AMD and Intel to have the first consumer-level 1GHz processor heating up in 2000, that shouldn't be a problem for long. If the Glaze3D does indeed ship in early 2000, NVidia and 3dfx will probably be playing catch up with their offerings, as both companies are slated to release their next chips in September and October, respectively. Hopefully, Bitboys Oy can get the chip out on time and really make the world of 3D acceleration exciting.

Voor meer info, zie ook het artikel van 3DHardware, of lees de FAQ.

Naast AnandTech heeft ook Gamers Depot vandaag een review van de 3dfx Voodoo3 3500 online gekwakt. Hier heb je een stukkie over de performance:

Well, as you can tell from the Quake2 scores, the 3500TV takes the TNT2, slaps it, and calls it it's own. We have never seen a card so blindingly fast under the Quake2 benchmark. Even under the high quality mode, the TNT2 Ultra just can't keep up.

Under Direct 3D, however, the story changes. The higher scores are consistently held for 3Dmark by the TNT2. I suspect that this is largely due in part by the PIII (since 3DMark takes advantage of the PIII SIMD instruction set) optimized detonator drivers that were used. Although in Forsaken, the V3 is the clear leader at the lower resolutions. In the future I would suspect that this gap will either get more narrow or even totally surpassed by the 3500TV as newer drivers are developed.

So, I guess if you play more games that use OpenGL, than this card is your ticket. If you play more games that use D3D, then you'd probably want to look at the TNT2 Ultra for now. I don't say this to try and turn this into a V3 vs. TNT 2 review, however it is important info to consider as you make your video card selection.

Ars Technica heeft een harddisk cooler, de Cooler Master CoolDrive DCD-4001 eens getest. En waarom zou je zo'n ding nou moeten aanschaffen? :

First and foremost, because the darn thing cools down your hard drive. Duh! This is quite a plus, because if by chance you've not noticed, most of the new drives out there (7200 and 10k rpm) are getting pretty freaking hot! All such higher RPM drives tested in this review running at their normal operating temperatures were very unpleasant to hold or even touch even after only moderate usage. Said drives are engineered to withstand such temperatures of course, but let's be realistic - the drive is going to have a longer running life at lower temperatures, and the integrity of the platters will be much greater as well. Not to mention the fact that things like a lack of proper case ventilation or no home A/C in a hot summer can ratchet things up even higher. What does all of this add up to? Well, with this puppy running, your data will have that warm and cozy (no pun intended) "no bad sectors" feeling for a longer period of its so-called-life. Reliability is good!

Ik lees bij Celeron OC Info dat er een nieuwe bios (versie 2AA2) te downloaden is voor de Soyo 6BA+III mobo. Hier heb je de soep, en de link uiteraard:

SOYO finally released a new BIOS for the 6BA+III but unfortunately it looks like there is still no L2 latency adjustment feature. Thats the one missing feature of the 6BA+III thats keeping it from being a great OC mobo IMHO and the only obvious new addition is PIII 600 support. It is version 2AA2 and you can get it here.

CNET Gamecenter heeft een review van de Logitech WingMan Extreme, dat is zo'n mee-beweeg gamepadje. Ze vergelijken hem ook met de Freestyle Pro van Microsoft, en die laatste vinden ze toch ietsie fijner. Check de review hier.

The WingMan Extreme Gamepad is essentially the same as the WingMan Gamepad, but it has an accelerometer that can sense the gamepad's tilt position. Both gamepads have the same shape, grip, and button placement, as well as the same intuitive profiling software. The two share the same pros and cons as well: the grip is outstanding; the triggers are perfect; most of the thumb buttons are well placed, except for those closest to the center; and the D-pad is precise. The WingMan Extreme Gamepad's D-pad angle, however, is slightly off-kilter. It only takes a few minutes of play to get used to it, but my thumb got inordinately sore during extended play sessions.

There's one huge difference between the two gamepads: on the WingMan Extreme Gamepad, one of the recessed buttons that reside between the right grip and the thumb buttons is labeled "sensor." This is a toggle button that serves to enable and disable the tilt-sensitive accelerometer.

Bij Glide Underground vonden ze het nodig om een Cd-Rw round-up te houden, en als eerste was de Acer CRW 4432A aan de beurt. Ze geven hem 5 sterretjes (en sinds er maar 5 sterren te geven zijn is het niet eens zo slecht ) Maar goed,hier heb je een stukkie, de rest staat hier.

Using the included 4x write/rewrite compatible CDRW media, I burned a copy of my 648 MB downloads directory (lots of stuff)... Although not recommended, I went off to check my email while I waited for it to finish. The entire burn took about 19 minutes, and the software encountered no errors during the burn process, thanks to the nice 1 MB buffer built-in to the drive.

Burning a quick audio CD is also a snap. Using Adaptec Easy CD Creator, it's all drag-and-drop. Just select what .WAV files you want to burn as audio, and drop them into the CD content area.

Testing the burn process on generic CD-R media that I bought for about $0.80 per disk, I quickly found that the burn process could only go at 2x. However, this is due to the limitations of the cheap CD-R media, and not the drive itself.

Overall, I encountered no problems whatsoever with the drive. Considering that the drive can be purchased for under $200 at many retail stores, it is my honest opinion that the Acer CRW 4432A is one of the best deals out there.

Bij AGN Hardware staat het tweede deel van hun 64 vs. 128MB RAM online. De uitkomst zal iedereen wel duidelijk zijn; 128 is toch wel een stuk beter natuurlijk... Anyway, check het artikel hier.

Descent 3 is currently a hot seller, and a fantastic game to boot. It's one game that without question will take advantage of up to 128MB of RAM. We spoke with Descent 3 producer, Jeff Barnhart about how more than 64MB of RAM can effect performance. We've learned that with just 64MB of RAM you'll notice some pausing from time to time, as the level designers were given free reign to design massive and breathtaking levels, without worrying about the ramifications (no pun intended) of those with just 32MB or 64MB of RAM. With 128MB of RAM the levels can load completely into system memory, thus giving the program the resources needed to fulfill the demands of each level. We're also told that level 13 in particular may even take advantage of more than 128MB of RAM, as it's a real whopper of a level. So if you're playing Descent 3 on a high-end PII or PIII-class machine with a fast Voodoo 3 or TNT2 video card, and you can't figure out why things aren't a little smoother - do yourself a big favor and upgrade to at least 128MB of RAM. You won't be sorry.

Koen van Hardwareinfo.net heeft een review in elkaar gedraaid van de 3dfx Voodoo3 3000. Hier heb je een stukkie:

Het gemis van sommige (in mijn ogen) belangrijke specificaties blijft natuurlijk ook meespelen. 3dfx aanhangers zullen het ondertussen wel al vaak genoeg onder hun neus gewreven hebben gekregen, maar het is echt jammer dat de Voodoo3 geen textures groter dan 256x256, geen 32 bit color rendering en geen AGP-Texturing ondersteund. Hoewel huidige games dit nog niet nodig hebben komen er in de nabije toekomst al spellen met bijvoorbeeld 512 x 512 textures. Een voorbeeld hiervan is het met de coupon te bestellen Unreal Tournament. Aangezien je met een videokaart toch ook op de toekomst voorbereid wilt zijn vind ik dit geen dingen die je zomaar door de vingers ziet.

Klopt als een bus

Eindelijk!! Command and Conquer 2: Tiberian Sun has gone gold! Oftewel, de laatste versie van de game is klaar en er worden op dit moment duizenden kopietjes van gemaakt. De game zal eind deze maand, waarschijnlijk rond vrijdag 27 augustus te verkrijgen zijn. Hier heb je een stukkie uit de press-release van Westwood:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE COMMAND & CONQUER TIBERIAN SUN GOES GOLD

Westwood Celebrates Completion of the Third and Most Anticipated Installment in the Command & Conquer Universe

LAS VEGAS, NV, Aug. 2, 1999 - Westwood Studios today announced that couriers have been sent to duplication plants around the globe with the final version of 1999's most anticipated game, Command & Conquer Tiberian Sun(TM). The game will start shipping soon and is scheduled to hit retail shelves worldwide on Aug. 27.

Command & Conquer is the most successful computer strategy game franchise in history with better than 10 million units sold worldwide. The demand for Tiberian Sun has been unprecedented, with game journalists from around the world traveling to Westwood to see the game, hundreds of fan websites springing up on the Internet, and retailers ordering copies in record numbers.

Consumer who pre-order Command & Conquer Tiberian Sun from Babbage's, Electronics Boutique or the Westwood online store will get a chance to purchase the limited Platinum Edition, in which only 50,000 will be available.

Op de officiële Tiberian Sun website vind je meer info, en ook een countdown schermpie.

Q3Test v1.08 (win32) is er al weer! Download hem hier:

Id Software ftp

Barry's ftp

Stomped ftp

Gamespy 1

Gamespy 2

Q3Arena.net

CDROM.COM

Verder is hij ook op te halen bij Gamepoint. Maar dan moet je wel even inbellen.

Het is weer een grote file van 33,5 MB dus niet echt ideaal voor modem gebruikers

Ik weet nog steeds niet hoe serieus ik dit moet nemen, maar ik post het toch maar: De first look van 3D Hardware.net van de Glaze3D chip. Deze chip zou iedere andere 3D versneller in zijn broek moeten laten schijten, en dat met slechts 150MHz core clock en 1,5 miljoen transistors (dat is zonder embedded geheugen neem ik aan):

Time passed, and as always with stuff that is promised but not delivered it all became a joke. Glaze 3D became the 'donut chip' and no one believed the deadline of Q499 that was initially set. Until today, the 2:nd of August. We had already had some small hints of what was coming by mail this summer, but no one actually wanted to believe it. Today we were presented to a set of features that not only makes the T-Buffer look a little paler, but might even make nVIDIA executives sleep badly. A 1.5 million transistor chip that is set to become available for the bulic in Q1 2000 is, according to the Bitboys, able to produce 1.2 Gigapixels per second , quad texturing and all the graphics features you could ever dream of. This is something nVIDIA and 3dfx haven't dared to say about their 20 million transistor monsters coming up around the same time... [break]Een van de nieuwe features is hun Embedded Memory architectuur, wat gigantische bandbreedtes mogelijk maakt:[/break] Embedded DRAM

Probably the biggest innovation of the Glaze3D, and something we've been seeing coming for a while now, is that it's frame buffer isn't extrenal. This means that it's located on the same silicon as the core logic itself which allows for some pretty cool bandwidths. Even though the core operational frequency isn't all that grat, 150Mhz, the bandwith plays a big role, and with one of 12GB/s you begin to understand how the Glaze3D is so fast.

Volgens de mannen van HardOCP zal de Celeron (voorlopig) niet gemankeerd worden. Het is voor Intel teveel moeite (lees: te duur) om het ontwerp aan te passen zodat ze het maar proberen met een sticker...

Intel is a shrewd business company and will do whatever is more effective for them to maximize their profits in the current situation. If it will cost them more profit dollars to disable SMP in Celerons, you can bet your bottom dollar that it will not be done. When we see the Celeron move to the .18 micron architecture, it is very possible that the SMP function would be disabled then. We were also informed by "Gladfly" that .18 micron Celerons are up and running. We are not likely to see these until the PIII goes to the 133MHz bus speed though, which will most likely be next year according to Intel's Roadmap.

Hehe, dus nog steeds volop mogelijkheden voor BP6 bezitters
Check hier voor het hele nieuwsbericht.

Bij Sharky Extreme is deel 5 te vinden van zijn memory guide. Deze keer gaat het over timing, bandbreedte en je dat kan verbeteren met cache geheugen. Goede technische stuf:

The maximum memory throughput in a system is determined by multiplying the bus speed by the bus width. This means a system with a 64-bit bus running at 100MHz would have a theoretical maximum throughput of 800MB/sec (64 bits divided by 8 bits per byte is 8 Bytes. 8 bytes multiplied by 100 million cycles per second is 800MB/sec), however it is virtually impossible to achieve this kind of throughput.

One reason it is not possible to actually reach the theoretical maximum is because of the initial latency of the memory. As an example of this, consider an SDRAM module that has 5-1-1-1 timings on a 100MHz bus that is 64 bits wide. Assuming that no other factors slow down the data transfer, this means that in 80ns exactly 32 bytes of data have been transferred. The actual throughput in this case is only 400MB/sec (1 billion / 80ns times 32 bytes). In other words, due to the limitations of the SDRAM itself only half of the bandwidth can be utilized.

Nu de Voodoo3 3500 TV eindelijk uit is heeft Anand hem maar meteen getest. Zoals we van hem gewend zijn is het weer een lange review geworden, met veel benchmarks. Deze kaart draait op 183MHz core en 183MHz memory speed, da's erg hoog, maar Anand heeft ook geprobeerd om hem (ondanks dat ie behoorlijk heet wordt) verder te krijgen:

As far as overclocking is concerned, the 3500 didn't seem to do too poor of a job. With a default clock of 183MHz it is already faster than most overclocked 3000 boards, but how high can you push the 3500? Our experience with the 5.5ns Hyundai SDRAM on TNT2 boards indicated that memory speeds of around 220MHz+ can be achieved realistically with this very type of SDRAM, so in the case of the 3500, the memory shouldn't be the limiting factor but how far can the core go? Anyone's first instincts would be to push a nice round number, and in the case of our tests we picked 200MHz. Using PowerStrip, the 200MHz core and memory frequencies were achieved on the 3500 without a single crash during the temperature tests we ran for the heat testing of the 3500. The 200MHz mark is a full 10% increase in clock speed over the default 183MHz clock and resulted in an average performance increase of around 6% across the board.

Achieving clock speeds above 200MHz will vary from one board to the next and will depend on the yield of your particular 3500, however the chances that you'll be able to push above and beyond 200MHz with the 3500 shouldn't be too bad at all.