NEWSPAGE DEUTSCH RIVASTATION - There´s something FISHY when you can read this!

09.11 - ATi Rage Fury MAXX

There are a couple of ATi Rage Fury MAXX previews out there. The card seems to perform very well:

The ATI Rage Fury MAXX does very well at high resolutions, but you definitely need a fast processor to get all the performance out of this card. If you were paying attention to how the MAXX scored against the SDR GeForce, you would have noticed that the MAXX performed well against the GeForce on the P3-600 at 1024 and higher resolutions. The MAXX still has a couple glaring faults. Most notable is the less than spectacular performance on low end CPUs. This shouldn't be much of a problem if you consider that anyone willing to spend $250+ on a graphics card probably already has a powerful processor. Of course, if you have $250 to spend on an upgrade and you're still running on a Celeron 300A or a similar speed processor, you should upgrade your CPU/Mobo before the video card (unless you're still running a virge).

The MAXX also needs a little help at low resolutions. Those of you interested only in frame rates (read: don't care about high resolutions) might want to pass on this card, but the MAXX is a viable option for those of you who like running high resolutions with all the eye candy enabled. For these high-res, eye-candy people, the choice between the SDR GeForce and Rage Fury MAXX is going to be a difficult one to make. Especially when you consider that no other next generation video card can beat ATI's hardware DVD support.

Gamers Depot:

Wow! We were absolutely blown away by the performance of both cards. This round proved to be a tough one indeed. On the high-end Athlon 700 the ATI Rage Fury Maxx, under 32bit mode, absolutely tore apart the GeForce, and sent it away carrying a jar of Vaseline. We did the 16bit benchmarks, however it's doubtful that anyone would want to spend $2K+ on a high-end gaming system, then an additional $250.00 for a graphics card just to run it at 640x480 @ 16bit.

What I can't understand, is why NVIDIA hasn't looked in their own backyard instead of worrying about other companies like 3dfx not supporting 32bit rendering with their Voodoo3 part, when it's obvious that their own chip falls apart when switching to 32bit mode. Sometimes even losing up to 50% framerate. Perhaps they should've called it the GeFARCE? Hopefully those scores will improve as they release newer drivers in the future.

Sharky Extreme:

The ATi Rage Fury MAXX we tested is still in a Beta form. Its drivers will continue to mature on the way to its launch date in December. We're not sure exactly how much more performance will be squeezed from the MAXX's drivers as the card seems to be pretty solid in that department already.

Likewise, the drivers of the high-technology GeForce256 chip will also continue to mature, and could also bring gains in performance with them as NVIDIA's engineers optimize more of their new thoroughbred's raw potential.

It seems that the MAXX is clearly being positioned as a card that will rain performance benefits down on its buyers in the games and titles of today, like Unreal Tournament, Quake3: Arena and others, as well as titles that appear over the next three to six months that take advantage of DX7's Texture Compression routines.

The GeForce256 cards on the other hand seem as if they won't be able to fully realize their true potential in a gamer's PC until more Transform & Lighting optimized titles are released throughout all of 2000.

T & L isn't supported on the Rage Fury MAXX, ATi's position is one of doubt regarding the new geometry intensive technique's support at the software developer level…at least for now.

09.11 - GeForce CPU scaling

How´s GeForce looking on low and high performance CPU´s? RIVA Station ran a GeForce DDR on a AMD K6-2 350, a Celeron 300A, a Pentium III 500 and a Pentium III Coppermine at 750/100 MHz. It´s only in german language yet. The english translation will be posted today. But you cann allready take a look ont the result tables:

GeForce 256 & CPU Scaling

09.11 - ASUS V6600 SmartDoctor Technologie

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ASUS offers a new hardware monitoring technology on its new GeForce card V6600 Deluxe. Here´s a paper from ASUS what it can do and some screenshots of the monitoring tools:

ASUS V6600 Deluxe SmartDoctor Technology

09.11 - 3DMark 2000 - A really mad contest!!!

New Onions... new luck! MadOnion stopped farming and started a contest where you can winn 1000$!! You only have to find a really cool name for the new babe-star of the 3DMark 2000 benchmark (Is there an unlock key hidden in the bench? <eg>):

It's MadOnion.com's "Who That Girl" from 3DMark2000 Contest!

She's sexy. She's self-assured. She's the star of the 3DMark 2000 Demo and you and your readers can help bring her to life by giving her a name. There's $1000.00USD in it for the person who provides the coolest moniker.

You can post your suggestions on the Homepage of MadOnion!

08.11 - 3D Mark 2000

The relase date of MadOnion´s (former Futuremark) Benchmarks 3DMark 2000 is not far away. I got the following response on a mail:

I can not tell you much at this point except that you don't have long to wait. There is no beta version but out release date is quickly approaching.

Features/Changes to the new version are numerous, and I really can't discuss too much yet, but I will say that the new version will include a T&L dedicated pipe, making it ideal for benchmarking the next generation of cards.

08.11 - GeForce Rreviews

08.11 - S3 Tweak v1.06d

There´s a new version of S3 Tweak avaialable (for cards of SAvage family)

We're pretty sure this one finally fixes the dodgy overclocking on Savage3D and some Savage4 cards. Overclocking warning should be better behaved, though it still might show up when it shouldn't. Won't change gamma unless you've actually made changes in the gamma dialog and saved them.

Download S3 Tweak v1.06d

08.11 - Napalm Speculations

The Merlins over a t Tweak 3D take a very deep look into the crystal glas and speculate about the new 3dfx Napalm card and possible licensed technology of Gigapixel:

On GigaPixel's site is a RealVideo clip that I found interesting. It's an eight minute segment of a TV program titled "Eye On Business," in which GigaPixel is featured as a technology company, their engineers speak out, and the founder talks about GigaPixel's goals and ambitions. In the clip it is mentioned that while the company is only 10 months old (at the time of the program), they've got "a long list of customers who insist on non-disclosure." It'll be interesting to see just who these "customers" are.

Is it possible? Would 3dfx actually consider licensing intellectual property for use in its own hardware designs? Anything's possible. Perhaps the better question would be, "Is it likely?" Of course, no one can really say - no one but 3dfx, that is. Anything else would be... you guessed it: speculation.

Ok.... Woman all have the same 'specs' but are they all sisters because of that??? Hm... read the whole artcile here.

06.11 - ERAZOR III drivers

ELSA released new Windows NT drivers for the ELSA Erazor III with TNT2. The drivers a re based on NVIDIA referencedrivers v3.53 and offer a new setup including a deinstallation tool: ELSA Erazor III Windows NT Treiber (ThanX for the Mails! :-))

06.11 - ASUS V6600 Infos

The Ewoks at Voodooextreme got information on the ASUS 'Secret Weapon': V6600 Infos

06.11 - 3D Winbench 2000

Ziff Davis released its new benchmark software 3D Winbech 2000:

New for 2000! 3D WinBench 2000 uses the new DirectX 7.0 interface, which means you get to see the benefits and the performance of hardware transformation and lighting up close and personal. Other highlights of the new version include a brand-new processor test suite and new quality tests for the latest innovations in 3D rendering.

3D WinBench 2000 measures the performance of a PC's 3D subsystem, which includes the Direct3D software, the monitor, the graphics adapter, the graphics driver, and the bus used to carry information from the graphics adapter to and from the processor subsystem. You can use 3D WinBench 2000 to test hardware graphics adapters, drivers, and the value of such enhancing technologies as MMX. What you can't test is Windows NT 4.0, because it doesn't support hardware acceleration of the Windows Direct3D interface that 3D WinBench 2000 uses; 3D WinBench 2000 runs only on Microsoft Windows 98, Windows 98SE (Second Edition), and Windows 2000 (RC2 or later). 3D WinBench 2000 aims to measure both the current and future state of hardware 3D accelerator performance.

More information hier. nV News made some benchmarks with it on a GeForce card: T&L Benchmarks

05.11 - Futuremark now MadOnion

Futuremark, maker of 3D Mark99, changes its name to MadOnion.

Toronto, Ontario - November 4th, 1999 -Futuremark Corporation, the world's leading provider of 3D gaming performance benchmarks, today announced it will be providing new online e-commerce solutions and that the company is changing its name to MadOnion.com to support its new Internet-based business. MadOnion.com's e-commerce solutions will simplify PC hardware upgrading and purchasing on-line by empowering consumers to make informed decisions. Based on the company's leading benchmark standards, these solutions are powered by an Internet-based engine that will contain thousands of results gathered from a global community of users.

With the ease of a single click, MadOnion.com will enable users to: · Analyze their PC. · Compare their system setup against the world's largest database of performance information, to find the most effective upgrade solutions from thousands of different computer configurations. · Obtain optimal upgrade or purchasing recommendations for increasing the performance of their PC. · Make instant online purchases with the benefit of optimal upgrade information from MadOnion.com's Internet-based engine.

The new name MadOnion.com was chosen to reflect the multiple layers of services and online purchasing information that the company offers. Later this month, MadOnion.com will release Video2000 and 3DMarkT2000 - the industry's first online benchmarking services. Only with MadOnion.com's online benchmarks will users be able to compare their results with data collected from other users around the world, empowering them with the most objective and customized information about how to upgrade and optimize their personal computer's performance.

The complete pressrelease can be found here.

03.11 - GeForce GPU

NVIDIA GeForce

Here´s an image of the NVIDIA GeForce GPU Chip (Taken from the ELSA Erazor X). The chip surface is not covered by the common ceramics but shows a metallic surface on its upper side. This shall allow a better heat removal to the cooler.

03.11 - Spectra in Japan

Battlax sends info that the Canopus Spectra 7400 is now available in Japan.

03.11 - 3D Prophet DDR-DVI

Planetriva got hands on some details about the Guillemot 3D Prophet with DDR Ram:

- DVI means Digital Visual Interface (DVI 1.0(tm)).
- DVI digital technology is the new open standard for digital display.
- DVI is backward compliant with IBM©P&D(tm) and Compaq© DFP(tm) older standards.
- DVI is supported by the main PC manufacturers (Intel, Compaq, Fujitsu, HP, IBM, P.Bell, NEC ...).
- DVI provides high quality digital output.
- DVI allows to plug digital flat panels, digital CRTs and LCD projectors to the "3D Prophet DDR-DVI".

PR also got a packshot of the card that will be sold under the label of Herkules!!

03.11 - Wonder OpenGL Demo

Wonder is a demo that won the Gravity Art award in poland. The demo runs in OpenGL and is also using Motion Blur effects: Wonder OpenGL Demo

03.11 - DirectX 7

Gamespot UK made an article about the new DirectX7: DirectX7 Features

03.11 - 3dfx Napalm

3dfx made a pressrelease where they announce the release of details on the Voodoo3 succesor Napalm for Comdex:

One Billion Pixels-Per-Second Will Break New Ground in 3D Graphics

At COMDEX '99, 3dfx Interactive® Inc. (NASDAQ: TDFX) will hold a press conference at 8:00 a.m. on Monday, November 15, to announce some of the features behind their next generation graphics technology, codenamed "Napalm", to select members of the media.

Chief among these features will be a focus on fill-rate and the ability to achieve over one billion pixels per second. With fill-rate come benefits such as higher resolution, faster speeds, greater application complexity and the ability to display high quality 32bpp rendering at 60+ frames per second (FPS) at ultra high resolutions. All of these attributes equate to better image quality and highly realistic environments.

In addition to technology demonstrations, the company will announce plans for board-level configurations of the "Napalm" line. "Napalm" is the company's long-awaited follow-up to the successful Voodoo3™ line announced at COMDEX '98. According to PC Data, the Voodoo3 line of products have held the #1 retail position since they began shipping last April.

The press conference will also be Web cast for media unable to attend the event. Details on the Web cast will be available Sunday, November 14, 1999, at the 3dfxgamers.com site.

The company will also conduct one-on-one press briefings at The Venetian during the entire week of Comdex, to provide further details on the company's strategy, products and technology. Briefings are being held by appointment for interested media, Monday, November 15, through Thursday, November 18, from 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.

The pressrelease can be found here.