Pimp My GPU

I like what I read about AMD DX11 GPU! (Read: the successor of RV770 is almost here)

2009-09-14T14:12:00.006+08:00

Good things are coming from AMD in the near future, I guess. And the future is not so distant far away, as I am talking as close as DirectX11.

One of the features and capabilities of the next-gen GPU from AMD is the ultra high resolution gaming. Sounds familiar, so what's different about it? I'm talking 7800x3200 resolution driven all the way by a single GPU!

Since we don't have any single LCD monitor currently that support that resolution, we need about 6 30" display to achieve it. This is handled successfully by the new DX11 GPU.

The ability to display a Single Large Surface (SLS : a multi-monitor done right!) at such resolution is going to accelerate an already existing phenomena in the gaming scene: multi-display setup. I personally think that gamers gaming with at least 2 display panels is really nothing new, but so far there's not much that really drives most gamers to buy more than one single big display. The arrival of the next gen GPU from AMD might be a catalyst for this to happen.

The combination of display supported are very exciting, starting from up to 3 displays (supported by the low end variation of the DX11 GPU) and up to 6 for the high end. If I had to imagine, 3 display setup might provide a very wide landscape view and I might want to use this on any favourite FPS game that I have. With a bit of curvy setup, it will give a sense of surround view, adding realism to the gameplay!

AMD had similar intention in mind, and calling all the capabilities above as 'Eyefinity', they plan to achieve a similar effect as Holodeck (Trekkies required!) and the GPU has put forward its first step into one.

Read more on AnandTech's preview into Eyefinity here.

At last, I have completed (sort of) Test Drive Unlimited!

2009-08-11T08:38:00.002+08:00

It has been nearly 10 months since the last time I wrote in the blog. During that time, many video cards have emerged in the market (some probably got obsoleted at this moment), many exciting games have flocked the hard drive of gamers around the world.

I myself have been busy with my life and the family. Yes, it takes a childbirth, reassignment to another department, two overseas outstations, one car timing belt change, a move to the new house and an H1N1 virus outbreak to get me writing the new entry.

However, I'm still playing the games that are long pending in the PC. One of them is Test Drive Unlimited, and I'm happy to say that I've finally kind of completed the single player portion of the game. As I don't actually utilize the multiplayer part (the broadband is kind of suck!), I can never achieve 100% completion, but nonetheless, I'm already contented with it.

So what's next? Let me see, there are GRID, Bioshock and Far Cry 2 that need to be completed.
Oh well! See you around!

Crysis Warhead and snapshots galore!

2008-11-06T15:33:00.007+08:00

Yeah, I did buy the expansion of Crysis, Crysis Warhead just for the kicks of it. The game basically centers around Psycho, Nomad's teammate and what happens on the other side of the story in Crysis.

The game storyline , I think is shorter than Crysis and doesn't deal with much complexities as what we've seen in Crysis. Psycho basically has much more direct actions in combat, straight-forward missions. However, all these come with some twists and attractions: we are given some hints on Psycho's background and histories as we progress through the game. Another added element in Crysis Warhead that is I think not present in Crysis is the emotional and characterization aspects of the main subject, which in this case, Psycho.

Psycho, isn't really as 'psychotic' as the call sign seem to imply. He is portrayed as upholding a true code of honour during combat, having true sense of friendship and integrity as a true soldier. Of course, some of it may break down in the event of disappointment and frustration.
There are some dramatic scenes in Crysis Warhead that seems to strengthen those aspects above.

Despite all that, Crysis Warhead doesn't hold much surprise as an expansion of the original game but that might not be unexpected. There are clues to the continuation of the story at the end of the game (Crysis is a trilogy anyway) that we can put them as the cause for the second installment of the trilogy. At least, that's what I want to think of them.

Performance wise, my system maintains an average of 35-40 fps in the normal scenes, and this could drop to 17+ during intense combat scenes and when entering the snowy environment in the game. I didn't change the graphics settings set by the in-game detector but they are all set to 'Gamer'. I was playing at 1024x768 with 2X anti-aliasing. Yeah, pretty lame.

Despite the settings, I still enjoy the game and to me, the graphics is still smooth and non-stuttering. Hardcore gamers with 24 inch LCD might demand more than this.

I give this game 7/10 rating (since when do I give ratings to games?). Next in line, Far Cry 2 and NFS: Undercover!

Snapshots:

Radeon HD 4870 1GB

2008-09-25T17:40:00.003+08:00

I think I did mention in a previous entry that AMD will release a few variants of HD 4xxx with higher onboard memory.

Now AMD has released Radeon HD 4870 1GB, which most probably benefit those who play games at ultra high resolution (I'm talking 1920x1200 and above!). The card probably is meant to respond to the release of GTX 260 Core 216 not so long ago.

AnandTech has it reviewed here!

I give a clue though: this card beats GTX 260 Core 216 in Crysis! Although that is not a good indication for an overall performance. I suggest you to head over to the review and compare it with GTX 260 Core 216, heck, better still, include GTX 280 as well! You'll be surprised..for a card that cost around MSRP$300, I can call it a winner, once again.

It's very mouthful: GeForce GTX 260 Core 216

2008-09-17T00:47:00.005+08:00

The name above, added with the manufacturer's name and the amount of memory onboard can become a very long product name. It's NVIDIA's recent bad habit of adding a peculiar product in between the main ones, cluttering the product line-ups and confusing the customers.

So here we have GTX 260 Core 216, which obviously means that it has 216 SPs. That is 24 SPs more than the regular GTX 260. Purpose of existence? To pit it dead-on with HD 4870 in price-to-performance ratio competition.

Bearing $274 price tag, it is NVIDIA's hope to regain some market share from AMD, in the high end spectrum. Whether it works or not, only benchmarks will tell. AnandTech has it covered here.

Radeon HD 4670 - Sweet spot in the middle tier

2008-09-10T19:28:00.003+08:00

I think I'm beginning to love the lower to midrange video cards now. At $79, this card is bang on! RV730 XT is the codename for HD 4670, which is the replacement for the previous series midrange card, HD 3650.

Read here for the full review.

Radeon HD 4870 X2

2008-08-12T18:19:00.002+08:00

It's out, and it's reviewed by AnandTech!

Included in the review is the incoming graphics cards from AMD : HD 4850 X2 and 1 GB HD 4870 (we've got only 512 MB HD 4870 currently). Another surprise is the 1 GB version of HD 4850, which I suspect will make that card even more hit among gamers.

And I'm still here, banging 8800 GT in GRID! :)

VIA departure from chipset arena

2008-08-12T11:16:00.002+08:00

More and more companies are going out of their positions in the industry right now. VIA, once a well-known 3rd party chipset manufacturer, is saying goodbye to the field. I guess that they must have been feeling a tremendous competition from Intel and NVIDIA, as these two giants basically have provided a complete solution for each Intel and AMD platform.

So goodbye my friend. I still remember your KT266 and PT880 chipset that I had before. Well, they served me well.

Read here for more.

GRID is mine, and it's time to play!

2008-08-09T00:01:00.002+08:00

Finally, I've got my copy of Race Driver GRID. As much as I'm very eager to play it, I'm still stuck with some important assignments, so I'll see if I can manage to slip some time for the game.

Anyone who has played the game, I welcome you to share your experience here. Thanks..

Own notes for 9800 GTX+, GTX 280 & 260, HD 4850 & 4870

2008-07-06T00:11:00.002+08:00

This is an excerpt from AnandTech:

"

	GTX 280	GTX 260	9800 GX2	9800 GTX+	9800 GTX	8800 GTS 512	8800 GT
Stream Processors	240	192	256	128	128	128	112
Texture Address / Filtering	80 / 80	64 / 64	128 / 128	64 / 64	64 / 64	56 / 56	56 / 56
ROPs	32	28	32	16	16	16	16
Core Clock	602MHz	576MHz	600MHz	738MHz	675MHz	650MHz	600MHz
Shader Clock	1296MHz	1242MHz	1500MHz	1836MHz	1690MHz	1625MHz	1500MHz
Memory Clock	1107MHz	999MHz	1000MHz	1100MHz	1100MHz	970MHz	900MHz
Memory Bus Width	512-bit	448-bit	256-bit x 2	256-bit	256-bit	256-bit	256-bit
Frame Buffer	1GB	896MB	1GB	512MB	512MB	512MB	512MB
Transistor Count	1.4B	1.4B	1.5B	754M	754M	754M	754M
Manufacturing Process	TSMC 65nm	TSMC 65nm	TSMC 65nm	TSMC 55nm	TSMC 65nm	TSMC 65nm	TSMC 65nm
Price Point	$650	$400	$500	$229	$199	$280	$170 - $230

"

I'm a bit busy at the moment with my job that I need to spend a special time to read the reviews of 9800 GTX+, GTX 280 and 260, AMD Radeon HD 4850 and 4870. Definitely an enticing times ahead in GPU scene!

Useful links:
GeForce 9800 GTX+
GeForce 280 and 260
HD 4850 & 4870

Video: GT200 tech demo

2008-06-05T10:52:00.003+08:00

Here is a tech demo video of NVIDIA's GT200 made by Tom's Hardware (where is Thomas Pabst anyway nowadays?).

Another clip made by VR-Zone, comparing the performance of GTX280 and 260 against HD 3870 X2. Kinda skeptical though, although it's nice if they're true.

Radeon HD 4850 early pics

2008-06-02T08:42:00.003+08:00

OCWorkBench has hosted an early photo of RV770's Radeon HD 4850, which seems like a single-slot graphics card solution. It is said to sport 512 MB GDDR3 memory, with a price around $180-$200. June 18 is currently the set date for HD 4850 hard launch, so expect gamers to have their hands on this card on the same day it launches.

This could be a great start for gamers expecting to play Far Cry 2, maybe? And I just found out that NVIDIA will be launching GTX 280 and GTX 260 on June 17. Now, I'm not the owner of 9800 GTX, but somehow I do feel slightly ripped apart thinking that maybe 9800 GTX is just a stop-gap solution. This is only my opinion, but 9800 GTX didn't enjoy a long reign of power as long as 8800 GTX before it got replaced. If GTX 280 and 260, which use entirely new architecture (not G92 derivatives) perform better (which they should!), then I guess I'll be reading the same pages of riots in the tech community forums.

Visa and MasterCard are going to be very busy this mid summer...

Summer glow in the graphics industry: GT200 or D10U?

2008-05-21T16:17:00.002+08:00

After some time in comatose, computer graphics industry is about to witness once again, a head-to-head competition between NVIDIA and AMD. Remember these names: GT200, RV770.

To make it more interesting, let's have a look at these figures from NVIDIA:

D10U-30 and D10U-20.....
240 shader procs and 192 shader procs.....
512-bit memory and 448-bit memory......

more stories on DailyTech!

One thing I'm not sure is whether those above are based on GT200, as it was revealed that GT200 will appear as GeForce 9900, as mentioned here. As you go along, you will see these names: GeForce GTX 280 and GeForce GTX 260 are referred to D10U-30 and D10U-20 respectively. Well, go figure..

Race Driver GRID demo : a preview

2008-05-15T20:37:00.003+08:00

I just have downloaded a demo of Race Driver GRID, a soon-to-be-released racing game by Codemasters. I gotta admit that since the frustration due to buggy NFS Pro Street, I didn't play much racing game (except Juiced 2 HIN, which I haven't completed it anyway!) until now. Anyway, I just cross my fingers, hoping this demo would at least bring some good gaming time for me.

It's a 893 MB worth of demo, so yeah..probably an early indication of a well-packed, solid game, perhaps? So, went through installation procedures and then I executed the game straight away. I don't even bother to update my PC with the latest graphics driver or some sort. Let's see if this unoptimized gaming rig can run the game smoothly or not.

Okay, to begin with, I should mention that the menu is easy to navigate, direct and clear. Maybe I have to make an exception on the control settings for the controller (keyboard). Usually, you use Esc and Enter to basically change the settings, accept it and then escape from the setting menu. This time, you have to use Control to initiate the change, then Enter to change and accept it, before getting out of the settings. Try it for yourself and you'll understand it.

With default graphics settings at 1280x1024 res, I ran the game. I'm glad to say that my unoptimized PC ran this game at an average of 45-55 fps. with framerates that never went below 38 fps. It's a butter smooth graphics in my observation, thanks to 8800 GT under the hood. Anyway, this is not the maxed out settings allowed in the game. You have various graphics related tweaks to make the best graphics out of this game.

I just completed a few rounds of the demo and...oh yeahh, you got 3 circuits and 3 cars to try on this demo. What can I say is.......I think this game is going to cure my frustration!

Ever heard of GeForce 9600 GSO??

2008-05-03T09:51:00.002+08:00

If you ever come across this product, it is actually a rebadged 8800 GS. Yes, somehow NVIDIA wants to make it into the 9000 series even though 8800 GS had its brief moment in the market
before.

I keep reminding myself of the current trend of product introduction into the market. Sometimes, those products are not really worth what they are hype for. Tough times for gamers, maybe..no?

GTA 4: Not Yet For PC

2008-05-01T20:28:00.003+08:00

Normally I don't cover console games but as eventually some of them are available on PC platform, I think I should make this official here: Grand Theft Auto 4 is out! Of course, currently it's for XBOX 360 and PlayStation 3.

I played a few GTAs before: III, Vice City and San Andreas. For me, the best one was Vice City and San Andreas came close f*ckin' second (like quoting Naveen Andrews in Grindhouse: Planet Terror!).

I saw Anand's review here. He rarely does game reviews himself, but he did the review of GTA 4 unlike any typical game reviewer. It's more like a personal thoughts: you can agree and disagree at the same time. I suggest you guys go and have a look at it.

Like what Anand mentioned towards the end of the review, there's no reason why GTA 4 won't make it to PC; it's just a matter of when.

Vista Exclusive: 3DMark Vantage

2008-04-30T01:50:00.003+08:00

The latest excuse to upgrade your graphics card??

A Static

2008-04-25T09:15:00.002+08:00

I guess there's not much happening around the graphics industry right now. I looked around at my regularly visited websites and there's nothing interesting to mention about graphics card at the moment. Yes, there are reviews everywhere, but they are basically the same card from different manufacturers, so I leave that for anyone to browse on their own.

There are still many more games that I haven't played on my PC since I'm stuck with some side projects of my own. And I haven't completed Crysis till now.

We'll see this trend in the upcoming weeks.

Greatest punch line ever: NVIDIA vs. Intel

2008-04-11T08:44:00.002+08:00

This is old news, but recently there has been 'slide show' wars between NVIDIA and Intel regarding the future of computer graphics.

Larrabee marks the end of current graphics technology. This statement really makes Jen-Hsun Huang jumps off his seat.

Then they started pointing fingers to each other, highlighting flaws from each other's camp. Now here comes greatest punch line I've ever heard in this industry:

"How much faster can you render the blue screen of death?"

Some people might say," Well, look who's talking?".

Want full stories? Head over here.

GeForce 9800 GTX arrives: NVIDIA product launching fest continues!

2008-04-03T00:07:00.003+08:00

It seems kind of ironic to have GeForce 9800 GTX launching day happens on April Fool's Day. However, it didn't fool anyone as the card is really here among us. To make it better, it's a hard launch with immediate availability of the card in major retail stores. Gamers rejoice!

Here's a rundown on the specs of 9800 GTX:

Graphics Chip: G92 (65 nm, 754 million transistors)
No. of Stream processors: 128
Core Clock: 675 MHz
Shader Clock: 1688 MHz
Memory Size: 512 MB
Memory Clock : 1100 Mhz (2.2 GHz effective)
Memory Interface: 256-bit
Memory Bandwidth: 70.4 GB/sec
Texture Fill Rate: 43.2 GTexels/sec
ROPs : 16
Texture Filtering Unit: 64
Form Factor : 2-slot
Power Connector: 6-pin X 2
Max. Power Consumption: 156W

This card runs on PCIE 2.0 bus, although I suspect it still functions on PCIE 1.0.

Looking at the specs above, what can you see? Something familiar? Yes, GeForce 9800 GTX is very much a 8800 GTS 512MB, with a major difference being the core clock speed (675 against 650) and the resulting shader clock speed. The memory clock also receives a bit of a bump (1100 against 970 in 8800 GTS 512).

GeForce 9800 GTX is going to sell around $299-$349.

Reviews are already around (that's fast!), so take your pick from these various sources:

To be honest, I'm not even sure if it has been an exciting array of product launches from NVIDIA. I mean, 3 variants of G92-based cards after 8800 GT doesn't really hype things up for me anymore. What do you think?

And now for 9800 GX2 Quad SLI reviews

2008-03-26T19:31:00.003+08:00

This is expected so, the reviews are up already around the net. Do you think the results will justify a $1200 worth of gaming experience, on graphics card alone? You tell yourself.

AnandTech
TweakTown
DriverHeaven
t-break
HotHardware
LegitReviews
XbitLabs
Guru3d

I myself haven't got much time to go through those but I'll save it for some time later. Need to be ready to crunch on those benchmark numbers.. :)

NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GX2 is here!

2008-03-19T09:16:00.005+08:00

Finally, GeForce 9800 GX2 has arrived. A sandwich G92-based card is NVIDIA's answer to AMD's 3870 X2 and AFAIK the second multi-chip card from the green camp after 7950 GX2.

Various sites have posted their reviews of the card:

Anandtech
Firingsquad
NVNews
TechPowerUp
Driverheaven
TechARP
Elite Bastards
Guru3D
PC Perspective
TweakTown
Toms Hardware
Hardocp

From a brief glance at those benchmarks made by AnandTech, I can see that 9800 GX2 performs very close to doubling the performance of 8800 GT. Remember this also brings more than twice the price of 8800 GT and nearly doubles the power requirement (195W against 105W). I do agree however that AnandTech should have included 8800 GT SLI performance into the benchmarks, which will make more sense for any potential buyers of both cards.

It's no doubt that only gamers with hi-res LCD monitor (I'm saying 22" and above...that's quite demanding!) will see the real benefit from this card. As always, happy gaming...for a $600 more!

9800 GX2, 9800 GTX closing by....

2008-03-11T22:41:00.003+08:00

That's it then. For those who are hoping for a whopping leap of performance in GeForce 9800 series might find this news a little discouraging: 9800 GX2 and 9800 GTX will use the same 65 nm G92 found in 8800 GT. The difference is that it will use all its 128 shader processors, instead of 112. DailyTech has more stories about it here.

I personally will skip this generation although it's too soon to tell anything (apart from the fact that I'm not planning to spend any money to find 8800 GT replacement; it's good enough for me!). Anyway, I will keep a good eye on GX2's performance as it's a second attempt from NVIDIA after 7950GX2 didn't quite live up to expectation. Furthermore, they just can't leave 3870 X2 alone, can they?

And for 9800GTX, March 25th is the date!

Early 9800 GX2 retail pics

2008-03-05T09:59:00.003+08:00

NDAs are flying everywhere for this card, so sorry folks...no actual specs are available at this moment. However, AnandTech received some pictures from Albatron about their upcoming 9800 GX2.

Well, I saw one 6-pin and one 8-pin power supply connector on the card. This reminds me of the 'hottie' AMD 2900 XT. Does this imply that we can still run GX2 with only (6 + 6)-pin connector connected, and (6 + 8)-pin connection to enable overclocking on this card?

Take a look at those pics here.

GeForce 9600 GT is launched!

2008-02-21T19:03:00.008+08:00

Weird, because I just posted an entry about 9600 GT a few days ago. Anyway, today marks the official launch of 9600 GT from NVIDIA. For 9600 GT reference card, this is the spec:

GPU : G94 (D9M) at 65 nm
No. of stream processor : 64
No. of ROPs : 16
Core Clock : 650 MHz
Shader Clock : 1625 MHz
Memory Clock : 1800 MHz
Memory Onboard : 512 MB (not sure about any 256 MB flavour)
Memory Subsystem : 256-bit
Memory Bandwidth : 57.6 GB/sec
Texture Fill rate : 20.8 Gigapixels/sec
Power consumption : 95 W (6-pin power connector required)

From the specs, it looks like a very attractive graphics card, with price tag of $170-$190.

Expect streams of reviews around the net soon.

edited: Flocks of reviews have just emerged. Take a look at:

AnandTech
Guru3D
Elite Bastards
PC Perspective
Legit Reviews
Hot Hardware

On another note, as a pre-emptive strike against 9600 GT launch, AMD slashed the price of HD 3850 and 3870 down to $169 and $189 respectively. It's gonna be a fierce war between NVIDIA and AMD in the midrange sector indeed. Take your pick, gamers!

Crysis on 8800 GT - not bad at all

2008-02-21T11:53:00.002+08:00

This clip shows this gamer with 8800 GT playing Crysis on Very High settings. Not bad though I can see the graphics minor stuttering.

PNY 8800 GTS review video

2008-02-21T11:45:00.001+08:00

Take a look at this video clip 'cause it's quite a nice review of the card.

Test Drive Unlimited video

2008-02-21T10:29:00.003+08:00

I just love this game very much. I would have given it 100% rating if not for some glitches that this game possesses.

Take a look at this clip, and enjoy the tour that Gallardo had!

EVGA e-GeForce 8800 GS 384 MB review at TechPowerUp

2008-02-18T22:29:00.003+08:00

OMG! I guess that during my hiatus, I had accidentally missed another 'silent' product that came from NVIDIA. 8800 GS, another derivative off G92 GPU (well, I initially thought it was based off G8x ) are already in the market. However, I cannot sense it being publicized much compared to like 8800 GT and GTS 512. Could it be a gap-filler solution? A gap between 8600 GTS and 8800 GTS 320, or GTS 320 and GT? Or something else?

Anyway, we've got one of them under reviewer's microscope at TechPowerUp. EVGA e-GeForce 8800 GS 384 MB. So basically, this is what they say about what 8800 GS actually is:

"
The G92 is currently NVIDIA's hottest (not temperature) GPU. It sells like mad on several different products like 8800 GT and 8800 GTS 512 MB. Since both of them are still fairly expensive and ATI has solid offerings in the $170 range, NVIDIA decided to create the GeForce 8800 GS based on the G92 GPU but with less performance features. They took G92 cores and disabled 24 shader units and 4 ROPs. The memory bus has also been reduced from 256 bit to 192 bit which explains the odd memory size of 384 MB.
"

You're dead right it's odd! Basically, after all that crippling, 8800 GS is left with the specs like this:

Shader Units : 96
ROPS : 12
Transistors : 754M (exactly like 8800 GT)
Memory Bus Width : 192-bit
Memory Size : 384 MB
Coere Clock : 500 MHz
Memory Clock : 800 MHz

All that for $170. It's a head-to-head competition against HD 3850 (duhh! Now I understand!).

It's an interesting review, so head over to TechPowerUp to read the verdict.

AMD dissed physics, Nvidia acquired AGEIA, Nvidia dissed X2

2008-02-18T16:10:00.004+08:00

Rant Mode: ON

Ahh, it's just so happening in the graphics industry right now. Not long ago, AMD downplayed the importance of physics saying that it will not be important until at least DX11.

A few days ago, NVIDIA acquired AGEIA, thus promising a momentum in physics application (whether through dedicated hardware or driver).

Intel already has Havok in it's arsenal.

Then, Nvidia made a claim that HD 3870 X2 is not the world's best performing single graphics card (ouch!) and stating that a single chip solution still offer the best performance by referencing its products eg. 8800 GTX, Ultra.

We know that at the same time, 9800 GX2 is about to be released in Q1 this year. So?

Just listen to what Jen-Hsun Huang said:

“If you want to put two GPUs on an add-in card and you deliver the absolute highest performance in the world, the enthusiast that uses that particular PC will certainly tolerate the fact that it’s a much larger solution. But if it’s not the highest performance solution in the world, as in the case of the X2, then it’s just really problematic. You know, there’s no market really for a product that’s larger, louder, and not as high performance. So, I think that GeForce 8800 GTX is still absolutely the best DX10 and highest graphics performance GPU in the world.”

Uhh, that's just sharp. Hehehehe.

Anyway, he did actually make a remark about Nvidia's own dual chip solution. View X-Bit Labs for full text.

There are no 'good' manners in the corporate world.

Rant Mode: OFF

9600 GT review at TweakTown!

2008-02-18T15:45:00.004+08:00

Among X600 GT in the history of NVIDIA graphics card, which one was considered the best in its class? Most would say 6600 GT, I guess. 7600 GT?? Emm, okay..but definitely not 8600 GT.
To continue the trend 9600 GT is also a must product from NVIDIA and once again, we'll be seeing the same question again, will this card become the next 'hot' midrange graphics card?

The answer lies right here at TweakTown. What you'll see is that 9600 GT might have something special under that G94 engine that makes this card very competitive. Let me give this clue: it has to be pitted against 8800 GT and HD 3870, not HD 3850 or any other card of its equivalent. And yeah, it won't beat 8800 GT, but how about HD 3870?

I won't spoil it more but for the price that is well under that of HD 3870, it surely is the next attractive card from NVIDIA. And it's gonna hit the retail shelves next week.

Gaming season for me: Juiced 2

2008-02-14T15:39:00.006+08:00

I might be late on this, but currently I have 5-6 games waiting to be played on my rig. Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, Crysis, NFS: Pro Street, Juiced 2, Bioshock, Unreal Tournament 3 etc (yeah, I spent that much on games. I guess I'm still young at heart). Currently, Juiced 2 is the one installed and I'm about 80% through the whole game.

It's pretty much better than the first Juiced, but it's very arcade compared to NFS: Pro Street. The game run very solid without any hiccup, glitch or instability. No problems with graphics smoothness when I'm powered by 8800 GT at hand.

However, the gameplay becomes repetitive after a while when I progress through leagues. I don't even bother to complete each league at full 100%. Just need to unlock the next stage ASAP.

For those who are contemplating on getting this game..well, I won't say it's worthy every penny, but it's still fun to play. Just wait until this game gets cheaper in your nearest gamestore.

You can be sure all babes in this game are SUPER HOT!!!

9600 GT to be released in February 21st

2008-02-05T01:35:00.000+08:00

The first card in Geforce 9 series to be released is 9600 GT and it's gonna be released on Feb 21st, after being delayed from the original date, that was on 14th.

...and that is all I have to say.

p/s: OMG OMG OMG! This card trails 8800 GT in preliminary benchies?? Read over here!

My Zotac against GTS 640MB and GTX

2008-02-05T00:38:00.000+08:00

I just found a review which pitted my Zotac 8800 GT against Foxconn 8800 GTS 640 MB and MSI 8800 GTX. There is not much review for one as most Zotac card reviewed till today are the AMP version (700 MHz core clock).

To cut the story short, it seems that Zotac 8800 GT equals the performance of GTX in most benchmarks in the review, except in World in Conflict and 3DMark06 (meh!) and certainly whoop GTS 640 MB's butt big time. Even in Crysis, Zotac 8800 GT tops GTX in every tested resolution (a bit strange though, perhaps there's something wrong with the driver?).

It seems that Foxconn and MSI are factory-overclocked configurations too, just look at the table below.

	MSI GeForce 8800 GTX	FOXCONN GeForce 8800 GTS	ZOTAC GeForce 8800 GT
Stream Processors	128	96	112
Core Clock (MHz)	610	600	660
Shader Clock (MHz)	1350	1200	1500
Memory Clock (MHz)	1000	1030	900
Video RAM (MB)	768	640	512
Memory Interface	384-bit	320-bit	256-bit
Memory Bandwidth (GB/sec)	86.4	64	57.6
Texture Fill Rate (billion/sec)	36.8	24	33.6

The review is also a good read for average, mainstream gamers like me who still stuck with 19" LCD monitor, hence play at 1280x1024 res max. To be honest, there are, but not much reviews today that really provide benchmarks around those resolution. I mean, most reviews are chasing for hi-def gaming benchies or some sort. Come on man, don't leave gamers like us behind!

Enough rants, head over to BenchmarkReviews for the full story.

OMG! Another X2 card?

2008-02-04T00:01:00.000+08:00

There is no doubt about it; dual-chip graphics card seems to be the 'in-thing' for the GPU makers this year. Does that mean there are no longer innovations for a single GPU in the future? I hope not, but my guess is per GPU architectural improvement will be less 'heavy' than before if the multi-GPU concept is the way to go.

The reason for the title is that I've spotted another X2 card from AMD in the form of HD 2600XT X2 Quad, which obviously means two 2600XT chip in a single card. It will be made by Visiontek, and the name 'Quad' implies as it has 4 DVI output per card (so for Quad GPU, you get 8 possible outputs to your monitor!)

Obviously it will perform less than HD 3870X2 and I don't know where its performance will fall in benchmarks. Perhaps equal to 8800 Ultra??

Head over here for more details of the card.

GeForce 9800 GX2 dissected!

2008-01-31T18:51:00.000+08:00

In the world of graphics card, nothing could be more cruel than having one stripped to pieces. The same thing goes to soon-to-be-revealed GeForce 9800 GX2, which is rumoured to consist of two 8800 GTS 512 GPU paired together into a single, multi-GPU card solution. It seems that TechConnect has some photos of the card in full frontal 'nudity'.

Poor him, may gamers have 'mercy' on his shaders, later on.

Radeon HD 3870 X2 in action!

2008-01-29T08:25:00.000+08:00

I've got a video clip here to share (yes, it seems that no-video-postage curse in Pimp My GPU here has been permanently broken!). It shows HD 3870 in action and let me tell you folks, this card is definitely and strictly for hi-def gaming only!

So, 9800 GX2...we are waiting!

The fastest single card: AMD HD3870 X2

2008-01-28T23:22:00.000+08:00

Ahhh..it's good to be around again. After some long hiatus due to some business matters, I can put it to rest and start picking something up. I know a few things that happened during this period : GeForce 8800 GTS 512 MB is one of them. It's okay; with $50-$100 more and and advantage of 5-10 fps average in almost every games compared to 8800 GT, it's a good card for those who waited long enough to upgrade.

However, today the story is different when I hear a loud cheer of joy from AMD's camp. As predicted beforehand, AMD releases its multi-GPU solution in the form of two HD 3870 GPU, previously codenamed R680. It is considered AMD's high end offering after Radeon 2900 XT back in May 2007. At $449, some may find it attractive for a high-end graphics card, some might not.

Check out the review right here at AnandTech.

I think, 2008 will be the year for multi-GPU cards from AMD and NVIDIA, as based from what they've hinted at the end of last year. For that matter, there's one more thing that crop up in my mind: how about the power requirement for the system equipped with those monster cards?

Happy belated New Year!

A repossessed gamer

2007-12-17T11:16:00.000+08:00

When I create this blog, one thing that I pledge to myself to never do to this blog is to include any videos or movies. However, this particular clip really got me laughing myself off the chair that I have to include it no matter what.

Some of you might have seen this clip anyway. This kid is definitely not pimping any GPU (by the way it played out, no GPU maker would dare to claim their GPU is powering this kid's rig).

One valuable lesson for any gamer: Never lose the functionality of your 'Escape' button!

Happy gaming!

G92 8800 GTS 512 MB review At TweakTown!

2007-12-01T02:34:00.000+08:00

It's not even December 3rd yet (or mid December as some might say) for the launch of the card but TweakTown has already posted their review on GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB based on G92 chip. Whether this overrules any NDA for the card or not is something I don't know as they claimed that the card was sent to them by a 'mysterious' company! How's that for a starter!

For a quickie, the card is a dual slot in design and it is clocked at 650/1625/1940 MHz for core/shader/memory. Pretty faster and cooler than 8800 GT, won't you say?

Anyway, as expected, 8800 GTS 512 MB is faster than 8800 GT 512 MB. However, it is up to the viewer to judge whether the difference justify for the extra $50 to $100 more on price.

Here's the most interesting bit: if you're planning to get 8800 GTX or even Ultra, you might want to think twice. Get over to their last page in the review because I think, this card might make you $300-$350 happier!

G92 8800 GTS 128 SP is almost here!

2007-11-25T19:00:00.000+08:00

(source of picture: VR-Zone)

I can say that this is already out of the rumour mills and can be pretty accurate at the time of printing. The G92 version of 8800 GTS has already becoming the talk of town in various forums and tech news. Once again NVIDIA is going to bomb the graphics card community with another possibly 'GTX killer' (when 8800 GT just behind it) and to be a lil' far fetched, an Ultra killer. Okay, I made that up but hey, there are many of us who like to see that happens.

So, basically, this is what G92 8800 GTS is supposed to be:

512MB and 1024MB flavors.
Based on g92 chipset with 65nm process.
256-bit memory interface.
128 shader units.
650MHz core clock.
1940MHz memory clock.
1625Mhz shader clock.
Supported release date as December 3rd.

( credit goes to ZeroTM from AnandTech forum)

And that all for only USD$300 to USD$350. Surprise!

I'm not sure whether this will trigger another mass 'WTS: 8800 GTS, 8800 GT used' threads in various forums, just like what I saw when 8800 GT came out to the market. Gamers, undoubtedly are fragile to this syndrome. Me? I'm gonna stick with my newly acquired Zotac 8800 GT.

Finally, I got myself an 8800 GT!

2007-11-16T00:21:00.000+08:00

It has been almost two years of gaming using AOpen 7800 GT, and I have endured many games together with this card. Now, it's time to move on to the next generation of graphics card. I think I've waited patiently for this, I've waited for the right time and price and when the opportunity comes, I grab it without any more doubt and hesitation.

It was almost midday today when I suddenly called my favourite PC shop in KL, asking if there's a new stock on any 8800 GT card. Luckily there was and to my surprise, there was only 2 more pieces left. With a price tag of RM899 (approx. $260), this is a bargain I cannot let go. Off to the shop then.

Behold, Zotac 8800 GT! Finally, I managed to grab one of the last 2 units. I was also surprised to know that the card is already pre-overclock from the factory, running at 660 MHz core (standard clock is 600 MHz).

I managed to get some snapshots of the card and the rest of the contents:

As you can see, Zotac 8800 GT holds nothing special in terms of box contents and card appearance: it follows NVIDIA reference card and cooler design. There is no bundle games and the accessories are very basic, but still serve the purposes. What really attracts me is that the price is very attractive for factory-overclocked graphics card.

I have yet to replace this card into my rig, but if you're interested to know its performance, the closest review are the ones at TechPowerUp and DriverHeaven as they both reviewed Zotac 8800 GT AMP! Edition, which is pre-overclocked at 700 Mhz core. Just lower the score a little bit and you got some ideas how Zotac 8800 GT regular version performs.

I hope that this is a good investment for me in PC gaming. There's a slight chance that my gaming era is about to slow down as I'm getting older day by day. However, I value every graphics card that I bought and having been a PC gamer since the last 10 years, each card I have means something to me.

The story continues....

HD 3870 & HD 3850 reviewed!

2007-11-15T08:50:00.000+08:00

Holy graphics card, Batman! The wait is finally over that the official reviews of the latest offerings from AMD/ATi start to appear in the net now. HD 3870 and HD 3850 are targeted at the midrange level of graphics card and directly competing with 8800 GT from NVIDIA.

I personally hope that these two cards would bring the competition right on NVIDIA's face as we have witnessed almost no price reduction from NVIDIA since last year, I mean for the upper range video cards (as I was targeting GTS 320MB all the time. No more, baby!).

So, head over to these reviews and you can be sure they'll pit these new cards with 8800 GT. The results, well...I'm gonna reserve my judgment later, when the right time comes.

VR-Zone
HotHardware
TweakTown

edited: I have to take away Legion Hardware review on RV670 due to the suspicion of it being a fake review, as highlighted by a forum here. Therefore, its credibility is currently still being questioned.

Shockingly RV670!

2007-11-12T15:19:00.000+08:00

I was strolling (not trolling) some tech websites and forums regarding graphics card and found out that there are already several leaks on AMD's latest RV670, or HD 3870. VR-Zone's preliminary tests and IAX Tech benchmarks seems to indicate that RV670 is in fact a very strong contender to NVIDIA's 8800 GT.

Also revealed is the card's appearance which is a dual-slot type and also sports single 6-pin power connector.

While it's true that 3DMark benchies are not the real performance indicator, it is still a good starter for AMD to gather attention toward its new graphics card this time around. Price is said to be cheaper than 8800 GT, if not equal. 15th November is said to be the day the official benchmark for RV670 is released.

Head over to VR-Zone and IAX Tech for further details regarding early RV670 bechmarks.

Enabling 'Very High' Setting in Crysis Demo..under XP!

2007-11-06T02:24:00.000+08:00

I know some of you (maybe all of you gamers...) are fiddling around with Crysis demo at this time. What you're witnessing is how our system are being torn apart by the game..it's just ridiculous.

So, I've been wondering around graphics cards and games forums here and there, and I noticed a thread about a way to enable the 'Very High' setting in Crysis demo, for those running Windows XP (hence DX9 version of Crysis).

It is known the 'Very High' setting is only enable when you're running Vista, which allows you to get all DX10 goodies out of Crysis. However, when applying the trick (which by modifying some .cfg files in Crysis demo folder), it is very difficult to differentiate which shots are taken with 'tweaked' DX9 Crysis, and the one with DX10 Crysis. What really happened under the hood is still a mystery.

Or course, all this is achieved with a huge performance impact. However, those with high end graphics cards and CPUs reported having contented with 25-30 FPS average. LOL.

IMO, this is a must try to all XP runners running Crysis, and those who're still pimpin' their DX9.0c GPUs. If you're interested, head over to Crysis-Online forum.

NFS Pro Street Demo screenshots!

2007-11-05T00:05:00.000+08:00

For the graphics settings above, my system can only achieve around 32 fps average! I'm not even maximizing all of them yet!

Currently, I have a mixed feeling on the overall menu interface: it somehow feels bare and to simple (trying to stay away from much 'bling from the past' perhaps?). Even the notification, warning sign, achievements announcement looks rather basic and unattractive.

However, the physics are better, the damaged are close to real, although there are some points need to be highlighted (the wheels still round even after rolling 10 times before crash).

More to come. Stay tuned.

NFS Pro Street Demo is OUT!

2007-11-04T05:04:00.000+08:00

OMG! OMG! OMG!

I just missed it by a day..I didn't realize it was just released.

Head over to NFS-Planet for complete mirrors for downloading the demo!

I'm downloading it right now!

8800 GT is launched!

2007-10-30T23:33:00.000+08:00

Okay, I know it's a bit late but yesterday, October 29th was the launching day for the new graphics card from NVIDIA, GeForce 8800 GT. Based on G92 chip, 8800 GT boasts some new features and performance higher than 8800 GTS 320 MB and in most cases, GTS 640 MB.

There are numerous reviews already scattering around, so to get more details, you can read some of them here:

Anand's Review
Expreview
Tweaktown (MSI NX8800GT) (thanks TroubleM)
Boot Daily
VR-Zone
TomsHardware (Leadtek WinFast PX8800GT)
EliteBastards (ASUS EN8800GT)
Hardocp
FiringSquad
Guru3D (SLI)
HotHardware (SLI)
TechReport
FPSLabs (SLI)
Motherboards.org
LegitReviews
TechPowerup

(credit goes to HigherGround, a member of AnandTech forum)

You know what, I almost bought the card today...2 times! Everytime I wanted to step over to the shop, something else came by, drawing my attention away. The money was already in my pocket and I was just a cashier away from purchasing it. It looks like I just have to wait for something....probably a price drop when RV670 is released, perhaps?

Anyway, I think 8800 GT is a suitable card for me. It's been 2 years since I've been pimping 7800 GT and I think, it's almost time to move on. It also looks like I'm the guy who will always be associated with the 'GT' variant, no matter what. Who knows, maybe another trip in the future with 9800 GT, B8E GT and so on.

As soon as I grab a new graphics card, I'll let you know.

Crysis Demo : a quickie ....

2007-10-29T12:12:00.000+08:00

Okay, let me do a rundown on the demo very very quickly. First of all, it's a 1.8 GB worth of download, so 56K beware! Then, the installation requires the latest driver for the graphics card (obviously!), so I downloaded Forceware 163.71 from NVIDIA website for my 7800 GT. Yeah, that's right: I'm still pimpin' my GPU here!

Straight into the game: I launched the demo, watched all the displays from sponsors and developers, and finally into the menu. I set all control configurations and touched nothing on the graphics settings except the resolution: I changed it to 1024x768. Yes, that's pathetic alright!
I just gotta be sure, I can still run the game. And you know how did Crysis auto configured the game according to my system? It put all graphics options to LOW, yess, that's right, LOW!
For a PC spec that you can see on my profile, running Win XP SP2, this is what you are going to get when playing Crysis.

When everything's set (with FRAPS running in the background), I launched the new game, watched everything played out in my PC. As a quickie, I love the new HUD system, love the binoculars, the map, etc...everything was just fine EXCEPT that I'm playing at the mediocre graphics settings, which is the reason for all Crysis hypes. I killed some baddies, and snapped a few screenies along the way.

I haven't finished the demo yet, but I'm eager to share with you my screenshots. Just remember, these are what you're gonna see, if you're having a similar setup as mine, running Crysis at an average of 50 FPS!

Crysis Demo is out!

2007-10-27T22:09:00.000+08:00

Today, all hell breaks loose.

Today, gamers will once again, benchmark their systems, especially the graphics card.

Today, every graphics cards will bow to the one that is about to enslave them.

Today, get your Crysis demo at CrysisDemo.com.

Note: It's a hefty 1.8 GB download, I just can't imagine the full version of it!

RV670: A quickie..

2007-10-19T10:20:00.001+08:00

Quoting from some website and forums:

"
November 19 is the date set for the official unveiling of the RV670-powered Radeon HD 2950 cards that will have to battle Nvidia's (November 12 released) G92s.

Production of the new chip is on schedule and it seems AMD is planning to start producing the initial batch of 1.5 million RV670s in the first week of November. The RV670 is a 55nm part that features 320 Stream Processors, a 256-bit memory bus, support for DirectX 10.1 plus, a working UVD, working Crossfire and support for PCI-Express 2.0.

The cards equipped by the RV670 have already been codenamed Gladiator and Revival and their specs will be:

- Gladiator: 825 MHz (GPU), 2400 MHz (memory), 514MB GDDR4
- Revival: 750 MHz (GPU), 1800 MHz (memory), 256/512MB GDDR3

The prices of the new cards are set to hover in and around the $199 and $249 marks.
"

Nice! A direct competition with 8800 GT 256 MB and 512 MB variants.

G92: Another good news for gaming this year end!

2007-10-19T09:10:00.000+08:00

It seems that more and more good news emerge out of the graphics industry. First, the HD2900 Pro, then RV670, now G92 which has been materialized in the form of 8800 GT!

Rumours said that G92, a 65 nm chip was the one to be monikered as 8700 GTS (or GT), acting as a gap filler between 8600 GTS and 8800 GTS 320MB. After reading various forums and speculations lately made me think twice whether this is true or not. According to some sites (this is highly speculation, so I won't put any links for reference!), early G92 benchmarks in 3DMark05 and '06 show that 8800 GT even beats the heck out of 8800GTS 640MB! It even shy only 2000+ points in 3DMark06's Shader Test behind 8800 Ultra! That's kinda a bit far-fetched, maybe?

Now, I've been thinking, can 8800 GT's 112 Shader processors, 256-bit memory system (had to double-checked this!), 512 MB, 600+ Mhz clock and 1500 Mhz shader clock make all those happen? I don't even think that this is the card previously meant as a 8600GTS-8800GTS 320MB gap filler, but having 112 SPs might prove some points in beating 8800 GTS models.

Now, I have to say that whatever it is, it's a good news for budget gamers like me as 8800 GT is said to come in two variants: 256MB for $199 and 512 MB for $250! That simply kills even 8800 GTS 320MB! October 29th is said to be the launching date, probably a hard launch for 8800 GT.

Now, another 'speculation' is that another product is coming from NVIDIA in the form of a 'new' 8800 GTS models, replacing the current 8800 GTS 320MB and 640MB! It is said to be launched somewhere in mid to end of November. I've only heard from one person in a forum, so I'm not even sure about its legitimacy. If it's true, then NVIDIA has more than just 8800 GT for us this year end.

And also let's not forget that AMD is releasing RV670 (55 nm-based chip) on November 19th, which speculatively, in the form of HD 2950 Pro, or more interestingly, HD 3800 series!

What a world we live in!

Enemy Territory: Quake Wars.... Oh My God!!

2007-10-08T10:23:00.000+08:00

Recently I took a time to download a demo of an interesting game, probably among the most awaited game in 2007, Enemy Territory: Quake Wars. Using Doom3 engine, or some might say Tech4 developed by id Software's programming guru John Carmack, this game forces the engine to show its muscle in outdoor environment. With MegaTexturing in hand, it actually does pretty well at it.

Anyway, this is not a full-fledge review like what I did with Test Drive Unlimited before but more of an first impression of the game. Let me begin with saying that 'Wow!' can only described the game partially, as ET:QW really brings my adrenaline rushing again! The team-based FPS really does it again for me, and this time powered by my favourite OpenGL 3D engine ever.

Actually, it's the gameplay that drives me crazy most. Even though the demo only gives 1 map, it gives me a complete picture of what ET:QW will deliver in full game. The elements in the game are balanced: AI, missions and campaigns, character class etc. bring a lot of space to experiment with. I can say I just can't get enough of it after playing it again and again!

I spent a lot of hours playing offline and I did also tried a few servers online which runs the demo. This definitely brings back all memories all way back to Quake 3 Arena times!

Definitely two thumbs up! I can't wait to get the full game of ET:QW which is already available now.

Profile selection interface

ET:QW main menu

Wait for medic, or the next deployment wave

Doom3 engine in outdoor environment

I used rocket launcher all the time, my favourite!

Status of friendly or enemy when pointed using crosshair

Through the sniper's scope

Strogg's fireblaze from the sky

Camper's paradise, yeehahh!

AMD launches HD 2900 PRO!

2007-09-28T12:24:00.000+08:00

Finally, after waiting for a few months, my sober towards graphics card industry has a bit 'subsided'. AMD finally launches a new graphics card dubbed HD 2900 Pro, which nicely fills the big gap between HD 2600 XT and HD 2900 XT.

Basically, here's the outline of the card: it is basically the same card as 2900 XT but with lower core and memory clock ( however, rumours are circling around that the memory uses 512-bit ringbus and not 1024-bit as in 2900 XT. We'll see how this comes out later!). Of course, this card comes with 320 stream processors!

2900 Pro will come in 512 MB and 1 GB memory configuration. For 1 GB flavour, the card might comes in two types: one sporting 9-inch HSF cooler, and another one with 12-inch version. Among the earliest vendors to manufacture the card are Sapphire, PowerColor and HIS.

Now this is the best part: 512 MB version will retail at $249 and 1 GB at $299! This definitely makes this card appealing to budget gamers like me, although I can anticipate that this card might have a hard time competing with 8800 GTS 320 MB!

Nevertheless, with at least $50 less, 2900 Pro has already grab some attention from the budget department. I do hope that 8800 GTS 320 MB arrogant pricing will get some aggressive reductions immediately after this, as I've always wanted it to be.

Are you a BMW M3 lover?

2007-09-23T01:33:00.000+08:00

I just came across a post in NFS-Planet regarding a freeware game called BMW M3 Challenge, which is developed by 10tacle Studios, the developer of 'GT Legends'. The game is created as an introduction of some sort to IAA (International Motor Show) in Frankfurt Germany.

By the looks from the screenshots below, I'm not sure if the game is going to stress my 7800 GT; it just looks plain and simple. However, as I'm currently downloading it, I hope it will be entertaining and close to simulation. The only little thing I regret personally is that the game features the new M3 E90, not M3 E46 (GTR or CSL) that I love very much.

Have a try by visiting their site on the link above.

More pics of NFS: Pro Street

2007-09-20T18:03:00.000+08:00

It's about two months since the last time I posted here. The reason was apart of being glued to my job, I find the graphics industry seems to be static at the moment. HD 2900 XT isn't a threat to NVIDIA's top range graphics card, which means, my dream card 8800 GTS 320MB isn't offered a reduction in price as well. Damn, it's been a year already! This is what happens when there is no competition around! Do they really have to wait for Crysis or UT2K7 to bring them to their knees before releasing the newer cards??

Enough rants already, I hereby provide some more photos of the anticipated (I think!) PC racing game, NFS Pro Street. Hopefully, it will live up to its hype, this November 1st.

Test Drive Unlimited for PC - Hawaiian tour : PART 2!

2007-07-19T09:37:00.000+08:00

(This is the second part of the entry regarding Test Drive Unlimited for PC. For the first part, look for the post before this.)

In the previous post, I talked about some general overviews of TDU from a perspective of a temporal sick minded gamer (read: me). Today, let's go to the beginning of the game itself where you start your career in the game until the point where everything becomes fairly repetitive. This entry is going to be filled with snapshots (beware: high bandwidth connection required!) with a storytelling style in order to describe the storyline to you clearly.

I created a new profile in the game so that I can make a fresh start enabling me to capture the initial moments in the game.

Let's begin at the airport:

There are some cutscenes in the beginning, showing some people in the waiting hall, then we've got an announcement regarding the departure to Hawaii.

While queuing for the ticket checking, you're presented with the option to select a character. This is the crucial part as if you're a type of person who concerns about your in-game appearance, your selection will affect the types of gears, attires available in the game and your driving style (Okay, I made that last one up!). Anyway, just select the one you like most ( and yes, that sexy babe is a potential racer, so beware!)

Whoever you choose will become the main character throughout the game progression. After this part, there are more cutscenes in the plane, some takeoffs, view from your plane of Hawaii and the landing. The whole thing is set up similar to a beginning of a movie...it's a story about you.

We have arrived, yay! The cutscenes will bring you straight to the next point in the game: renting a car.

There will be some scenes of you arriving at the rental car agent, after which the game will prompt you with this:

There will be a few nice cars for you to choose from. The car is actually meant for you to get yourself into the next point in the game: buying a house. To rent a car, choose a car you like, and select the duration of rental (10 or 20 minutes). During this selection, you will notice that you already have some cash with you (around $200K).

As shown above, the game will prompt you to follow the GPS indication in the map right after renting a car. This will be the first time you ride in the island. Off you go, then.

I like to take the opportunity to show something here. I choose the in-car view to demonstrate a feature that allows you to further set up your seating position. In the Game Options, select Game Settings/Seat Position to access the option for adjusting the position and the height of your seat. It's like having to adjust yourself with your new ride, you just gotta make sure everything feels comfy for you. Yes, this feature also allows you to feast your eye on the interior details of the car.

Tadaaaa! The result is shown above and it's obvious that you can see more details than before. I believe that whoever owns a 21" or above will be able to see the gear position (P, R, N, D and S), fuel meter and temperature gauge clearer.

Continue driving to the indicated destination on the GPS map (roughly 2 km from the airport). When you arrive, there are cutscenes showing you in the real estate agency, making your way to your first purchase of your home.

This is the menu showing the available houses from that particular agency. You can browse the menu to look for your house of choice. As I've mentioned in the previous post, you can take a virtual tour of each house before you decide to take one. Don't forget to check out the garage capacity and of course, the price. Obviously, the amount of cash in hand determine which house that you can buy (if it's insufficient, some house will print out an indication in red colour, indicating your inaffordability).

Got what you want? Proceed in your purchase and there will be some cutscenes showing your arrival at your new home.

The next step is to purchase your first car in the island, which is why you will be prompted with a message shown above. When you click 'Next', you can select from a few car dealers available at the beginning of the game. In my case, I select an Audi dealer.

Ooops, just to show you something: this is the map of the island in the early stage of the game. As you progress, there will be more information available on it. The map itself is beautifully rendered and mipmapped; just look at the light reflection at the sea around the island. Talk about attention to details here folks.

Okay then, back to business. Helloooo Audi!

There will be cutscenes showing your arrival at the dealer shop, before you're prompted with the message above. Are you ready to make your first purchase?

Similar to the process during the car rental, you will be provided with selection of cars available at that particular car dealer. You will also notice individual specs of each model, and pricetag that it carries. If you select a car, you can have a virtual tour of it too. You can play around with its power windows, opening left and right door, moving your view around its interior etc. The most important thing is you can test drive it too! It's like purchasing your car in real life: you need a sufficient sneak peek of the car you desire before you decide to buy it.

There are a few more steps required in purchasing a car. First, the game will ask you whether you want it to come with stock tire rims or sporty, customized one (if available, with extra cost).

Second, you're prompted with the option for the paint colour (other types of paint come with extra cost, if available).

Then, you will be given the option to select the colour setup for the interior, which in my opinion adds extra value for TDU. I haven't seen this feature yet in other car racing games eg. Need For Speed.

You can always go back to the previous steps by clicking 'Cancel' just in case you want to change something.

If everything else works out fine, you are ready to buy your first car. Remember, the whole procedure is similar if you make you future purchases as you progress through the game.

Having bought your first car, the game will instantly point you to the next step: pitting you against other racers in a predefined race point. Follow the GPS map, the race is not too far (about 2.8 km only) from your current position in the map.

I would like take the opportunity to show you what types of driving view available for you in the game. There are 6 of them (including the one you already know, the in-car view) and you can pick the one that suits you most.

Bonnet view.....

Bumper view, with nicely positioned speedometers and RPM meter (the indicator varies according to the maker and model of the car. If it's a Ferrari 430, you know it's Ferrari 430 and not Enzo). No generic metering model here folks!

Behind-the-car view.

Much closer view behind the car.

A special type of view where the camera follows the movement of the car if it swerves left or right. I personally think it's not suitable for driving and racing as there's not much view you can see in front of your car. This one is probably meant for capturing some dramatic moments while you're racing using programs like FRAPs, I don't know.

So, back to the game and off you go to the race point indicated in the GPS map. When you're nearing the location of the race, you will notice the flashing indicator as shown above. In TDU, be on the lookout for any indicators like this as it indicates that you are about to bypass a race point and you can join it by pressing Enter. The type of race is shown in the middle of the flashing logo.

So, when you're close enough to the indicator, your GPS map will signal you with 'Enter'. Press Enter and you're in.

This is a typical interface when you are joining a race. It details all information about the race: the mission, prizes, levels, car categories etc.

One nifty feature here that I like is the ability to change your vehicle. It means that if you happen to bump into this race with a car that belongs to a different group, you can change your car with any car currently in your garage that match the group required by the race. This eliminates your need to jump into your garage, select the right car and jump back in the race again.

Of course, at current stage, you only have your first car. Don't worry, as this race is meant for the right car group. So, if you're ready, let's burn some fat tires!

The first race is actually very easy and you can actually win it if you do it right. Just race with the guidance of the GPS map as it indicates the route the race will take.

During the race, you can pause it by pressing the default button 'P'. The menu also gives you the option to resume the race or restart it again. If you somehow grow 'chicken' during the race, you can call it quits and never step your foot in the island again. Okay, just kidding! Just quit.

So, there you're, your first victory! First place will earn you most cash and a gold trophy, second place; a fewer cash with silver trophy and if you finish third, a few bucks for you and a bronze. The trophy will be indicated in the map as well, showing your achievement in the events that you've taken. You can always try the same race again later if you wish though.

After finishing your first race, the game will direct you back home, using the GPS system. When you're close to destination, you will see an icon on the road in front of you, as shown below. This indicates you house, and you can enter it by pressing 'Enter'. Now, it's your time to relax.

Welcome home! This is your interface when you're at your house. This is where you manage your progress, properties (car, clothes), appearance etc. Just don't expect that you can be interactive with anything in your living hall though. It's just there for realism purposes. Now let's take a look at each menu shall we?

Under 'Garage', you will be taken to guess what... your garage obviously. Here you can view your collection of cars complete with their specs, any upgrades, car groups etc. However, they are limited to the capacity of the garage which means that your other car must have been stored in your other houses. This of course, happen when you purchase more houses later. To view all car, you need to visit all your houses.

Again, TDU provides a shortcut to this. Each garage however, contains a list of all your cars under your collection. Selecting any car which is not stored in the current garage will bring up a prompt, asking whether you want to visit the garage that actually store the selected car. If you agree, you can jump to the new garage instantly.

'Info' menu brings you the current status of the game w.r.t. your progress. You can read news, statistics, rankings and even photo album. Your photo album will contains photos taken using the in-game photo snapper which I've mentioned in the previous post.

'Trade' menu is basically a place where you can sell, buy or download vehicles. If you a short of cash, you might want to let go some of your cars, which is something I won't recommend. You can get money by easily repeating any race you've won just to get quick cash though.

When you hit 'Character' menu, you will be brought to your dressing room. Yes, it is comparatively better than the one in GTA: San Andreas. This is the place where you can change your garments and facial appearance.

By default, you have no extra garments available; those that you wear are the default ones. To purchase new garments, you need to successfully complete a hitchhiker delivery mission. Each successful mission awards you with several tags which enables you to buy clothes from any garment shops indicated on the island map. Any purchased garment will be stored in the closet.

The options available are Upper Garment, Lower Garment, Shoes and Sunglasses. Believe me, you can be pretty stylish if you have purchased enough.

Under 'Biker Gear' menu, you'll get what exactly every biker needs, as shown above. Again, you need to purchase your biking gear and helmets to enjoy this feature.

We come to the best part that is modifying your appearance under 'Modify' menu. First of all, let me say that the total makeover is only restricted to your head and face (don't expect some liposuction or those from Nip/Tuck TV series kinda thing!). However, you'll be surprised to see how TDU allows you to modify your face to some degree. Varieties are inevitable here folks!

You can add goatee, moustache, widen you jaws, enlarge you forehead, complete with different hairstyles and hair colours etc etc etc. I mean, just try it and you could end up with a totally different you (I'm outta words here!).

Well, that's about it in you so-called TDU home. At this stage, you've basically completed the steps required by TDU before you can freely roam the island and enter various events independently.

You'll be prompted with the message shown above, motivating you to enter any event on the map. To access the map, you have to be on the road, therefore just quit the house and you're on the go.

With a quick cutscene, you'll be outside your house, on the road. I personally assign 'M' to access the map (depends on your setting in the game options), so if you have a similar setup, pressing 'M' will bring you the map.

Here you can see the available events around your vicinity. You will not be able to see all events on the island at the moment as you haven't explored every nook and cranny in the island. You will notice that as you progress through the game, your exposure on the island increases, revealing more events to participate, more spots to visit (car dealers, houses, real estates, garment shops, tuner shops etc).

In the picture above, you can see icons indicating the types of mission or racings available. Hovering the pointer above any one of them reveals the information pertaining that specific event. For example, in the picture above, Jennifer only accepts a vehicle with two seats if you're planning to pick her.

Do you notice an event with a gold trophy icon with it? That's the race you've won earlier.

The map includes the facility to filter any types of events, hot spots, zooming in and out and even access to the online mode. Explore it as it is the biggest tool for you to complete the game smoothly.

Just in case, if the race you want to participate happen to be on the route you've never taken before, you'll be prompted with the message shown above. Basically, this is how TDU helps you expand your areas of exposure; you have to drive manually to the scene. If the route somehow has been taken by you (maybe you stroll the island a lot before entering any event), accessing any event is easier; TDU will automatically bring you to the event without asking you to drive there.

So, there you go folks! From this moment on, you're on your own to conquer the whole island. You're free to roam every roads, entering any events in any unspecified order. As I've previously mentioned, things will get repetitive from here but I can assure you that you will not notice it much. TDU has quite a good balance of gameplay with some other side attractions that makes you feel your trip on the island is like a never ending story.

All the best!

Test Drive Unlimited for PC - Hawaiian tour!

2007-07-11T09:45:00.000+08:00

(This is less likely to be a full-fledge review; heck, it probably is just a rant. Therefore, I apologize for any horrid grammatical errors, light profanities and lack of proper paragraphing)...

To Start With

In this entry I've decided to be less 'formal' than usual, as this is about my own gaming experience with Test Drive Unlimited - Unfinished Business version. No, I make that up, 'cause it's literally true - I haven't yet finish playing the game no matter what. In fact, I think that I can never finish playing this game.

Reason? Well, first of all, it's about me, the player having to stroll around Hawaii, exploring every roads, completing all missions, then smoking some unfortunate tires, picking some babes around the vicinity, flashing my cars and some occasional motorbiking around the island. Secondly, the cars. Ohhh, the cars featured in the game are just lovely. Damn, if I just happen to have at least one of those Ferrari in real life, that would be really cool! Exactly that is what I feel when playing the game. I sit inside the car, using the cockpit view, listening to the revving engine sound, start moving through the traffic, some high-speed car chase with the cops, picking up some babes with sporty cars; it's a man's dream on the street (and no, I won't include sex as there isn't any in the game! Want some? Go find 'Hot Coffee' version of GTA San Andreas!)

Game Settings, Graphics : HDR, Motion Blur

Okay, goin' a bit technical, I'm playing this game with my usual settings on graphics: 1024x768 res, 4X AA, 8X AF, max world details and no HDR! Yes, I must highlight here that HDR in TDU doesn't look like HDR; it's more like 'bloom' effect as seen in NFS Most Wanted, you know, that bright white aura at every edge of objects in the scene, the effect in movies that indicates the scene in a dream. I don't favour it apart from the fact that my 7800 GT doesn't allow AA+HDR and the undeniable performance hits I will take when enabling it. So, no HDR in this game for me ( I might exaggerate this but just play the game, you'll see what I mean!)

The much touted motion blur in action

Other graphical beauties that exist in the game is the motion blur effect. All I can say is that it is implemented in a right manner: two-thumbs up man! It's nowhere like Fast & Furious NOS-triggered motion blur effect, but it is as if you're driving in actual life, slowly from a start and gradually picking speed and then you realize your view is a bit out of focus at the left and right (this might be hard to describe, but TDU is trying very hard to simulate this, and I understand it). The effect also seems dynamic; the magnitude of blurriness increases as you are speeding way beyond normal driving speed (I called this 'The Curse of the Exotics'! Go figure.)

Teasing a Maranello, with cops around!

The level of details in TDU is a bit above satisfactory, at least from my POV. The cars are modeled accurately although I have some problems with the rendering of the car sports rim (looks 2D, way behind compared to those in NFS Carbon), some attention to details are present in the car interior. The varieties of gears & attires; well they're quite fashionable I would say. The world details is almost believable: I mean I've never been to Hawaii, but I can tell that there are significant amount of effort that have been put into the game to make it what it is. The road, the surroundings, the town...I mean, it is unfair for me to say that it is the true Hawaiian landscape but please, if there's someone out there who is keen enough to tell me at least, in percentages, how close the game with the real Hawaii is!

I flunked my Ferrari just to show you the reflection on the water

Not so realistic, a bit poor implementation

Hey, it looks better from a far

Nicely rendered sea water with that boat reflection on it, followed by an unnecessary sea drowning later on

Capturing Eye Candies

Accompanying these eye candies is the way to capture them: an in-game photo snapper. It is intuitive, responsive and it functions way better than the limited ones in NFS Carbon (for comparison). I can pan, zoom, rotate with bigger angles and distances, it gives me more powerful tool to put an exotic touch when photographing an exotic car. It just works for me.

This is the one!

TDU is a game played during daytime only, something that feels awkward when paired with an almost realistic environment. Sorry, no night time driving folks! On the other hand, this decision might be done in order to make full use of the photo snapper (purely my guess though, as night time snapshots are not so effective!) In this game, apart from clear daytime with blazing sunlight, there are some occurrences of cloudy skies as the player moves around in the island. That is as far as the weather realism goes in the game. I've captured some shots showing the difference in weather and you can judge it for yourself.

Sunny day!

It's getting cloudy, dude!

Better be home soon!

Nice filtering of the sun rays by darker clouds

Gaming Performance

Under previous AMD 64 3000+, 1 GB DDR, NF4 platform, I scored around 35 fps average in this game. Yeah, pretty sucked that I had to turn down AA and AF level in the game. Now, under Core 2 Duo E4300 and 2 GB DDR2 in i945P platform, I manage to get around 47 fps with stock CPU speed. OCing my E4300 to 2.4 GHz gives me 50+ fps stable with souped up AA and AF level. That make sense as at 1024x768 res, I am still pretty much bottlenecked by CPU. At this point, 7800GT is here to stay...well, it might stay until all those fiasco regarding early DX10 game settle down( Damn you EnvyDia, where is G9x??)

Some Bugs Perhaps

Back to the game. At any point, I have to highlight one very important thing: this game is horribly buggy! Maybe as the result of being ported from console game, TDU developer didn't make it a smooth transition to PC version of the game. I can't list all the bugs here, Google around as there are many discussion about this game. Among the bugs are the savefile can be easily corrupted, graphics anomaly after changing resolutions, another graphics anomaly when returning to game after toggling HDR option. It's a common gesture among gamers who praised TDU for being a great game, only to be hampered with such horrendous bugs and instabilities. Having said so, however I haven't got time to search around for patches from the Atari.. let me see hmm...Oh, there's probably one here that's being discussed.

Anyway, despite the game issues, I can play it with some peace in my mind that the game delivers what I've dreamed about driving exotic cars! Really, this game brings back memories of Need For Speed in its early series, except this is better. I can adjust my seat position, enjoying almost realistic interior view, responsive speedometers and rear mirror, etc etc. If I had a Logitech G25 FF Steering Wheel, the whole experience would be pimped up way a few notch!

The Simple Story Unfolds

The game starts with a scene at the airport which shows me, the character I will play, are waiting at the departure hall. The game require me to select from a few characters; a babe, some Linkin Park-style guy, another simpler looking guy, probably another babe with different slutty appearance(can't remember exactly!)...I mean there are a few of them. I select one that represent a close resemblance of myself and off I go to Hawaii.

Upon arrival, I have to rent a car to get myself a house to stay while I roll in the island. I buy a house at the real estate agency and that's where I started the journey to discover the whole Aloha. My home is where i do my stuff: parking my cars, changing my appearance (not including some extreme makeover!), reading news, checking my achievements, watching LCD TV, buy and sell cars etc etc. It's my port to let myself go (in a good manner though!).

Cars & Homes : Big Boys Toys

I can buy as many houses or mansions that I want provided that I have enough money and I have discovered vast areas in the island, revealing more real estate agencies and homes available for purchase. Another reason to buy is when your existing garage are already full with cars. For example, my first house can accommodate 4 vehicles max. Having bought the fifth cars requires me to get another house. Another thing, the location of the house can help you spread your appearance around the island, especially if you're on the quest of discovering every hidden events, houses, missions and some random guys and babes to pick up (again, not for sex as they're hitchhikers, damn!). So, I have to strategically select the location as I game along.

Pete Sampras might live here!

The price of the house varies from $100K++ to even some millions of dollars (I'm talking about those which can store up to 10 vehicles!), and the design, well yes..there are varieties of them. Each house is unique and has some touches of what real people dreams about their ultimate home design (of course, to some extent only). Whenever you're surveying a specific house, either through the agency or by visiting it yourself, the game allows you to have a virtual tour around the house. That's what I do and I can say that I'm impressed with the level of details that Atari takes in designing them.

A house to live in

How The Game Goes

Once again, back to the core of the game. Basically, I have to endure and experience these in order to progress in the game: do repetitious street racings (with up to 7 opponents), time limit racing, speed limit racing, send babes to their destination in specified time frame, pick random hitchhikers and deliver them within time limits, some mysterious 'possible-crack-delivery' missions, car delivery missions (I like this one) ..and some other that I might miss to mention.

The rest is probably strolling all the streets available. Oh yeah, I have to mention that the more distance I cover, I get some sort of level increment. For example, when I exceed 40 kilometers (or miles), the game award me with Tourist status (again, I can't remember this correctly, but it does reward me with a status).

Yo, yo, Right here man!

Dude, can you ride me home?

I smoke this bitch so hard I can't even see anything!

Braaaace yourself!!

Listen, can you deliver this baby to the airport for $90K?

Car delivery mission

This junk is about to ask me to deliver some 'goodies' for him

See..I told ya!

Future 500CC Moto GP champ

Speaking of rewards, there are a few more that you can achieve. You get some awards or rewards as you exceed some points during delivery missions (babes, hitchhikers and items), successful car delivery, number of cars purchased in the form of cash, tags to buy some new clothes, some unlockings here and there (new houses, boutiques, car dealers, cars, tuner shops etc). Lemme give a hint: explore every nook and cranny in this island, and you'll understand how the game expands and progresses.

A perfect delivery

Another perfect delivery

The gesture of a victorious speedfreak

Cars...OMG, I forget to tell you about cars. Okay, this ain't Fast and Furious inspired game, therefore, there's not much of import tuners around, but they are there. European cars are a must and I see a lot of American muscles in the game. Exotics? No question about it: Ferrari Enzo, Saleen S7, McLaren F1, those from Mercedes, exotic muscles from Viper...I mean, the list goes on and on. It is also a perfect balance between modern cars and classic cars: yes, there are classic cars from 60's in the game.

"Holy explicit rant, Batman! But did you forget about the tuner shop?". Yes, TDU allows some tuning and performance upgrade to the car, but it is fairly limited. Visit some tuner shop and you're presented with 3 Levels of upgrade only. Be careful not to overtune your car as sometimes it is best to keep the balance between power and control at the right pace. Trust me, Level 3 upgrade Pagani Zonda doesn't look good in terms of handling though.

Inside a tuner shop for Aston Martin

Purchase your upgrade Level and see the upgrade in specs

All cars are categorized into Group A to G and it is advisable to have at least a car from each group. This is important as some races and missions do specify the group of car that it allows. I even stumble upon some races and only require cars from a specific manufacturer only. In some mission, some babes only accept me with 2-door sedan, some want me in Saleen only (bitch!)..and this rant also goes to those male hitchhikers! Fortunately, I am served with a very informative in-game map and menu that allow me to see all requirements prior to selecting a mission or race. The navigational Hawaiian map is the key to complete the game and kudos to the developer, the map is way better than that in NFS Underground 2.

The map is also rendered in 3D with visible moving cars, even a plane

We got an in-game radio tuner too

.....and some babes I picked up in Hawaii

"Wassup, sweet thang! Goin' somewhere??"

An athletic babe, probably Sporty Spice of Spice Girls

"Thanks for not unbuttoning the..I mean, thank you!"

"Emm, that's a nice hot rod you got there!"

"I can lift you to anywhere, babe. Hop in!"

One sultry looking babe really turns my antenna on!

"Give me a fuck*n ride, you f*cktw*t! Can't you see I'm f*ckin sweat'n here?"

I definitely have to stop here, because suddenly I don't know what else to say about the game (and I'm obviously off the hook!). I know I have a lot of segments in the game that I should cover but, let's make it an exercise for you to find more information from some other reviews. The fact remains that I haven't even complete the game, but from the current progress, things will tend to stay repetitive till the end. I might post something about TDU later on, especially if I have more screenshots to share with you.

I don't like the feel of riding this bike in the game

Gotcha, Zonda! I betcha bleeding gas right now!

Extra information:

Test Drive Unlimited: Gamespot review
DriverHeaven review
TweakTown review

Smoke in NFS Pro Street!

2007-07-05T08:29:00.000+08:00

Yes, these screenshots of NFS Pro Street show what the implementation of smoke is going to look like when we play the game soon. I'm not sure, but most likely these are taken under XBOX 360. Whatever it is, I expect that the PC version is as good as this if not even better.

I got to admit that the smoke looks more believable and realistic this time.

And the last pic show details of dents and scratches, details of damages of a finely rendered RX-7, which is wow!

Far Cry HDR galore!

2007-06-13T10:11:00.000+08:00

Sweet!

Far Cry HDR benchmark!

2007-06-12T20:49:00.000+08:00

I know this is kinda old....

As I've mentioned before, I am about to benchmark my system against Far Cry running with HDR turned on. Using the built in benchmark demo: Research, Regulator, Training and Volcano, the benchmark procedures are simplified using a batch file which contains these lines of instructions:

"
echo Running FarCry Benchmark, 1280x1024, SM3.0 Path

echo Running Research script
Bin32\FarCry.exe -DEVMODE "#demo_num_runs=1" "#demo_quit=1"
"r_sm30path 1" "#r_Width=1280" "#r_Height=1024" "map research" "demo research"

echo Running Regulator script
Bin32\FarCry.exe -DEVMODE "#demo_num_runs=1" "#demo_quit=1"
"r_sm30path 1" "#r_Width=1280" "#r_Height=1024" "map regulator" "demo regulator"

echo Running Training script
Bin32\FarCry.exe -DEVMODE "#demo_num_runs=1" "#demo_quit=1"
"r_sm30path 1" "#r_Width=1280" "#r_Height=1024" "map training" "demo training"

echo Running Volcano script
Bin32\FarCry.exe -DEVMODE "#demo_num_runs=1" "#demo_quit=1"
"r_sm30path 1" "#r_Width=1280" "#r_Height=1024" "map volcano" "demo volcano"

START /WAIT notepad.exe levels\research\research.log
START /WAIT notepad.exe levels\regulator\regulator.log
START /WAIT notepad.exe levels\training\training.log
START /WAIT notepad.exe levels\volcano\volcano.log
"

Thanks to various websites that explain the details about benchmarking Far Cry.

The batch file will be located inside Far Cry main installation folder.

All in-game settings (graphics) are maxed out at resolution 1280x1024, "application-controlled"
options are selected in the driver setting and VSync turned off. The demo will be run two times to get better average framerates.

Here are the results:

Research : 104.7 fps
Regulator : 83.5 fps
Training : 92.5 fps
Volcano : 100.9 fps

Well, those numbers confirms my observation before. This isn't Quake 3 Arena times anymore, where one would fond over having 300++ fps fragging madness . The framerates that I got above are very satisfying indeed. For a moment, I feel thankful that my 7800 GT is here empowering my gaming life.

Sometimes, it's good to make a visit to some good ol' games.

Far Cry in HDR

2007-06-12T09:54:00.001+08:00

I have been looking at the latest news and benchmarks around the latests graphics card around recently and one particular thing struck me. In most benchmarks that I saw, Far Cry is still being used. Interesting as the game is almost 3 years old. And then I have an idea: why don't I make a revisit to this game, to play it for the second time. However, this time around, I want to enable HDR!

The first time I played the game, my PC was only powered by Athlon XP 1700+ Palomino, 512 MB MB RAM, and graphically not-so-powerful Radeon 9800 SE softmodded to 8-pixel pipelines! The experience was relatively 'wow' although I was probably stuck under 40+ fps in 800x600 res! (I didn't benchmark it AFAICR!)

So, I set up Far Cry with default installation and patch it up to version 1.32, which I think is already sufficient to enable HDR with certain graphical bugfixes applied. Furthermore, I don't play on online server so patch 1.33 and 1.4 are not so important to me.

I maxed out all graphical settings and set the resolution at 1280x1024 (my LCD maxed out at that res!). I set AF level in the driver setting at 16X.

As I was quite impatient, I just took a few snapshots during the early stage of the game comparing Far Cry with and without HDR. To be frank, it's not gonna be a serious Far Cry gaming this time. I think I just want to enjoy the scenery while fragging a bit!

So, here are those screenshots:

Without HDR

With HDR

Without HDR

With HDR

Without HDR

With HDR

Without HDR

With HDR

Without HDR

With HDR

The result is certainly breathtaking! Far Cry HDR is totally impressive in graphics which makes this second visit worth every second of it. There are definitely a lot of corrections in lighting (for example, check the first two pictures!) and the realism is lifted significantly.

I used FRAPS to take the shots and I noticed that for early benchmarks, my framerates never fall below 80 while averaging about 90+ fps. However, I will post the actual benchmark later on.

Stay tuned as more pictures of Far Cry in HDR will be posted!

Need For Speed : Pro Street

2007-06-07T11:12:00.000+08:00

On 31th May, EA announced the next release in the ever popular Need For Speed series ; named Pro Street. It will be available in November 2007(usual time of release for NFS series) on PC and major consoles.

Pro Street will bring a new breath of pure racing attitude to the gamers, reflecting the scenarios happening in the street legal racing. Yes, Pro Street will stay away from Fast And Furious style of racing and enter a much more realistic racing atmosphere. With that, Pro Street will also feature an almost 'sim-like' racing experience.

There are 3 major attracting points to Pro Street : DAMAGE, PHYSICS and SMOKE. Pro Street will feature 3 levels of damage which can effect your racing and is not limited to just visual damage only. The damage is also extended to the point where you might have to retire from a racing due to your car being totaled.

Physics in Pro Street is heavily lifted from the previous NFS series, up to the point where one might think that this is not an arcade racing game anymore. Where all driving assists are off, all that left are you and your car where your driving skills will determine whether you will cross the finish line or not. However, turning the driving assists on will return you to the arcade-like driving style, back to ol' NFS spirit.

One particular aspect that has been improved in Pro Street is the simulation of smoke. While one might argue this, the smoke realism will add to the adrenaline rush required by the game. There are swirling clouds of smoke engulfing your car and the area around you just like you see at the drag strip and the burnout competitions.

Another addition is the return of AutoSculpt and Dyno which have been improved greatly. Every changes you make to the car, either physically or visually will directly IMPACT the performance of your car. The inclusion of wind tunnel test with real-time physics demonstrate how Pro Street has gone very serious this time around.

Developed by the team which developed Most Wanted before, it is expected that Pro Street will mark another great addition to the Need For Speed series.

Look at this!

2007-06-04T11:30:00.000+08:00

Enjoy the beauty of greenish tropical jungle floor.. taken by a digital camera.......

NOT!....

Crysis.
Fall '07.

GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB

2007-02-13T08:43:00.000+08:00

It's rare for me nowadays to cover a certain product of graphics cards from any manufacturers, if it's not that compelling to me. Not that 8800 GTX\GTS or any 19xx series aren't interesting, in fact they are buttloads of reviews about them scattered around the Net. I just want to pick some of them that are much more suited to an average gamer like, especially those which have the 'price-to-performance' value.

Thus I came across GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB, another installment in the 8800 series by NVIDIA. I didn't realise that there will be another flavour in 8800 series until today, although further readings indicate that rumours regarding this graphics card started about a month ago. I guess I missed it due to too much CoJ and Carbon :)

Basically, GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB is similar to GeForce 8800 GTS except that the onboard memory has been cut in half, from 640 MB in GTS to 320 MB. Everything else, including the GPU, clocks and even the power requirement are still the same. The most interesting part is, this card is supposed to be sold around $300 -$330! That's about $150 (approx) less than 8800 GTS in the market right now.

I won't do an extensive review of the card but there are numerous reviews already floating around from various hardware websites, comparing it to 8800 GTX/GTS and its ATI's counterparts:

AnandTech
Hexus 640mb vs 320mb
HardOCP
Guru3D
LegitReviews
MadShrimps
PCPerspective

From the benchmarks that I have seen, GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB is comparatively similar in performance with its 640MB counterpart, except for the games that uses memory intensively eg. Quake4, and playing at ultra high resolution (above 1600x1200). These two areas do reveal this card shortcomings especially when applying 16X AA. The shader performance is expected to be similar with 8800 GTS due to the same no. of shader processor (96 processors) and clock (1200 MHz). Let's recap 8800 GTS specs, shall we:

Stream (Shader) Processors : 96
Core Clock : 500 MHz
Memory Clock : 1600 (800) MHz
Shader Clock : 1200 MHz
Onboard memory : 640/320 MB
Memory Interface : 320-bit
Memory Bandwidth (GB/sec) : 64
Texture Fillrate (GTexel/sec) : 24
Power Requirement : Min. 400W (min 26A on 12V rail)

This card shares every trait that 8800 GTS has due to the exact architecture that it retains, which indicates that this card could possibly be a sweet spot for mainsteam/budget to hardcore gamers, a group of gamers that I'm at right now. Since I'm not even playing at 1600x1200, this card appeals to me most. Of course, Vista is relatively new, and there isn't any DX10 games around yet. So, I might wanna wait for the price to come down a little bit more or wait for something special from AMD/ATi (R600). By that time, things would definitely accelerate towards more options for gamers.

My prediction for the future: there will be at least 2 more flavours under 8800 series: one with clocked down GTS 320MB, another one with clocked down GTX without any crippling (thinking like a true NVIDIAN). Another GS and 8850 should be on their planning right now.

Most reviewers dub this card as somewhat attractive, despite its lackluster performance in hi-res gaming. Others even argue that it's worth a wait to save your bucks for better performing GTS 640MB. It all depends on what future games will emphasize on: hi-res and uncompressed textures or more shader intensive. Aside from having less memory, GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB has nothing much to be ashamed of.

More shots of Crysis!

2007-02-09T11:24:00.000+08:00

Remember the last post that I've made on Crysis before? That shot was marvelous. One thing that I said that the shot was made under DX9.0c and not DX10.

I might want to reconsider that as through some further readings, I suspect that the shot was taken under DX10 during CryTek's demo on CES.

It is already a common knowledge to those who are into graphics industry that DX10 provides more room to accommodate more effects, alleviating bottlenecks in the current DX9.0c capability. In another words, more effects can be rendered FASTER. In much simpler words, for the same 3D scenes, DX10 gives more framerates to you than DX9. I don't expect expect the same type of transition such as SM2.0 to SM3.0 here, as SM4.0 is the one that allocates bigger room for faster effect rendition.

Having said that, let's take a look at a few more Crysis snapshots:

Another snapshot featuring the jungle environment. Somehow, the engine is very optimised for rendering the forest scenery. Absolutely gorgeous!

Notice how the surface of the super suit reacts with the ambient lighting!

The gun stays sharply rendered, but the left hand has been given the motion blur effect. Notice also the jungle and trees at far behind (looking above the hut) where Depth of Field is implemented!

The banana trees look awesome and realistic, and the whole scenery looks almost believable, if not for a fact that it's only an in-game shot.

Another great example of how daytime lighting is rendered in Crysis. Not many game that I've played so far has this level of daytime lighting realism. The shadow and the grass are of equal quality, if not better than those in Call of Juarez.

Strangely I don't feel intrigued much by this particular shot. The zinc roof should have been given a better shading as it being lit under the blazing sunlight. However, notice the localised motion blur effect on the super soldier left hand ripping the roof. The same thing can be said to the piece of zinc that flew off in front of him. It's obvious that the motion blur effect receives a better implementation in Crysis.

Crysis features Depth of Field, motion blur and amazing physics engine. It is said that almost all objects and tress in the jungle can be destroyed or interact with, except for the largest trees.

Stay tuned!

NFS Most Wanted Revisited: M3 GTR galore Part 3!

2007-01-25T12:19:00.000+08:00

NFS Most Wanted Revisited: M3 GTR galore Part 2!

2007-01-23T10:05:00.000+08:00

LG L1952T LCD Monitor : Finally!

2007-01-19T15:07:00.000+08:00

After a long wait (more than a year), I finally grab myself an LCD monitor that I really like. Well, there are many choices out there, but with a limited budget that I have ( although LCD monitor prices are dropping like nuts right now!), I reckon that the LCD that I'm getting is worth what I'll be spending.

Scratch those technical parts of an LCD monitor away dude, because I'm not familiar with the criticality of any part of its specifications, except for contrast ratio, brightness and response time.

For RM770, LG L1952T has gotten my attention to finally purchase it (after considering a few more choices from Samsung, Viewsonic and Benq). This 19" monitor really captivates me for its simplicity and slim look, satisfying 8 ms response time while having a whopping 1600:1 contrast ratio (a bit doubtful though, for a monitor in this price range).

I figure that an upgrade from my old 17" CRT, plus a migration to DVI connectivity, L1952T is definitely worth a wait.

The result is more sharper image and better clarity, and there isn't any ghosting while playing my favourite games.

Okay, for some reference purposes, this is the specs, taken from LG website:

• Narrow Bezel Design
Ideal for commercial use (Narrow Bezel design enables monitors to be tiled making them ideal for trading floors, banks, airports, design center and etc.)

• FLATRON f Engine_World's First Picture Enhancing Chip for LCD Monitors
It uses DAFI technology which includes RCM (Real Color Management) function which allows monitor to display the most vivid and natural colors available on an LCD. Also it comes complete with ACE (Adaptive Color and Contrast Enhancement) function that enhances brightness and contrast. The technology is ideal for watching videos or displaying high quality photos.

• Crystal Clear Image
The ultra high contrast ratio, fast response time and DVI allow users to enjoy a crystal clear image.

• Certified TC-03
With more strict regulations than that of TCO-99, TCO-03 certification guarantees the customer an excellent ergonomic and visual environment.

TFT Panel Spec

Size (") : 19

Brightness : 300 cd/meter square

Contrast Ratio : 1600:1

Viewing Angle : H : 160˚, V : 160˚

Response Time (ms) : 8ms

Resolution : 1280 x 1024

Pixel Pitch (mm) : 0.294 x 0.294

Display Colors : 16.2M

Display

Horizontal Frequency : 30 ~ 83 kHz

Vertical Frequency : 56 ~ 75 Hz

Display Input Resolution : 1280 x 1024 @ 75Hz (Analog)

1280 x 1024 @ 60Hz (Digital)

Physical Features

Video Signal Type : RGB Analog, Digital (Separate, Composite, SOG, Digital)

Connector : 15 Pin D-sub, DVI

Power Supply : AC 96 ~ 264 Vac (47 ~ 63Hz), LIPS (Integrated)

Sync Type : Separate, Composite, SOG

Dimension (W x D x H)

Net : 402 x 180 x 108mm

Special Features

Stand : Tilt, Detachable

Others : Rack : VESA 75 x 75

Weight

Net (kg) : 3.9kg

Gross (kg) : 4.5kg

Power Consumption

Stand-by/Suspend : Less than 1 watts

Normal Operation : Less than 39 watts

Power Off Mode : Less than 1 watts

Plug & Play

DDC : DDC 2B

OSD Control : Yes

Regulation Compliance : TC0-03, ISO 13406-2 UL, CUL, TUV-GS, SEMCO,

CE-FCC-B, EPA Energy Star

User Control

Button : Menu(1), Source(1), f-Engine(1), Auto/Set(1), Power(1)

Functions : F-Engine, sRGB, Auto Resolution

Regulations

Safety : UL,UL-cUL,TUV-GS,SEMCO

EMC : FCC-B,CE

Low radiation : TCO-03

Power saving : EPA Energy Star

NFS Most Wanted Revisited: M3 GTR galore!

2007-01-17T11:34:00.000+08:00

I just can't resist the attraction of BMW M3 GTR from the NFS series anymore. It makes me reinstall NFS Most Wanted again, playing it for fun by hacking the game, enabling two version of the car: the second M3 GTR and M3 GTR Street (go find some forums regarding how to enable this!). These cars are more customisable than the one featured in the Career Mode (blue, silver vinyl version).

Check out some shots taken on these babies below:

We render the jungle...beautifully!

2007-01-12T16:40:00.000+08:00

Being in a tropical country, I am feeling lucky for having an opportunity to play paintball in the true jungle environment. Check out the photo below, taken before I was ambushed by the opposing team:

Dude, I was just kidding! That photo is a snapshot of Crysis, the most anticipated game in 2007! The next installment from Crytek, the developer of one of the most successful FPS game ever, FarCry is touted to bring the graphical realism of PC gaming into the next level, probably even bigger step up than what Doom 3 engine has brought us before.

Just when I thought Unreal3 engine is the one that will take the crown, Crysis will make it even harder for us to judge.

Crysis is among the first game to utilise the power of DirectX10 under Vista, although it also supports DirectX 9.0c under XP. Therefore, I can't imagine how beautiful the game would become since the photo above shows Crysis being rendered under DirectX 9.0c and it is already truly amazing!

Crysis might make me thinking about upgrading the hardware....again.

Call of Juarez: Completed.

2007-01-09T10:44:00.000+08:00

Finally, I have completed playing Call of Juarez. What a great game it is! After many years, the wait is over: a Western theme game that is worth playing.

I didn't actually count how many hours I've spent to complete the game as it is seldom a practice of mine anyway (however, I might recall how much I've spent if the game completed quite prematurely, e.g. NFS Carbon). Most of the time, I was captivated by the storyline and graphics of the game. Oh, the graphics really left me stared at the screen for so long! In fact, in some part of the games, sometimes I just stay and point the view to the game's environment: it is rich, looks natural and almost believable. Lots of screenshots have been taken using FRAPS. In CoJ, Depth of Field (DoF) and most importantly High Dynamic Range (HDR) play their role to enhance the the graphics realism, and the developer successfully make the most out of them in this game.

DoF in effect

Playing CoJ makes me realise how much I miss Anti-aliasing, as enabling HDR in the game turn this off (using 7800 GT). I am in a serious need to get at least an X1900 series graphics card if another game which uses HDR heavily comes out next.

HDR in effect

The game is fun to play and sort of balanced I might say. As mentioned before, we are required to play two characters, Billy Candle and Reverend Ray throughout 15 episodes in total. The game is a mixture of strategy, and also pure 'shoot 'em up' style at the same time and these are implemented through the 2-character system. When I played Billy Candle episodes, they mostly consists of strategy, puzzle and stealthy missions. While Reverend Ray, although religious, his missions are mostly shoot-to-kill type stuff, pure adrenaline bloodbath. Therefore, I can say that this is a smart strategy to tackle a typical problem where certain FPS genre games are lacking; a balance between a good storyline and varieties of game tempo. With alternating episodes between Candle's and Ray's, I found myself to be able to relax a bit, enjoying a slower progression after some chaotic gunfights which really drained me out (not biologically!).

I won't cover a complete review of the game as they're done by most game reviewers out there, but enough for me to share the experience. With the hardwares at my disposal, I can say that I can still enjoy game the way the developer want it to be. Here's what I use to play:

AMD 64 3000+
Abit KN8 NF4
1 GB DDR400 RAM Dual-Channel
200GB SATA
AOpen 7800GT at 470/1.13 GB (overclock)

Windows XP SP2
NVIDIA Forceware 91.47
DirectX9.0c October 2006

Graphics driver settings:
Image quality: Quality
Vertical sync: Off
Anti-aliasing: App. controlled
Anisotropic Filtering: App. controlled

In-game setting:
SM3.0: On
Antialiasing: Off (when HDR is ON)
Shadow: Medium
Resolution: 1024x768
Filtering: Anisotropic
The rest is maxed.

One thing I'm not sure is the level of anisotropic filtering used by CoJ when AF is enabled. There is no selection for 2X, 4X or even 8X.

Average fps: 30-35 fps (reported by FRAPS)

Although the game suffer from occasional stuttering, I can still enjoy playing at that framerates. When the game enters a bigger environment e.g. canyon, fields area, the framerates improved a bit.

In the previous entry, I've reported some graphical glitches that occured during gameplay. Well, it turned out that was due to my overclocked frequency. When the GPU and memory clock are lowered down (from 490/1.18 to 470/1.13), I no longer experience those glitches.

However, I notice a graphical bug/improper graphical implementation as shown below:

The water lake seems to make the edge of the tree branch, viewed from the player to have a 'ripple effect' although in the name of realism, this shouldn't be happening. Unless it's due to heat haze effect, I think I am right on this.

This game is definitely gonna have a high replay value. To the developer Techland, I'm waiting for your next Chromed-powered game!

DX10 graphics cards: NVIDIA 8800 GTX/GTS - Dilemma?

2007-01-08T09:33:00.000+08:00

Finally, NVIDIA is the first to release what is meant to be the first graphics card for DirectX10, or WGF 2.0. The cards are, as many have suspected, dubbed 8800 GTX and its sibling, 8800 GTS. I wonder why it's not GT though.

This ain't gonna be a review about them much..well, actually, I just feel like I wanna talk about it. Why not? DX10 is around the corner, and these graphics cards cost $500 and above.

In my gaming life, I've never gotten myself the highest end card in any generations of product from...well, NVIDIA or ATI, except Geforce 256 DDR (hardly any competition that time!). I got myself Voodoo Banshee instead of Voodoo 2, Ti4400 instead of Ti4600, 9800 SE instead of 9800XT, X800GTO instead of X800XTPE and 7800 GT instead of 7800 GTX. Yes, I can't afford to get the premium one and I believe, a tad down performer is a better bang-for-buck for me.

Now, I am presented with these two babies, and with those price tags, I can't even judge myself getting a GTS. Yeah, I realised that price will go down eventually as more products appear, there's one thing that worth to note; the starting price for the highest end card is getting higher! That kinda sucks though, although it comes with a reason: G80 is one complex silicon, man. And it performs hell of complex functions...and bla..bla..bla.. But still, the bar has lifted, performance-wise and price-wise.

Then another issue comes up: power requirement, and I'm not even talking about SLI or 3-card configuration-SLI yet. Damn, things are getting tighter for average gamer like me to start thinking about getting even a GTS-level card.

I remember some remarks that NVIDIA made some times ago, but I couldn't find the link to it, saying that the next development for them to embark is to make the power consumption of a GPU goes as low as possible. I wonder when that is about to happen since what I'm seeing here is getting further away from it (thank God at, least in the CPU race, we are playing at 65W TDP right now!).

Call of Juarez

2006-12-18T15:21:00.000+08:00

Besides digging Carbon almost every night, I put myself in a situation as a gunner from the West in Call of Juarez which I installed recently. Actually not a real gunner, just a young blood named Billy Candle, a loner who ran away from his town suspected of being the killer of his parent. Currently, I'm still at the BlackRiver mine episode, trying to escape from...guess what, another me,a character named Reverend Ray, which is also playable or should I say, must be played. Yes, in this game, a player has to play both opposing characters, which is a nice addition to this FPS genre game.

Graphics are good, sorry....great. One must choose the game with SM3.0 switched on to enjoy the experiences meant for the game. HDR is here, as well as other SM3.0 goodies. Oh yeah, Depth of Field is implemented in a very efficient way to enhance the gameplay. Oh wait, the fact is that DoF is so everywhere in this game!

Call of Juarez, nevertheless, is also a very taxing game graphically. Using FRAPS, I noticed an average of 30 (range between 25-35) fps, and things get worse when you're in a town area. I heard a lot of complaints about this in some forums. One more gripe is the loading time which is quite long.

My GeForce 7800 GT has to be overclocked to 490/1.18 GHz in order to gain some more framerates for this game. For an average gamer like me, I can stand the not-so-severe stuttering but hey, this is HDR without AA on. Yes, 7800 GT cannot perform HDR with AA, which is indicated by the in-game setting (under SM3.0, AA option is disabled). I wonder how things are when at least 4X AA is turned on.

Using Forceware 91.47, I did notice some graphical glitch while playing the game. I think it's time to use a newer driver.

Can't say much about this game, because I'm still playing it. I'll posted more on CoJ later.

NFS Carbon cars Part II

2006-12-12T15:21:00.000+08:00

Using some tricks and cheats perhaps, I managed to include BMW M3 GTR into Car Lot in Career Mode. This was achieved by writing some values into NFSC.exe while it was running using a hex editor program. There are certain rules of course, to allow this to happen. Thanks for the tips from all forumers in NFSUnlimited forum!

Unlike NFS Most Wanted, Carbon allows certain customisations to be applied to M3 GTR except for the AutoSculpt. I can apply paint, custom wheels, wheel paint and modify the ride height. I think it's just a matter of time before someone out there can hack into the game and open up a total customisation opportunities to all items in the game. So here's M3 GTR with a little pimpin' on it (custom wheels).

On to one of the most exotic cars around, Lamborghini Gallardo. The one that sounds like ...hmm, how should I say it. Well, it doesn't sound like a revving car at all. I don't even know if Lamborghini does sound like that in real life. I'm sorry but I couldn't describe it.

I applied an iridescent black paint with yellow pigmentation or tint to the car (does my method of explaining the paint sound ridiculous?) . Simply said, during customisation, choose iridescent paint, select yellow colour region and then choose the blackest square in the pallet. Applied the custom body and front bumper, wheels and ride height modification, this is my 'done up' Gallardo.

Then I applied some vynils on the hood, making it look 'meaner'. I have to say that it's a welcome improvement if EA could make the vynils also available in metallic, chrome, pearl, iridescent etc. type of paint.

I'm satisfied with my 7800 GT in handling the graphics for Carbon. Although stuttering in some place while playing, well..there are many factors that contribute to that. I think overclocking it could raise the performance a bit more..or perhaps, a Conroe.

NFS Carbon cars

2006-12-12T10:43:00.000+08:00

Again, I have to make an entry regarding NFS Carbon. Seems that this game has quite a decent replay value, isn't it? The truth is, I just want to play around with the customisations and Autosculpture more. By the way, I managed to beat the Career Mode once again, in half a day. That's right, about 12 hours and that's fast.

I have seen some pretty customisations of the cars in the showroom of sites such as NFSUnlimited.net and NFS-Planet.de, so it drives me to make some of my own. Actually, they are not that pretty, as I'm not one of those who are called 'ricer'. I don't rice cars, but I do eat rice for living! Just a little bit of pimpin' here and there, while trying to make the cars a pleasant to view.

Subaru Impreza WRX STi

I like how Subaru Impreza sounds in this game; fierce and very throttling at low RPM. At high RPM, I think I prefer Evo IX MR Edition better.

Mitsubishi Evolution IX MR Edition

NFS Carbon: My own opinion

2006-11-17T08:53:00.000+08:00

I've just completed playing NFS: Carbon last night. Well, if you consider getting 100% in Career Mode, Challenge Series and Quick races as having total completion, then I'm proud to say so :)
I didn't participate in any online modes of the game (i.e. Pursuit Tag and Pursuit Knockout) because of lack of Internet connection (I'm blogging from a different place).

Career Mode

Immediately after installing the game, I fired up Career Mode. I have a huge expectation from this mode, as I experienced a great gaming session from NFS: Most Wanted last year; I mean I really do want to see how the latest installment live up to the expectation. What drove me in NFSMW Career Mode was the storyline, and I want the same this time around. Internet reviews mentioned about more FMV sequences, the return of Cross and of course, M3 GTR.

Upon starting the Career Mode, I found myself as the same racer/player from NFSMW, so this was kinda warming up the mood a little bit. The story unfolded as the player found some 'ol racing buddies, and prolly his ex as well.

Let me talk about the race part in this mode. It's too damn short! In just 4 hours, I accomplished 40% completion in one shot and I remember, NFSMW was wayy harder and longer than this. However, I soon realized where this short of playing time went to, and I'll indicate below.

I started my career using exotics line, starting with Alfa Romeo Brera. However, a player can switch to other types: tuners and muscle cars as the career goes on. EA did a good job to give different driving feel to each categories: tuners really stick to the ground, excellent handling. Muscle cars have hilarious acceleration, but you might have to break your fingers tapping the keyboard just to handle those mutha. Exotics are better than tuners possibly in top speeds.

The boss races are relatively easier , except for the final boss which was a tad difficult (still fall under the 'easy' category!). In fact, on second thought, I think one of the first 3 bosses, (can't remember the name) the guy in Murcielago was the hardest of all.

The use of crew can be beneficial, or complete useless. If you're familiar with NFSMW, I don't think you need any crew at all. The one that I used most was the blocker. A word of warning: Don't let the blocker be in front of you, or you'll bump into him, slowing you down, and this crap happened many times in the race. However, as long as he's behind you, the blocker is great at blocking your opponent. I don't know about the rest, but through the initial demonstration by Nikki (the game babe), I realized that I don't need any drafters and scouts at all.

On to the storyline. Now, this is where I can't judge much about it. First question, is there any difference in terms of the no. of FMVs for the story, between the Collectors Edition and Normal NFS Carbon? Because the fact is, I didn't feel much of it. I didn't get the cutscene where Cross captured me leading to the introduction of the gangs, Darius and Nikki. Or is there any in game settings that can affect the presentation of the storyline? Dude, this is important, because in the end, I rate the Career Mode as average, as it failed to top Most Wanted Career Mode. My reason is simple: Storyline is the main ingredient in the Career mode. Call me unfair, but if that's so, then why the heck is Emmanuelle Vaugier in this scene for?

Drift Race Returns

I welcome the return of the drift race, and it does feel different than before. With more emphasis on speed drifting, IMO Carbon gave almost equal challenges in comparison with the drift race back in Underground 2. While some might say that the drift was a bit ridiculous in U2 (I'm one of them!), the only gripe I have this time is that there is no parking lot drifting, like in Tokyo Drift movie. On the flip side, oh yeah, I must say it's two thumbs up for the canyon drifting.
One thing to notice here is that I didn't have to use the handbrake for drifting like I did in Underground, U2 and MW; a sudden turn should already get your car drifting sideways. I was merely having to control the acceleration and the braking all the time.

Challenge Mode, Quick Race, Reward Cards

Here's where the extra playing time has gone to. Challenge mode provides about 45 challenges for player to complete, covering all aspects of driving skills and involvement with police in high-speed car chase. The challenges are, in my opinion, the better attraction in this game, mainly due to the police involvement. However, between Carbon and MW Challenge mode, I find it harder to resist the latter.

Quick Race is easier, and as the name suggest, I accomplished all quick races in short time for the sake of getting 100% game completion.

In all modes, you might get what is called a Reward Card for having completed a certain tasks, or criterias to be more accurate. Each Reward Card consists of four tasks, e.g. ramming 20 police cars in a chase, exceeding 20,000 cost to state, filling garage with only tuners in Career Mode, and winning 10 challenges in Free Roam. There are many Reward Cards to be collected, and for me, this is the main attraction of the game. Why? It's because Reward Cards unlock most of the hard-to-get items in the game e.g., unique vinyls, autosculptable parts, dump truck, police cars and most importantly, M3 GTR and the rest of the unique cars from all 3 categories. IMO, a player will spend most of the time trying to collect the Reward cards by winning all their tasks.

AutoSculpt

One of EA's main point in Carbon is the AutoSculpt, where you are able to custom your car according to your liking. I mean, the appearance of your car which means bodykits, spoilers, rims, hoods etc. The feature is very much welcomed, however its first implementation is quite restricted in terms of varieties and responsiveness. You have about 3 to 10 points on (depends on which part you want to custom) a bodypart which you can stretch, pull and push, and lengthen. See anything more? No, because they're all single directional customization. I would expect that the next implementation would allow player to do multidirectional customizations e.g. twisting, turning, curving and so on. All in all, AutoSculpt is the most unique feature around, and I hope it stays included in the future NFS installments.

Final Verdict

I have a hard time summing up my experience in Carbon but here it goes. I have to say that judging from the game alone, and by that I mean without comparing it with Most Wanted, Carbon is a solid game, bringing solid new features to the table. The selection of cars are near perfect, covering 3 types of cars which I personally think is brilliant. Driving realism has improved although I can't say much since NFS isn't a driving sim game, but EA made it just right. All in all, Carbon isn't that great, but it isn't bad either; it is good and solid as overall. Do not get turn off by this, fellas. You should play this game!

On my personal POV, I can't run away from comparing it to Most Wanted for one obvious reason: the storyline continues here in Carbon. I just can't find the same adrenaline rush that I had in MW and to tell the truth, I was kinda lost in the Career Mode. What I did was just enter the race and race and race, and suddenly the story was over. EA needs to improve this department of the game if they decided to include a storyline mode next time.

To wrap up, here are the cars that I used to complete the Career Mode. To speed freaks and fuel junkies out there, go get Carbonized this time!

PowerLogic Atrix 5000 manual..

2006-07-13T11:27:00.000+08:00

This is the first entry since I last updated the blog about 4 months ago ( due to other commitment).

With reference to the review of the casing in earlier post, here I provide the manual for PowerLogic Atrix 5000 casing, after a valiant effort in recovering the manual (it's a piece of paper actually, not a booklet). I have been asked by a few readers who are interested in this casing (look at the comment section for this casing's entry), and I have to admit that I'm surprised this product attracted quite a few attention (reason: low cost, maybe!).

Anyway, here it is. I've scanned the manual and splitted them into two images. Download both images from my Flickr and preferably select the largest size possible to get better clarity. Beware that each file might size up to 2 MB. If you notice, the beginning of the second image is the last few info from the first image, so that you'll know that you don't miss any information.

If you like the biggest size for the image, please email me and I will send a zip file containing the images for you.

DirectX10 explanation

2006-04-10T13:57:00.000+08:00

I was flipping over a few pages of graphics cards reviews (since I've missed so many of them!) and suddenly I found an article, previewing DirectX10.

The article was good, especially when it explained the geometry shader in a plain English. I guess DirectX10 promises a very bright future in graphics indeed.

"The traditional vertex shader takes in a single vertex, a single point, and it has to output a single vertex. It's impossible for the vertex shader to create or destroy triangles because it always has to output a vertex for each one it takes in. The geometry shader lets the game operate on entire geometry primitives, lines, triangles, and points as well as neighboring adjacent primitives. The geometry shader can also create new primitives, add new triangles, before sending them further down the pipe to the rasterizer and pixel shader.

Even better, the geometry shader can also output results directly into memory, allowing data to go right back into the graphics pipeline without going out to the CPU for setup. The changes will let the GPU accelerate particle effects like smoke and explosions, which are usually done on the CPU. Games can also use the geometry shader in combination with texture arrays to accelerate effects like cube mapping. Games use cube maps to make an object reflect the world around it. To make an object like a stainless steel teapot reflect its surroundings, you have to determine the teapot's surroundings and map it onto the teapot. Normally, this can take six passes, but a game can use the geometry shader and a render target array to create a cube map in one pass."

Head over to TweaksRUs for the rest of the article.

X1800 GTO : Reviews about this card

2006-04-10T09:47:00.000+08:00

I have been missing from the graphics cards scene for a few weeks and what have I got? I missed the fact that X1800 GTO had been launched! What a nice graphics card it is. Simply said, X1800 GTO is a very worthy competitor to GeForce 7600 GT from NVidia.

Sneak peek into its features:

Ultrathreaded SM 3.0 engine with fast dynamic branching
500 MHz core speed
1.0 GHz memory speed
256-bit memory interface
12 Pixel shader processors
8 Vertex shader processors
512-bit Ring Bus memory controller with 256-bit GDDR3 memory
2 dual link DVI connectors
HDTV and ViVO enabled
HDCP option for board implementation

Basically, X1800 GTO is a cut-down X1800 XL using R520 chip. Now as we all have experienced in the past, there's a chance that this GTO can be modded.

LegitReviews and HotHardware have their reviews on X1800 GTO. Head over them for the full story.

GamePC : Review on XFX’s GeForce 7900 GTX Extreme Edition

2006-04-10T09:21:00.000+08:00

GamePC has a review on this card, XFX GeForce 7900 GTX Extreme Edition, a step less than the ultimate version of 7900 GTX from XFX, the XXX 'Xander Cage' Edition. No, I made that Xander Cage thing up.

With the extra clocks kicking in, of course this card has some edge over some other 7900 GTX out there. That's what I love about XFX. Of course, that comes with a hefty price tag too.

"The Extreme Edition card is clocked 6-9% higher compared to the majority of other 7900 GTX cards on the market, which gives them a performance advantage of about 5% in the most graphically intensive scenarios. The clock speed boosts are significant enough to show some gains in the benchmark charts, but are not quite enough to make a difference in terms of power consumption or heat production. The cards sip a little more juice from the outlet, but nothing to get concerned about.

While it sounds as if I may be shrugging off the 7900 GTX Extreme Edition, I should reiterate that this card is extremely fast. In both single-card and multi-card scenarios, the 7900 GTX provided us with our highest benchmarks seen to date. Sure, they aren’t above and beyond other 7900 GTX cards, but these cards can certainly live up to the claim of being one of the fastest non-overclocked cards on the market."

Head over to GamePC for the full review.

NVNews: Review on eVGA 7900 GT

2006-04-10T08:46:00.000+08:00

Head over to NVNews.net for its review on eVGA7900 GT (somehow I like the GT franchise, I don't know!)

"Out of the box the EVGA 7900 GT CO SUPERCLOCKED is one very impressive card. This is undoubtedly the fastest mid-range card I have ever tested staying with or bettering the 7800 GTX in the benchmarks used in this preview. Looking at the card you might want to replace the heatsink and fan arrangement and put some heatsinks on the memories. But after you run it you might want to wait on that awhile. It performs very well and seems to run cool even when stressed. So, in my opinion it is good to go as is. Yes, just plug it in and start gaming. That's what I plan to do and I may revisit this review with some updates after some gaming sessions. That is, if I can put the mouse down long enough to do an update.

I definitely rate the EVGA 7900 GT CO SUPERCLOCKED a least a 'Home Run'."

NVNews

A busy week..

2006-03-31T19:11:00.000+08:00

This week has been a busy week for me. I can't even make a full entry. I'm still reading materials regarding ATi's implementation of physics engine using their GPU, and I have drafted something about that. Whatever it is, ATI's physics seems a bit superior compared to NVidia; that is if their GPU is able to beat PhysX in floating point operations.

Materials:

PC Perspective - ATI Physics Acceleration Gets a Voice

PC Perspective - AGEIA PhysX Physics Processor Technology Preview

GeForce 7 Series: A Small Family?

2006-03-24T11:46:00.000+08:00

June 2005-December 2005

This is kinda funny; I was having a shower this morning, just before I went to work when something struck me hard: Did you realize that NVidia's Geforce 7 series is such a small family of graphics card for almost 6 months?

When I think about this, it is an absolute truth that whether we realize it or not, GeForce 7 only consists GeForce 7800 GTX (June 2005), 7800 GT (July) and 7800 GTX 512 (November), before we hit 2006. The fact that this family can be considered small is that those cards fall into the same category: high-end. There were no G70 cards released to fill gap inside mid-range and low-end category at all during the 2nd half of 2005.

Further thinking reveals that the reason for this scenario is relatively simple: too simple actually that we just have to think like NVidia's marketing people. Just consider this: lack of competition from ATi. That's it, I said it.

We all know that ATi had been bugged with the problems regarding their initial R520 design that forced them to delay the release of the most anticipated '32 pipelines' R520 (we thought so at first!). Finally, they managed to release X1K series in October 2005 after being delayed a few times. Although X1800 series wasn't a '32 pipelines' card as expected before, I praised ATi for offering a full fledge solution that covered low-end, mid-range and high-end on the same hardlaunch day, marking ATi's departure from being labeled as a 'paperlaunch' company.

And I believe that due to this event, NVidia responded back by releasing 7800 GTX 512 in the battle of the performance card. Yet still, there was no graphics for mid and low-end for GeForce 7 series. Once again, we were asked to wait. Opps, I almost forgot that there was 6800 GS (a 6800 GT look-alike in performance) released somewhere in November. While it successfully acted as filler between 6800 GT and vanilla 6800 (at the same time, it nicely fell into mid-range category to blast X1600XT away, during that timeframe!), the fact remains that mid-range, budgeted gamers still couldn't grab a hold at G70 enhanced features over NV40. Once again, majority of gamers had to wait.

Should I blame NVidia for this? Morally, I might want to. This play-catch thing really bothers the majority of gamers, and it created a situation that was not a win-win scenario. When a party failed to compete for a certain period of time, the other party took advantage of the situation. But how can I blame NVidia? This is just a nature of business, pure and simple.

Should I blame ATi? Far from it; they didn't purposely left a big gap in the middle of competition. Whatever fiasco that happened during the construction of R520 was unexpected; it just happened. I think ATi's excellent November launch was an attempt to compensate for the loss of competition during the 2nd half of 2005.

Just one thing: if I was on NVidia's shoes, I would have released 7300 and 7600 (even 7800 GS for AGP market) between June and December last year. That would have me secured the biggest market available without being challenged by any competing products at all. So, I wonder why NVidia didn't do this; they might have their own reason.

In the end, when it comes to a very tight competition like this, consumers are at the mercy of these companies, especially when the competition only involves two parties. When one goes down, we fall onto another party and just hoping that the situation still favour our way. Unfortunately, we don't get to see that a lot.

A third company into the competition will probably balance the situation better.

My Gaming Casing - PowerLogic Atrix 5000

2006-03-23T15:51:00.000+08:00

For many years, I used only decent casings for my PC. I mean purely simple tower casing without any extra stuff and 'bling' - I just didn't care.

Finally I took a chance to own a better casing.

Im not a big fan of "'blinging' your PC to the extreme", I just like to keep it nice, simple but attractive. I found that PowerLogic Atrix 5000 is just the one for me. Cost me about RM170 though.

There are 2 best possible ways to suck air into the casing. One is at the leftside of the casing and the other is underneath the top of the casing. This excludes the rear 90 mm fan which I think is a necessity for all casings today. One 120 mm LED fan is provided for the leftside air intake, while the top spot is provided without any fan, we need to install our own.

There's an internal cylindrical plastic installed inside the left casing panel, directly above the CPU location, which is meant to draw air directly on top of the CPU heatsink/fan for cooling. For better result, this plastic can also be replaced with another fan to blast air to cool the CPU more efficiently.

When I am in a heavy gaming session at home, I can summarised that this casing works fine in eliminating the heat inside it. When I was still using X800 GTO, the heat from this graphics card is directly blown outside the casing using its dual-slot cooling solution. However, my current 7800 GT is a single-slot cooling method, so you know the rest of it. I initially thought that the casing internal temperature would be way higher, but the reading on the front LCD display showed no differences (possibly only a fraction of a degree Celcius). So, I think that's good enough.

The front LCD display is configured to display temperature, HDD RPM, CD RPM and time. Those readings are made possible by utilising the sensors supplied together with the casing. The illuminating PowerLogic logo in front can be turned on and off, so that's a bit of flexibility there anyway (this bling is useless during daytime or under a strong lighting).

Here's the actual spec from Leapfrog, the distributor of the casing:

Specifications
Multi-function Digital Controller for 2 Fans (CPU / HDD or VGA)
Temperature display for CPU, VGA, HDD and Case Temperature
Multi-function display for Clock, Date
12 cm Color LED Side Fan and 9 cm Back Fan built-in
Ultra Cooling System with multi-ways Grid + Filter System
Only 1 screw reveals the whole case
Screwless, Tool-less FDD, HDD and Expansion Slots
Screwless front panel (Snap On/Off)
Install up to 6 Fans : 2 x Rear, 2 x Front, 1 x Side, 1 x Top
High Quality 0.8 mm SECC Steel, All edges debarred for safety
Fits in all motherboard up to 244 mm
Drive Bay : 4 x 5.25 External, 2 x 3.5 External and 6 x 3.5 Internal

Well, I guess there are more to it than what I can observed. Overall, PowerLogic Atrix 5000 will definitely look stunning in the room. With such a good pricing, I find it hard to resist. Of course the internal finishing is not as good as those from Lian Li, Coolermaster (I did find some sharp edges around inside the aluminium bays), but this casing is worth buying!

Future NFS screenshots??

2006-03-22T16:00:00.000+08:00

I wish that the next Need For Speed could look something like this!

Words of the Day : SLI Physics!

2006-03-22T10:10:00.000+08:00

I should have included another words of the day before this: Quad SLI, but then I think that it's just another extension to SLI campaign so no biggie here.

Okay, based on the readings at HardOCP, RojakPot and a few forums, it appears that NVidia has another trick up its sleeves, waiting to be exposed all this time. Yep, physics is the way to go according to the rhythm of the future gaming.

Introduction

I think this all rooted from the idea of 'multiple processors' for PC processing power. I imagine that 'siliconised' people in Intel, AMD, NVidia and ATi had been too precipitated with the idea of 'race for more MHz". Later on, we witnessed the birth of multicore CPU as well as multiple GPUs (SLI, Quad SLI soon and Crossfire) on the mainstream computing.

With the power of multiplicity in hand, people start thinking of how to make use of those. Therefore we are served with the ideas of multithreaded applications and soon, gaming as well. The benefits of multicore CPU are already here to enjoy, and today, multiple GPU from NVidia, or SLI to be exact, adds another weapon to its gaming arsenal.

SLI Physics

I think that the collaboration between Havok and NVidia in creating this feature hits some sweet spots at various aspects. While I'm mostly requoting what many reviewers have said, I realised that many of my opinions sit on the same track as theirs.

In games, physics is one of the main components that makes up to the realism in gaming, besides graphics. Since the birth of GPU, graphics complexity has been taken care of nicely, thus what we see today is a steady progression of adding more 'eye-candy, graphics features, pixel processing, shaders, vertex, DirectX etc etc" scenario. While all is good, we miss the revolutionary in gaming. I bought my GeForce DDR 6 years ago so basically it has been since then.

Today, NVidia teams up with Havok to integrate the power of Havok FX engine into the GPU. We know that Havok implements a software approach in bringing the realism in physics, contrary to AGEIA's solution, PhysX which employs a dedicated hardware to do so.

Basically, the idea is, in SLI configuration, the second GPU is dedicated to be the physics processing power while the first GPU concentrates on the graphics as usual. The rule is that the hardware has to support SM3.0 (since this is what Havok FX use to calculate physics) and the game must also support Havoc FX. Simply said, we just have to install a proper Forceware driver (supporting Havok FX ) for our Geforce 6 or 7 series and play any supporting games to see its effects. On Havok's side however, they mentioned that this works on any SM3.0 graphics card, which means that we cannot rule out ATi's X1800 and X1900 series.

NVidia adds some further notes that the physics engine also applies to NVidia single card. They also recommend that the minimum graphics card model to implement this is GeForce 7600. Now, adding two notes above, I wonder how taxing the situation can be.

The best part of the story is, no additional hardware is needed! This collaboration hits the spot where the install base for the hardware is already huge, and I reckon the rate of adoption is going to be fast. I also reckon that this is another boost from NVidia to encourage gamers to adopt for SLI.

The Actual Truth

People immediately starts comparing SLI Physics with AGEIA's PhysX. It is then made obvious that NVidia solution does not only differ in terms of hardware/software approach, but it also goes beyond which gaming physics it is targeting. Simply said, SLI Physics acted on the physics on the game such that it will enhance the eye-candy aspects, not the entire gameplay. It's kinda difficult to put my own words here, but here's an excerpt from TechReport regarding SLI Physics:

"Unlike other approaches, Havok FX handles physics computations directly on the GPU, allowing it to calculate and render object movement with minimal readback to the CPU. However, Havok FX is limited to what's referred to as "effect physics," or physics that don't affect gameplay. Havok prefers to keep gameplay physics on the CPU, leaving Havok FX with the physics calculations necessary for visual effects and other eye candy. Fortunately, modern GPUs apparently do a pretty good job of crunching those types of physics calculations."

This is another point where it differs from PhysX. PhysX offers an all-out physics computation inside a dedicated silicon, removing it 100% from the CPU.

Anyway, I think SLI Physics removes a significantly large portion of physics calculation off the CPU, so in this department, it is not too shabby either.

The Rationality

When SLI Physics is announced, one thing immediately crop up in my mind: load balancing. How do we utilised two GPUs in SLI to perform physics effectively? Having read NVidia's implementation and a few flaming discussions, the current setup will utilise the whole second GPU to be a dedicated physics calculator.

One question: how 'whole' is the 2nd GPU going to be utilised in terms of transistors utilisation?

Looking at TechReport's excerpt above, GPUs can do a pretty good job at calculating physics, but the question remains, at what percentage of a whole GPU? I am no expert in semiconductor and CPU manufacturing, but since many parts of a GPU are tailored only for processing graphical data: pixel shaders, vertex shaders , I would say that quite a large portion of a GPU is useless for calculating physics. The only part that I think is relevant is the ALU, where the core mathematical calculation is performed. Of course, this is my own biggest mystery around the issue, someone alse out there might have the answer.

Whatever it is, this particular implementation raises mostly economical issue for SLI adopters. Is it worth sacrificing one GPU for physics, running only on one GPU for graphics in SLI? This issue is so mind-boggling that one might wonder the impact on graphics performance when switching SLI Physics on. Logical thinking would indicate that framerates will be reduced by doing so.

If the performance of that 2nd GPU can compensate for the loss of graphical computing power, that's fine. The problem is, I just don't think so. How limiting is the physics computation in gaming actually? There are no numbers that can describe this other than the pure virtue of megahertz. Still, if we say that 650 MHz core clock of 7900 GTX are used solely to calculate physics, is the performance competitive with AMD FX-57 in doing the same thing?.

Still, load balancing is the best implementation in this kind of situation. Fortunately, it will be supported soon, although not in the early version of SLI Physics. That's a relief.

AGEIA's PhysX

This is where a dedicated AGEIA's card comes into consideration. The solution seems promising in all areas except in the supporting games department, where the competition is tight. Havok has secured many game developers with excellent games, while AGEIA's, in my opinion, has Epic Games support for its most-awaited Unreal3 engine, along with a few other prominent game developers. To make things favour their way, AGEIA provides PhysX SDKs for free for all developers.

$200++ for a PhysX card? I'd say that a very good solution IF you want to compensate for your lack of affordability to buy high-end gaming CPU.

Summing It Up

I praise NVidia and Havok actually, for coming out with such solution using existing platform. An innovation at its best. We are yet to see the actual gaming rig in action under SLI Physics setup, but I hope when we do, we will know where our money goes to.

Further readings: Adrian's RojakPot and TheInquirer.

Personal notes on G71, G73...

2006-03-21T12:17:00.000+08:00

I need to store this anyway:

G71 - Geforce 7900 GTX, 7900 GT - 90 nm
G73 - Geforce 7600 - 90 nm
G72 - Geforce 7300 - 110 nm

Summarised from AnandTech:

7900 GTX:
8 vertex pipes
24 pixel pipes
16 ROPs
650 MHz core clock
1600 MHz memory data rate
512MB of memory on a 256bit bus
$500 +

7900 GT:
8 vertex pipes
24 pixel pipes
16 ROPs
450 MHz core clock
1320 MHz memory data rate
256MB of memory on a 256bit bus
$300 - $350

7600 GT:
5 vertex pipes
12 pixel pipes
8 ROPs
560 MHz core clock
1400 MHz memory data rate
256MB of memory on a 128bit bus
$180 - $230

So, basically 7900 GT is an overclocked 7800 GTX and 7900 GTX is a core-overclocked 7800 GTX 512. Their little brother, 7600 is supposed to be a replacement for 6600 GT, targeting the price/performance ratio crown.I reckon that with aggresive pricings like those and wide availability, ATi is gonna get a tough competition here. Thus we see around the Net that X1900 XT , maybe even XTX are priced at less than $500. Just show me the money!

My 7800 GT on AquaMark 3

2006-03-17T10:33:00.000+08:00

I just throw this benchmark to see how my 7800 GT perform:

The peculiarity of my Aeolus 7800 GT

2006-03-10T17:40:00.000+08:00

I was turning on my PC last night and as usual, the monitor will display the BIOS reading of the graphics card installed in the system. Initially I didn't notice this, it happened in a glimpse that somehow there's something strange about the VGA BIOS reading. I restarted the PC and with the virtue of 1 MP handphone camera, I took a snap at it real quick. Let's have a look :

There it is, one line that says it all, "Engineering Release - Not For Production Use". If I am one of AnandTech's hardware reviewers, I probably won't bother about this at all. Hardware reviewers are regularly being provided with engineering sample of a product to be reviewed.

Then how on earth that I could end up buying an engineering sample of 7800 GT in the retail market? This really boils my blood as this is the second time I think that I've been tricked into buying an 'unpure' retail graphics card. First one was the former Sapphire X800 GTO FireBlade, where I discovered that its BIOS has been tampered with. Why not? A default clock of 500/550 core/memory as reported by RaBIT? Malaysia PC retailers must have been fuggin' retarded! Not all of them, but enough to fool a few enthusiasts around! Talk about customer rights to curb unhealthy business ethique here? I must be dreaming!!

Anyway, I made some further investigation regarding the 7800 GT BIOS. I used NiBiTor from MKVTech to go into the details of the BIOS. Guess what I've found??

The 'Engineering Release' tickbox is ticked, which proves that my 7800 GT is indeed an engineering sample. I also made the same test with a few other 7800 BIOSes : reference NVidia card, XFX, Palit and ASUS. None of them indicated an engineering sample BIOS.

Another thing that I observed was that the BIOS revision, 05.70.02.13.00 seemed a bit odd since even the reference NVidia BIOS's revision itself was 05.70.02.13.01 while the other BIOSes were even reporting .02 and even .12 for XFX.

I guess this can be listed as the fourth reason why this card was sold very cheap for a 7800 GT.
Either the retailer or AOpen itself is responsible for this mess..

7800 GT overclocking myth exposed!

2006-03-08T12:08:00.000+08:00

I was reading a review of Gainward BLISS 7800 GT 'Goes Like Hell' 512 MB (wow!) with rating clocks of 450/1300 (1.4 ns memory) at PureOverclock when their explanation of the nature of overclocking 7800 GT struck me. Most people know that not every parts in the G70 core is clocking at the same rate at any time. PureOverclock break it down further by explaining what root clock, vertex clock, shader and ROP clock mean.

I don't actually understand it fully but here's what they said about it:

"You’ll probably need some more details to understand this fully:

• The vertex clock is always 40 MHz higher than the root clock.
• The shader and ROP clocks increase every time you hit a 27 MHz oscillation of the vertex clock (a vertex clock of 486 MHz is 18x27 and so the shader and ROP clocks will increase).
• When the vertex clock hits a 27 MHz oscillation the shader and ROP clocks will be 27MHz less than the root clock when the oscillation takes place. The shader and ROP clocks will not increase until the next 27 MHz oscillation of the vertex clock occurs. Another way to calculate shader and ROP clocks would be that both of them will be 13.5 MHz higher than the root clock.

For example, if you select a root clock of 445 MHz you will have a vertex clock of 485 MHz and the shader and ROP clocks will be 432 MHz.

Why will the shader and ROP clocks be 432 MHz? Because the last 27 MHz oscillation of the vertex clock took place at 459 MHz (27x17). If we now take what we know, which is that the shader and ROP clocks will always be 13.5 MHz higher than the vertex clock was at its last oscillation we can easily predict when the shader and ROP clocks will make a jump."

Head over to the article for the full story. It's very good for GT overclockers out there like me.

Anyway, the point is that somehow Gainward's 7800 GT that's being reviewed does not exhibit this nature. It seems that all those clocks are clocking at the same clock as root clock. Whether this is an advantage or not, I don't know but certainly this card is full of surprises.

Conroe: The New Gaming CPU?

2006-03-08T10:45:00.000+08:00

I know this is a bit off topic from the genre of the blog, but it seems highly related to gaming. Intel just announced Conroe, a dual core 65 nm CPU, which will be available at Q3 2006. Head over to AnandTech's first benchmark of the CPU and AMD's FX-60. The result? Intel kicked AMD's butt big time, especially in gaming! I'm not talking 10-15 fps difference, but 30-40 fps!

However, one thing sounds fishy to me. Both Intel and AMD rigs are PROVIDED by Intel, not AnandTech. Now that's gonna steal the thunder, isn't it? I think AT is excellent enough in preparing the benchmarking rigs of their own and being neutral to both parties. I saw many forumers questioned this part of the Intel's story.

I still wonder if this can also be considered as AGEIA's PhysX killer!

Expect to see some serious price cuts from AMD (haven't seen that for quite some time here!).

Exptect to see premium pricing from Intel again.

I don't think Socket AM2 could close the gap that much.

CPU war is heating up again...

7900 GTX, 7900 GT early benchmarks!!

2006-03-07T08:28:00.000+08:00

From DailyTech:

"System Configuration:
Athlon 64 FX-55
1GB DDR400 (2x512MB)
nForce4 motherboard

All tests were performed with a 1280x1024 resolution. The cards tested claimed 1.2ns DDR3 for both cards. ForceWare 84.12 was used for testing.

GeForce 7900GTX 512MB
650mhz core clock, 1600MHz memory clock
3dmark 03: 17800
3dmark 05: 7600
3dmark 06: 5200

GeForce 7900GT 256MB
450mhz core clock, 1300MHz memory clock
3dmark 03: 13800
3dmark 05: 7000
3dmark 06: 4550
"

I don't know who conducted these benchmarks, probably DailyTech themselves, but one thing for sure, I don't see The Inquirer being mentioned anywhere. What I know is that I'm interested in 7900 GT's scores. Ok, let's see, what does it take for me to get 13800 and 7000 at 3DMark03 and '05 at 1280x1024, using my current rig? Obviously, I have to overclock my GT to 450 core and max out the memory as high as possible (2.0 ns rating, not much can be done!). Or if it's not enough, just OC the core a bit higher perhaps. Maybe the limiting factor is the CPU (mine is Venice 3000+ Rev E6!!).

3DMark06 is different, as scores due to CPU performance is also taken into calculating the final score. FX55 is to hard for me to beat I guess ( although I've read some OC freaks overclock their Venice 3000+ to get even with FX55, or beat it).

My take is that these two cards might positioned themselves in a better place compared to G70, whether in availability, pricing and of course, benchmarks. However, I have a mixed feeling whether they can regain the performance crown from ATi. With ramped up clocks and reduced core, the only thing new here is the overclocking potential.

7800 GT: 6859 in 3DMark05 benchmark!

2006-03-06T13:00:00.000+08:00

Once again, using my gaming rig, I tested my 7800 GT at stock clock 400/550 in 3DMark05. The default setting was used (1024x768).

That score gives me around 1000+ more than what I have with ATi X800 GTO. I also notice that the multitexturing fillrate result is better compared to that in 3DMark03.

The benchmark went smoother than before: I can enjoy Return to Proxycon test better with better framerates. Canyon Flight was also better although I don't really like that test (come on, where's the gigantic splash when that creature slammed into water??)

7800 GT: 14384 on 3DMark03!

2006-03-03T18:01:00.000+08:00

This is the first benchmark that I used on my nVidia 7800 GT. As usual, I'm running my AMD 64 3000+ at 2250MHz and 2x512MB DDR Dual-channel RAM. The card is clocked at stock 400/ 550(1.1G).

Default 3DMark03 setting was used (1028x768 res, no AA, AF). Here's the result:

That score brings me around 3000+ more when I changed X800 GTO with 7800 GTO. Bare in mind that the GTO was an overclocked one! One thing that I noticed is 3DMark03 still reported a slightly less multi-texturing fillrate than the theoretical ones (400 MHz X 20 = 8 Gtexels/sec).
This happens before durig X800 GTO times. I reckon the version that 3DMark05 and '06 might correct that later.

AOpen Aeolus 7800 GT DVD256MB

2006-03-01T11:25:00.000+08:00

At last, it is time to equip myself with a new graphics card, the one that I've been looking for.. nVidia 7800 GT. I chose to buy AOpen Aeolus 7800 GT DVD256MB because I found it to be the cheapest 7800 GT around at Low Yat Plaza (RM1148). Forsa 7800 GT is the next best thing (RM1150) but it wasn't available at that time.

The feeling was great. The price is right and I think I've waited for the right time to buy this card, although waiting for the release of G71 a.k.a. 7900 series might promise a better pricing for 7800 series.

At home, I anxiously opened the box to reveal its contents, especially the card itself. Here is what AOpen has offered me in the package:

The card itself:

The card looks similar to nVidia reference card without any additional features such as unique cooling system. In fact, I can't see any AOpen sticker even on the fan itself, contrary to what I saw on the reviews of AOpen Aeolus 7800 GT DVD256MB on the web.

Then, the cables and adapters. Hmmm, the cables....

AOpen has supplied 2 DVI to VGA adapters, one 6-pin Molex power cables and TV-Out and Component cable. I immediately notice that there's no VIVO cable here, which leads me to believe that this card is a TV-Out version from AOpen. Further investigation reveals that VIVO version is labelled as AOpen Aeolus 7800 GT DVDC256MB. The strange thing is when I checked about this in the Internet, the box for the VIVO version is exactly the same as mine, where it still printing 'DVD256MB' and not 'DVDC256MB'. I guess for those who are looking for AOpen card like mine or the VIVO version, better ask for details.

The rest of the contents are the CDs: Installation CD and bundled games: PitFall: The Lost Expedition and Second Sight.

After checking all the contents, I began to understand the reason for such a cheap pricing for the card. First of all, this is not the VIVO version. Secondly, there's no VideoStudio 7 software bundled as well (since this isn't a VIVO!). And then, there's a possibility of another reason...

When I checked the specs for AOpen Aeolus 7800 GT in the official website and various reviews about it, the specs indicated that it comes with factory-overclock core freq. at 430 MHz and memory freq. at 550 (1.1GHz): this goes for both TV-Out version and VIVO version! What a good package that is! However, when I checked mine using Coolbits hacking and also RivaTuner, both reported the core and memory freq. to be 400 MHz and 500 (1 GHz) respectively, which is the reference clock by nVidia. Now how do we describe a situation like this? Is my card the third version released by AOpen, a clock-down version to justify a very cheap retail price??

Nevertheless, it didn't affect me much as I'm not hunting for VIVO functionality anyway, and it is still the cheapest 7800 GT around in Malaysia, currently. Furthermore, I run the Optimal Clock Testing in the overclocking section of the driver (I use Forceware 81.89 anyway) and I am happy to report that this card is able to run at 490/590 (1.18) optimally! According to various reviews on the Internet, this setting is able to match or beat the performance of 7800 GTX at stock clock (430/600), (can't use fillrate to fillrate comparison anymore!). I found it to be true on most benchmarks that I've read.

Currently, I'm running the card at the reference clock, and have been doing a few benchmarks so far. The experience is truly different now, and as some might say that I am making a big deal out of this, IT IS a big deal when you can run your game at full settings with framerates higher than before!

As for X800 GTO, its duty is over, and now sitting comfortably in its box. Who knows, I might need it again later!

Coming soon: benchmarks results!

7900 GTX specs confirmed!

2006-02-28T11:12:00.000+08:00

Finally, the specs for G71's 7900 GTX is here:

- Core Clock = 650 MHz
- Memory Clock = 800 (1.6 G)
- Memory Bandwidth = 51.2 GB/s
- Memory Size = 512 MB/1024 MB
- Pixel Pipelines = 24

Definitely a beefed up 7800 GTX, and a not-so beefed up 7800 GTX 512. My point is that this couldn't be more than just another relaunch of 7800 GTX 512 with reduced core size. Well, that makes sense since that helps increase the yield per wafer, directly increasing the availability of the card, where 7800 GTX 512 is lack of. Reduced core size also said to help Nvidia reach the core clock they hope for this card.

Performance wise, I don't know if this card can beat X1900XTX from ATi or score even. Even that is so, I reckon that Nvidia is planning to beat ATi in terms of the availability, thus gaining the share in the high end video card market. Purely an opinion of mine.

Finally.........

2006-02-27T17:41:00.000+08:00

Back home..

Back to family.....

back to Nvidia!

Benchmarking UT2004....

2006-02-23T17:16:00.000+08:00

It seems that I am under the spell of older games nowadays...not! I was actually thinking of how to enrich the benchmarking experiences and at the same time trying to find the way to justify my X800 GTO performances. What a lame excuse anyway!.

I installed Unreal Tournament 2004 Demo (too lazy to install the full version), with the same settings as usual:

- X800 GTO at 500/550 core/mem
- Max. settings in the graphics option in UT2004 at 1024x768 res.
- Forced 4X AA, 8X AF in the driver setting.
- FRAPS benchmarks at 60 secs, then averaged. Run for 4 times.

I chose to play the Team Deatchmatch. The map is an indoor map just to get the environment with the most triangles, vertices at all times.

Results

Running no./ no. of frames	Min. FPS	Max. FPS	Avg. FPS
1/ 5025 frames	61	86	83.8
2/ 4694 frames	47	86	78.2
3/ 5047 frames	72	86	84.1
4/ 4448 frames	54	86	74.1

Those are what's reported by FRAPS after the benchmark. One obvious thing to note is that the performance at 1024x768 is capped at 86 FPS. However, the number of frames involved in each of four runs are not the same. This is probably due to the fact that for each test of 60 seconds, I didn't follow the same route and environment. I don't know how to benchmark UT2004 properly using the FlyBy demo..bla bla..whatsoever, so this is the only method I can use. Whatever it is, the benchmark gives me some idea that I was running UT2004 for more than 70 FPS at all time. That's more than enough as 60 FPS is considered as the point where human eyes can barely see the differences of FPS above it.

Graphical anomaly?

I did say that I forced the game to run at 8X anisotrophic filtering, right? Take a look at the screenshot below.

Click the pic above for the biggest size available at my Flickr. If you look carefully at the floor above 'You've won the match!' bar (about half an inch), you can see that the floor textures are sharp, but above that, the textures are blurry (for those who are familiar with Image Quality investigation, this is easy to notice!). IMO, that is not showing a sign of 8X AF being applied at all. I have some other screenshots that shows the same property, but enough for me to show just one. I guess this is a bug in the driver, or maybe the game has problem rendering the filtering, I just don't know.

This is another older game that I enjoyed replaying under new graphics accelerator. It is a fast pace FPS game that really demands high framerates to enjoy it. Just like my experience with NFSU 2, I feel that I can finally play this game the way it is meant to be played!

Screenshots:

Pimp My GPU

I like what I read about AMD DX11 GPU! (Read: the successor of RV770 is almost here)

At last, I have completed (sort of) Test Drive Unlimited!

Crysis Warhead and snapshots galore!

Radeon HD 4870 1GB

It's very mouthful: GeForce GTX 260 Core 216

Radeon HD 4670 - Sweet spot in the middle tier

Radeon HD 4870 X2

VIA departure from chipset arena

GRID is mine, and it's time to play!

Own notes for 9800 GTX+, GTX 280 & 260, HD 4850 & 4870

Video: GT200 tech demo

Radeon HD 4850 early pics

Summer glow in the graphics industry: GT200 or D10U?

Race Driver GRID demo : a preview

Ever heard of GeForce 9600 GSO??

GTA 4: Not Yet For PC

Vista Exclusive: 3DMark Vantage

A Static

Greatest punch line ever: NVIDIA vs. Intel

GeForce 9800 GTX arrives: NVIDIA product launching fest continues!

And now for 9800 GX2 Quad SLI reviews

NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GX2 is here!

9800 GX2, 9800 GTX closing by....

Early 9800 GX2 retail pics

GeForce 9600 GT is launched!

Crysis on 8800 GT - not bad at all

PNY 8800 GTS review video

More videos on Test Drive Unlimited

Test Drive Unlimited video

EVGA e-GeForce 8800 GS 384 MB review at TechPowerUp

AMD dissed physics, Nvidia acquired AGEIA, Nvidia dissed X2

9600 GT review at TweakTown!

Gaming season for me: Juiced 2

9600 GT to be released in February 21st

My Zotac against GTS 640MB and GTX

OMG! Another X2 card?

GeForce 9800 GX2 dissected!

Radeon HD 3870 X2 in action!

The fastest single card: AMD HD3870 X2

A repossessed gamer

G92 8800 GTS 512 MB review At TweakTown!

G92 8800 GTS 128 SP is almost here!

Finally, I got myself an 8800 GT!

HD 3870 & HD 3850 reviewed!

Shockingly RV670!

Enabling 'Very High' Setting in Crysis Demo..under XP!

NFS Pro Street Demo screenshots!

NFS Pro Street Demo is OUT!

8800 GT is launched!

Crysis Demo : a quickie ....

Crysis Demo is out!

RV670: A quickie..

G92: Another good news for gaming this year end!

Enemy Territory: Quake Wars.... Oh My God!!

AMD launches HD 2900 PRO!

Are you a BMW M3 lover?

More pics of NFS: Pro Street

Test Drive Unlimited for PC - Hawaiian tour : PART 2!

Test Drive Unlimited for PC - Hawaiian tour!

Smoke in NFS Pro Street!

Far Cry HDR galore!

Far Cry HDR benchmark!

Far Cry in HDR

Need For Speed : Pro Street

Look at this!

GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB

More shots of Crysis!

NFS Most Wanted Revisited: M3 GTR galore Part 3!

NFS Most Wanted Revisited: M3 GTR galore Part 2!

LG L1952T LCD Monitor : Finally!

NFS Most Wanted Revisited: M3 GTR galore!

We render the jungle...beautifully!

Call of Juarez: Completed.

DX10 graphics cards: NVIDIA 8800 GTX/GTS - Dilemma?

Call of Juarez

NFS Carbon cars Part II

NFS Carbon cars

NFS Carbon: My own opinion

PowerLogic Atrix 5000 manual..