Integrated graphics sets that handle DirectX 10 like it's their job are a dime a dozen, but ASUS has nevertheless managed to find bragging rights in its G35 series of mobos. Hailed as the "world's first Intel platform" with onboard graphics capable of supporting DirectX 10 natively, the aforesaid motherboards won't require a separate GPU in order to handle the simplest of DX10 demands. Of course, we wouldn't expect the GMA X3500 to run circles around Crysis frame rate tests, but we suppose they'll do for the casual fans in attendance. Per usual, ASUS has left us high and dry in regard to pricing, but the trio of boards should be available as we speak.

[Via I4U News]

Get ready to burn through your allowance, kids, as AMD is getting set to loose its Catalyst 8.3 drivers for all to indulge in. What does the download net you, exactly? Why, CrossFireX support, of course. Starting today, users can link up any combination of RV670- and R680-based products -- that includes the Radeon HD 3850, Radeon HD 3870 and Radeon HD 3870 X2 -- in order to acquire triple- and quad-GPU performance within Windows Vista. Additionally, the drivers also introduce ATI Hybrid Graphics support in Vista, which was boasted about already when the firm unveiled its upcoming 780G chipset. Check out the read link for the full list of changes, and keep an eye on the firm's support page for v8.3 to surface any moment now.

Not even two months after NVIDIA tempted gamers on a budget with the GeForce 8800 GT, the outfit has loosed a new beast just in time for those eleventh hour holiday shoppers. Based on 65-nanometer fabrication, the 8800 GTS 512MB boasts 128 stream processors, twin dual-link DVI ports, PureVideo HD technology, DirectX 10 support, a 650MHz core clock / 970MHz memory clock and hardware decode acceleration for smooth playback of "H.264, VC-1, WMV and MPEG-2 HD and SD movies." According to the company, this card provides some 25-percent more processing power than NVIDIA products previously offered at the same price point, which, if you're wondering, is around $299 to $349.

[Via HotHardware]

Details are unsurprisingly light on this one, but DigiTimes has it that NVIDIA is gearing up to launch its next-generation GPU just after the Lunar New Year in February 2008. Reportedly, "sources at graphics card makers" have revealed that the GeForce 9 series will include the D9E -- a "high-end product that adopts 65-nanometer manufacturing," supports DirectX 10.1 and Shader Model 4.1 -- and the mid-range D9P, which will supposedly adopt 55-nanometer processing. Apparently, the former will be the first product in the new family, while the latter won't see light until June, but of course, we'd take every ounce of this with a healthy serving of salt for the time being.

Good news for those waiting in tense anticipation for a confirmation on Eurocom's quad-core lappie: it's for real. Dubbed the D900C Phantom-X, this powerhouse will reportedly pack Intel's "newest line of quad-core processors," up to 750GB of internal HDD space, your choice of NVIDIA GPUs running in single or dual SLI, a Blu-ray optical drive, up to 4GB of DDR2 RAM, and a slew of ports including USB 2.0, FireWire, DVI, S-Video, a multicard reader, optical and analog audio in / out, and a gigabit Ethernet jack for good measure. 'Course, you'll also find integrated Bluetooth 2.0, 802.11a/b/g, stereo speakers, a built-in microphone, and an optional TV tuner that could certainly make you question the necessity of your desktop. So, you big spender you, go on and get your order in now and let the bragging commence -- if you've got the $2,999 it'll take for the base configuration, that is.

[Thanks, Mark B.]

Unlike some companies we've seen, it appears that Commodore Gaming is actually keeping its word, as the company has just now released the final details on its lineup of flashy US-bound gaming rigs. The Cg, Cgs, Cgx, and Cxx machines progress gradually from least extreme to highly 1337, and all four can be customized to suit your every fantasy. To give you an idea of what's on tap (if you've got the coin), the Cxx packs a 2.66GHz Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6800 processor, twin 500GB 7,200RPM hard drives in a RAID 0 array, 2GB of Corsair RAM, DVD-RW optical drive, an 850-watt power supply, Creative's Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Gamer sound card, Windows Vista, and dual 768MB NVIDIA GeForce 8800 Ultra GPUs to boot. As far as pricing goes, word on the street is that the base system will start out around $1,700, but we'll know for sure when these come stateside in Q3.

[Via CNET]

You already knew that Toshiba was doling out the HD DVD love to the X205, but a purported Satellite X200 machine has apparently been apprehended by a Frenchman (or woman) and revealed to the world. Reportedly, this "desktop replacement" starts off with a 17-inch 1,440 x 900 resolution LCD, and packs a 2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, a 256MB NVIDIA GeForce 8700M GT, 2GB of RAM, a 200GB hard drive spinning at 4200RPMs, Harmon Kardon speakers, Bluetooth 2.0, WiFi, a DVD burner, 1.3-megapixel camera, hordes of USB 2.0 connectors, fingerprint reader, an ExpressCard slot, and even a numeric keypad thrown in for good measure. While we've seen nothing official, word on the street has this bad boy landing next month for around €1,599 ($2,147), but for now, click on through for the rest of the show.

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.

With Dell's XPS 720 getting ready for showtime, it's quite possible that a few of you out there are eying a slightly different kind of animal, and for the Halo faithful, look no further than A-Power. The AP-Halo machine sports a fully customized Halo 2 chassis to go along with the game's PC counterpart, but it manages to look fairly good on the inside as well. Beneath the metal you'll find an Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 processor, up to 640GB of SATA II hard drive space, Asus' P5K Deluxe motherboard, a Samsung dual-layer DVD burner, Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Gamer sound card, gigabit Ethernet, a 768MB NVIDIA GeForce 8800GTX handling the DX10 duties, a 700-watt power supply, and to cap things off, it also comes bundled with Microsoft's own Reclusa keyboard and Habu mouse. Of course, it'll come pre-loaded with Vista Ultimate and Halo 2, and deep-pocketed gamers can add on an Xbox 360 PC controller if they choose. The Halo 2-themed system is slated to launch on May 22nd, and while the base price sits at CAD$1,659 ($1,505) sans a monitor, those hardware upgrades will send that figure quite a ways north.

While Acer did make a quick stop to confirm that this Gemstone brouhaha was indeed becoming a reality, the firm has apparently gotten around to fleshing out the rest of its healthy Santa Rosa lineup. On the consumer side of things, the the Aspire 5720 touts a 15.4-inch CrystalBrite display, integrated CrystalEye webcam, Dolby Digital Live audio, and a choice of ATI graphics cards. The 7720 steps it up by packing more powerful Core 2 Duo processors, a 17-inch widescreen display, an ATI graphics card with up to 512MB of RAM, webcam, and an optional DVB-T tuner, while the 9920 takes things to the extreme with a 20-inch screen, NVIDIA's DX10-capable GeForce 8600M-GT, and an HD DVD drive to boot. Meanwhile, the TravelMates are also seeing updates, as the 6592 packs a Core 2 Duo CPU, 802.11a/b/g/n, dual-layer DVD burner or HD DVD drive, ATI's Mobility Radeon X2300-HD graphics, and a 15- or 15.4-inch display. The 6492 loses an inch of screen space, steps down to integrated X3100 graphics, but sports up to 8.5-hours of battery life with a secondary cell installed in the media bay, and the 6292 wraps things up with a 12.1-inch display, WiFi, ezDock II compatibility, and a lightweight design. No word just yet on pricing or availability, but at least you've got a smattering of choices on the Acer horizon to decide upon.

Read - Acer TravelMate lineup
Read - Acer Aspire lineup

NVIDIA's been parading its DirectX 10 desktop GPUs around for some time now, and while we've seen lappies in the pipeline that tout the DX10 niceties, the firm is getting all formal on us with the release of the 8M series of laptop graphics cards. Hailed as the "world's first mobile GPU to support DirectX 10 and fully accelerate decoding of H.264 full HD movies," the 8M series will initially consist of the GeForce 8600M and 8400M. NVIDIA claims that these chips will provide "up to twice the performance of previous generation GPUs," and also boasts about the PureVideo HD processing engine and PowerMizer technology that purportedly conserves battery life when you're not engaged in a ruthless deathmatch. Unsurprisingly, the chips have already been made available to laptop manufacturers, so watch for these suckas in forthcoming "HP, Toshiba, Acer, Samsung, and Asus offerings."

Although preliminary testing proved that ATI's R600 architecture wasn't messing around, DailyTech added another layer of proof to the pudding as it benchmarked a bonafide Radeon HD 2900 XT against NVIDIA's 640MB GeForce 8800 GTS. The DirectX 10-capable card is a notch above the HD 2600 XT that was snapped in the wild, and the tested unit featured 320 stream processors, 512MB of GDDR3 RAM, a dual-slot "blower-type heat sink," dual dual-link DVI ports, and a serious desire to crank out impressive FPS numbers. While the marks weren't the end-all answer to the ATI vs. NVIDIA question, the Radeon managed to best its opponent in every single trial, including Call of Duty 2, Company of Heroes, F.E.A.R., Oblivion, 3DMark06, Maya 02, Cadalyst C2006, and a few more for good measure. Of course, we're sure NVIDIA will be hitting back with something of its own, but feel free to hit the read link if you take pleasure in graphical beat downs with ATI escaping victorious.

[Thanks, Mathieu]

Considering that Zepto isn't exactly "the name" in full-blown gaming laptops, we certainly hope this one won't turn out like ones prior, but the Znote 6625WD purportedly packs a plethora of lavish innards if it proves legitimate. The 15.4-inch machine is based around Intel's Santa Rosa, er, Centrino Pro platform, and sports a WSXGA resolution, Core 2 Duo processor, 1GB of RAM, Bluetooth 2.0, NVIDIA's 512MB GeForce Go 8600 graphics card, DirectX 10 support, an optional HD DVD writer, 802.11a/b/g/n, HSDPA compatibility, and to top things off, an HDMI output. The company will supposedly be taking customized orders in May to satisfy your wildest dreams, and while the bottom-end of the bunch could land at around "$1,100 to $1,200," we imagine that some of the aforementioned luxuries will ratchet that right on up.

[Via Laptopical]