It’s good to be home. Now that I am back we can start up our Q&A's with ImgTech. Might be while before I send in any Q&A’s as there is a lot of the website to rebuild, but at lest we have backups of everything. If you have any questions to ask ImgTech please E-mail them to me or leave comments in the forum. Please no questions like when we will see a new PC 3Dcard. I was thinking more alone the like of there speaker systems and PowerVR MBX.
Just saw the mail from David (thanks! ;) saying that there is some good news. It seems like Sharp is in the boat or better they've licensed IP cores of Metagence, Ensigma and PowerVR.
That's fine! :) Here's the link to the PR news.
Well, slated for 2005! :) Here's the article on The Inquirer which includes information about future generations of Intel CPUs.
"Future Desktop Roadmaps Tejas to reach 9.20GHz, Prescott 5.20GHz"
paykoman has released another set of drivers including support for:
"- nhl 2003 fixed
- nba 2003 fixed
- fifa 2003 fixed
- lord of the rings fixed
- ut2003 fixed
- gta3 fixed
- battlefield fixed
- nfshp2 fixed
- half-life fixed
- half-life uplink demo fixed
- counter-strike fixed
- blue-shift fixed
- opposing force fixed
- rtcw fixed
- quake3 fixed
- aom fixed
- renegade setup fixed
- sof2 fixed
- uninstall tuned"
Get the files here.
Thanks to Roger for letting us know that PowerVR.com do have their ATEI 2003 Report online here.
"Leading gaming manufacturer Aristocrat Technologies, Inc., showed its revolutionary new XCite MKVI (pronounced 'Mark Six') slot platform with many new games including: Pirates, Scatter Magic II, Arabian Nights, Double Dolphin and Pompeii. MKVI exclusively features PowerVR technology, developed by Imagination's PowerVR division and manufactured by NEC."
For those who couldn't attend the show, head over and read the most important bits related to PowerVR technology.
Kudos to Vladimir (looking forward to receiving your receipt :) for letting us know that Tom's and Anand have posted their GeforceFX articles including some benchmarks some of us might be interested in. Here's Anand's article... and here's the one for Tom's writings.
From Anand:
"So there you have it, NVIDIA's response to ATI's Radeon 9700 Pro - but does anyone else feel unfulfilled by the GeForce FX?
... able to outperform the Radeon 9700 Pro by 10% at best but in most cases manages to fall behind by a factor much greater than that. "
From Tom:
"NVIDIA takes the crown! No question about it - the GeForceFX 5800 Ultra is faster than the competition from ATI's Radeon 9700 PRO in the majority of the benchmarks.
... the FX represents a giant step forward."
Hmmmm... best is to check the articles and then see for yourself if it's worth it or not. =)
Plextor is going to release a DVD-Recoder, PX-504A. For more information and specs plese check their site. Here's the link. It features PowerRec (warning, PDF ahead), Plextor's optimized writing error reduction control. :)
IPConfig have a UV Paint review online here. If you need something "new" to show off try this. The only thing you need for this (except the UV Paint) is a black light. :)
... or do you know what happens on your desktop once the screen(s) goe(s) blank due to your energy saving settings? If you don't come find out, right here. Enjoy! =)
Why not have a look @ the new Yamaha YST-SW1500?! Here's a link to a PDF file with some details you might find interesting! ;)
I guess I'm going to get one of those!
The Inquirer have some nice article up entitled: S3/Via's Columbia: faster than Radeon 9700?
Sounds interesting right? Here's a snippet:
"According to an S3 senior product marketing manager, this graphics processor could put his firm in the hall of fame, as it might be just the right kind of horse for the type of race it will be running."
For more click here.
nVidia have updated their site with a nice piece of info about their QuadroFX (even comes with a flash demo! ;) -> here as well as the two press releases:
- NVIDIA Quadro FX Workstation Graphics Redefine Professional Application Performance
- NVIDIA Quadro FX Series of Workstation Graphics Solutions Available Worldwide
The forum can now also be accessed via forum.paraknowya.com. This makes it easier to remember and easier to goto until we've got some menu on the site! ;)
Don't forget to post some delicious feast recipes in the cooking section, we're especially interested in traditional food! :)
If you feel like spending some time doing nothing special other than looking for interesting things on the web try -> Poke The Penguin.
Ahm... yeah, that's all! =)
Matrox have released a new driver for their Parhelia hardware... or at least you can find one on their FTP server. :)
Click here for some new v1.03.01.002 WinXP/2K drivers.
XtremeSystems.org have a voltage mod article up showing what to do with an ABIT Siluro Ti4200 OTES to get more juice out of it. Here's the link.
SHS is back too, in case you need some latest driver info for your Live! or Audigy hardware have a look @ his site. Here's a temporary link until shs.paraknowya.com is up and running.
Due to the server problems our hosted sites had vanished too but I'm glad to report that ZonaKyro is on the way to return. Here's a temporary link until zonakyro.paraknowya.com is up and running.
Cheffy was so kind to upload a fixed reg file for the Win95 version of the recently released "modified" drivers, you can grab it right here. Enjoy! ;)
Just found the following on 3dGPU.com:
MTV is preparing a documentary, ‘True Life: I'm A Gamer’, following Johnathan ‘Fatal1ty’ Wendel, winner of the The CPL’s recent $30,000 UT2k3 tournament.
The show airs on MTV on Thursday, March 13."
Might be fun to watch if you can... for more info what we'll actually see, check 3dGPU.com here.
Rivastation have received a response about the current rumors of spyware being built into the Catalyst drivers:
"In no way is ATI responsible for using or installing any spyware or other monitoring services as part of CATALYST.
We recognize that customers may be experiencing these symptoms and ATI is working directly with these customers to resolve the issue. ATI has developers working to track this issue. Furthermore, ATI have started engaging with Microsoft to see if they know anything about this situation as it appears that the IP it is trying to connect to seems to be a Microsoft site for CRL (Certificate Revoked List).
ATI will provide an update as soon as the resolution is discovered. But once again, this is not an ATI specific activity that is causing these events."
Tech-Report have an article online comparing a selection of 7 audio solutions currently available including: VIA's VT8235/Realtek ALC650, Hercules' Muse LT, Hercules' Muse 5.1 DVD, Hercules' Gamesurround Fortissimo III 7.1, Hercules' Digifire 7.1, Creative's Audigy and Terratec's DMX 6fire 24/96.
Have a look here if one of your favourites is in the bundle.
Conclusion snippet:
"... I'm going to let Terratec's DMX 6fire 24/96 and Hercules Gamesurround Fortissimo III 7.1 share the limelight as my Editors Choices. The DMX 6fire 24/96 is unquestionably the best PC audio card I've ever heard, and it's around the same price as a GeForce4 Ti 4600. In my experience, audio cards survive more upgrade cycles, so it's probably a better deal over time. If the DMX 6fire 24/96's price is out of your league, then Hercules' Gamesurround Fortissimo III 7.1 is a hell of a deal at under $45. With future-proof support for 7.1 audio, a good performance in our listening tests, and an S/PDIF output, the Fortissimo III is my affordable pick of today's litter."
Seems like there's going to be tough competition concerning mobile DirectX 9 GPUs. Golem.de report that S3 plan to release the DeltaChromeX9m, a notebook GPU with DeltaChromeV8T core, 8 pipelines, PicturePerfect (just saying it loud makes you proud ;) and deferred rendering + everything needed to support DirectX 9's Pixel- and Vertex-Shader specs.
Glimpse @ the article here (german language).
The guys behind eMule today released v.25b of the file sharing utility. Have a look here for changes and to get the files.
Also found an interesting link to SweClockers.com on nVnews.net. SweClockers.com feature some fine GeForceFX pictures here on page 4 of their Comdex Nordic 2003 coverage article. Nice!
Welcome back goes out to the PVR-Extremists. They're back online and can be found at their HQ @ www.pvr-extremist.com. Hug'n good luck guys! :)
I've seens it and though I've got to say that it looks good, it's quite short and not really worth the download except if you're on a fast connection to the net. This however s just my opinion, don't get me wrong please. :)
For those who want to take a look, the ~5.5MB file can be obtained here.
Just found some interesting post in nVnews.net's forums... here... containing the following info and a picture of what the poster's talking about:
"The following is NOT speculation. It's all based on sources ( yeah, that's rare for me, but it happens )
Sources reveal that the Quadro FX 1000 has entered production. No idea if it's beta/alpha/final production. But there *are* working samples, it seems. So nVidia certainly isn't sleeping."
There's a bit more so have a quick look! :)
Some bad news first, the old posts are gone... this is due to problems importing (or getting) the old data (back).
We however have some good news too: We're running Ikonboard v3.1.1 which offers some nice new extras which might come in handy when you surf the site/ forum like the notepad with which you can keep info in a save place until you are about to log out and leave the net. May I say reg tweaks, patch/ driver links, ...? :)
Hope you like it an make sure to register... it's easy, thanks!
-> click here for the forum.
Well, it's funny... ParaKnowYa is now sending update info to weblogs.com and blo.gs just to let everyone know as soon as there are updates here! :)
For those who've already been here, the layout has changed a bit but it is not yet the final version... I just need some more time to add the final touch (might sound nasty after such a long break but I was still busy even without PKY.com ya know?! =)
BTW Forums will be up soon too! I think I'll upload the old one with all the user info if that's possible. This is due to the inavailability of ikonboard's (Project M) PHP version.
"Open sourced 3dfx GLIDE™ driver for Win32 (Windows 95,98,Me,NT4,2000,XP) ported from the Linux 3dfx GLIDE™ source code. The Linux source code was originally open sourced by the demised 3dfx Interactive Inc. Currently supports 3dfx Voodoo Banshee, Velocity, Voodoo3, Voodoo4, Voodoo5. It has been extended to support S3TC (DXTC) compressed textures, T-Buffer effects for all VSA based cards including Voodoo4, and optimizations for 3DNOW! MMX are used."
Play Neverwinter Nights, Operation Flash Point, UnrealTournament with high resolution textures OpenGL S3TC, ...
Here's the link.
There seem to be some "new" Detonators but according to first tests those feature files older than the 42.01 release and it's mentioned they're Dx8 only... who knows, I'm sticking to those 42.01 ones. :)
In case you'd like to test them here's a link.
Might be that we see some MSI GeForceFX boards among the first of this new breed of nVidia boards as they're stating the following in their updated press release dedicated to the GeForceFX:
"Technical leadership and innovation are the pillars behind MSI's effort to maintain its momentum. MSI is proud to be the launch partner of the new GeForce FX again. The new MSI GeForce FX cards are scheduled to ship to N. American in early 2003. Please visit MSI website often for availability information."
Anyway, here's the whole press release.
DeltaChrome rings a bell but you've not yet found a nice preview. The Firing Squad have one for you... right here.
Here's a snippet of their conclusion:
"We can also tell you that S3 has plans for two additional products following DeltaChrome. The first, DeltaChrome 2, will be based on essentially the same architecture, the only differences being that it will run at even higher clock frequencies and support DDR-II memory."
Entech have released a beta new version of their graphics card/ monitor settings tool PowerStrip. Version is PowerStrip beta 3.30.368.
Get your binaries here.
A nice little program to check the status of your IDE or SCSI drive. Need to know the region code changes status? Firmware or similar info? Have a look @ hijacker's DISCInfo.
Here's more.
According to Chip.de (here) ATI is working together with DivXNetworks to allow RadeOn 9500 and 9700 board's VPUs to accelerate the DivX codec.
"Laut ATI und DivXNetworks soll die Video-Performance um bis zu 50 Prozent steigern. Die CPU, die bisher den aufwändigen MPEG4-Codec alleine decodieren musste, wird entsprechend der Angaben weniger ausgelastet. ..."
Important bit: Up to 50% better video performance.
paykoma has informed PVR-World of a modified driver which give the following:
- NHL2003 runs without errors
- NBA2003 runs without errors
- Medal Of Honor runs without errors
- Battlefield 1942 runs without errors
- C&C Renegade Installation runs without errors
- Need For Speed Hot Pursuit 2 runs without errors
- Quake III LightMaps fixed
- Wolfenstein: Return to Castle runs a little faster
- Half-Life/Counter-Strike SpeedFix is integrated
Sounds good, we did not test it yet but words say these are mainly reg entries so there is a chance to just release those if they work which would be more comfortable.
Driver's available here.
ChMaster has released a Kyro driver install tool for Kyro Linux drivers. The first version is said to have SuSE (SuSE 7.3 - 8.1), Mandrake (Mandrake 8.0 - 9.0) and RedHat (RedHat 7.3 - 8.0) support. It creates a script file which will guide the installation.
Get the tool here.
XBit Labs have a short article online that shows what is needed to enable 8 pipelines on ATI RadeOn 9500 boards.
If you've got some conductive glue/ liquid silver do as mentioned here. Enjoy!
Xbit Labs have released an article comparing 3 nice price CPUs towards their overclockability. Buy a 1700+ and get a 2400+ via overclocking... risky but possible.
Check their article, here.
There is a new community where ppls can create their very own 3D avatar and start to enjoy the community life. At the moment there is a beta period and one can register for free so in case you're interested have a look... here.
Inmatrix have released a new beta version of their Zoom Player, a small player utilizing installed filters to playback media and dvd content.
Click here for the file.
We're almost back online again after a period of really annoying breaks and problems. The new server is running fine till now so I hope that except for the traffic limit we have (again) everything will be o.k. for the relaunch or rebirth... whatever... of PKY.com! =)