Bij Strategic Gaming Online hebben ze een vrij grote interview gepost met Robin Walker van Valve Software over hun Team Fortress 2. Hier heb je 1 vraag, check het interview voor meer info!

I've seen interviews/previews that discuss the strategic map handling, but they typically have covered it as an aside from the gameplay - but I'd like to go into more detail. How is this scripted? Is the structure linear - i.e. the "game" advances either forward or backward along a single "line" of maps? Or can it be a tree of alternatives?

ROBIN WALKER: The map handling is done through a scripting language that hooks into the events passed to it by the server. It has the ability to note down any events, with any parameters it wants, and recall them later. So if the map wanted to know who destroyed a part of an installation, and at what time and with what weapon, it could note it down, and recall it further along in the campaign.

Our current campaigns are all linear, but the map scripting is perfectly capable of a branching structure. We stick with linear because our campaigns are designed to be played over the net with any mix of veterans and beginners, which restricts the complexity of our design a bit. The great thing about the scripting language is that it's external to the map, allowing you to alter the map's behavior without recompiling the map. You could take the maps from a couple of our linear campaigns and, within a few minutes, create a simple branching campaign out of them.

GA-Source heeft een vrij interessant artikel online gezet over de GeForce 256, en of hij eigenlijk wel de moeite waard zal zijn. Er schijnen namelijk nogal wat hitte problemen te zijn, en op korte termijn zullen er maar weinig games uitkomen die de nieuwe mogelijkheden van de GeForce benutten. Hier heb je vast een gedeelte uit het artikel:

Memory - Currently, and to my best knowledge, the card manufactures will be releasing their first GeForce 256 cards with 32MBs only. Creative, Guillemot and ELSA (I have not checked with the others) will not be providing an upgrade option to 64MB. If I am not wrong, or this doesn't change before the release later this month to late October (for ELSA - read my report), then purchasing the 32MB version seems like a waste of money to me, and I suggest waiting for the 64MB version, which according to all the card manufactures will really result in providing the chips full powers. Notice how none of the card manufactures (even Leadtek) have announced a price for the 64MB version. I truly believe, and based on my discussions with a few of them, that the first cards released will be 32MB only with no upgrade option (in hardware, like the Matrox G200 had last year).

Heating and Compatibility Issues - Creative Labs had a nice booth at ECTS. Bill Havlicek, Technology Evangelist Developer Relations at Creative (who by the way was incredibly helpful) was in the booth showing off a GeForce 256 reference card running on what I believe was an AMD K7 system. The system over heated every few min, crashed and a cold boot was needed. I can not quote anyone here, but I will say that I spoke to a few developers and card manufactures, which all said that the chip currently has some serious over-heating problems. Yes, I do believe that all the companies involved "are doing their best to solve this issue", but until I am shown differently, currently the GeForce 256 has major heating problems.

As mentioned in my report on ELSA's Erazor X card, they are releasing the card a month later, due to the fact that they are changing the card's design to solve some of the current compatibility and heat issues which are found on NVIDIA's reference design.

Do you self a favour, and even if you are eager to get your hands on the first cards released later this month, wait for some reviews. Make sure you read the reviews which address this issue.

Bij Cool Info hebben ze een kleine review gepost van de Matrox Millennium G400 met 32MB. Hier heb je wat info over de Dual Head Feature van de kaart, de rest kun je hier vinden.

The venerable TV-Out: plug a cable into the back of your video card and play games, watch movies, or whatever else you feel like doing on a television. Some people simply can't live without it -- which doesn't come as a surprise. For those who fall into that category, Matrox has taken the concept one step further with DualHead Display. Instead of using a video port, the G400 has not one, but two monitor jacks, which means that a TV, through an included adapter, or even a second monitor can be connected.

Of course, not everyone knows why having a second monitor can be beneficial. Let me explain:

Have you ever been editing an image and been forced to zoom in on an object, then zoom back out to make sure nothing appears out of place? It's a cumbersome process that no one wants to have to go through. If you're into image design, Dual Head display takes on an almost ethereal quality -- especially for professionals. By having two monitors hooked up to the G400, you can, essentially, see two different perspectives of an image. If a picture were being edited, a close up view, for touch ups, and a distant view, to make sure nothing was displaced, could be switched to and from with a touch of a button, allowing much more freedom to experiment, and a lot less hassle.

The advantages of Dual-Head display don't stop there, however. It also allows you to do two different tasks at once with relative ease. You can surf the 'net, and while the page is loading, switch over to the other monitor and work on an important document or play a game of Solitaire.

Dual Head Display is one of the most innovative and unique features I've seen implemented into a consumer-level retail product. To be honest, this is the only graphics card Cool Info has seen with a display of this type. In short, the Dual Head capabilities of the G400 alone make the card worth buying.

Misschien wel een handig proggie: NoAds hang je aan je browser en hij beschermt je vervolgens tegen die irritante banner pop-up screens. Versie 1.3 Beta 2.1 is net gereleased en kun je hier downloaden.

After only a few days, a new beta of NoAds 1.3 is appeared on the beta software page. NoAds is a Windows program that detects when Internet popup advertisements appear, and quickly closes them. A popup ad is an ad that appears in a new web browser window, and requires the user to manually close that window. NoAds is fully configurable, allowing the user to specify which ads they want to close automatically. The program is very easy to use, and stays running in the System Tray(next to the time) for quick access.

Het was al bekend dat Intel de prijzen weer omlaag gaat gooien, The Register brengt ons nu echter de exacte prijs details:

As revealed here earlier this week, Intel will cut desktop prices of its Pentium IIIs and Celerons in the run up to the introduction of the 533B and the 600B, which support a 133MHz FSB, on 27th of September.

We now have those price details, detailed below. Intel cut prices on several of these parts only one month ago, indicating an aggressive ramp up in the face of AMD competition.

These prices are for boxed parts and include heatsinks and fans. The Celeron 400 drops by $8 to $70, the 433MHz by $13 to $85, the Celeron 466MHz by $13 to $105, and the Celeron 500MHz by $13 to $160.

The Pentium III/450 and the Pentium III/500 prices remain at $185, and $254 respectively.

Meanwhile, the Pentium III/550 drops by $60 to $410, while the Pentium III/600 drops by $50 to $610.

The new Pentium III/533B will be introduced at $380, while the Pentium III/600B will cost $660. ®

Volgens The Register in dit nieuwsbericht kloppen de i820 en AGP 4X resultaten die Intel vorige week op het Developer Forum bekend maakte niet. Intel haalde de tests uit een zelf gebrouwen proggie (het bekende verhaal) maar volgens dit artikel van InQuest zit er totaal geen logica in:

Performance tests on Rambus and AGP 4X technology that Intel distributed at its Developer Forum last week, do not add up, a semiconductor analyst has claimed.

Bert McComas, at InQuest, said that he had tested the program, aimed at supporting Intel's i820 Camino chipset, and believed the benchmark was "ineffective and broken".

He said that the bandwidth test produces results "that defy reason and logic".

According to McComas, the benchmark is a marketing tool and the test "conveniently spits out results" comparing Rambus memory to PC-100 SDRAM memory.

He suggests that the Intel tool cannot be taken seriously.

Last week, we reported apparent discrepancies between BX and i820 chipsets. During the Developer Forum, Intel wheeled out the Seven Dramurai™ to give a much needed boost to Rambus, while at the same time it bowed to OEM pressure by supporting PC-133 and DDR memories for its platforms.

The Tech Zone heeft een vrij heftige review op zijn site gemikt van een P3-550 opgekrikt naar 682MHz. Ze hebben het systeem vervolgens grondig gebenchmarked onder Quake II en Unreal. Later gooien ze dan het tweede deel online en dan pas leggen ze uit hoe ze de P3-550 op 682MHz hebben gekregen. Je zult het nu dus even met wat benchmarks moeten doen:

Demo1.dm2: OK, can we say tiny yet bizarre performance hit? At 1600x1200 to 1152x864, we see a very small performance hit going to 32bit color. However, below those resolutions, I found I got higher frame rates with 32bit color. And NO, I did not screw up, but thank you for wondering so loudly. Heh. I personally think it is a product of these drivers, the nVidia 1.91 reference drivers. nVidia (sorry, I'm probably not up to the latest capitalization scheme for their name) did optimize their latest few driver revisions for 32bit color though, so we can expect that's where the little boost came from.

Demo2.dm2 shows roughly the same thing as demo1.dm2, with 1024x768 and below showing virtually no decrease in performance or even a slight increase going to 32bit color.

Massive1.dm2, which is slightly more CPU intensive than the former two, shows the 16bit benchmarks gaining a bit of ground. 32bit still makes a good showing though, only being off the 16bit by several frames.

Crusher.dm2 once again shows its awesome CPU pummeling power. Hammered by the huge number of computations necessary to keep rockets flying and people dying, the 16bit color benchmarks beat the 32bit at almost every step here.

Over bij CPU Review hebben ze een review geschreven van de Diamond Stealth III S540, een Savage4 Pro+ based videokaart met 32Mb RAM. Deze kaart is al vaak genoeg voorbij gekomen, dus ik zal meteen naar de conclusie springen:

If you don't need the blistering speed of a TNT2 Ultra, and are looking for a less expensive card that still performs well, you should consider the Diamond Stealth III S540. It gets good frame rates at resolutions up to 1024x768 and comes with a software DVD decoder.

The card overclocks nicely with the addition of a simple 486 fan (I hold it on with two rubber bands); and the overclocking can provide close to a 50% increase in speed at the higher resolutions / color depths.

What can I say about this card?

- Decent 3D performance at a decent price
- Reasonably overclocking-friendly
- Not the ideal Quake II card (decent up to 800x600)

What can be improved?

- The card should come with a fan
- Better drivers; I am convinced the chip is capable of more
- Working VSync control

If you want a killer video card (and money is no object) you are better of getting a TNT2 Ultra or wait for the next generation of cards; if you want a good, inexpensive board, you could do a lot worse than get a S540.

Bij CD-R Zone staat een review online van de Plextor UltraPlex Wide 40x Ultra SCSI Cd-Rom speler. Hier heb je een gedeelte, de rest staat hier.

I certainly must say that I am impressed with the results. Plextor remains the DAE king among CD-ROMs of all flavors. Read speeds are as advertised, a plus for any device. There are drives out there that are reaching 52X, but this drive represents the fastest of the SCSI interface drives. One thing to note that the CPU usage was relatively flat with a slow rise across the board. This is a pleasant feature of SCSI devices, as a majority of the work is handled by the SCSI controller. The Average Seek Time is a tad bit higher than advertised, but it is still very respectable.

Bij Hardware Extreme kwam ik deze update tegen over het overklokken van je P3-450 naar 600MHz. Dit haal ik van hun site:

Wow... I got around 400 mails yesterday asking almost the same questions. I will try to answer them all here. First, some of you can't get 600MHz. Let me clarify here that not all chips are same, in fact SL35Ds might atcually be from different batches and it is an OEM chip - not Retail ! Some of you have also mailed me on successes with the same chip - well, bravo ! ;D I have also recieved many many (extra) mails on where to get hold of these chips. Go to PowerUp Inc for them. I got mine from there

Also another update I'd like to make here is the different L2 cache chips that are on the processors. Some might have Toshiba -300 and SEC -4. Essentially they are - Toshiba, rated at 300MHz (600 1/2) and SEC, 4ns or also capable of 300MHz operation. I have a pic of two PIII 600s which I hope to post up having the same L2 cache as the ones above. Stay tuned.

Ook bij GameSpot: een review van de net uitgebrachte space strategy game, Homeworld. Hoewel de graphics er best strak uit zien zijn ze er bij GameSpot niet echt weg van; ze geven hem een 7.5. Hier is de link.

There's something missing though - and unfortunately for developer Relic, it's a very basic design concept that's at fault, which means that it isn't easily fixed in a sequel. Nope, it's just that there's something that doesn't work about setting a real-time strategy game in space, at least in terms of what people are working on at the moment.

You see, technological advancements in this line of gaming have brought the terrain to the forefront of strategy, where the high ground brings its advantages, and rugged landscapes offer strong natural defences. In space, not only can no one hear you scream but they can't appreciate your subtle defences either. Because you can't defend subtly. There are no limits to an incoming attack, no valleys to assist a trap and no forests to slow an advance. Space is, if we're to be brutally frank, so empty it's rubbish.

And that's what undoes Homeworld. Put it on the ground (and rewrite the surprisingly compelling story to compensate) and it may well be brilliant. Leave it where it is and it's difficult not to be critical. There are, of course, difficulties in setting a game within a 3D world in the first place, some of which are minimised by Homeworld's exemplary design. A top-down view is scrolled as a matter of course. Even Warzone 2100's 3D view is based on a landscape, so that you are merely looking at a flat surface from any number of different angles.

Bij Gamespot is een preview te vinden van Unreal Tournament. Damn ik hoop dat deze kick-ass game snel gereleased wordt! Hier is vast een gedeelte gepeest uit de preview:

UT is not just a bit of pancake slapped on Unreal. Most of the weapons are fundamentally the same as Unreal but they now have better models, better skins, much better sound effects and dole out the kind of damage you'd expect. There's also improved graphical effects and, from what we've seen from Quake III Arena so far, id could learn a thing or two about what Epic is doing. You really do have to see UT's ultimate weapon, The Redeemer, in action to believe it.

There are so many things I like about UT it's difficult to know where to begin. Firstly it has a proper Windows style GUI to control setting up games and so on - none of that messing around with badly implemented custom controls. Before each tournament we're given a summary of the level, the opposition we'll be facing and our own team mates if there are any. There's also a chance to quickly peek around the level in fly-cam mode before starting.

The movement is fast and fluent and it's worth leaving the 'dodge' double-tab manoeuvre turned on to get used to it. The bots start off very silly indeed so even the most inept of deathmatchers will be able to beat them off. There are three cups of Deathmatch, CTF and Assault to win. That means winning each level, if you don't win then the bots are a bit easier on the next attempt. Conversely, when you're winning the bots get harder. Being a die-hard deathmatch fiend, I completed the first leg without losing a game but the last games were very tough and rewarding.

En hier zijn ook wat wat coole screenies, check de preview voor meer!

De hardware afdeling van Voodo Extreme heeft een review online gezet van de Voodoo3 3500. Hier vast een gedeelte over de overklokbaarheid:

With absolutely no extra cooling beyond the standard Voodoo 3 massive heatsink, the 3500TV was easily overclockable by 9 extra Mhz. 192 seems to be the limit on the 3500TV without resulting to other forms of cooling. Every test ran perfectly at 192 but at 193 would be lucky to make it through a single run through the Q3 timedemo.. If you're one that doesn't mind a little more effort (and money) investing in cooling, the Voodoo 3 should be able to go much higher than even 192. One thing to notice though is the limited gain as a result of the overclocking. The difference between the 183 and 192Mhz core speed is only a 3% percent gain. Worth voiding your warranty? Probably not...

Andy van BXBoards heeft een Camino moederplank te pakken weten te krijgen. Vooruitlopend op de review heeft hij een aantal plaatjes met korte info over het bord op de BXBoards frontpage gezet:

On this model there is 100,105,114,120,124,128.5, 133.3, 138,143, 148,150,152,5, 155, and 160Mhz. Notice no support at all for speeds below 100Mhz

The Camino is designed to run at 133Mhz so rather than the convential 66/100 line (pin b21), you now get a 100/133 line. Thus to force your 100Mhz CPU to run on a 133Mhz bus, you can tape both pin b21 AND pin A14. You read it first at BXB

Note: Most boards will not require taping (this one doesn't!).

Check BXB voor meer info & pics.

Gamespot heeft een update gepost met een verslag van de Grand Prix 3 demonstratie op de ECTS beurs. Lijkt erop dat de gameplay weer errug goed gaat worden:

Like hundreds of visitors to this year's ECTS, there was just one game that we absolutely HAD to see. The Hasbro stand had much on display, but most of the excitement was centred on two replica Formula One car cockpits, each complete with steering wheel, loudspeakers and computer monitor. After bundling some lesser journalist from his seat, this visibly shaking journalist climbed in for his first GP3 experience.

Three laps around Monaco's glorious circuit were all that was needed to confirm that GP3 simply has to be the best Grand Prix game on any system. It sounds sad, I know, but as I climbed out of the cockpit I was almost in tears. I'd forgotten how much I was looking forward to this game.

There is still work to be done on the title, but graphically it's gorgeous. The handling was nigh on perfect (although it was set to assist around bends, which was a shame) and the computer drivers were harsh and daring. If, like over a million others, you've played and loved GP2, then you probably can't for the new 3D graphics and the all-important multi-player option.

Hasbro is still touting a December release date, but Crammond is too much of a perfectionist to hurry his work. We expect a spring release, or perhaps February to coincide with the start of the 2000 Formula One Grand Prix. At the thought of it, those tears are welling up again.

MacOS Rumors heeft wat info gepost over de iMac II, waarvan de release waarschijnlijk tijdens de Apple Expo France plaats zal vinden. Het machientje zal op 366MHz lopen, met een standaard 64Mb RAM:

All UMA-based iMacs will use the AGP graphics bus. It is possible that these will run it at 2X (133MHz), but given that we are expecting the iMac to continue to run a 66MHz main bus, it would seem reasonable (and would likely not adversely affect performance) to run it at 1X (66MHz) to be more synchronous with the main bus clock. There is some chance, however, that a low-end iMac model in a multiple-configuration lineup might use the existing Rev. D "C1" motherboard and PCI graphics.

According to reliable sources, it is likely that Apple will unveil a single C2 iMac model in the near term -- possibly as soon as next week's Apple Expo France -- and then announce multiple configurations later in the year, perhaps at an Apple Event in November to give the company time to settle into the new system before the Christmas buying season. This single iMac model would run at 366MHz, including Firewire and a standard 64MB of RAM, and continue to use the current price point of $1199 (although there is a small likelihood that this might be reduced to $1099). The multiple-configuration models, should they surface, would likely follow the pricing outlined in yesterday's edition.

Sharky Extreme heeft een verslag van de ECTS beurs op het net gezet. Naast veel games nieuws vind je in dit artikel ook wat vage hardware info:

NVidia also had a press event to show off the new geForce 256. The polygon pushing power of the card is undoubtedly impressive judging by the tree demo, and the cube environment mapping technology is already being used in some of their demos to impressive effect. 3dfx were also showing off their T-buffer technology. The full scene anti-aliasing is undoubtedly the most impressive aspect of this new technology, and it certainly looks like one of those things that you won't imagine how you managed without. However the war between these two 3d graphics giants is hardly over, especially as 3dfx has yet to reveal all the cards up its sleeve regarding its new graphics board. Will gamers go for the sheer power and cube environment mapping of the geForce, or the T-buffer and other unannounced features of the next 3dfx part? We'll have to wait and see.

Ik kwam bij Ace's Hardware deze FPU performance vergelijking van de Hitachi SH40-200 (chippie in de Sega Dreamcast) en Athlon-600 tegen:

So every four clockcycles, a transformation is done, and a vertice (line) is calculated. In other words, the SH4-4 can calculate 200 MHz / 4 = 50 Million vertices/s! The Athlon's 3DNow! can do 1 transformation every 14 cycles, or 600 MHz /14 = 42 Million vertices. As some vertices are shared between triangles (a polygon), I took two vertices per triangle. So now we can compare the maximum FPU power of the SH4 and the Athlon :

FPU Power	Hitachi SH4 200	Athlon 600 3DNow!
FPU peak	1.4 GFLOPS	2.4 GFLOPS
Max. Vertices /s	50 Million	42 Million
Max. triangles /s	25 Million	21 Million

Please note that the triangles are only transformed. If you want to compare with the geforce 256 (fully lit, clipped transformed triangles), you may divide the triangle rate by +/- 4. Well, the SH4 is slightly faster than an Athlon... Impressive! Until you combine a Geforce 256 with that Athlon of course...

Volgens The Register kan AMD met z'n high-end Irongate D4 serieuze concurrentie vormen voor de Intel 460GX Merced/Foster chipset:

Intel's AL460GX chipset may not match the power of AMD's Irongate D4 chipset, which will appear in motherboards in late Q1, next year.

Last week, Intel unveiled the Merced chipset at its Developer Forum in Palm Springs, but no details were given on whether its claim of 4.2Gb/s throughput on dual memory buses was for the total throughput, or referred to each bus, giving a total of 8.4GB/s.

Sources close to AMD's plans say that if the first case is true, then Intel's expensive chipset is "no better" than the Irongate D4 chipset announced at the Hot Chips conference last month.

Irongate D4 has dual 64-bit DDR SDRAM buses running at 266MHz each, giving a total throughput of two by 2.1Gb/s -- 4.2Gb/s.

The mainboards will be priced at around $1,000 and include dual 64-bit 66MHz PCI and AGP 4X. ®

...en dat hebben we gezien: prijzen van 128Meg DIMMetjes zijn binnen twee maand bijna verdriedubbeld! The Register heeft er een nieuwsberichtje over:

Time said demand was outstripping supply for DRAM memory, and warned: "This may be the first time many PC consumers notice the price of computers increasing."

The announcement came as world 64Mb DRAM prices today reached their highest ever levels. According to Asiabiztech.com, these chips were today selling at $12.75 per unit.

This compares to prices around the $5 mark in July.

[...] To explain the sudden memory price rises, D’Elia added: "There is a lot of uncertainty in the market at the moment – surrounding technology such as Rambus. The manufacturers are capitalising on that."

According to Time, 128Mb modules were priced today at $260. This is almost double 1 September’s price of $140.®

Pine Technology heeft een nieuw multi-functioneel MP3 playertje geïntroduceerd waarmee je ook CD's en FM radio kunt beluisteren. C|Net News.com brengt de info:

Dubbed the SM-200C, Pine's portable MP3 player allows users to listen to music stored on CDs--whether it originated on the Web, from a traditionally manufactured CD, or even FM radio. Since compact discs can hold up to 100 songs stored in the MP3 format, users can access to hours of music without being tethered to their computers, the company said.

In essence, the Pine is one of the first MP3 players to operate independent of the PC, because it can obtain music from sources other than the Web or a computer hard drive.

Unlike other portable MP3 players, however, it cannot store music, a potential drawback. Also, while existing MP3 players require users to download from the Internet, the vast majority of music stored in the format resides there, making the value of MP3's emancipation from the desktop somewhat dubious, observers say.

Het ding moet 299 dollar gaan kosten en is daarmee helaas wel behoorlijk heftig geprijst.

AnandTech heeft een review gepost van de welbekende Alpha cooler (in 3DfxCool jasje):

This cooler was quite impressive. To reach 600Mhz air-cooled on an average P3 is not bad at all. Will this cooler do this for everyone? No. There are many factors in achieving these kinds of results: quality of the CPU core, RAM, Motherboard, etc. The cooler retails for about $55 USD, which I think is worth it for those of you who have a cooler that couldn't blow out a candle. If you already have a quality cooler, like a GlobalWin or something of that nature, then this is not really worth the investment in my opinion.

3DGPU.com heeft wat meer info op hun site gedropt over Elsa's GeForce 256 kaart, de Erazor X. Elsa zal deze kaart dik een maand later releasen dan Creative en Guillemot, lees hier waarom:

Though ELSA did not have a booth at ECTS, while I was at Intel's booth checking out the PC version of Messiah, I happened to meet a representative of ELSA Germany, who was kind enough to answer a few of my questions and reveal new information about their upcoming GeForce 256 card, the Erazor X. As you might already know, Creative Labs and Guillemot will be releasing their GeForce 256 cards later this month. However, Elsa will not.

Elsa's Erazor X will ship late October/early November. The US price will be $299 and the German price will be 666 DM. The reason they are releasing their card a month later is due to the fact that they are changing the card's design to solve some of the current compatibility and heat issues which are found on NVIDIA's reference design (check out my GeForce report later today for more about these problems). The company representative went on to say that Creative and Guillemot are probably not addressing these issues, as if they would, they would not be able to release their cards so early. I will add, that Creative and Guillemot and probably addressing these issues at a different way, as I do have a hard time believing they will release the cards "as-is".

Elsa's design changes will include:

Core voltage will be decreased by 0.2 Volts.
5.5ns RAMS will be used.

Very much like all the other card manufactures, ELSA will release its first GeForce 256 card with 32MB only, and will include the following added-value features to the package:

Full support for the Revelator 3D Glasses. I also expect ELSA to release another package with some kind of bundle that includes the card and the glasses. Which by the way is a truly incredible product - read our review. At ECTS I played Messiah using the glasses, which truly was a remarkable gaming experience (David Perry of Shiny popped by to the Intel booth, and by the look of things, I believe that support for the glasses will be added officially to Messiah - stay tuned).

ELSA Smart Refresh/Resolution feature- changes to resolution, resolution color depth and refresh rates will be made without having to restart the computer. A new integrated gamma correction function will enable the user to adjust settings within any game via hotkey. Dark scenes will be conveniently adjusted at the press of a hotkey, eliminating the need to make changes to the monitor brightness.

Game Bundle - currently and not final, they expect to ship the card including Need For Speed 4. The company representative added that if they will find a better game that supports the GeForce 256, they will probably add it instead (As I mentioned, David Perry was very impressed with the Revelator 3D Glasses, and I would even go on to state that "maybe" Messiah will be the game bundled, though this is purely my own speculation based on what happened at ECTS - so please DO NOT take my word for it).

By the look of things, I suggest you keep your eyes and ears open on ELSA's Geforce 256 card. Looks to me as they are doing things the right way.

Hm, nu ben ik erg benieuwd hoe die Creative en Guillemot kaartjes zich zullen gedragen als die over enkele weken zullen uitkomen...

AnandTech heeft een mailtje ontvangen met wat meer info over de Intel i820 moederborden die Intel zelf zal gaan releasen. Dit is de soep:

The CC820 is called the Cape Cod, and will use PC100 NOT PC133 DIMMs... Other than that, it is essentially identical to the VC820 board. The i820 chipset does NOT support PC133 SDRAM, only PC100...

The Fairbanks board (FB820) is still in development. It's planned to be an NLX form factor board, and will use RAMBUS RIMMs, as well as onboard ATI Rage Pro graphics.

Release date (for Coppermine processors at 533, 600, and possibly 700 [667 or 733 also possible], Vancouver board, and Cape Cod board) is 27 Sep, '99. An 800Mhz chip should ship by mid-October.

Penstar Systems heeft een zeer uitgebreid artikel geschreven over 3dfx. In het artikel lees je o.a. hoe het bedrijf begonnen is met de Voodoo Graphics, tot en met hun aankomende next-gen card. Best interessant om eens te lezen. Hier heb je het gedeelte over 3dfx's volgende product:

3dfx looks to avenge the relative failure of the Voodoo 3 with their NGC. This chip will support every feature missing from the Voodoo 3 and then some. The inclusion of the T-buffer will also give a leg up by adding features at little to no penalty where the competition will have a significant penalty by trying to emulate. This part will be fully 4X AGP compliant with sidebands and DIME transfers (able to texture out of main memory, but that does not hold the importance it once had now that cards are being populated by 16 MB or more of memory). It will include the 24 bit Z-buffer with 8 bit Stencil-buffer and support up to 32 bit color depths. There will also be the possible inclusion of the M-buffer, whose use is not known but will have a smaller impact than the T-buffer (that came directly from engineers working on the project). It will support both S3TC/DxTN and YAB Narrow Channel compression (3dfx TC). It will be produced initially on the .22 micron process at speeds up to and over 200 Mhz. It will have two pixel pipelines, each of which can do multi-texturing. When you add these numbers up you can see that this part will have over 400 Mega-Pixels/sec and over 800 Mega-Texels/sec (compared to the GeForce 256 which can do 480 Mega-Pixels/sec and 480 Mega-Texels/sec). In multi-texturing, the NGC will be much faster in fillrate. There is also the option of adding a 3rd party geometry processor so that it will support onboard T&L (this part is rather sketchy and it is unknown if the NGC will actually feature this). There will also be support for larger textures, but again it is unknown what size (either 512 x 512 or 2K x 2K).