2012-12-21-306

8341 3DMark05 Attained!

Shamino has pushed out a new benching rig for 3DMark2005,comprised of a heavily modded ABIT AS8, Pentium 4 560 (3.6Ghz), Sapphire X800Pro VIVO flashed to XT PE and the results have been more than satisfying on hisfirst day of benching. The Prescott 3.6Ghz was ran at 5.2Ghz with Sapphire X800Pro VIVO at 788/652Mhz on his Dual cascade cooling system setting an impressivescore of 8341.

Looking at theORB, it seemslike both Intel and AMD rigs are fairing well but a highly overclocked Prescottseems to be a better choice. Also the X800 cards are obviously the favoritesamong the overclockers currently but it will be interesting to see what scorescan a well overclocked 6800 Ultra card fetched and more even so in SLI mode. Check out the pics and discusshere.

2012-12-21-224

2K Games and Gearbox release Borderlands Legends game on iOS

2K Games and Gearbox Software have launched Borderlands Legends, a mobile gaming experience for iOS devices set in the same world as the console titles.

Brick, Mordecai, Lilith and Roland are all back from the original game, fighting off endless waves of Skags, Bandits, Psychos, Bruisers and a slew of other enemies in a mix of action-RPG and strategy.There is an easy to navigate menu, important for small smartphone screens, randomised maps, randomly generated weapons, shields and utilities, and dozens of skills and abilities to unlock. The same unique artistic style as the original games is also present.The game is limited to iOS devices for now, but the team behind it mentioned there is a possibility of extending it to other mobile devices in the future.Borderlands Legends costs $4.99 on the iPhone and iPod Touch and $6.99 on the iPad.Lets just hope peoples characters arent inadvertently deleted, like in a recent bug for Borderlands 2.

2012-12-21-157

[Rumour] Nvidia Geforce GTX 480 to feature 480 SP

Nvidia's Fermi/GF100 was officially announced as a 512 shader (or CUDACores) part at the high end. However, thanks to seemingly endlessproblems and delays, the poor yield rumours led to rumours that Nvidiawould struggle to put out a complete 512 SP product. Bright Side of Newsnow report that multiple AIB partners have 'confirmed' that theflagship GTX 480 is in fact a 480 SP product.

This would mean that only 15 of the originally planned 16 SMs are enabled. If true, this is a clear indication that Nvidia is indeed struggling with yield rates. It could also be a move to keep the TDP down.

It is unknown if the leaked benchmarks were done on a 512 SP or a 480 SP part. If this is a late change, then chances are the benchmarks were held on a 512 SP card. If so, we can expect the 480 SP GTX 480 to perform almost identically to the ATI Radeon HD 5870, which retails at an average $399. BSN claim that the crippled GTX 470 is set to retail for $299-$349. As consumers, we certainly hope that is true, though clearly, Nvidia is likely to incur a hefty loss selling a GF100 based product at a $299 price point.

Curiously, the GTX 480's nomenclature seems to reflect the 480 SP, but this is just likely to be a co-incidence. The GTX 470 isn't named GTX 448, after all.

The Geforce GTX 470 and GTX 480 "release" on March 26th, 2010. This is largely expected to be a paper launch, with retail availability at a later point, though it is not clear when.

Reference: Bright Side of News

2012-12-21-536

Ageia Plans Multi PPU Cards

Ageia may be planning to allow end-users to install more than one PhysX accelerators in one system. Recently released drivers by Ageia implement a revamped version of technology called hardware scene manager (HSM) that now uses so-called “compartments”, which allows “utilization of multiple PhysX cards in future versions”. Theoretically, Ageia’s future drivers should be able to “split” the scene into multiple three-dimensional “compartments” assigning a dedicated PPU for each. It is highly likely that Ageia will have to release a PCI Express version of its PPU first and only then tout multi-PPU environments.

2012-12-21-527

Aerocool Ships QS-202 Mini Tower Enclosure

Aerocool has begun to ship its Qs-202 mini-tower case, targeting gamers on a shoestring budget.

Measuring 378 x 200 x 470mm, the all-black enclosure supports graphics cards up to 390mm long and features two tool-free 5.25" drive bays, six 3.5" bays (two are removable), four expansion slots, two pre-drilled rear holes for water-cooling tubes, and a top-side I/O panel with two USB 2.0 ports and audio connectors. The Qs-202 mini-tower, preinstalled with two fans (x1 140mm front & x1 120mm rear), is available from major resellers and e-tailers at a MSRP of €49.90.

News via [Softpedia]

2012-12-21-497

Adobe launches Photoshop Lightroom 4 for digital photographers

Adobe has launched Photoshop Lightroom 4 for digital photographers using either a Mac or Windows-based computer.

Lightroom is one of the main pieces of software used by photographers who want to edit and touch up their digital photographs. Adobe promises even more features in the latest version, with better shadow and highlight processing, the ability to create photo books, extra local adjustment controls, and enhanced video support.The adjustment controls increase the dynamic range from cameras, giving the photographer greater control of the use of light in a photograph. Users can also adjust other elements with new local adjustment controls for noise reduction, moire and white balance.Users who want to work with video clips can now do so thanks to native video support, which allows playing, trimming and frame extraction of videos shot on digital SLR cameras, point-and-shoot cameras, and even smartphones.Edited videos can be exported or published directly to Flickr or Facebook, while images can be emailed directly from the program with a new integrated email feature.“Feedback from our customers is invaluable in developing Lightroom and the real trick to a great release is to combine these insights with Adobe’s unrivalled image processing innovation,” said Winston Hendrickson, vice president products, Creative Media Solutions, Adobe. “Lightroom 4 is a stunning new release that will enhance photography workflows and help photographs stand out from the crowd.”Lightroom 4 is available immediately for $149 for new users or $79 as an upgrade from a previous version.

2012-12-21-506

Adobe Releases x64 Flash Plugin For Major Platforms

Ever since 64-bit computing became mainstream thanks to various OS programmers releasing 64-bit versions of their operating systems, Adobe's Flash Player plugin has been been notorious for remaining available only as a 32-bit version. This has caused lots of disconentent among users of pure 64-bit operating systems, as the lack of a proper plugin prevents viewing of various online content such as Youtube videos or Flash games.

However, it seems that all the waiting has finally paid off: Adobe has just released a preview version of theirupdated Flash 10.1 plugin on Adobe Labs. And the biggest draw of this preview release? The introduction of a native x64 version of the plugin for all web browsers and operating systems.

We have tested the preview release on our own x64 build of Firefox, and the plugin has proven to be fully functional, as shown in our screenshot of the plugin playing a video from Youtube:

The preview release of Adobe's x64 Flash Player plugin can be downloaded from Adobe Labs here. And remember that this is a preview version and not a final shipping release, so the usual disclaimer about potential system damage applies.