performance
Latest
Up to 3GB of RAM in the Mac minis
Reader John L kindly dropped us a tip that Other World Computing has upped their Mac mini memory upgrades up to a whopping 3GB of RAM. And in fact, if you really want a Mini that flies, they'll even squeeze 4GB under the hood, even though they say the Mac Mini can't really handle that much.The performance testing they did just completely confounds me, however-- in situations where lots of memory was needed (the "RAM Hog" setup), 4GB clearly beats everything else. In fact, in most of the regular testing-- the Photoshop test and the "Stress Test" the memory runs exactly how you'd expect: more memory means quicker processing. But in the last two tests, the Halo test and the Xbench test, the mini actually ran faster at just 1GB (which is what it ships with) than the 3GB, and almost as fast as the 4GB. The reasons for that are probably technical (too technical for me, although I'm sure our talented commenters have some answers), but it seems that in some situations, extra RAM just doesn't help.Still, in situations that ask for a lot of memory, having more will definitely give you a nice bonus in speed, and it looks like the mini can now hold more than ever. When I buy mine (in October when Leopard drops, assuming Steve lets it live that long), I'll probably just double it to a reasonable 2GB. But if you want that extra power, it's good to know it's there.
Live performance in a virtual world
This piece on Terra Nova got the gears turning in my head again about something I've been thinking about for a while: a live dramatic performance in the virtual world. The article goes a little deeper than that-- basically, it suggests that we're all performers in the virtual world, and all the world (of Warcraft) is a stage for us to perform on. You may not be a roleplayer, but you still play a role in the game, whether it be the stalwart main tank or the ganking PvP moonkin.But I'm talking about something a little more concrete: an actual dramatic production performed inside a virtual world. Unfortunately, my background in drama is tiny (I did some production stuff in high school and college), which is probably why I've never mustered up enough effort to pull it off, but others have, and I'd love to see more of it. The colorful, fantasy world of WoW seems perfect for putting on a production-- can you imagine Hamlet in the corridors of the Stormwind castle, or The Tempest down in the tropics in Stranglethorn Vale? It'd be a lot of work (not to mention a lot of typing) for all those involved, but a finished, complete production created entirely within the world of Azeroth would be incredible to watch.There have been a few groups aiming for something like this (the Synthetic Worlds Initiative even planned an entire online world about Shakespeare, at one point, though I'm not sure what happened to it). And I can't believe this idea is original-- someone has to have performed something in WoW at some point, I'm sure; I just haven't heard of anyone really taking the time to do it professionally (and live). We're already playing our own made-up roles in the virtual world-- the idea of going one step further and recreating fictional characters in that world fascinates me.
Vista Performance and Reliability Pack hits the web prematurely
Don't look now, but Microsoft is apparently readying a Vista Performance and Reliability Pack for release, and while it's certainly not available through Windows Update just yet, that doesn't mean it's not hiding elsewhere. Reportedly, the aforementioned pack and the Vista Compatibility and Reliability Pack will institute a number of welcome fixes and performance increases in a variety of areas, and though the list is indeed lengthy, a few notables include: Increased compatibility with many video drivers. Improved visual appearance of games with high intensity graphics. Improved quality of playback for HD DVD and Blu-ray disks on large monitors. Improved reliability for Internet Explorer when some third party toolbars are installed on Vista. Improved reliability of systems that were upgraded from XP to Vista. Resolves an issue where creating AVI files on Vista may get corrupted. Improves the performance of Vista's Memory Manager in specific customer scenarios and prevents some issues which may lead to memory corruption. So if all the red flags prove correct, Vista users can eagerly await an official release of the updates, or if you're the adventurous type, you can bypass the whole "waiting" thing altogether and get your download on immediately.[Via TechSpot]
HDNet, HDNet Movies on top of HD-exclusive viewership rankings
While the amount of HD exclusive channels continues to (slowly) grow, it was Mark Cuban's own HDNet and HDNet Movies that took home the gold in the "first high-definition TV ratings" acquired by TNS Media Research. The data was gathered from set-top-boxes in an unnamed "major market," and the two channels were said to "excel in both weekday and weekend" ratings. For the week ending July 1st, the channels held between 6.1-percent and 8.6-percent of the viewers that were tuned into 100-percent HD channels, which simply leaves us to wonder what the other 90 or so percent of eyes were watching so intently.[Via BlogMaverick]
Joystiq at the Ninja Gaiden Band concert
The concept is simple: a four-piece band recreates the soundtrack to the original Ninja Gaiden for NES while one skilled player runs through the game with little effort. You may have heard about this before when they previously performed as Contraband (Contra, natch), Megaband (Mega Man II) and Zeldaband (the first two dungeons of Legend of Zelda). On Friday, Joystiq attended the Ninja Gaiden Band concert, playing at the Caledonia Lounge as part of Athens, Georgia's annual music festival Athfest (the night prior, Contraband won Cover Band of the Year at the awards show). The band, comprised of the members of Cinemechanica and deft gamer Noah McCarthy, is now a two-year project of splicing classic gaming with musical performance. Work on the Ninja Gaiden Band began about a month ago, said guitarist Bryant Williamson, speaking to us before the concert. During practice, McCarthy had never had to use a continue, though Williamson said they were prepared in case he had to start over. McCarthy played on stage using via television while the signal was simultaneously projected onto a screen for the audience to watch. At 1:07 a.m. to a packed crowd, the console was turned on, the title screen came up, and the band counted in. %Gallery-4227%
Widget Watch: iStat pro 4.1 released
iSlayer has released v4.1 of their killer iStat pro widget for monitoring system performance and statistics right from within Dashboard. In this new version, the team has added a new Fire skin (pictured, and apparently a mod of a much-requested skin from the previous v3), support for monitoring temps of S.M.A.R.T.-capable hard drives, better network change detection, support for 30 new temperature sensors in Intel Macs and even updated fan support for iBook users. As usual, iStat pro is provided as donationware and should be available via its own update system if you already have the widget installed, or from iSlayer's site.
Dell XPS 720 specs, pics revealed
Well wouldn't you know it, we're just strolling down the street today minding our own business, when what do we happen to trip over but a field tech manual for Dell's upcoming XPS 720 and 720 H2C performance gaming rigs. According to the confidential, hundred-plus-page document, the pricier (but cooler, literally) H2C edition will sport a jet black bezel with a glossy black chassis, while the regular version will be offered with either jet black or formula red bezels and brushed aluminum chassis -- though you can rest assured that both models feature a number of seven-color LEDs to properly set the mood for your epic quests and/or murderous rampages. We'd already heard that these overclocking-friendly machines would rock your choice of Core 2, Core 2 Extreme, or Core 2 Extreme Quad processors and SLI-capable NVIDIA nForce 680i chipsets, but we didn't know that 800MHz DDR2 RAM (between 512MB and 8GB, with optional 1066MHz DIMMs from Corsair also available), RAID 5 and 0+1 HDD configurations, digital coax outs, and 300-watt graphics power sources would be on board too -- all improvements over the soon-to-be-dethroned XPS 710. Graphics options include the GTX and GTS flavors of NVIDIA's GeForce 8800 card, and you can also throw in any number of TV tuners along with a Creative X-Fi sound card, though the built-in 7.1 channel audio will probably suffice for most. Obviously these training manuals don't come with any sort of pricing or release info, but if you're curious about such things as replacing the 720's processor heat sink, let us know in the comments and we'll see what we can do. Keep reading for a larger pic...
Velocity Micro acquires Overdrive PC, gets 'hyperclocked'
Although the folks over at boutique PC shop Overdrive PC must have been on a serious Spaceballs bender when they decided to call their proprietary method of performance tweaking 'hyperclocking,' such silly naming conventions didn't stop custom manufacturer Velocity Micro from wooing and finally winning over the firm. Velocity, probably best known for its relationship with Best Buy, will leave Overdrive as a separately run brand and subdivision within the larger company, while employing the mind-blowing hyperclocking technique in its own off-the-shelf systems. None of the deal's financial details were disclosed, but we do know that Overdrive will relocate its headquarters to Richmond, VA, where its founder and CTO will take on the role of Director of Advanced Technologies at Velocity and General Manager of Overdrive. Sure it's no HP / Voodoo or Dell / Alienware pairing, but during Golden Week in Japan, this is what passes for hot news. [Via Crave]
Ask WoW Insider: How's WoW performance on a Mac?
Today's Ask WoW Insider brings us a corollary question to our WoW performance on Vista inquiry from a couple of months ago; Rotmeyer writes: I play Wow on a PC, and am looking towards a new computer purchase. One thing that influences my purchase is how well WoW will run on my new computer. I'm leaning towards a Mac, but how well does WoW run on a Mac? What's the minimum Mac requirements for smooth framerate and gameplay? Could I play WoW on a Mac Mini? Thanks. Without getting derailed into Yet Another Platform War, can anyone give Rotmeyer some advice or share your experiences running the WoW client on a Mac? Be as specific about the model and specs of your machine(s) as possible. Don't forget: Ask WoW Insider needs your questions! What do you want to ask your peers? Put your thinking caps on and send your philosophical conundrums to us at ask AT wowinsider DOT com.
Is Safari a system resource hog?
A browser doesn't seem like it should have that adverse of an effect on one's system performance. Aside from the power users who surf for hours at a time and leave their browser running for days on end, one's browser shouldn't be dragging the rest of the class down.Macenstein, on the other hand, has used a few pseudo-scientific tests to determine otherwise. While the debate still rages as to which browser is the 'best,' or the fastest, or the least detrimental memory hog, Dr. Macenstein has apparently outed Safari as a fairly selfish system resource gobbler, able to slow at least some operations by 76 percent. The tests performed by the monster of all things Mac included a fairly tricked out G5 PowerMac, as well as Quad Core Mac Pro just for good measure. Just to round the tests out, Macenstein eventually added Camino and OmniWeb to the original test sequence of Safari and Firefox. These browsers were all tested separately against opening/saving a fairly hefty PSD in Photoshop, as well as rendering a project out of After Effects (remember: those two apps still have to run emulated in Rosetta on the Mac Pro).The cliff notes results? In nearly every test, Safari (running in the background) was found to deal a significant blow to performance and efficiency, causing the three aforementioned operations to take noticeably longer. To make things even more bizarre, Safari was actually found to not affect performance when exporting a video for the iPod with QuickTime.At the end of the day, no one is really sure why Apple's browser is making so many waves in the performance pool, but a healthy comment thread on the post is already hard at work. For anyone serious about Safari, here's hoping Apple is already aware of the issue and has brought their browser in line for Leopard.
Quartet Project showcases robotic dance partner
Why bother Dancing with the Stars when you can bust a move with your very own trained robot? Sure, we've seen robots teaching humans and even robotic ballroom partners before, but the Quartet Project seeks to integrate robots into dance by using sensors to create a fairly intelligent and dynamic counterpart. Dubbed an "investigation into the kineasthetics of music," the live stage show melds dance, music, and a load of sensors into a new form of entertainment where the human dancer grooves to the music, only to be followed and "danced with" by a robot that senses its surroundings. Finally assembled after years of collaboration from experts in art, music, biomedicine, computational science, 3D animation, and motion control, the "mechanical and live elements" came together for a series of recent shows in the Great Hall at St. Bartholomew's Hospital. Unfortunately, we weren't there to witness the next metallic superstar showing its stuff, but we're fairly confident seeing a man-made terpsichorean breakin' a leg was a tad more exciting than listening to the Bacterial Orchestra.[Via MAKE]
EA bullish on future PS3 performance
EA's recent quarterly conference call made headlines for the announcement of 10 to 15 games for the Wii and Nintendo DS in the coming year. But the full transcript also reveals some interesting thoughts from the mega-publisher on the present and future position of Sony's new system. While EA CFO Warren Jenson said he was "pleased with our early performance on the PS3," EA chairman and CEO Larry Probst added that the PS3's holiday tie ratio (the number of games sold per system) "was lower than expected," especially compared with the Xbox 360 launch period a year earlier. Later in the call, though, Executive Vice President Frank Gibeau said that the tie ratio showed "great improvement" in January as consumers who got gift cards and eBayed systems for Christmas began to buy games in greater numbers. Probst also indicated that early results showed the PS3 selling through at "a comfortable clip" for January and that he was confident the system would do well in its first full year of sales. He later added that while Nintendo and Microsoft are poised to do better this generation than last, "we think that Sony will continue to do extremely well." In other words, while it may look like all doom and gloom for Sony these days, at least one big publisher still has the company's back. [Via TMCNet, thanks Jonah]
WoW + Vista = ????
So Microsoft had a little launch of its own yesterday (why can't they do these things at midnight like normal people?), and reader Scott Harris wrote in with a relevant question: "Has anyone tried to see how compatible WoW is with Windows Vista?" If the above banner snagged at CES is any indication, the fun is only beginning -- then again, something tells me they weren't thinking about Warcraft. I'm not gonna lie -- I have zero plans to upgrade my XP box to Vista anytime soon, mostly because I'm primarily a Mac person (yes, flame on, people, flame on) and the thought of doing the upgrade to the only Windows box in the house sounds about as fun as major surgery to me. However, the trusty intertubes contain some accounts of compatibility, and so far the reports are mixed: WoW + Vista = poor frame rates. No way n00b, it's totally faster! l2computerz people, Vista really has no effect on WoW performance. Since the jury appears to still be out, we're leaving it up to you, dear readers -- has anyone had experience getting Vista and World of Warcraft to play nice? Any experiences to report? P.S. If you want to snag a free copy, get your Need Roll in over at Download Squad.
Disney characters get robotic facelift for Magic Kingdom performance
We're hearing January is a fairly good time to hit up Disney World, and if you've got an itch to see giant rodents (and similar) perform on stage with near perfect mouth movements, we'd recommend heading on down. Apparently the engineers behind the relatively new Cinderella Castle stage show at the Magic Kingdom have spruced the characters up quite a bit, and most noticeable is the robotic facelift that the main characters received. Instead of just moving about while music loops in the background, the critters can now sing right along, as their mouths move almost in unison with the audio clips in the show. While we're sure your average six year old girl wouldn't notice such petty details, it's good to see Disney upping the ante on the mechanics to keep us geeks from zoning out while experiencing all that magic, so be sure to hit the read link for a video demonstration of the upgraded jawbones (and don't hum along too loudly).[Via BoingBoing]
Realm Splitting?
According to a post by Tseric on the World of Warcraft General Forum Blizzard may decide that certain largely overpopulated worlds need to be split, and Blizzard has created a mandatory world split procedure and is testing it on Hellscream. The way the process would work is that a user would log on, be prompted to choose one of two worlds, and when split day happens will be moved. Players that don't choose a world to move to would be moved to the same world as their guild master, if they aren't in a guild they'd be moved with the rest of their arena team, and if they aren't in either a guild or an arena team Blizzard will pick. Also, Blizzard may override your choice of a destination if the problem that caused the split isn't being resolved.They've got some good reasons for doing this, but I can see a lot of very bad things coming out of this. Guilds getting split up, friends getting split up, guild alliances getting torn apart. The reaction in guild chat when someone brought it to our attention was very negative, but I'm torn. I've seen what long queue times do to gameplay and raid attendance. What do you think? Do the good results outweigh the consequences of moving people around?
ATI R600 graphics card benchmarked, cruises by NVIDIA's GeForce 8800 GTX
If one of your New Year's resolutions involved spending a massive chunk of change to kick out as many frames per second as technologically possible, you may want to put the brakes on that impending NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX purchase. Lvl505 got their palms on a pre-release ATI R600 graphics card and put it up against the best NVIDIA currently has to offer, and the results thus far show ATI's device as "the clear winner." Of course, these benchmarks have to be taken with a certain grain of salt, as the drivers used were "a modified version of a 32-bit Vista pre-build version," which should have yielded less-than-optimal results; interestingly, the R600 still ran all over the optimized NVIDIA setup. Testing the cards on an Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6700-powered machine with 2GB of RAM, the single R600 card bested the solo 8800 GTX in basically every benchmark they tried, with common applications seeing minimal gains, but games saw between ten-percent (Half-Life 2: Lost Coast) and 42-percent (1701 A.D.) hikes. Apparently, the R600 was exceedingly impressive, as reviewers actually suggested that you "return your NVIDIA" card as soon as humanly possible while patiently waiting for January 22nd, when you can gleefully drop your $630 or so to pick up your very own R600. Oh, and you might end up paying somewhat of a monthly surcharge to use this bad boy too, as the 230-watts (which beats the estimations, actually) it'll require to operate could kick your power bill up a notch or two. Nevertheless, it's not exactly shocking to see a newer graphics card outgun one that's been on the shelf a moment or so, but we're still holding out for a finalized unit before making any final judgments on the combatants.[Via Inquirer]
Vista DRM to slow down high-end graphics? [update 1]
We've posted before on how the Vista brand will change the PC gaming market. But how will the OS affect the gameplay experience itself? An in-depth analysis of the operating system's draconian digital rights management features suggests gamers might not be too happy with some of the system's unintended performance effects.The write-up itself is long and rather technical, but the main section of interest to gamers deals with unnecessary CPU resource consumption. Apparently, Vista does a sweep of all computer hardware over 30 times every second to make sure no one is trying to leech a digital video signal through a modification. Besides taking up valuable computing cycles, this method also makes it harder for the computer to perform video decompression, especially in low-end graphics chips.While it remains to be seen how these "features" will actually impact Vista games, the fact that it's even an issue is enough to make us question Microsoft's devotion to Vista gaming. As the analysis' author puts it, "I wonder how [the gaming] market segment will react to knowing that their top-of-the-line hardware is being hamstrung by all of the content-protection "features" that Vista hogties it with?"[Update: Fixed typo in headline][Via Boing Boing]
Bullish on Apple?
Alyce Lomax, blogging over at the Motley Fool, discusses her take on Apple's stock performance. Over the last five years, Apple has boomed -- up 715%. Lomax believes that Apple has not yet peaked. She sees growth opportunities in the Intel line of Macs along with the strong performance of the iPod. So should you buy Apple? We here at TUAW haven't a clue. But Lomax's article is an interesting read for those of you following the stock market. As for us, we tend to go with the whole monkey and dartboard method.
Is 3.0 accelerating the PSP?
Various users on the 1UP, IGN and QJ forums have reported increased performance of games running the new 3.0 firmware. Some games are reported to have faster load times, while others simply run a lot more smoothly and quickly. To a few users, Vice City Stories supposedly features a huge performance boost, with a much better framerate and less draw-in. Web browsing is supposedly faster as well (although memory errors are still common). Popular opinion seems to be that Sony has increased the clock speed of the PSP from its default 222MHz (note: The PSP can go up to 333MHz, but this was restricted due to battery drain issues). Others have suggested that the coding of the firmware is simply much more efficient.While I've been running 3.0, I haven't noticed any significant difference in the games that I've played, meaning groupthink may be coming into play. Wouldn't Sony want to highlight or advertise such a potentially big performance increase? For users of 3.0, post a comment below, and tell the rest of us if you've experienced a speed boost in your gaming recently.
DS versus PSP: the battle for the best LCD
PC Magazine got a "display expert" from DisplayMate Technology to evaluate the screen performance of the DS Lite and the PSP. To a casual observer, both have stunning displays. But how do they fare when they're analyzed by the same methods used on high-end HDTVs? The report is incredibly thorough, so I'll just give you some key highlights:
