Monday, December 01, 2003

Daily mailbox: 3DCenter.org, Creative Mods, RenderNode, DarkVision Hardware, Tweaknews, etc. — Cormac @ 15:01 

ATI´s filtering tricks @ 3DCenter.org

"We investigated ATI´s filtering quality and found a few "optimizations" in hardware:
- only 5 Bit precision on linear interpolation for trilinear filtering (Nvidia: 8 Bit)
- only 6 Bit precision on matrix quantization for bilinear filtering (Nvidia: 8 Bit)

Read more at 3DCenter.org.

AMD N-Bench 3.0 download mirror

Adrenaline.com.br has a mirror of N-Bench 3.0, benchmark tool fron AMD.

FrontX-front panel computer port review @ Creative Mods

"This thing is built tough. The steel reinforced plastic housing should outlast years of upgrades. It exudes quality. Assembly was super easy. Just slide out the blanks, and slide in the corresponding module of your choice. It really is just that simple."

Read more at Creative Mods.

RenderNode reviews nVidia Quadro FX 3000

"We did a deep performance tests under main 3D applications like 3ds max, LightWave, Maya and SOFTIMAGE|XSI as well as in top class benchmarks like SpecViewperf 7.1 and MAXON Cinebench 2003."

Read more at RenderNode.

Chenbro Gaming Bomb Case Review @ Madshrimps

"The case is not screwless, but almost. It would have been better if there was a fan holder in the front panel. These are just minor details. The case is really easy to use, once you get to know how systems work!"

Read more at Madshrimps.

Extramod Meshed Fan Grills Mini-Review @ DarkVision Hardware

"If your computer is standing in a dusty, dirty environment then it is very likely that a lot of dust will stack up inside your PC on your precious hardware. It is not only bad for your hardware, it also raises temperatures and looks very unattractive if you have a case window. Any solutions for this problem? Well you could make yourself a few dustfilters, or you can be lazy and buy a few Meshed Fan Grills from Extramod."

Read more at DarkVision Hardware.

NextBase MDV1 Small Form Factor DVD Player Review @ Tweaknews.net

"Not only was the player physically robust, but its feature list would go toe to toe with any normal DVD player on the market. As stated earlier, the visual and audio quality were flawless and you would never tell the difference when compared to the bigger alternative."

Read more at Tweaknews.

Leadtek & MSI FX5950 Shootout @ TrustedReviews

"About a month ago I had a close encounter with nVidia’s new FX5950 Ultra reference card. As retail cards are starting to make an appearance TrustedReviews has managed to get hold of the latest boards from Leadtek and MSI. So what makes these cards different from the reference design, well to be honest, not a great deal."

Read more at TrustedReviews.

Halo @ TrustedReviews

"Halo is one of the best games I have ever played. When the Xbox launched in the US, I actually flew out to New York and brought one back with me, since I didn’t want to have to wait months for the UK launch. The main reason that I was so desperate to own an Xbox was that I wanted to play Halo, and I consequently spent the next week glued to my sofa playing the game through on all the levels."

Read more at TrustedReviews.

NEC/Mitsubishi LCD4000 @ TrustedReviews

"A big player in the display market, NEC recently left us in the possession of what can only be described as a monster of an LCD. Aimed squarely at the public display market the LCD4000 is a 40in beast that uses active matrix TFT technology, typically found in your standard flat panel display, in order to produce an image. This presents the user with some key advantages over plasma display panels (PDP) that are commonly used for screens of this size or greater."

Read more at TrustedReviews.

Asus Radeon 9800XT/TVD @ TrustedReviews

"The fact that this retail card is from Asus is a clear indicator of the shift of power in the industry. Asus was formerly an nVidia-only house but the Radeon’s success means that ignoring ATi is no longer an option, even for the big manufacturers. Although this doesn’t mean that Asus won’t be producing cards based on nVidia chipsets as well."

Read more at TrustedReviews.

SuperFlower SF-561T2 Review @ Madshrimps

"SuperFlower is becoming more and more popular nowadays. The reason is simple. They make decent, good looking and competitively priced cases. We take a look at one of their latest offerings, the SF-561T2, a pre-modded case with some great features!"

Read more at Madshrimps.

Need For Speed:Underground Review @ Madshrimps

"One of the trade marks of the Need For Speed series, is the inclusion of traffic on the road. From the first Need for Speed outing players were required to avoid other cars while swerving along the roads at high speeds. NFS:U doesn´t abolish this tradition, and includes traffic in almost all game modes"

Read more at Madshrimps.

AMD Athlon 64 Chipset Royal Rumble — December 2003 @ TweakTown

"AMD has given us mainstream 64-bit processing and now we have a bunch of chipsets to join the joy ride. Today we pit all the newest chipsets from VIA, SIS, nVidia and ALI and find out who our best choice is for our Athlon 64 powered motherboard!"

Read more at TweakTown.