Astrotoy7 Posted January 17, 2009 Share Posted January 17, 2009 Here's something a few of you may find interesting. Ive been creeping around windows7 registry, which is the best place to find out what NEW stuff has been put in. Looks like MS is putting some solid work into backwards compatibility for legacy titles, in particular those using particular legacy engines and older directplay versions. What the extent of this compatibility work is Im not sure, but its good to see they are thinking of some of those huge global communities that exist around games like starcraft etc. As the image shows, its a step forward from Vista mtfbwya Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Char Ell Posted January 30, 2009 Share Posted January 30, 2009 Kind of old news but nobody posted it so... Qimonda files for insolvency in Germany. Will they be able to recover? Astro surely can't be pleased with this development. I'm wondering if I should buy RAM soon, before prices start to go up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Astrotoy7 Posted January 31, 2009 Share Posted January 31, 2009 Kind of old news but nobody posted it so... Qimonda files for insolvency in Germany. Will they be able to recover? Astro surely can't be pleased with this development. I'm wondering if I should buy RAM soon, before prices start to go up. It was on the cards... even with the GDDR5 success in AMD GPUs, things weren't looking good for Qimonda last year. Of course, what it boils down to is job cuts and other DRAM manufacturers like samsung muscling in. Speaking of Samsung and DRAM.... Samsungs 4gb chip promises 32gbddr3 memory modules for pcs and laptops mtfbwya Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Astrotoy7 Posted February 4, 2009 Share Posted February 4, 2009 Small form factor fans the world wide are collectively drooling at the prospect of the nvidia ION platform... The nvidia Ion, an atom 333 based platform with featuring the 9400 chipset was floated about at CES but some reviewers have now had the chance to give it a proper going over.. Here's a great write up at PC Perspective hdmi, dual link DVI supporting 1600p, esata and optical audio -- all in within a neat little box. Yum some specs and pics Some pics: Ion next to an ATX board Expected to be released later this year... nothing solid on price though *continues drooling* mtfbwya Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Char Ell Posted February 9, 2009 Share Posted February 9, 2009 You must be thinking HTPC, right? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Astrotoy7 Posted February 9, 2009 Share Posted February 9, 2009 You must be thinking HTPC, right? HTPC fanboys, be it windows mce, linux or media portal are going fruitty over the ion. All we need is a price * * * Now here is something that was almost like poetry to read... G3D did a review of some high end RAM, but comparing 3GB to 6GB in gaming performance. The lines on the results graph are almost identical Have a looksee >> HERE A perfect little reference to have everytime you come across some wanker who has 8GB RAM in their gaming rig. ie. Theres no excuse for it unless youre running an x64 niche app or mid-high end server. Ive only got 3GB in my current rig which does some gaming an adobe CS4 x64 edition. I could pop extra in, but to tell truth, Im better served by putting money on a quaddie. Then again, Id rather get a new GPU before a new CPU mtfbwya Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stingerhs Posted February 9, 2009 Share Posted February 9, 2009 umm, Astro, you do realize that 8GB RAM = no more virtual memory, right?? with that much RAM, the page file is practically meaningless any more, and that has performance benefits system wide. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Q Posted February 9, 2009 Share Posted February 9, 2009 Yeah, there's a debate going on about this and Vista64's "Superfetch" feature. Apparently it's been discovered that XP, Vista32 and Vista64 perform better with 8GB of RAM while dedicating ~3GB to the OS and with the paging file, browser cache and other things (the swap file, maybe? Not sure; I'll have to look into it further) put on a RAM disk using the other ~5GB. From what I've read, it speeds up the computer tremendously. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Astrotoy7 Posted February 10, 2009 Share Posted February 10, 2009 umm, Astro, you do realize that 8GB RAM = no more virtual memory, right?? with that much RAM, the page file is practically meaningless any more, and that has performance benefits system wide. In that post I was talking about gaming centric rigs, thus the reference to the G3D article - which compares farcry and crysis warhead. In an app that is purposely written to utilise the benefits of 8GB RAM, sure. Of course, you then need specialist kit to go with it, like a quadro card if you are a CS4 fan - to get the most ot of the experience. Unfortunately, there isnt a heck of alot of information on even these. 64 bit computing is a surely a step forward, but currently lives in a mystical fanboy fog, or is the purview of specialist users. For most things, most people do, it isnt entirely relevant. Even in gaming, devs are moving at a tree like pace to embrace x64 gaming. I was hoping windows7 would be x64 only, but MS chickened out. Part of this has to do with the fact that W7 looks friendlier to lower end rigs/netbooks than vista. My 4 year old tablet pc runs W7 beta better than vista. (marginally, but noticeable). The paradigm shift will have to wait. I daresay Apple will make the first move with an x64 only OS, and MS will follow suit, then Apple fanboys will cry out at the imitation it speeds up the computer tremendously In what contexts though, and by what magnitude? You'll need to provide some of these articles for us Q. A general statement with the word "tremendously" indeed catches interest, but we'd hope for some more detail mtfbwya Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stingerhs Posted February 10, 2009 Share Posted February 10, 2009 the point being there is that there is no longer any hard drive paging when you have such large amounts of RAM. the difference is much more noticeable as your playing since it reduces periodic lag time during gameplay. this isn't something that shows up in a benchmark since it measures the average FPS, but it is very noticeable when your playing since the lack of paging directly translates into smoother gameplay without any lagging while the hard drive has to be paged whenever the game can't load and unload data out of the memory fast enough. and yes, i've seen the difference on a number of occasions particularly with games like Oblivion, Fallout 3, FarCry 2, and Crysis using various computers that i've upgraded either for customers or friends. so yes, it does make a difference. the real question, though, is whether the upgrade is worth the price. i've made the statement several times: is a reduction in lag worth the price of the extra RAM? with prices of DDR2 getting cheaper all the time, that question is getting easier and easier to answer. my recommendation still lies with 4GB for Vista x64 users, but 8GB really isn't that much more expensive, either. onto actual news, it seems that the new Phenom II's are an excellent choice in most situations as they compete very well with both the older Core2's and the new Core i7. as old as that news is, the real news is the launch of the AM3 platform. the most interesting news coming out of that is that the new AM3-based Phenom II CPU's are backwards compatible with existing AM2+ boards as they have a memory controller built in for both DDR2 and DDR3. and, yes, that does mean that the AM3 boards do support DDR3. article is here courtesy of Toms Hardware also from Tom's Hardware, a very interesting overclock of a Phenom II X3 as they hit a bootable speed of 5.8GHz using liquid nitrogen. article here Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Astrotoy7 Posted February 10, 2009 Share Posted February 10, 2009 so yes, it does make a difference Im sure there is a noticeable difference, to an extent, and on certain titles only Still, Im sure many would take a more competent GPU over 8GB of mid/high end RAM any day, which would give you measurable performance benefits. I highly doubt 6,8, or 128mb RAM, coupled with my current 8800GTS will give me 1600p in crysis! I daresay, I'd get the same numbers as with 3GB, as the above article has proven comparing 6vs3. A quicker GPU would provide measurable and reproducible performance benefit under standard conditions, as opposed to observational only. The world awaits the GTX300, will it finally be the crysis killer?! All it boils down to: We need gaming devs to embrace the power of x64, simple as that! also from Tom's Hardware, a very interesting overclock of a Phenom II X3 as they hit a bootable speed of 5.8GHz using liquid nitrogen. article here the phenom is a bag of surprises. Phenom II was taken to 6.5 on LiqN, temporaily holding the 3DMark record. It was since toppled by Corei7 Ive been told(but havent bothered verifying yet) mtfbwya Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Negative Sun Posted February 12, 2009 Author Share Posted February 12, 2009 Sounds like amd are hitting back with phenom, finally! I might need to reconsider the CPU for my next rig again lolz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stingerhs Posted February 12, 2009 Share Posted February 12, 2009 ^^^^ hey, i'm seriously considering it to replace my venerable Athlon X2. i already have the latest BIOS for my board; so all i need now is a P2 Black Edition for a good sized jump in performance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Q Posted February 14, 2009 Share Posted February 14, 2009 ATM, both the PII 920 and the 940 are $40.00 off at Newegg. From everything I'm reading, it'll be a killer drop-in upgrade. Overclock it 'till it squeals! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Astrotoy7 Posted February 14, 2009 Share Posted February 14, 2009 good ole economic downturn... these things are now $420+AUD... simply cant justify the cost The GTX 295 costs $900+ .... at this rate the previously popular tech hadware stores here are going to be closing at a rate of knots mtfbwya Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Q Posted February 14, 2009 Share Posted February 14, 2009 That's just awful. It's $229 right now at Newegg for a 3GHZ quad that's comparable to C2Q, which is very reasonable, IMO. If I had the jack, I'd ship one to you. Have you tried looking on Fleabay? Some of the sellers there will ship to international customers. Here is a reputable seller who is willing to ship to Oz. I have no idea how much shipping would be, though. EDIT: After taking currency conversion into account, I don't think that you would be saving too much, though. $420AUD is actually very close to the MSRP of the Phenom II 940 here in the US. Just be patient and hopefully there will be a sale. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stingerhs Posted February 14, 2009 Share Posted February 14, 2009 ATM, both the PII 920 and the 940 are $40.00 off at Newegg. From everything I'm reading, it'll be a killer drop-in upgrade. Overclock it 'till it squeals! if its as good as reviewed, i just might get this chip and throw in some water cooling as a future upgrade. dag gone it, i'm getting excited about my computer again.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Q Posted February 15, 2009 Share Posted February 15, 2009 Here's a good deal on one of the top-rated HSFs to go with it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Astrotoy7 Posted February 15, 2009 Share Posted February 15, 2009 ... dag gone it, i'm getting excited about my computer again.... what has your poor computer done to make you stop getting excited about it in the first place? [/sigmund] @Q >> yep, once you throw in shipping and currency coversions, it works put about the same, and sucks All this patient waiting for 3Ghz x4 goodness.... and now unable to do anything about it. Such is life mtfbwya Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Negative Sun Posted February 16, 2009 Author Share Posted February 16, 2009 M$ to launch retail stores! ^ Probably to sell "Vista capable" machines and end all this confusion and madness! A Pentium 3 and 64Mb of RAM will work, really! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Q Posted February 17, 2009 Share Posted February 17, 2009 Along with all of the rebuilt 360s that suffered RRoDs complete with a 90-second warranty! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Astrotoy7 Posted February 17, 2009 Share Posted February 17, 2009 MS will likely go into this after their 'already more popular than Vista' Windows7 platform is released to vendors later this year. Still, given the layoff and closures of many tech oriented stores and manufacturing companies in the current economic climate, surely its a bad idea to launch such a store from scratch?? Theyre better off fiddling with that low cost computing concept. If they can deliver whole systems to users at manageable monthly prices(the way cellphones are done), then it'd likely attract people more than expecting them to turn up to a store and fork out $100s/$1000s on the day to get their hands on a pre-config system mtfbwya Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stingerhs Posted February 18, 2009 Share Posted February 18, 2009 all they really need to do is man their stores (or booths, however it turns out) with some people that have actual knowledge about their products. they do that, and they'll have one serious leg up over Apple. as for the monthly pricing thing, can't you just go to a Rent-to-Buy store and get the same thing??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Negative Sun Posted February 18, 2009 Author Share Posted February 18, 2009 ^ Aye they do that for mobile phones here in the UK, and they're starting to do it with laptops too now, you pay like £20-30 a month for a phone plus contract or a laptop with mobile broadband...Good deals to be had that way! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Astrotoy7 Posted February 20, 2009 Share Posted February 20, 2009 OK. Prepeare to throw rocks at me....but I am quite excited about the new Corei7 based Shuttle high end. As far as shuttles are concerned, if you want an uber gaming rig, look no further. SX58H7 *Core i7 x58 chispet *500W PSU, which in a shuttle , can kick as much a$$ as a 1200W in ATX *(up to)16GB DDR3 *Dual PCI-e x16 : Supports XFire OR nvidia SLI via single slot cards *Fits largest dual slot cards *Looks nyce At this stage, there is no AMD equivalent Maybe by the time Im ready to afford the upgrade, there will be. If I did get this it would tip the Intel:AMD ratio in my house to 3-2 Currently 2:2 time will tell mtfbwya Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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