Asus heeft een zooitje BIOS en driver updates voor z'n videokaarten en moederplanken gepost. Betanews serveert de soep:

The guys over at Asus send word of a bunch of new updates. Included are some final and beta BIOS releases for motherboards, and new drivers for the V3400/V3800 based on the nVidia DETONATOR v2.25 drivers. Check them out:

Download Unified V3400 / V3800 Drivers v2.25 Beta 2 for Windows 95/98
Download Unified V3400 / V3800 Drivers v2.25 Beta 2 for Windows NT 4.0
Download P5A-B(N) 1007.A BIOS
Download P5A-B 1007.A BIOS
Download P2E - 1009-05 Beta BIOS
Download MEL - 1009-05 Beta BIOS
Download P2L - 1009-05 Beta BIOS

The Register heeft heftige info over de de nieuwe generatie 21364 Alpha's. Over een release date wordt niet gesproken, maar als onderstaande specs waar zijn dan is dit zeker een indrukwekkend procje:

Sources said that Compaq and API are readying a 1.6GHz Alpha 21364 which will include a version of SIMD 3D instructions and support for Rambus without the latency penalties that seem to dog the x.86 platform.

According to the reliable report, a 1.6 GHz 21364 using the EV7 platform, is likely to belt out 6.4 single precision Gflops. If true, that will beat Merced hands down in ultraparallel single precision floating point.

There are eight 16-bit Rambus channels that make up the 128 bits.

Such a beast would not run Windows but instead a version of real time Tru64 using current OpenGL for the platform.

The processor will have a 128-bit 800MHz Rambus channels, and according to the report, will load an entire 128-bit cache depth at the first transfer. That compares with Intel's i820 chipset which with one 16-bit Rambus channel needs four transfers to fill the first 64-bit cache word.

According to the source, the 21364 integrates CPU, level two cache, direct memory controller and a transputer-class multiprocessing connection of each processor to four others at 10 Gbytes/s interprocessor bandwidth, in addition to cache and memory bandwidth, plus a dedicated 3.2 Gbyte/s IO bandwidth per CPU on one processor.

Volgens The Register zal het huidige tekort (en daarmee gepaard gaande hoge prijzen) van TFT schermen aanouden tot 2001, wat langer is dan eerdere verwachtingen:

The Great TFT Shortage will last until the beginning of 2001, according to a poll of Taiwanese manufacturers. They say previous forecasts (that the shortage would be over by Q2 next year) were too optimistic.

Cash-strapped Korean vendors have turned out to be the fly in the ointment for the forecasters. Now they have some money, but they still have to wait in line for semiconductor equipment manufacturerers to supply them with steppers, which are needed for the first stage of the TFT LCD FPD shortage, according to the Commercial Times, of Taiwan.

The Register heeft een artikeltje gepost over het dwaze idee van Bill om een op de x86 architectuur gebaseerde Windows CE speldoos te bouwen:

The source also implied that the machine is aimed at PC vendors who want to break into the console market.

How many of them will want to do so remains to be seen. Central to the X-Box's success will be compatibility with shipping PC titles. Given the machine's basis on the x86 platform and its use of a major graphics platform -- the GeForce 256 will have been shipping in volume long before X-Boxes do -- Microsoft could ensure compatibility simply by building in a WinCE version of Direct X.

[...] Given that X-Box, if it does indeed ship in an Autumn 2000 timeframe, will be right up against the PlayStation II -- a very well established brand -- a possibly established Dreamcast and maybe Nintendo's Dolphin project, it's going to need all the help it can get to get off the ground.

Big name PC vendor support would be help indeed, and it's not hard to imagine Dell, Gateway, et al thinking that X-Box might well be a way into the console biz.

[...] From what we know so far, X-Box is simply a stripped down PC lacking most of the ancillary chips that make consoles much better games machines than PCs at even a nearish price. Like Apple's ill-fated Pippin -- a stripped down Mac lacking most of the ancillary chips that... -- we suspect X-Box may not be much of a runner.

Volgens The Register zal AMD volgende maand op het Microprocessor Forum z'n plannen met de 64-bits K8 bekend maken. Het wordt als maar leuker in processor land:

Fresh from the successful hype of its K7 (Athlon) family, we are now told that AMD will talk about its 64-bit followup at next month's Microprocessor Forum.

AMD has put a damper on its talks with The Register after we successfully flew to Dresden and back, so the clone chip firm refuses to either confirm or deny such a chip is on the cards.

It seems the pressure is now on Intel, and AMD wants to use its advantage to presage the next generation of processors, with the help of top ex-Alpha engineer Dirk Meyer, to really give Chipzilla something to think about.

The move from 32-bit Athlon K7 to a 64-bit K8 (Octathlon?) chip is trivial, we are led to understand, from sources close to the company's plans.

System Logic heeft een artikeltje in elkaar gebrouwseld, waarin ze stilstaan bij de laatste dagen van de inmiddels in terminaal stadium verkerende floppy drive:

In this one consumer's opinion, as far as small files, no I don't think it's dead, but it's in critical condition. But when it comes to large multimedia, yes it's dead in my opinion. 3.5" Floppy Drives are less expensive than Removable Media, but you won't be able to store as many files on a regular floppy disk as you would a Zip disk, or a SuperDisk. And if I had to go with either a Zip Disk or a SuperDisk, I would choose the SuperDisk due to the fact that you can use both the 120 MB SuperDisk's and the regular 3.5" 1.44MB Floppy Disk. In today's fast paced, graphically enhanced world, the 3.5" Floppy Drive is not completely dead, but overall, it's not far from becoming obsolete technology.

IMO zal de floppy drive voortleven totdat er een wijdverspreidt alternatief beschikbaar is, op dit moment is dat nog niet het geval.

Updeetje van Sander / 3DNews.net, die nu ergens op de ECTS beurs in Londen rond loopt te wandelen:

So, we actually managed to find one GeForce 256 at the Creative booth. Pretty impressive stuff! It did crash a lot, but it was running beta hardware on a beta board with beta drivers - what do you expect? But, it looks like a winner. The techdemo was really impressive.

On the software side of things there was some action over at the JoWood booth with some new games that actually looked very nice - Traffic Giants and Alien Nations.

Well, there were a few other gems out there but I guess you'll have to wait for the previews

Privacy organisaties verwerpen Bill's verklaring over de aanwezigheid van de NSA 'backup' key in Microsoft's Cryptographic API (MS-CAPI - check deze nieuwsposting voor het geval je het verhaaltje niet kent - in het kort komt het erop neer dat Microsoft voor de US National Security Agency een achterdeurtje in de beveiliging van MS-CAPI zouden hebben ingebouwd). Techweb heeft er een nieuwsbericht over:

But director of the London-based Foundation for Information Policy Research ( FIPR ), Caspar Bowden said: "Building in a 'back up' key makes no sense unless there is a revocation method for the primary (key). There is no revocation method."

Microsoft said the back-up key was there should the original ever be lost due to a natural disaster. The company also acknowledged the name of the key was "unfortunate".

"I don't believe them -- what kind of natural disaster are they talking about? A meteor destroying all the earth's structures?" said Privacy International director general, Simon Davies."Microsoft's argument is inconsistent with its operating procedure -- it could hold a single key in multiple locations, that is a standard security procedure." He added that to compromise user security, "it's not necessary to share access with the NSA -- simply complying with their requirements will do that."

Dit komt ook van de ECTS Beurs in Londen af: de eerste screenshots van C&C Renegade. Dit is / wordt een 3rd person shooter in de C&C wereld. De plaatjes zijn in 1280 x 1024, check ze bij GamesZone.

Alive! heeft een artikeltje in elkaar gedraaid met speculaties over de Soundblaster Live! Platinum (opvolger van de SBLive!):

What is possible though is a small revision of the EMU10K1 to improve certain characteristics of the DSP, for example, better DAC conversion for higher sound quality, and other enhancements which doesn't radically change the architecture of the chip (and require a re-write of the drivers).

Personally, I don't see that happening because there is plenty of untapped power in the EMU10K1 and product life cycles for sound cards are typically much longer than 3D graphic cards, which now are moving at a crazy pace of 6 months! Think about how long Creative milked the SB16 and EMU8000! (Sound Blaster AWE32, Sound Blaster 32, Sound Blaster AWE64 Gold, and all the Value editions of each product line.) 3 or so years for the EMU8000 products if I remember correctly!

Het volledige verhaaltje vind je hier.

Ook bij Hardwareinfo.net, een artikel over het overklokken van je Celeron 366 naar 550MHz. Er zijn nogal veel verschillende resultaten behaald namelijk, de ene doet het zonder problemen en de andere krijg je met geen mogelijkheid op 550MHz. Koen legt uit:

Tussen de vele reacties die binnen zijn gekomen op ons Celeron 550 MHz project artikel zaten een groot aantal emailtjes van mensen die zeiden dat hun nieuwere Celeron 366 geen extra speciale koeling nodig had om op 550 MHz te functioneren. Andere mailden weer dat hun (oudere) Celeron 366 zelfs met flinke voltage-tweaking nog niet op 550 MHz zijn werk wou doen. Tijd dus om hier nog eens kort wat aandacht aan te besteden.

Het blijkt dat de ene lichting CPU's veel beter geschikt is voor overklokken dan de ander. De Celeron 366 processor die voor het eerde genoemde artikel gebruikt was kwam uit week 16. Bij deze CPU was extra koeling (bijv. onze mega-cooler) absoluut onontbeerlijk om stabiel op 550 MHz te kunnen functioneren. Uit de vele emails bleek echter dat de Celerons van week 20 of later al een stuk makkelijker op 550 MHz te krijgen waren. Dit alles is natuurlijk makkelijk te verklaren: Intel heeft namelijk maar één productielijn voor Celeron processoren: de beste worden eruit gezocht en krijgen het stempeltje 500 MHz. De een na beste 466 MHz, etc. Aangezien na week 20 het productieproces is geoptimaliseerd voor de nieuwe Celeron 500 MHz processoren, zullen er vanaf dan hoogwaardige stukken silicium van de lopende band afrollen. De CPU's die het stempeltje 366 krijgen zullen dus ook van zeer hoge kwaliteit zijn.

Koen van Hardwareinfo.net heeft een review op zijn site geparkeerd van de Elsa Erazor III TNT2 kaart. Helaas is dit beestje toch wel wat langzamer dan de gemiddelde TNT2, en van de overklokbaarheid word je ook niet vrolijk

Qua hardware is de ELSA Erazor III helaas een van de mindere TNT2 kaarten die we bij Hardwareinfo.net hebben ontvangen. Het ondergeklokt verkopen van een TNT2 kaart vindt ik niet echt blijk geven van een groot vertrouwen in het eigen product en de verder besproken zaken zijn ook niet allemaal 100% optimaal. De speciale video-versie van de Erazor III heeft echter wel op hardware gebied enkele leuke extra's te bieden.

Op het gebied van snelheid is de Erazor III als gevolg hiervan ook niet de beste. De scores van de kaart liggen overal net onder die van de concurrentie op de TNT2 markt.

De grote troef van ELSA is de goede softwarebundel. Need for speed 3 is een zeer goed spel en ook de Corel DRAW! set is een zeer mooie bundeling. Ook het bijleveren van de vele 3D demo's is lovenswaardig. Personen die in deze software bundel geïnteresseerd zijn kan de Erazor III aanraden. Anderen kunnen wellicht toch beter uitwijken naar een andere TNT2 videokaart.

Wellicht een andere pluspuntje voor de ELSA TNT2 kaart is de mogelijke uitbreiding met de 3D Revelator 3D-bril. Een test hiervan kun je binnenkort ook verwachten op Hardwareinfo.net!

Cool! Als je een beetje de GeForce 256 hype hebt gevolgd dan heb je vast wat shots gezien van die "Tree Demo". Nou deze demo kun je nu downloaden! Ja hij weegt maar 1.7MB, dus dat is wel te doen met je 14K4 dacht ik zo.

3DNews.net heeft trouwens een screenshot van de demo, en met zijn TNT2 Ultra @ 185MHz trekt hij er nog 41fps uit.

Het volk van 3D Rage heeft een review gepost van de Cambridge Soundworks FPS2000 speakers. Lees het hier.

Now I’ve heard quite a few different PC speaker setups over the years of building custom systems and to be honest there have been very few that I found overly impressive. But one thing I can say about the FPS2000 setup is that you wont be disappointed. The sub-woofer alone has some of the deepest and richest bass I’ve heard. I quickly found myself having to ease back on the bass so that it wasn’t drowning everything out. This quickly became apparent after firing up Dungeon Keeper 2 and the narrators voice was simply drowning everything out (for those of you who haven’t tried it he has this deep Vincent Price kind of sound) or when I would kick on the afterburners in Descent Freespace and it literally started vibrating things off my desk. A huge improvement over the original speaker set. The 4 satellite speakers are no slouch either offering a crisp clear sound even at higher volumes regardless whether you are using the Digital or analog setup. Only when I cranked them up to unhealthy level did they start showing any sign of distortion. What was interesting was that while playing at my normal volume levels that sounds seemed clearer in general. After spending a lot of time playing Tribes I really started appreciating that extra bit of sharpness in sound. Of course these really shine when playing something that fully supports the positional sound that your card uses (i.e. EAX, A3D).

Op de ECTS in Londen heeft Blizzard Warcraft III aangekondigd. Bij Sharky Extreme kun je vast een verslag lezen van de press conference. Hier is een gedeelte:

While the game is a sequel to Warcraft II, at the press conference announcing it Blizzard was not totally comfortable with labelling it as a sequel and even mentioned that they considered calling it something else. The reason behind this is that while the game is a continuation of the Warcraft story, it is not a continuation of the gameplay style, which is now admittedly becoming slightly tired. Gone is the system of spending most of your time building up a base and an army that Blizzard helped pioneer. Instead, gamers will spend only a small amount of their time in the base, none of which will be spent creating new buildings. Instead you will start with a base that is only used to prepare your troops for battle. One Blizzard representative mentioned that in the previous Warcrafts around 70 % of the players time was spent working on their town. In Warcraft III they hope to bring this down to a mere 30%, allowing the player to get into the main action a lot faster and a lot more often.

In Warcraft III, Blizzard also hopes to add a dash of role-playing to the Warcraft recipe to further remove the game from its original strategy roots. In fact, they hope to create a new genre that they've named RPS - Role-Playing Strategy. The game will include quests to find resources and special items, heroes will lead units and so on and the game setting will be much more dynamic than in the earlier games, with NPCs, neutral towns to visit, special locations and the occasional wandering monster. The strategy element will also involve control of smaller units rather than the huge sprawling forces found in Warcraft and Starcraft.

Sharky heeft op de Seybold Expo even kennis mogen maken met Apple's PowerMac G4. Vanzelfsprekend staat er nu een preview van dit ding op zijn site, m.a.w. hij loopt even langs de spec sheets van deze PowerMac. Check de info hier.

This is where Apple failed to provide good details and we had to do a bit of digging. After talking to five or so Apple employees, we got the scoop. The PowerMac G4s have a 100-MHz system bus supporting up to 400MBps data throughput on the lower end motherboard and up to 800-MBps data throughput on the higher end motherboard. We were immediately curious as to how the high-end motherboards could have faster memory busses when both models used PC100 SDRAM and 100MHz busses. It turns out, the higher end motherboards have a new memory controller that is much more efficient. According to Apple's specifications, twice as efficient. One example of efficiency given was that, with the older memory controller, if information was requested from memory and it was not immediately available, the CPU would have to wait until that initial piece was available before any other memory requests could be fulfilled. With the new design, other requests will be fulfilled even when the first request has to wait to be completed, so the CPU will spend less time waiting.

Currently, 100MHz busses on PCs have a theoretical maximum throughput of 800MBps. We have to wonder whether Apple has, up until this point, been using a sub par memory controller with their G3s, or whether the PC memory busses are not really as fast as they claim. Either way, the point may be moot because 133MHz PC memory busses are right around the corner. Part Five of our Memory Guide sheds a lot of light on memory performance and is worth reading if you want to know more.

Anand is weer druk bezig geweest en heeft een asociaal grote CPU Comparison in elkaar gezet... als je 42 lange pagina's lang vindt tenminste Het hele artikel staat in ieder geval stijf van de benchmarks, en AnandTech trekt weer de conclusies voor je. Anyway, begin hier met lezen, je bent wel even bezig...

There are obviously quite a few desktop x86 CPUs that have been released over the past 2 years, and a comprehensive comparison of all of them would take much longer to perform and would be even more complex than the comparison you're about to read. The processors that did make it into the comparison were all desktop Intel processors clocked at 300MHz or greater (excluding the Celeron 300A which has since dried up in supply) and all desktop AMD processors clocked at 300MHz or greater (excluding the K6-300, only K6-2 and above processors were included).

There is one glaring absence from the comparison which would be all contributions from Cyrix over the past 2 years, and unfortunately due to the relative lack thereof Cyrix has been excluded from the comparison. With VIA's recent acquisition of Cyrix, we can expect to see quite a bit more productivity out of the company that once dominated the Winstone scores with their 6x86 line of processors.

Volgens ActiveWin zal DirectX7 komende vrijdag gereleased worden:

We have been sent a note that the official release date for DirectX 7 is Friday, September 10th so not long for you all to wait now. [break] Gamespot beweert echter dat de release date van DX7 naar eind deze maand verschoven is: [/break] The seemingly endless saga concerning Microsoft's DirectX 7.0 debut will unfortunately not be resolved at this year's ECTS show, but Microsoft sources promise that the latest version of its popular application protocol interface (API) should be ready by late September.

Andy van BXBoards heeft een review van de Elitegroup P6BXT-A+ Rev1.3b (wat een prettige naam toch maar weer...) in elkaar geschroefd. Het leuke aan deze moederplank is dat er zowel een PPGA socket als een slot1 op zit. Met de komst van de socket370 riser cards is deze feature eigenlijk een beetje overbodig geworden, maar het ziet er in ieder geval grappig uit . Met revisie 1.3b kan er nu ook aan het voltage getweakt worden:

Unlike first revision of the P6BXT-A+, voltage tweaking is supported right out of the BIOS. This is the best voltage adjustment I have seen in ANY board to date, mainly because you can select from 1.5v right up to 3.5v. Elitegroup give you the responsibility to throw some serious voltage at your CPU, and this will appeal to the "Dr Frankensteins" who cry "More Voltage!" in the quest for more Mhz.

CPU setup is a combination of jumper and BIOS. Bus speed is selected in the BIOS, but the board must be jumpered to 100Mhz operation if overclocking 66Mhz CPUs. When the board is jumpered to 100Mhz, 100Mhz, 103, 112 and 133 are available for selection. When jumpered to 66Mhz (or Auto) then 66, 75 and 83 Mhz can be used.The clock generator used by Elitegroup is definitely getting long in the tooth - no support for speeds between 83 and 100Mhz, no 124Mhz or anything over 133Mhz either. Perhaps we'll need to wait for another revision before Elitegroup look at this again?

BXBoards heeft een review gepost van de Elsa 3D Revelator. Als ik dit zo lees dan blijken die glazen inderdaad te helpen:

When using the glasses, I noticed that the games looked really cool. There was a true perception of depth! Racing games seemed to work very well (which are also my favorite!) For example, in NFS 3, racing with the other cars made me have more of a "feel" for the track, thus making me a little more tuned to driving. A somewhat scary incident happened to me when I turned around on the track. I saw the other cars racing towards me, and I jumped because I thought they were going to get me.

UUNet en ICG Satellite Services gaan een satelliet in de lucht hangen die tegen een snelheid van 155,5Mbit/sec een intercontinentale verbinding kan onderhouden. Hier heb je de info uit een deze newsposting van AGN Hardware:

UUNet and ICG Satellite Services have teamed up to launch the world's first commercial satellite-fed OC-3 service. OC-3 connections operate at around 155.5 megabits per second (Mbps) simplex, which means that UUNet will be able to provide wideband Internet feeds across the Intelsat 605, 801 and 805 satellites from its New Jersey teleport. Nancy Price, a spokesperson for ICG, told Newsbytes that test transmissions on the satellite-fed OC-3 service have already taken place between the US and South America.

The full service, she said, will allow UUNet to offer wideband connections into the US Internet backbone from both South America and Europe. The satellite connection has an outbound (i.e. from the US) transmission rate of 155.5 Mbps with an option of 1 to 45 Mbps for the return service. UUNet says that the main reason for developing the new service was to maximize, to the greatest extent, both the amount of data rate per unit of satellite space segment and also the effective Internet throughput of the service. In tests, ICG says it achieved a 98.5 percent throughput on the asymmetric serve, and a full 155.5 Mbps transmission within 72 megahertz (MHz) of satellite space.

Jongsoo Kim, ICG Satellite Service's engineer manager, said that these levels of throughput are an achievement that is currently unmatched by any other operational satellite asymmetric design.

The result, he said, will be an extremely efficient service that significantly reduces ICG customers' international circuit costs. UUNet says that, because its Holmdel teleport satellite earth station in New Jersey is incorporated in the North American Internet backbone at OC-12 speeds, the ICG satellite connection will offer European and South American customers access to the US Internet backbone at the fastest possible speeds.

Microsoft heeft een reaktie geplaatst op een NSA-security backdoor verhaaltje van Cryptonym (die deze nieuwsposting). Als we Microsoft moeten geloven dan is er allemaal niets aan de hand en is de NSA key gewoon wat ongelukkig genaamde backup key:

Q: Why are there two keys? A: There is a primary and a backup key.

Q: Why is a backup key needed? A: The backup key is needed for disaster recovery. To see why, suppose we had only one signing key. If a natural disaster destroyed the building in which it were kept, all of the previously-signed CSPs would continue to function normally, because the key used for verification exists in every copy of Windows. However, Microsoft would need to sign future CSPs using a new key. In order for these CSPs to be verified, matching key material would need to be provided to all of the millions of customers using Windows 95, 98 and Windows NT. Clearly, this would be a massive undertaking.

This is why there are two keys. If something befell the primary key, Microsoft could thereafter sign CSPs using the backup key. Because the backup is already in every copy of Windows, there would be no disruption to customers.

Q: Why the backup key labeled "NSA key"?

A: This is simply an unfortunate name. The NSA performs the technical review for all US cryptographic export requests. The keys in question are the ones that allow us to ensure compliance with the NSA's technical review. Therefore, they came to known within Microsoft as "the NSA keys", and this name was included in the symbol information for one of the keys. However, Microsoft holds these keys and does not share them with anyone, including the NSA.

The Tech Zone heeft een review gepost van de Xitel Storm Platinum, een op een Aureal Vortex II gebaseerde geluidskaart met quad speaker support en S/PDIF uitgang. Hier een stukje over de bijgeleverde force feedback koptelefoon:

I found this headset very enjoyable with games like Quake, Half-Life and Unreal, but also with driving games like Sega Rally 2, Toca 2 and Need For Speed High Stakes. The rumbling of the engine and the shockwave from exploding rockets brings you to a different level of gaming. I find playing with good headphones (instead of using speakers) makes me more aware of my surroundings in a game and is perfect for first person shooter games. That is not to say this headset will make you a better Quake 3 Test player, but the LAN party guys at the Tech Zone may think otherwise. The headset can be purchased separately from the soundcard but buying the Storm Platinum Gamers Pack is the best value for the buck. The Storm Platinum Soundcard sells separately for $79.00 US so the extra $20.00 for the headset is a wicked deal.

Sander Pilon (Nederlander ) van 3DNews.net heeft een korte posting geplaatst met zijn eerste impressies van de ECTS beurs in Londen:

I spent most of the day cruising over ECTS 99. Definitely a nice show, but definitely missing a few big names that belong here. (Psygnosis, Virgin/EA, Square, etc)

Console games are in the majority this year, a lot of playstation and nintendo games. In the PC corner a few very promising titles were shown.

Stupid Invaders

Stupid Invaders is an 3D adventure game with loads of good jokes in it. It actually reminded us a bit of Day of the Tentacle. (Which is good) A more in-depth preview will go online in the next few days, but for those of you that can't wait - go here: www.stupid-invaders.com

The longest journey

As you might have read in the various previews around the web, this adventure game is going to kick ass. We actually managed to score a beta version of this game, so it looks like we have yet another game to preview for you next week. Again, for those of you that can't wait: www.longestjourney.com

There weren't that many new FPS games, but Half-Life fans can look forward to two really great Half-Life based games. TF2, which looked superb, and Half-Life: Opposing Force, and that one actually seems to be a lot of fun. What we saw of it certainly didn't dissapoint us. More about that game hopefully tomorrow. Also a note worth mentioning would be two new Rage games - Hostile Waters and Incoming: Forces. Booth looked very smooth, and we hope to sit down and chat with Rage sometime tomorrow.

Hardware vendors are really dissapointing us here. 3Dfx is only showing Voodoo3 cards, and as far as we could see there were no GeForce cards present at the nVidia or Creative booths either. But, we'll double check for you tomorrow. Other hardware companies like Matrox, 3DLabs and Logitech dont seem too interested in showing off their products, and are probably just here to 'network' with developers.