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Diamond stuffs 1GB onto ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT
With leading-edge graphics cards getting more and more dedicated RAM shoved onto their PCBs, it's only surprising that it has taken this long for a 1GB single GPU card to hit the market. Diamond Multimedia has just announced the launch of its Radeon HD 2900 XT 1GB, which packs a full gigabyte of GDDR4 memory, second-generation unified shader architecture, 512-bit memory interface, integrated CrossFire scalability, and built-in HDMI support. Moreover, it also includes ATI's Avivo display technology, dual-link DVI output, HDCP compliance, and DirectX 10 support. No word just yet on what kind of premium you'll be expected to pay for this momentary claim of superiority, but we'd wait for the benchmarks to see if it's even worth the extra coin.
HiPe intros K-Tana 2.0 gaming rig, two-in-one Daisho 2.0 Dual PC
HiPe PC is no stranger to the land of excessive power and unorthodox construction, and the firm's latest two gaming rigs are no exception to either. The K-Tana 2.0 can come stocked with your choice of an overclocked 3.2GHz Intel Core 2 Quad Extreme or dual liquid-cooled AMD Athlon FX-72 / FX-74 processors, an overclocked NVIDIA 8800 SLI graphics setup, 1,200-watt power supply, up to 8GB of DDR2 RAM, up to 4TB of HDD storage, acoustical dampening, colored neon lighting systems, and the ability to order up a customized paint scheme if the early 90s vibe isn't really workin' for you. The real head-scratcher is the Daish? 2.0 Dual PC (shown after the jump), which as the name implies, sports a duo of networked PCs within a single vertical chassis. The primary PC is a GeForce 8800-equipped gaming rig with up to 4GB of RAM and 4TB of HDD space, while the secondary computer is a "personal media center or server" powered by either VIA's Epia C7 or Intel's Merom processor. Additionally, the secondary unit is connected to a motorized touchscreen LCD and responds to your voice thanks to the included speech recognition software. Notably, both machines can be configured to include a Blu-ray writer, and while both systems manage to start around $2,600, the sky really is the limit when adding in luxurious extras.
Shuttle XPC goes 1337 with custom-painted SDXi gaming rig
Flame jobs on a PC most certainly aren't new, but we fear it's a fad that will always burn on in some regard, and its companies like Shuttle that keep on fanning it. While the rectangular-shaped box has made its way into a many of homes, gamers looking for some serious horsepower in a mobile rig can find a quite a potent system in the firm's forthcoming 1337 SDXi series desktops. While all the specifics aren't nailed down quite yet, the machine will boast an Intel X8600 or QX6700 quad-core processor, liquid-cooling system, unmistakable custom-paint job on the case, keyboard, and mouse, ATIs X1950 Pro CrossFire graphics cards, support for up to 8GB of DDR2 RAM, gigabit Ethernet, and a hint of that early 90s vibe to boot. Unfortunately, such a flashy rig sports an equally stunning pricetag, as these bad boys will be "starting" at $4,999 when they land later this month.[Thanks, Marshall W.]
HP IQ770 "Crossfire" 19-inch touchscreen Vista PC revealed!
Looks like AMD has a sweet new rig they're readying for January launch, and word on the street is Bill Gates wants to launch it personally. It's the IQ770 "Crossfire," the first mass market touchscreen desktop PC we've seen, surely good for taking advantage of Vista's integrated tablet functionality. The Vista Premium system, set to launch alongside Windows on January 30th, features a massive load of options including: 19-inch touchscreen, AMD Turion 64 X2 dual core TL-52 processor, 2GB SDRAM, 320GB drive, NVIDIA GeForce Go 7600, WiFi, Bluetooth, integrated 1.3 megapixel camera, integrated FM and ATSC HDTV tuners, a DVD±RW / DVD-RAM burner with LightScribe, Pocket Media Drive bay, wireless keyboard, mouse, stylus, front media reader, and a crazy amount of ports (Ethernet, two FireWire, six USB 2.0, one with HP printer power Y-cable connector, 5.1 + digital audio out, IR out, mini-VGA, and inputs: FM coax, TV coax, ATSC, and two S-Video). It also features some new widget-like dashboard interface, featuring HP new SmartCalendar, which serves as a central point for virtual fridge notes and shared family calendars; as well as Photosmart Touch, a new image editing and printing interface. Expect to pony up $1799 - $1899 for this iMac killer in a couple months. Tons more photos after the break!
BIH content, 9/28: big sweaty men edition
The Bringing It Home content train just keeps a' rollin'. Today we are blessed with another demo, Smackdown Vs. Raw 2007. The full list goes a little something like this:Tony Hawk's Project 8 trailerWheelman trailerFrontlines Fuel of War trailerX06 Game Montage videoCrossfire trailerWWE Smackdown Vs. Raw 2007Fable 2 theme (150 points)X06 theme (free)Also new today, Europe can finally download all Oblivion content packs (insert obligatory horse armor joke here). Oh, and we missed it last night, but there is now a Halo Wars theme (150 points) and picture pack (80 points) available.
ATI throws down Radeon X1950 series with GDDR4
Looks like ATI is still intent on making a name for itself while ATI's still ATI, busting out its most powerful graphics card yet, the Radeon X1950. Available in both XTX and CrossFire editions, the X1950 series are the first cards to pack GDDR4 memory technology (a full 512MB of it) clocking in at an impressive 2.0GHz, as well as an all-new fansink that should keep the card cool and keep your box from scaring the neighbors. Just make sure your power supply is up to snuff before forking over the $449 for one (or two) of these, cause you know any old off-shelf PC just ain't gonna cut it. Look for it to be available from all the usual sources September 13th, and shortly thereafter as an option from Dell and other OEM vendors.[Via Impress]
Core 2 Duo laptops to get SLI?
All ye Intel faithful, we come bearing (potentially) sterling news. According to DigiTimes' Taiwan notebook manufacturer sources, with the addition of Intel's Core 2 Duo mobile processor lineup also comes the addition of SLI support; yes, it could be that you'll no longer be shackled to faster, cheaper, cooler-performing AMD chips to get your double-barreled graphics adapter-equipped mobile gaming rig on. Supposedly they're building in support for NVIDIA SLI and CrossFire both, but don't be surprised if ATI gets the rug pulled out from underneath them at the last moment now that they've officially joined the AMD cadre. In fact, until support is officially confirmed don't be surprised if it just never happens at all.[Via Laptoping]
Voodoo goes Core 2 with Omen i:121 Extreme
With Alienware having just added Core 2 Duo options to its Area-51 7500 desktop, you didn't really think that rival Voodoo would be far behind, did you? The boutique gaming rig manufacturer has just announced its OMEN i:121 Extreme tower, which crams a 2.93GHz Core 2 Extreme X6800 processor into either a liquid- or air-cooled case designed to "operate at peak efficiency without draining excess power." Since video processing is even more important than CPU horsepower in a system like this, Voodoo is offering the new Omen with a number of graphics configurations, ranging from a single ATI Radeon X1900 or nVidia GeForce 7900GT setup all the way up to SLI or Crossfire dual-card powerhouses. You're also getting 2GB of RAM in the base configuration, along with a 7,200RPM 80GB hard drive and 16x dual-layer Pioneer DVD burner. As usual, pricing on these machines borders on the ridiculous, with SLI and Crossfire rigs starting at $4,400 and $6,000, respectively -- hey, no one said that being on the cutting edge of performance would come cheap.[Via TrustedReviews]
ATI teams with Havok for boundless gaming
ATI made some noise today with a pair of announcements regarding their new physics processing technologies. The 3D graphics leader is introducing the CrossFire X1900 multi-GPU solution, which gives gamers a choice of asymmetrical physics configurations -- what ATI has coined "boundless gaming". The setup requires either one or two graphics cards for rendering, and a separate card for physics processing. "Boundless" refers to the open architecture that allows for different cards to be used in each role, so gamers can decide between various high and low end cards to handle each function. ATI maintains an updated list of CrossFire certified components.ATI will also be working more closely with middleware provider Havok to promote the Havok FX SDK. Games that have leveraged the Havok technology include Half-Life 2, Perfect Dark Zero, FEAR, and the Splinter Cell series.See also: ATI's new CrossFire aimed at Athlon gamers Havok vs. AGEIA: the physics/PhysX showdown
ATI announces CrossFire physics platform
Today ATI says Ageia's PhysX engine be damned, as they're about to spit some new competition in the burgeoning hardware physics engine market. When you take that newish Radeon X1900 XTX physics adapter and combine it all Voltron-like with twin SLI graphics adapters -- and then throw in Havok Physics API support, which they announced today at Computex -- you get what they're calling CrossFire, a 2+1 graphics configuration bent on pushing more pixels and polygons than any of us sad little Engadget editors would ever know what to do with. Being that few motherboards would support this triple PCI-E configuration (and the fact that ATI is pimping Intel's forthcoming Core 2 Duo processor platform, which is expected to be announced in the very near future), it seems like you might not yet have to worry about whether the 10,000 in-game object boost this rig will provide is actually worth handing over your hard-earned bucks for.
AMD's "4 x 4" platform pairs 2 dual-core CPUs, 4 GPUs
Gamers gather 'round, for we have a tale of a new platform from AMD that will surely get your pulses racing, at least if the idea of having two dual-core processors and four graphics cards in one machine sounds as appealing to you as it does to us. Known as the "4 x 4" Enthusiasts Platform (four cores plus four GPUs -- we know, it's a bit of a stretch), the setup will allow manufacturers to offer configurations which users can upgrade over time, so consumers could start out with one dual-core chip and and one or more video cards, for example, instead of laying down what will likely be loads of cash on a maxed-out system. Another interesting bit of info revealed at the AMD analyst day in Austin, Texas was the fact that dual ATI Crossfire configurations can be used with 4 x 4, which indicates that AMD's possible acquisition target is probably working on a quad-SLI-esque solution to match rival nVidia. So start saving your pennies, dear gamers, because things are looking to get mighty interesting this year.
Info on New ATI Drivers & WoW
For all you Radeon card users out there, it seems that the latest version of ATI's drivers, the just-released Catalyst 6.4, contain an issue that may affect WoW players. From the official notes:"World of Warcraft: Enabling CrossFire may intermittently result in the character appearing off center. Further details can be found in topic number 737-22017"So, for god's sake, people...turn off Crossfire - whatever it is - and keep yourself centered. The new drivers can be downloaded from ATI's site here.
