De Russische gasten van iXBT hebben een interview afgenomen met VIA. Hier heb je een klein stukje:

Q: At first we would like to ask you a question that has been attracting public attention lately, namely we would like to ask you about the recent deal with Cyrix. How will it influence the marketing strategy of your company and the company's business in general?

A: Exciting stuff indeed. But there is not a lot I can disclose right now due to the fact that we only announced an LOI (letter of intention) to purchase Cyrix. Details of the agreement will be disclosed in the near future. Obviously Cyrix rounds out our product portfolio very well and provides us a clear hedge into the future integration trend. We will market Cyrix processors; but at the same time our chipsets will be engineered and marketed to optimally support AMD, Intel and other processors in the marketplace.

Q: Another so impatiently awaited product from VIA is a new chipset for AMD K7. Could you, please, say a few words about its main features, in particular about the supported memory, system bus and AGP 4x compatibility?

A: With our K7 chipset we aim to emulate the success we've had supporting the K6-2. Aside from the FSB, this product, which is set for introduction early next month, offers the same features as our upcoming P6-level chipsets: PC133 SDRAM, VCM/133, ESDRAM memory types, AGP 4x, UDMA/66, 4 USB ports, asynch bus settings. The main difference is the 100MHz DDR FSB to AMD's Slot A Athlon processor.

Q: Are you going to provide a competitive product to Intel 810? If you are, then could you, please, tell us a bit about its main features? When can we expect this product to appear?

A: We do have a product that will compete with the i810. Right now, we are using the Trident Blade 3D core in a product called ProMedia. Expect an intro in the august month. Beyond that we will integrate the S3 Savage 4 core into our Pro133 north bridge.

Zowel voor de Xentor 16 als de Xentor 32 is er een nieuwe BIOS beschikbaar. Hier heb je de links:

Xentor 16 BIOS
Xentor 32 BIOS

Zie de Guillemot website voor meer info.

Ik zie bij Beta News dat Aureal nieuwe Win9x drivers heeft gereleased voor de Vortex2 soundcards. Dit is er allemaal nieuw:

Added support for WinDVD

Software DVD Player

Added S/PDIF autodetect feature.

Fixed an issue that caused a number of DirectSound3D and A3D games to crash

Fixed some distortion on output

Fixed some issues relating to Wavetracing Reflections

Fixed some issues relating to Flatland Rover

Fixed a Graphic EQ issue

Fixed an issue with the A3D control panel

Fixed a memory leak in the direct sound driver

Normalized the volume between front and rear speakers

Je kunt ze hier downloaden (7.65MB)

Bij AGN Hardware hebben ze een vrij groot interview met AMD gehad, over de Athlon processor. Hier heb je een paar vragen:

[Q] Speaking of improved performance in gaming, Carmack seems to have an Athlon of his own that he seems to love. How did you feel about his comments, truly showing that your Athlon was doing better for gaming then even the Pentium III.

[A] As you would expect it was not much of a surprise for us to see the comments from him, since we have been working on this product for a long time. The fact that the Athlon's most aggressive superscalar core designed, combined with the 3DNow! technology is going to deliver that type of performance. Best of all any game that takes advantage of the floating point and 3DNow

[Q] Is there any possibility of an Athlon and Intel supporting motherboard?

[A] The answer is no, there will not be any way to support both Intel and Athlon processors with the same motherboard. The primary reason is that the 200MHz bus that is required to support the Athlon is totally different from what Intel uses. So it is totally incompatible and will not exist.

Net als Sharky Extreme is er nu ook bij Thresh's FiringSquad een preview te vinden van de Diamond Stealth III 540 Xtreme. Dit is dus die snellere uitvoering van een Savage 4 Pro.

The Savage4 was a Savage3D with an extra texture unit. The Savage4 Pro chip increased clock rates, upped the memory to 32MB, and added AGP 4x support. The Savage4 Xtreme increased the clock rates even more, removed the TV-out, cleaned up a few unneeded gates, and improved the S3TC technology. The new Savage4 Xtreme design also lowered S3's production costs by a significant amount.

The original Savage3D only had a 90MHz core, and 100MHz memory clock speed. The Savage4 Pro only had a 110MHz core and 143MHz memory clock speed, but you could overclock it up to 143/143.

The Savage4 Xtreme retail will feature a 166MHz core speed and a 166MHz memory clock speed. The OEM version will feature a 166MHz core speed with a 143MHz memory clock speed. That translates into 6ns memory for the retail version and 7ns for the OEM.

[break] Ook hebben de jongens van FiringSquad wat info los weten te peuteren over S3's Next Generation chip, de GX4.[/break]

Looks like S3 isn't content with going after the budget consumer after all. The "GX4" is the code name for S3's next generation 3D accelerator. There isn't much information available about the chip, but it was rumored to have onboard transformation and lighting.

We asked Paul and Mark about the GX4, but they were pretty tight lipped about their baby. They confirmed that the GX4 does indeed have onboard T&L, and that they want it out in time for the holiday season. They also said that they're putting all their efforts behind the GX4, and it should be right up there with the next generation products from Nvidia and 3dfx. They didn't say anything about the manufacturing process, but everyone knows that S3 has .18 micron capabilities and we wouldn't be surprised if the GX4 takes advantage of it.

Hot Hardware heeft info over de Pentium III. Deze krijgt namelijk een letter achter zijn naam om verschillende versies van de P3 te onderscheiden. Zo betekent een B dat de processor op 133MHz FSB draait, en een E dat ie Advanced Transfer Cache heeft.

Zie dit overzichtje:

Intel Pentium III processor 600 MHz (formerly Katmai 600/100
600 MHz frequency, 100 MHz system bus, discrete L2 cache

Intel Pentium III processor 600B MHz (formerly Katmai 600/133
600 MHz frequency, 133 MHz system bus, discrete L2 cache

Intel Pentium III processor 600E MHz (formerly Cumine 600/100
600 MHz frequency, 100 MHz system bus, Advanced Transfe Cache

Intel Pentium III processor 600EB MHz (formerly Cumine 600/133)
600 MHz frequency, 133 MHz system bus, Advanced Transfer Cache

Ik lees bij Voodoo Extreme dat Elsa nieuwe drivers heeft voor de Elsa Erazor III. Hier heb je de links:

Elsa Erazor III drivers voor Win9x
Elsa Erazor III BETA drivers voor Win98 met Video Control

Zie ook de Elsa website voor Erazor III drivers.

PC Gamer Online heeft wat mooi screenies online gegooid van Half-Life: Opposing Force, een expansion pack. Hier zijn er twee, klik hier voor meer.

Nope, we zijn er nog steeds niet van af. 3D Spotlight heeft nog even een review van Guillemot's Ultra TNT2 kaart online gekwakt, de Maxi Gamer Xentor 32. Hier heb je het gedeelte over de overklokbaarheid, die wel OK is.

I already had an utility for overclocking TNT/2 cards called TNTClk which had worked great other times, so I opened up that first, curious as to what it said. I noticed that the defaults were set to 170 Core and 183 Memory. I noticed on Guillemot’s website that the Xentor had its own Overclocking utility called Power Sprinter. Without overclocking the card I quickly downloaded the program and tried my success with Power Sprinter.

When I set the Core and Memory to the defaults with this program they were 150mhz for the core and 183mhz for the memory… don’t you think that’s strange? I thought so. Maybe it was that Guillemot had to get their clock settings back to ULTRA TNT2s default as some other manufacturers have done due to NVIDIA’s request, not sure of that though, website specs that could be updated still say, "175 MHz core chip speed".

With messing around with the clock settings for about thirty minutes I left the core at 175 MHz and I got the memory up to 200 MHz. I tried different settings for overclocking the Xentor 32, I could push it up to 175/210mhz but a lot of artifacts started showing in Quake2 so after tweaking it a bit I found 175/200mhz was the best stable overclock I could get.

Bij Hardware One hebben ze de TennMax TNT Detonator Cooler eens getest. Hoewel hij de zaak wel koeler houdt is er niet echt sprake meer van snelheidswinst:

With the Tennmax TNT Detonator Cooler, overclocking performance improved marginally. The core was able to maintain full stability at 170 MHz while memory speed remained limited to 210 MHz (as would be expected since no additional cooling was applied to the memory chips).

This marginal improvement fell far short of my expectations.

The TNT2U chip surface temperature however was markedly cooler – from 43.4 degrees C with the original cooler (at 165MHz core) to 38.6 degrees C with the TennMax cooler (at 170 MHz core) i.e. 4.8 degrees C cooler. Taking into account the temperature of the ambient air around the card, I could not expect it to do any better.

Bij Rage3D is een review te vinden van ATI's TV tuner kaart, de ATI TV Wonder. Hier heb je een gedeelte:

ATI TV Wonder has been out since the beginning of 1999 and has looked promising ever since, but for some reason nobody has come up with a review. So here is the review of ATi TV Wonder as promised. You won't be disappointed!

ATI promised a lot of things with the TV Wonder, and it delivers. The TV Wonder is said to be the fastest TV card on the market because it uses the new Rockwell Fusion single chip PCI video decoder, it has blazing fast speed and is not a let down on quality. The output is crystal clear whether you are on the cable, composite or S-video. There are various features such as video capturing, screenshots, channel previews, closed captioning (when and where supported), and the newest feature: hotwords. The box contains the card itself plus two audio cables for internal and external connections, the registration and warranty card, the instruction manual, and lastly, the drivers CD.

Bij ComChip hebben ze een review geschreven van Darkstone, een nieuw action / RPG spel àla Diablo. Hier heb je een gedeelte over de characters in de game:

There are more charcters to choose from than Diablo though. You get to be a Warrior, Amazon, Wizard, Sorceress, Assassin, Thief, Monk or Priest. Each class has different attributes however. For example, the Assassin can throw weapons but the Wizard can't. What I discovered was that the Warrior is the Male version of Amazon, Wizard the male counterpart of Sorceress etc. So basically there are 4 main classes, but this time you get to choose the girl if you are one. One note here is that I wouldn't know about the Monk and the Priest if I didn't see that you can buy weapons for them. I will try to explain what I mean here. When you choose your characters, you don't see the Monk and the Priest. There is a little button at the side to go to the next page so you can see them and select them. The manual doesn't seem to mention this fact but luckily they gave you enough hints to tell you that SOMEHOW you can use these 2 characters. For example, you can buy weapons specifically for Priests, also, the manual mentions this class along with the others. If it's not for those two hints, I might've never found out about that fourth class.

Bij Hardware Central zijn ze bezig met een BX mobo roundup. Part 2 is nu klaar, en hierin hebben ze de nieuwe ASUS P3B-F gereviewed, hier heb je een plakkie:

The Asus P3B-F proved to be a really stable motherboard and a consistent performer; it was able to run the PPGA Celeron 366 at 550MHz with a Powerleap PL-PII, something we could not accomplish with the Asus P2B rev. 1.10.

If we look at the performance and stability it offers, the PC-99 compliance and the added ‘jumperless’ CPU voltage and busspeed selection, we can only conclude that this motherboard is very appealing.

Asus has always been known for their good quality and good after-sales support; they regularly update the ‘BIOS-upgrade’ section on their website. Emails to their customer support are usually answered within a couple of days, so you can be sure that they will help keep this motherboard at the peak of its performance.

Alex "Sharky" Ross heeft zijn handen op de nieuwe Savage 4 Pro Xtreme gehad. De Xtreme versie is overigens gewoon een Savage 4 Pro kaart, alleen ze hebben de core en memory speed verbeterd. De kaart die ze getest hebben is de Diamond Stealth III S540 Xtreme met 32MB op 166MHz, en ook de core draait op 166MHz. Das toch wel effe 41 MegaHertjes meer dan voorheen. De preview vind je hier.

Current Savage4 owners backed by a fast processor will be used to playing at 800x600 resolution (those with a lower-end CPU will be playing at 640x480). The Xtreme's Quake 2 benchmarks show that a 1024x768x16 resolution is perfectly acceptable in terms of frame rate (although some way below a Voodoo3 2000). The jump from 800x600 to 1024x768 will be a welcome and noticeable one. More complex engines such as the Quake III 3 engine won't fair so well at 1024x768. This is largely due to the limitations of the Savage4 architecture using a 64-bit memory interface. When the GX4 comes out by the end of 1999 and the architecture begins using a 128-bit (or possibly 256?) memory interface this issue will probably be resolved. But for now the 'ceiling' for most Savage 4 Pro Xtreme users will be 800x600.

At either 'High Quality' or 'Normal' settings in Quake III: Arena, frame rates in the mid-to-high twenties weren't quite fast enough in 16-bit at 1024 x 768. A real hook and improvement with Quake III is the 32-bit support, which the Xtreme is able to cope with VERY well at 640x480 and acceptably at 800 x 600. With further driver improvements, which are certainly possible at this stage, frame rates might be improved upon by a few welcome notches, thus 'enabling' more acceptable play at 1024x768.

Thresh's FiringSquad heeft een test geplaatst die gaat tussen de AMD Athlon en de Intel Pentium III, allebei op 600 MHz.

Hier een stukkie uit de intro:

Meet the contenders

Let's get ready to rumbllllllle! Forget Mike Tyson, forget the Ultimate Fighting Championships, forget even Sega Dreamcast's killer boxing app, Ready 2 Rumble. The biggest battle this fall is taking place right here in the Silicon Valley, between heavyweight incumbent Intel, and the hardened war vet Advanced Micro Devices.

In the right corner, in the white and blue trunks, is the newest incarnation of the defending champion, the Pentium III 600. In the opposite corner, sporting the green and white, is up and comer Athlon, also weighing in at 600MHz. These two fighters are vying for the title "fastest consumer processor" and the punches are going to fly fast and hard.

Lees hier de rest.

Op Glide Underground hebben ze een review geplaatst van de DiamondMax 6800. Dit is een ATA/66 schijf van 27.2GB.

Lees hier de rest van de test.

The new 6800's are now equipped with new, faster 100Mhz SDRAM, as well as a 2MB buffer plateau, which finally catches them up with their competitors. Of course increasing the buffer above 512K hasn't proven to cause a great performance increase. Also new in the 6800's, are Maxtor's new "DualWave controller", which is said to copy the performance architecture found in many SCSI devices, which "improves drive and system performance through a 90% reduction in drive command overhead."

ATA/66 is a new feature among hard drives. The only problem is, there are very few motherboards that can support this new feature, the ABit BE6 being the only one that I know of. This means that unless you want to get the full performance of this drive, you'll either need a new motherboard, or an expansion card such as the ABit Hotrod 66, which will cost you an extra $60 (approximately). I've heard some reports of ATA/66 drives not working at all unless you have a ATA/66 controller card, but I tried the Maxtor drive on my ABit BX6 2.0 motherboard, and it worked just fine.

Bij PC Paradox hebben ze een test uitgevoerd tussen de (op dit moment) twee veel verkochte geluidschipsets, de Vortex2 van Aureal en de AEX van Creative.

Hier de features van de 2 geluidkaarten die ze gebruikt hebben:

[break]The Vortex2:[/break]

96dB signal-to-noise ratio over a 20Hz~22kHz range

Custom crosstalk cancellation circuitry using a biquad crossover filter to optimize left and right sound channels for more effective A3D playback in stereo speakers

Sound Blaster Pro DOS support

64 hardware and 256 software wavetable voices using advanced techniques, such as fourth-order interpolation and sweepable filters with resonance

Effects for delay, room, chamber, hall, cabinet, flange, distortion, and wah-wah on the wavetable

Support for DLS 1.0

Direct Music acceleration

A hardware wavetable connector

The MX-Link which will allows users to connect future add on boards.

Basic board with a SPDIF I/O connector Or full featured board offering full 5.1 AC3 support through outputs for two additional speakers as well as SPDIF and optical I/O connectors

A gameport which as well as supporting standard analog/digital joysticks and MPU-401 MIDI I/O, also incorporates DirectX acceleration circuitry that accelerates DirectX gameplay and improves system speed by 10% or more

Four speaker support out of the box

Hardware support for DS, DS3D, A3D 1.x, A3D 2.0 and planned support for EAX through a future driver upgrade

[break]The Soundblaster Live![/break]

Signal to noise ratio of better than 96dB at over a 20Hz~22kHz range

Supplies one hundred percent hardware acceleration of DirectSound, DirectSound3D and DS3D with the Environmental Audio Extensions

Sound Blaster 16 DOS support

Samples audio at up to 48 kHz and a total harmonic distortion of 0.002%

The EMU10K1 chip which boasts 1,000 MIPS and has the processing power of a pentium 90 all dedicated to audio

E-mu's patented 8-point Interpolation Algorithm that reproduces audio signals with new levels of fidelity, free from perceivable distortion.

Can do up to 256 voices for incredible MIDI sound

Offers a range of sound fonts from 2 to 32 MB going into system RAM with a full range of effects on the MIDI playback

Digital I/O extension card which supports digital input and output

A gameport which as well as supporting standard analog/digital joysticks and MPU-401 MIDI I/O, also incorporates DirectX acceleration circuitry that accelerates DirectX gameplay.

Four speaker support out of the box

S/PDIF connectivity enables users to connect a S/PDIF-compatible device such as a DAT player for high-end playback, recording and production as well as the digital output of CD-Audio via the S/PDIF input (CD Digital In)

Uit de conclusie blijkt o.a. dat de Vortex2 meer gamebased is dan de Soundblaster Live.

Lees hier de rest.

Op PC Gamer hebben ze de zoveelste(ik heb er nu 6 geteld) preview van Prince of Persia 3D geplaatst. Het spel is een 3D uitvoering van de inmiddels een klasieker: Prince of Persia uit 19??(hele tijd geleden). Lijkt mij wel een soort Tombraider alleen is de hoofdrolspeler een man(jongen).

Hier een stukje uit de intro van de preview:

It was ten years ago when Jordan Mechner wrote the classic side-scrolling action-adventure game Prince of Persia into the annals of gaming history. The game’s smooth rotoscoped animation enamoured even jaded game players, the traps and puzzles required cunning and skill, and no gamer has ever been able to resist the prospect of rescuing the Princess. In short, we gobbled it up. As a 1993 follow-up, Mechner created Prince of Persia 2: The Shadow and the Flame, combining the best elements of the original with more diverse environments and improved, colorful graphics.

Since then, the Prince and his creator, Mechner, have gone into hiding, waiting for the right moment to emerge back into the industry spotlight. Beginning three years ago, a development team (with Mechner providing early input) went to work on a secret project, and now our Persian hero is nearly ready to reclaim his thrown…and his Princess.

Lees hier de rest.

Ikzelf vind dit spel niet zo interessant maar voor de liefhebber hebben ze op Auvault een preview geplaatst van SWAT 3.

Hier zijn een paar features van het spel:

18 diverse single player missions with unique domestic conditions and random enemy placement.

New SWAT engine delivers dynamic lighting, reflective surfaces, skeletal animation and photo textures.

Interface permits real-time control of your team from the first-person perspective.

Animation based on motion capture data from real LAPD SWAT officers.

Authentic SWAT weapons, armor, utilities and tactics are at your disposal.

Team behavior toggle allows players to use stealth or force at their discretion.

AI teammates that understand the surrounding environment and provide cover for each other.

Ability to detain your foes rather than killing them all adds a new dimension to the gameplay.

kijk hier voor de rest.

Over bij Full On 3D hebben ze een kort interview gehad met Bitboys, de mensen achter de Glaze3D video accelerator. Dit werd er gezegd:

1. Do you have any Glaze3D chips working in house yet, or are you using simulators only?

We are using very exact hardware simulators.

2. Do you plan to produce and sell boards for the Glaze3D chip, or do you plan to have 3rd parties handle that?

3rd parties will handle the boards.

3. Will you be outsourcing production of the Glaze3D chips to an external fab?

No, Infineon Technologies EDRAM process is not available anywhere else.

4. Do you plan to optimize your drivers for AMD's 3DNow! and/or Intel's SSE? If so, do you expect to have optimized drivers available when you ship your first Glaze3D 1200?

Yes, we will have optimized drivers when the product ships.

5. What is your confidence level on having a shipping product by March of next year?

Very high.

Ik lees op Voodoo Extreme dat Asus verse Windows 2000 drivers heeft voor haar TNT2 kaarten. Je kunt ze hier naar beneden laden.

AMD gaat verchillende versies van haar Athlon processor op de markt brengen. Er komt o.a. een High Performance Desktop versie, die de Athlon Professional zal gaan heten (eerst K7). Er zal ook een lower-priced versie en een Athlon Ultra versie van de Athlon worden uitgebracht. Check dit bericht op ZDNET.

Advanced Micro Device Inc. is planning a family. The company on Monday will make public plans for a family of several new Athlon brand names, including a high-performance desktop brand and enterprise and consumer Athlon versions, sources close to the Sunnyvale, Calif., chip maker confirmed today.

Can new Athlons take on Intel? Add your comments to the bottom of this page.

The Athlon will be branded first as a high-performance desktop chip. The processor, formerly known as K7, will be called Athlon Professional. Athlon Professional will grace high-performance desktop PCs from companies such as Gateway Inc., sources said.

Later, the Athlon Ultra brand name will debut for servers and workstations.