This is a piece of GOOD news from Intel. Once again, the Core series has not disappoint any single one of us who are keeping pace with the CPU technology development.
The new Core i7, due this November, is the new series of Core series processors.
According to some reviewers who had their hands on with the upcoming Bloomfield, the new CPU runs great. But how huge improvement it is comparing to today’s top dog?
In a recent document sent to partners, Intel pointed out that when comparing Core i7-965 to a QX9770, we can get 52% more 3D gaming performance, 38% more rendering performance and 41% more movie editing and conversion performance. (Core i7-965 platform: X58, DDR3 3G, Discrete VGA card, QX9770 platform unknown.)
Yes the numbers are quite vague, but it is directly coming from Intel, compare to a more expansive product, we can’t expect more. (QX9770>1450USD, Core i7-965=999USD)
Source: Expreview
Intel has make another milestone!
It’s World Cyber Games again. The Asian Championship is once again, held in Singapore.
Last year, I did a coverage on the gaming rig that was used there. This year, I am going to do it again.
As usual, the organiser is going to sell the gaming rigs after the competition at a bargain price.
The rig specification is as follows:
- Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 @ 2.83 Ghz, 1333 Mhz FSB, 12MB L2 Cache
- MSI P45 Neo2-FR
- Aeneon X-Tune 2GB DDR2-1066 CL5 RAM
- Seagate SATA-II 250GB HDD
- XpertVision GeForce 9600 GT 512 MB GDDR3 PCI-E x16 Graphics Card
- Samsung 20x DVD Rewriter
- CoolerMaster Centurion 534 Casing
- CoolerMaster Extreme Power 460W
- Logitech/Microsoft Keyboard and Mouse
- Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1
- Samsung T220 22″ LCD 2ms response time / DVI interface
- 1 year warranty
Price? SG$ 1,688. This is a pretty good price if you want to buy a new computer right now.
The downside of the deal is that 2GB of RAM seems too little for Windows Vista. The Windows Vista should be 32-bit as it is not stated. Graphics wise, 9600 GT is good enough, but HD4850 will be better. The PSU is also not powerful enough. At least a 500W will be fine.
You can make your interest known to the organiser here.
Once again, it is the time of the year where freshmen are troubling which laptop to buy during the matriculation fair.
Fear not. Look out for the various recommendations here, for each category of laptop that is offered in the matriculation fair.
Recently, ultraportable laptops such as the ASUS EEEPC and MSI Wind have taken the laptop since by storm. With their small size, they are able to be put inside your bag without signficant burden.
This year, the tender has offered a few ultraportables. Let’s take a look.
Continue reading ‘NUS/NTU 08/09 Ultraportable Laptops’
I have covered the price-performance of 9600 GT SLi vs 9800 GTX. Now, it’s time to compare 9600 GT with Radeon 3870.
This time, the review was done at TechSpot, and clearly, from the review, 9600 GT is a more value for money card than the Radeon 3870. I will quote some performance indicators.
From the graph, you can see that the performance of 9600 GT is almost similar to 3870. Even with SLi and Crossfire, the disparity between the 2 combinations are not much to be noticeable.
Hence, 9600 GT edges in this comparison because of its price. At USD 130, it definitely beat 3870, which is price at around USD 280. For less than half the price, you can similar performance. The winner is obvious.
I have decided to shift some attention to the hardware now as we wait for our favourite games to be release.
Today, I will discuss on 9600 GT SLi and 9800 GTX graphics card.
Currently, the graphics card war seems to be falling on the side of NVIDIA. Many gamers have been opting for the NVIDIA options due to the performance from the high-end model and value of money series, such as 8800 GT and 9600 GT.
Based on Anandtech 9600 GT and 9800 GTX reviews, here is the comparison of results of various benchmarking tools.
Using the same test bed configuration,
|
9600GT SLi
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9800 GTX
|
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Crysis
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76.5 (Medium setting)
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21.7 (Very High)
|
|
Elder Scroll IV
|
70.4 (No AA/AF)
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45.4 (4xAA/16xAF)
|
|
ET: Quake Wars
|
119.7 (No AA)
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109.1 (No stated)
|
|
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
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72.8 (No AA)
|
51 (No stated)
|
|
P.Comsumption (Idle)
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268 W
|
240 W
|
|
P.Comsumption (Load)
|
396 W
|
350 W
|
|
Price
|
~SGD 350 (USD 260)
|
~SGD 490 (USD 363)
|
As the setting is different, we cannot see the exact results. But you can see that from ET and S.T.A.L.K.E.R, 9600 GT SLi has the edge. Moreover, there is a SGD 100 gap between the 2 configurations.
Overall, the 9600 GT combination is a more value for money combination. But you will need a SLi board for the configuration and if you care about the 40 W difference in power consumption so much, go for 9800 GTX (Save the Earth!)
If you are an owner of the “Bringer of Slient Death”, the top of the line Razer Mice, Lachesis, you might encounter 2 issues while using it.
- Cursor Drift: While you are moving your mouse, suddenly the cursor ‘drift’ to somewhere else on the screen. Irritating when you are playing FPS game.
- Axis Lock: While moving your mouse, you can’t move it up or down, but the cursor can move horizontally, or vice versa. Also very irritating.
I also own a Lachesis and living with the problems ever since Day 1.
The original firmware that came with your mouse is v1.00, which is the buggy one.
Now, Razer has beta firmware for Lachesis and I have tested it. So far, the ‘drifting’ and ‘locking’ have not been occuring. The firmware update is a breeze. You just have to replug your Lachesis after the firmware update is done.
You can try out the beta firmware from the Razer website to solve these problems. I guess the official firmware should be around the corner… Stay tune!
