New Nvidia Beta Driver Plus Tomb Raider PC Update Helps Performance

update for those players on PC for their recent reboot title Tomb Raider, aimed at fixing various bugs and crashes but also notably the memory costs for TressFX.

The new hair setting was previously quite taxing on even the most high-end systems, causing large framerate drops when turned on. The new update has now lowered the amount of memory costing for the realistic hair but also increased simulation and graphical qualities.

We have just made public a new version of the PC version of Tomb Raider, build 1.0.722.3. This patch will be applied by Steam automatically when you next start the game. If your game does not update, please restart the Steam client.

In addition to multiple PC specific fixes this patch brings all the fixes available in the 1.02 console patch to the PC as well, but note that the majority of those was already included in the originally released PC game or version 718.4.

Among the new changes are also fixes to Nvidia graphics card users who found the title more taxing then AMD users. A new driver has been released that coincides with the Tomb Raider patch, with hopes in increasing performance among several GeForce GPUs.

We’ve been working closely with NVIDIA to address the issues experienced by some Tomb Raider players. In conjunction with this patch, NVIDIA will be releasing updated drivers that help to improve stability and performance of Tomb Raider on NVIDIA GeForce GPUs. We are continuing to work together to resolve any remaining outstanding issues. We recommend that GeForce users update to the latest GeForce 314.21 drivers (posting today) for the best experience in Tomb Raider

GTX Titan, GTX 680, and Radeon 7970 go head-to-head at 5760×1080

The cost, however, is trending downwards, particularly if you’re willing to use a set of smaller displays. Viewsonic’s VX2260s is on sale at Newegg for $149.99. It’s a 22-inch 1920×1080 display with DVI and DP support. The productivity improvements from a dual display are very real, and while 3x monitors are only a boost if you work with multiple full-screen programs simultaneously, the additional cost is smaller if you’re looking to build a dual-monitor workstation to begin with. Websites like the Wide Screen Gaming Forum.There are also third-party programs like Widescreen Fixer and Flawless Widescreen that fix support in a range of titles











by joel hruska
 

Former AMD Chief’s Book Describes Fight Against Intel

Advanced Micro Devices AMD for years accused Intel of illegal tactics in the market for microprocessor chips, a dispute that many people may have forgotten. Hector Ruiz wants the story remembered.

The former AMD chief has written a book that memorializes his bet-the-company decision in 2005 to file an antitrust case against its much larger rival, a volume of roughly 200 pages that comes with heavy doses of David versus Goliath imagery. It’s called “Slingshot,” and subtitled “AMD’s Fight To Free An Industry From The Ruthless Grip Of Intel.”

Intel never admitted wrong-doing, either in the suit brought by AMD or in other antitrust cases or investigations pursued by multiple government agencies, including the Federal Trade Commission. It did pay AMD $1.25 billion as part of a 2009 settlement, after Ruiz had left the company.

“We don’t believe that we violated any law and consumers benefited from our business practices,” said Chuck Mulloy, an Intel spokesman.

Ruiz, who hails from a small town in Mexico, elaborates on his humble upbringing as well as advice and lessons learned from relatives and teachers. Despite early difficulties mastering English, he did well in Texas schools–including a doctorate from Rice University. He worked at Texas Instruments TXN -0.61%and Motorola Inc. MSI +0.51%before joining AMD in 2000.

Much of the book deals with why Ruiz took the risk of attacking Intel in court, an effort called Project Slingshot. The companies had legal battles as early as the 1980s, but the conflict in the last decade came after AMD introduced a particularly strong lineup of chips but failed to gain as much market share as expected. The book cites multiple examples of big U.S. and Asian PC makers getting excited about using AMD’s products, only to back away or reduce their commitments under what Ruiz describes as Intel financial inducements or threats.

The examples, and quotations from internal company emails, may seem familiar to those who followed the various legal documents released by AMD, the FTC, the state of New York and antitrust regulators in Europe, Japan and South Korea. But the book adds details on how Ruiz and other AMD executives developed their legal strategies.

There are also insights into other developments during Ruiz’s tenure. “Slingshot,” for example, states that Nvidia NVDA +0.01%had been AMD’s first preference to buy to add graphics-chip expertise, a possibility Ruiz says foundered on high price and the requirement that Nvidia’s chief take over leadership of AMD. (An Nvidia spokesman declined comment). AMD eventually purchased ATI Technologies.

Other details concern AMD’s negotiations for financial help from Abu Dhabi, an effort that stalled until some helpful match-making by a member of the Ferrari sports car family (Investors in the oil-rich country had purchased a stake in Ferrari, and AMD had sponsored one of its race cars).

The introduction helped lead to a meeting with Abu Dhabi’s crown prince and lengthy negotiations with others there, aimed at spinning off AMD’s manufacturing operations and making the country a new force in global chip production. It also led to what Ruiz says was one of the most difficult moments in his career; he decided he had to join the manufacturing company to reassure the investors about his commitment.don clark

Windows 8 Is Not Catching On

Windows 8 is  having a hard time exciting the masses .many people shopping for a new PC just want the familiarity of Windows 7.
Pay a visit to Best Buy, and you'll find that if you hope to stick with Windows 7, you may be in for a rude awakening. "We don't carry Windows 7 anymore. It was phased out last year," a blue-shirted salesperson told us at a Dedham, Massachusetts, store.
That may be true at the Best Buy we visited, but when it comes to the availability of Windows 7 PCs, you still have options. You just need to know where to look.

Windows 7: Alive but fading

It's true that new Windows 7 PC options are vanishing to make room for Windows 8 machines. Net Applications reports that in January, for the first time since Windows 7 went on sale, the operating system lost market share. But there's no need to panic quite yet if you want a new PC that runs the older OS. Microsoft claims that its plans for ending the sale of PCs preinstalled with Windows 7 are "to be determined." However, the company does say that it will end mainstream support for Windows 7 in January 2015.

Way back in 2010, Microsoft shed light on what its commitment to support past Windows operating systems was going to be. "We are confirming our current policy of allowing retailers to sell the boxed version of the previous OS for up to one year after release of a new OS, and that OEMs can sell PCs with the previous OS pre-loaded for up to 2 years after the launch date of the new OS," wrote Microsoft's Brandon LeBlanc on a company blog.

If this policy first stated in 2010 holds true, it means that retailers can sell boxed copies of Windows 7 until October 26, 2013, and that Dell, HP, and Lenovo can sell Windows 7 PCs until October 2014.tom spring

AMD has decided to drop the ATi brand name after long consideration. The “AMD” and “Radeon” brands will remain, but the ATi part will be removed from future Radeon cards. Part of the decision was influenced by AMD’s move to integrate AMD CPU and graphics technology onto the same chip, similar to Intel’s Core i3 processors. According to thetechreport.com, the AMD Ontario will combine two Bobcat cores with Radeon graphics and the more powerful Llano will bring a quad-core Phenom II with a GPU that also does it justice.

AMD acquired ATi in 2006 after it operated for over 20 years as an independant and renowned graphics card manufacturer. You can read more ATi and the upcoming 6000-series of Radeon graphics.by ben biggs

GeForce GTX 660 Graphics Cards

Performance

3DMark 2011

Metro 2033: The Last Refuge

The resource-consuming Metro 2033 shows no difference between the pre-overclocked GeForce GTX 660s and the reference sample from Nvidia. The more expensive GeForce GTX 660 Ti isn’t much different, either. But the two GeForce GTX 660s in SLI mode sport a 90% performance growth and enjoy a 40% advantage over the GeForce GTX 680.

Total War: SHOGUN 2 – Fall of the Samurai

The four GeForce GTX 660s deliver similar performance in Total War: SHOGUN 2 – Fall of the Samurai. As opposed to Metro 2033, the GeForce GTX 660 Ti enjoys a larger advantage whereas the GeForce GTX 680 and the Radeon HD 7970 are the fastest single-GPU cards in this test. The SLI tandem built out of two GeForce GTX 660s is impressive again, beating the single such card by 85 to 90% and the GeForce GTX 680 by 27% in either graphics quality mode.

Crysis 2

The three original GeForce GTX 660s and the ASUS GeForce GTX 660 Ti have a low bottom frame rate although the reference Nvidia GeForce GTX 660 is better in this respect. The GTX 660 tandem improves the average frame rate by 83 to 84%, but its bottom speed remains as low as that of the single card. Same-class GeForce and Radeon products are comparable to each other in this test.

Battlefield 3

This game shows the same picture as the previous tests.

Sniper Elite V2 Benchmark

The AMD-based solutions are preferable in this test whereas the four GeForce GTX 660s don’t differ at all. The GeForce GTX 660 tandem is good in terms of average frame rate (90% higher compared to the single card) but fails in terms of bottom speed. Indeed, this benchmark was jerky, especially in the high-quality graphics mode with antialiasing.

Sleeping Dogs

The four GeForce GTX 660s are also close to each other in Sleeping Dogs. And they are all inferior to the Radeon HD 7870. The GeForce GTX 660 Ti is 13 to 19% ahead of the GTX 660s, depending on the graphics quality settings, and there’s the same gap between it and the faster GeForce GTX 680. It is the GeForce GTX 660 tandem that’s the fastest solution again. Its bottom speed is okay, unlike in the previous test.

F1 2012

F1 2012 is the only game in this test session where the 2-way GeForce GTX 660 SLI doesn’t work very well. With antialiasing turned off, its performance growth is so small that the two GTX 660s cannot beat the single GeForce GTX 680 although they easily did that before. With 8x MSAA enabled, the SLI mode cannot be activated at all, making the SLI tandem somewhat slower in comparison with the single such card.

Hitman: Absolution

 

Conclusion

The GeForce GTX 660s from EVGA, Gigabyte and MSI have turned out to be very much alike to each other. We can’t name a clear winner or loser among them. Being pre-overclocked, they all deliver similar performance, beating the reference GeForce GTX 660 by 4 to 5%. The MSI GeForce GTX 660 Twin Frozr III is close to the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 660 Ultra Durable in terms of GPU temperature while the original. of the hotter EVGA GeForce GTX 660 FTW Signature 2 copes well, too, especially as the EVGA has the highest GPU clock rate. When their fans are regulated automatically, they produce about the same amount of noise, even subjectively. Added to this are reference PCBs with some exclusive features, the same amount and clock rate of onboard graphics memory, identical overclocking potential, and scanty accessories.Moreover, they all cost the same amount of money, so we can’t really choose the best card of the three - EVGA GeForce GTX 660 FTW Signature 2, Gigabyte GeForce GTX 660 Ultra Durable and MSI GeForce GTX 660 Twin Frozr III.xbit.com sergey lepilov

 

GeForce Titan Might Outperform GTX 690

GeForce Titan might actually exceed the performance of the GTX 690.
Nvidia's GeForce Titan will be based on the GK110 GPU, a GPU previously only found on Nvidia's Tesla cards, the K20 and K20X.

The rumors haven't been verified since PCOnline has not named their source, but claim that it is a reliable source. Their source says that the GeForce Titan scores X7107 points in 3DMark11, in extreme mode, a massive jump above the GTX 690. The GTX 690 alone already scores just shy from X6000 points with the same benchmark under the same conditions. The most staggering part though is that the Titan, a single GPU part, outperforms the GTX 690, a dual-GPU part.

reports suggest that the upcoming GeForce Titan will also not be called the GeForce GTX 780, nor will it take a GTX 600 series name. It will simply be called the GeForce Titan, likely inspired by the by the Cray Titan supercomputer, which houses nearly 19 thousand Nvidia Tesla K20X cards.
Availability is rumored to be around the end of February with a hefty MSRP of $899.toms hardware