Hackers plan 3rd Sony attack

Miffed about the outfit's handling of the other two

 

A hacker group is planning a third attack against Sony over its handling of the other two

An observer of the Internet Relay Chat channel used by the hackers told Cnet that the hackers are planning a third attack this weekend. The people involved plan to publicize all or some of the information they are able to copy from Sony's servers, which could include customer names, credit card numbers, and addresses. The hackers claim they still have access to some of Sony's servers. Now that's a first. sub.ed

Sony says it doesn't know who orchestrated what it's calling a "highly sophisticated, planned" attack, but thinks the group Anonymous is involved. Anonymous denies this and it would appear that Cnet has found the real hackers

FCC boss tells US politicians not to surrender to the telcos

Net Neutrality is vital for employment

 

US lawmakers were told that they should not change net neutrality laws so that the people who give them lots of campaign money can set up a two tiered internet

FCC boss Julius Genachowski warned Congress not to repeal the controversial Internet regulations enacted last December. He has told them that the agency's Net neutrality rules will "increase uncertainty, decrease investment, and hurt job creation

The new law has already increased investment and that congress's idea to rely on antitrust laws to police errant behaviour would be "problematic" and "ill-suited to the fast-changing nature of Internet technology

Robert McDowell, a Republican FCC commissioner, has been telling the world+dog that the agency has no legal authority to enact the rules, that antitrust laws are sufficient, and that the regulations will cause more harm than good

More here

PC Rage to have modding tools

Right straight out of the box on day 1

 

id Software has confirmed that the PC release of their upcoming title Rage will offer a complete set of editing and mod tools that will be included with the game.

The mod tools will offer level making abilities, along with the feature of building new things within the game. Accessing the mod tools is as simple as going into the console within the game and typing “id studio

With the mod tools being offered with the game, it is likely that PC players will see a variety of FPS and driving offerings for Rage. id Software’s trend of allowing players the ability to grow the game on the PC has always proved to be an important part of growing the popularity of the title. The news that these tools will arrive on day one should be welcome news to the PC gaming community

Cooler Master NotePal LapAir tested

Review: Because your lap(top) deserves it

Today, Cooler Master launched its new laptop cooler dubbed the NotePal LapAir. As the name would suggest, Cooler Master designed it to provide maximum comfort while keeping it in your lap but, since the airflow is now solved by rear outlets, it really doesn’t mind what you put it on

Anyone who’s ever used a laptop in the summer probably has one by now, and it can be a blessing come those high temperatures. LapAir is currently priced at €25, making it one of the most affordable coolers around

NotePal LapAir comes in a pretty large box with CoolerMaster’s standard design. As usual, you’ll find plenty of pictures and details on the box

As you can see, LapAir is designed to comfortably sit on your knees and angle your laptop while it’s at it

Thanks to clever design, airflow will not be blocked when you’re working on your knees or couch. The device uses an 8cm fan that’s placed center-top

The fan has a mesh grill cover that can be taken off and cleaned

LapAir is angled for two reasons – your posture while working and optimum air-circulation

Bottom of the LapAir has soft mat surface and your knees will surely appreciate it

However, soft matte is pretty slippery so Cooler Master put a thick rubber strip on the other side to stop LapAir from moving

The fan is powered via USB cable, which is physically connected to the fan. The USB tip is a pass-through connector, meaning you still get to use the port for something else

You can route the cable via channels (above) to where you have a free USB on your laptop

We used a 15’’ Acer 5745DG laptop, of which you can learn more here

The fan is pretty small – only 8cm in diameter. This means that it has to spin pretty fast while running, which in turn made it pretty loud

Taking the grill off is a piece of cake

The fan in LapAir is B9225-18RA-2RN-F1 (DF0922505RFUN; DC 0.5V, 0.60A) running at 1650 +- 15% RPM with airflow of 65 CFM. It is rated at 23 dBA, which means that it won’t be too loud, but not quiet either

Fan speed is constant and the fan will run until you cut off power. The design allows for constant and unobstructed air intake, despite the position of LapAir

LapAir has enough space and will take laptops up to 17’’. The edges are smooth but since it’s made entirely o plastic, it doesn’t quite look attractive. However, the pricing is attractive enough

Users with insufficient USB connectors on their laptops will love the pass-through connectors

Acer 5745 DG has an almost 2cm tall battery; however, there’s plenty of room for airflow beneath it so using a cooler is probably overkill

For this test, we took the battery off so it was pretty much like any other laptop

Temperatures: without NotePal LapAir

 

Temperatures: using NotePal LapAir

Conclusion

Cooler Master NotePal LapAir is a laptop cooler for laptops up to 17’’. It’s pretty comfortable and designed to be used on your knees. Thanks to a fast but small fan, the cooler has pretty good performance. However, the performance comes at a noise cost as this little bugger is quite noisy for its size

NotePal LapAir is priced at €25, which is pretty affordable for a 17’’ laptop cooler with included fan

Nvidia continues to lose GPU market share

AMD and Intel pick up the pieces

 

According to the latest figures from Jon Peddie research, the Green Goblin has continued its downward spiral and it has lost more market share in Q1.

Nvidia lost 2.5 percent of its market share, ending up with just 20 percent in Q1. In terms of shipped units this is a drop of 1.7 percent over the previous quarter, but it’s worth noting that the year-on-year drop was a staggering 28.4 percent. This is hardly surprising considering Nvidia’s delays and lack of competiveness in discrete graphics in the better part of 2010.

Meanwhile AMD and Intel are going from strength to strength. Intel has managed to extend its lead and it now controls 54.4 percent of the market, compared to 52.5 percent in Q1. AMD’s share also jumped from 24.2 to 24.8 percent. Over the past year AMD’s market share grew by 15.4 percent, while Intel’s share jumped by 9.7 percent, from 21.5 and 49.6 percent respectively

The figures clearly illustrate the impact of embedded graphics and the resulting shift away from discrete solutions in entry level markets. Intel has been selling CPUs with on board graphics for over a year, while AMD started shipping its first Fusion chips late last year. With the introduction of Llano and Intel’s aggressive shift to Sandy Bridge the trend is set to continue throughout 2011.

You find out more here

Duke Nukem Forever system requirements revealed

Should work on most systems

 

Gearbox Software has finally released official minimum and recommended system requirements for what can be easily judged as the most anticipated FPS title of all time, Duke Nukem Forever

The minimum specifications are pretty solid and include Intel Core 2 Duo at 2.0GHz or AMD Athlon 64 X2 at 2.0GHz CPU, 1GB of system memory, Nvidia Geforce 7600 or ATI Radeon HD 2600 graphics card and 10GB of HDD space. The recommended aren't far behind, so you'll need at least Intel Core 2 Duo at 2.4GHz or AMD Athlon 64 X2 at 2.6GHz, 2GB of system memory, Nvidia Geforce 8800 GTS or ATI Radeon HD 3850 graphics card and the same 10GB of HDD space

The requierements aren't that high and by the looks of it, Duke Nukem won't bring anything new and impressive when it comes to graphics side

Duke Nukem Forever is scheduled to show up on June 10th.   Yeah right. sub.ed

LG unveils new Blade series notebooks

The LED backlit P430 and P530

 

LG has announced two new members of its ultra-thin Blade series notebooks, the 14-inch P430 and the 15.6-inch P530. According to the info, both of them feature a new LED screen that is 50 percent thinner than the one usually found in the ultra-thin market

In addition to the thin screen, the two new members of the Blade series also feature a narrow bezel as well as an aluminum chassis. The screen on the P430 is 4.5mm thick while the 15.6-inch P530 screen is a bit thicker at 4.7mm. Both the P430 and the P530 will be based on 2nd gen Intel Core processors, Intel HD 3000 or Nvidia GT520M graphics, up to 8GB of memory, up to 750GB of HDD space, an optical drive, and all other goodies that you would expect to find on a notebook

According to info, the P430 should be avilable in May while the P530 should start to ship in June. Unfortunately, the price hasn't been announced

Microsoft to celebrate 10 years of Halo

Will hold Halo fest at PAX Prime

 

Microsoft has confirmed that it will be hosting the largest and most expansive Halo event ever to celebrate 10 years of Halo. Halo Fest will be held at PAX Prime in Seattle, Washington from August 26th to August 28th

Halo Fest will offer a number of tournaments, panel discussions, and some pretty cool prizes, according to Microsoft. The company claims that attendees will see why the last 10 years of Halo were only the beginning

While Microsoft has denied that an HD remake of Halo: Combat Evolved is being developed, a number of sites continue to report that Saber Interactive is working on such a project. Many believe that there is a good possibility that it will be announced at Halo Fest. At one point we thought this was a done deal and it was happening, but now we are not so sure. We suspect if this were to be announced that it would happen at E3, but it is possible that the company might be able to make more of a splash if they announced it at a Halo event such as Halo Fest

We will just have to wait and see, as sources are just not talking about this one yet

Greenpeace slams Facebook, Apple and Twitter over data centers

Yahoo, Akamai and Google get thumbs up

 

Socialist eco movement Greenpeace has slammed Apple, Twitter and Facebook for failing to disclose energy consumption figures and sticking to fossil fuels

In its study, Greenpeace found that the tech industry was largely ignoring renewable power and refusing to disclose basic information on its growing energy footprint. In an effort to cause even more cheap eco guilt, Greenpeace IT policy analyst Gary Cook blamed consumers who change their Facebook status for contributing to toxic emissions, global warming and “future Fukushimas.” Fudzilla readers need not be concerned. Our servers are powered by organic, unrefined whale oil

On the other hand Greenpeace praised Yahoo, Google, IBM and Akamai for supporting renewable energy and offering transparency. However, it found that Facebook was the most dependent on coal-powered electricity, so just picture Zuckerberg shoveling coal into a huge furnace every time you log on

Considering the fact that most electricity on the globe is generated by burning coal, this is hardly a surprise, but for some reason Greenpeace is not bashing consumers for using coal-powered computers to waste time and precious energy on something as pointless as Facebook in the first place

Spec remains unclear

 

According to EXPreview, Nvidia is planning to introduce the mainstream GTX 560 sans Titanium moniker on May 17.

However, the specs are still not clear, but rumour has it that it will be based on the GF114 core with 336 CUDA cores, 56 texture units and 32 ROPs. The card should end up clocked upwards of 800MHz and it should 1GB of GDDR5 memory. Of course, these figures should be taken with a grain of salt

There is still no word on price, either. The plain GTX 560 will clearly end up somewhat cheaper than the Titanium version, which currently retails between €180 and €200 in most EU markets. It sounds like a proper replacement for the ageing GTX 460 in this particular market segment and it have to face off against AMD’s HD 6870, which sells for about €150.

More here

Sony still working to get network up

PlayStation Network down and players unhappy

 

The Sony PlayStation Network is still down, as the company continues to work around the clock to restore the PlayStation Network. As we told you previously (and which has not been admitted by Sony), Sony’s network was breached, causing some sort of unclear event.  At first, it was thought that hacking groups with a bone to pick with Sony might be the prime suspects, but they have since released a statement claiming no responsibility for what is currently happening

According to the latest info that we have been able to obtain, Sony is engaged in rebuilding the network, and at the same time strengthening PSN so that this does not happen again. Sony has specified no timetable for how long this process will take, but they apparently feel that the extra time is required to add necessary additional security to prevent a reoccurrence

Players that use the PlayStation Network are unhappy. Beyond the fact that it has taken so long to resolve the situation, many complain that Sony is not providing enough in the way of communication and updates to keep owners informed. As one player told us

If they don’t resolve it by Monday, I will trade in my PlayStation 3 and all of my games for an Xbox 360 where it seems they continue to have a better and more stable online experience

Currently, the only games on the PlayStation 3 that are unplayable are those that have DRM built-in to them that require connection to the network. The recent Capcom titles are the ones that immediately come to mind for us. This isn’t the first time that the PlayStation Network has been down an extended period of time, as last March Sony was hit with a clock bug that knocked PlayStation 3 consoles offline. Problems with the PlayStation Network do seem to be a reoccurring theme for the company

God of War 4 for 2012

Said to add online co-op play

 

Sources are confirming to us that despite God of War 3 ending the God of War trilogy, it is not the end for the franchise, as Sony is expected to announce at E3 that God of War 4 is coming in 2012. Sources tell us that the proposed release date is said to be September of 2012 as things stand right now

The new game in the series for the PlayStation 3 is expected to have little to do with the previous releases; instead, it will head off in a new direction with the franchise. The expected big new thing in God of War 4 is the addition of online co-op play, which is something players have wanted for a long time

It is also possible that while the development on the title continues, Sony might elect to hold back the announcement of God of War 4, depending on the situation, and save it for later in the year because they have lot of promotion to do for other products. Our sources expect, however, that Sony will want to make a big splash and will make the announcement at E3 in June

Alienware rolls out updated M11x

Shows the new M14x and M18x as well

 

Confirming rumours started earlier, Dell's Alienware division has now rolled out the updated M11x "gaming netbook" and the new M14x and M18x notebooks. The M11x and the M14x should be available as of today, while the bigest of the bunch, the M18x, should be available sometimes in May

As it was rumoured earlier, the updated M11x (R3) packs the same 11.6-inch 1366x768 screen but comes with either a 1.4GHz Core i5-2537M or the more powerful 2.6GHz Core i7-2617M CPU. The graphics got updated to Geforce GT 540M with up to 2GB of dedicated memory for some Optimus graphics switching technology, while other specs include up to 16GB of memory, up to 750GB of HDD space (or a 256GB SSD), Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11bgn WiFi, Bluetooth 3.0, 3G/4G connectivity, USB 3.0 port, card reader, 2 megapixel webcam, HDMI output and a 8-cell 63Whr battery that should be enough for up to 8 hours of work time

The M14x packs a larger 14-inch 1366x768 or 1600x900 screen, a 2nd gen Core i7 quad-core CPU, up to 8GB of memory, up to 750GB of HDD space and pretty much all the same specs as the smaller M11x. The graphics choice is the 1.5GB or 3GB GT 555M GPU. It has the same 8-cell battery, but it is enough for 6 hours of work time. Alienware threw in a 60GHz WirelessHD tech into this one in case you want to push your content on the other screen

The largest of the bunch, the M18x, features the 18.4-inch fullHD screen, Intel's Core i7 Extreme quad-core CPU (inluding one that gets overclocked to 4GHz), Nvidia or AMD graphics in SLI or CrossfireX, graphics, up to 32GB of memory, and all the other features that you would expect from a high-end Alienware desktop replacement notebook. This one also features the WirelessHD tech

The base price for the M11x starts at US $999, while its bigger M14x has a base price of US $1,199. Both can already be found on Dell's site, while the M18x should show its face and price (rumoured to start at US $999) sometime in May

You can find them both here


Alienware M14x

Silicon Power Armor 2.5-inch drives put to the test

Review: Affordable ruggedness in a stylish package

 

Portable hard drives are hardly considered glamorous pieces of equipment, but they are an important factor for businesses as well as geeks who dare venture out of their dens. The latest six-core CPU or dual-GPU graphics card could be likened to caviar, but storage is a staple, much like bread and butter. Which would you rather do without



Today we’ll be taking a look at two Silicon Power 2.5-inch USB drives, with a completely different but equally appealing design. The 500GB Armor A10 is a ruggedized military-spec drive, which looks like it would go rather well with an A-10 close air support jet

It’s designed to comply with U.S. military drop-test standard MIL-STD-810F 516.5 procedure IV (transit drop test), which basically means that it can fall from 1.22 meters onto a hard surface with no damage whatsoever, not even a scratch, thanks to its rubberized case

This is pretty neat if you tend to be careless with your hardware. Also, it doesn’t cost as much as a Halliburton or KBR logistical contract. In fact, at a tad over €60 it is rather reasonably priced, and it looks like something Gadhafi would use to store his bank records. It measures 136x82.5x19.8mm and it’s not much larger than your average 2.5-inch drive



With its stylish, brushed metal chassis, the slightly smug 640GB Armor A50 is an entirely different beast. It looks like a right-wing politician eager to send the A10 to warzone from the confines of a cozy lawmaker’s office. At 133.8x78.3x16.2mm and 200g, it’s not much smaller than the A10 and it meets the same drop-test standard. Although it doesn’t feel less sturdy, it’s clearly more prone to damage. Its finish is clearly more susceptible to scratches and damage, but it still feels like it could take a lot of damage and keep running. It sells for about €80, which isn’t bad, either



Both drives also feature a one-touch backup function and some rudimentary data encryption. While the A10 feels somewhat more rugged thanks to its rubber chassis, it’s quite a bit more prone to fingerprints and smudges. The A50's brushed metal finish is less susceptible to hamburger fingers, but the glossy plastic on top is, well, a magnet for all sorts of dirt

 

Benchmarks

Frankly, in this day and age there’s hardly any point in testing USB 2.0 drives. The interface acts as a bottleneck and most users simply won’t tell the difference in everyday use. If it’s any consolation, neither of the drives was a disappointment, as you can see in the charts and screenshots below









The downside to both drives is that they are FAT32 formatted, which really isn’t a big deal, as it won’t take long before you reformat them. In our contiguous file test, we used a 1GB .rar archive and in our 1GB random file test we copied 928 files in 12 folders, which is a much more realistic scenario for most business users



Conclusion

Silicon Power is a rather small company and it might not be the first name that comes to mind when thinking about external storage, but we must admit that we were pleasantly surprised with what they had to offer

Both drives proved rugged, rather well designed and performance was more than adequate. Coupled with tempting prices, they are a pretty good offer. While many users will simply go for some brand name products, there’s really no reason to shy away from these babies, other than being a bit snobby



Most portable hard drives are rather rugged and many of them comply with one drop-test standard or another, but small companies like to emphasize such stuff for press coverage or some niche marketing. In this case, there’s really no need to do so

We simply liked the build quality - both drives feel like they can cope with pretty much anything a reasonable user would throw at them, or anything an intoxicated user might throw them at. They look nice and they’re affordable. In case you need more in terms of performance, Silicon Power also offers A80-series drives with USB 3.0 support

GTA 5 now expected in early 2012

Sources suggest a January 15, 2012 release

 

It seems that by way of several sources, we are now hearing that we should expect Rockstar to formally announce Grand Theft Auto 5 in June at E3. In addition, it is expected that the game could be on track to make a January 15th, 2012 release date

What we have been able to uncover so far is that it is pretty much confirmed that Grand Theft Auto 5 has been in development for some time since the release of GTA 4. High profile industry analysts do agree that 2012 will not pass without a GTA 5 release, which isn’t a surprise; but the latest news of a January 15th 2012 release date does seem a bit puzzling and unexpected, to say the least, if it turns out to be true

Apparently, the January release has a lot to do with expiring contracts of developers said to be working on the GTA 5 project. A number of rumors claim that key players on the development team for GTA 5 only have contracts that run through January of 2012, and that is why the game must make a January release deadline. It is hard to understand the strategy of a January 15th release, but with many still having holiday money to spend it might not be such a bad thing. We will have to wait and see, but we do expect GTA 5 to be officially announced at E3 in June

Intel to release Many Integrated Core using 22nm soon

Will have 100 MIC developer sites by Christmas

 

Intel plans to launch its first Many Integrated Core (MIC) using its upcoming 22nm process technology. Chipzilla said that it also expects to have more than 100 developer sites for MIC by the end of 2011.

The add-on accelerators Intel MIC micro-architecture provides are  expected to be used for highly parallel applications in high performance computing segments such as scientific exploration and research and weather modeling. But like AMD FireStream or Nvidia Tesla, Intel does not want its technology to replace processors  but be used to speed up certain applications

Intel insists that x86 compatibility with x86 will give MIC  unique advantages. Kirk Skaugen, vice president of the Intel architecture group and general manager of Intel's data center group, during his keynote at the Intel Developer Forum (IDF) said that a MIC would be like a co-processor where you can use the same compilers, the same tools, the same VTunesthat power around 90 per cent of the Top 500 computers

The next generation you run the compiler, it will optimise the workloads for the Intel cores, that are in the Xeon CPUs, and it will optimize on these new PCI Express cards that will have more than 50 cores and be on our 22nm process technology. So it will automatically balance that workload for the highest-parallel workloads on the planet, he promised

So far Intel has supplied code-named Knights Ferry MIC test platform to select developers and plans to expand the number of developers, who can have the hardware, to one hundred by the end of 2011.

MSI rolls out its GTX 560 Ti Hawk Edition

Twin Frozr III and non-reference PCB

 

Although we had a chance to see this one during Cebit show back in March, MSI now officially rolled out its latest addition to the Hawk Edition lineup - the N560GTX-Ti Hawk. Despite the fact that the it is based on the Geforce GTX 560 Ti's GPU, it's got nothing to do with the reference card. Namely, MSI built the custom PCB and strapped it with its latest Twin Frozr III cooler on top of it

The card features Nvidia's GTX 560 GPU with 384 CUDA cores, and works at 950MHz for the GPU, 1900MHz for shaders and packs 1GB of GDDR5 memory clocked at 4200MHz and paired up with a 256-bit memory interface. The reference model was clocked at 822/1645/4008 so it is pretty clear that MSI's GTX 560 Ti Hawk is something special

MSI completely redesigned the PCB so you are looking at GTX 560 Ti GPU with a PCB that has 8+1-phase power design, Military Class II components, Active Phase Switching and edge support so there is no PCB bending and voltage read points. The card support VDDCI voltage adjustment in case you are looking for some additional overclocking potential

MSI went all the way with this card and has used its latest Twin Frozr III dual slot cooler. It features a nickel plated copper base, four copper heatpipes (two 8mm ones) and has two 80mm PWM fans with new Propeller design blades. Back at Cebit we had a chance to check out the Twin Frozr III we noticed something that wasn't on the TF II, a small heatsink that covers the VRM and memory modules

The card features all the regular outputs, two DVI and one mini HDMI and should start to appear in retail/e-tail pretty soon

HTC Flyer tablet comes in May

May 9th in Europe

 

Although HTC's Flyer has been detailed quite a few times, there haven't been any specifics regarding precise date of launch. HTC has now officially shed some details regarding this info and it appears that the HTC's 7-inch slate will be shipping across the old continent as of May 9th

In case you missed it, the HTC Flyer is a 7-inch tablet featuring a single-core 1.5GHz Qualcomm processor, 1GB of memory, 32GB of storage, microSD slot, a front 1.3 megapixel and 5 megapixel rear cam, all the usual connectivity including HSPA+/WCDMA, GPS, 802.11bgn WiFi, Bluetooth 3.0, digital compas, and a G-sensor

The device features a 7-inch 1024x600 touchscreen with support for both finger and stylus input that will also be bundled with the device. According to details, the Flyer has 4000mAh batter that should be enough for up to 4hrs of video playback

The HTC Flyer will ship Android Gingerbread OS while the Honeycomb update has already been promised at a later date. The HTC Flyer is already available for pre-order at £599.99/€669

US $980.

More here

Seagate launches its slim external HDD

GoFlex Slim USB 3.0 portable HDD

 

Adding yet another member to its portable HDD lineup, Seagate has announced its new GoFlex Slim USB 3.0 drive. Featuring a slimmest case so far, the new portable HDD will also have support for USB 3.0 as well as the HDD that spins at 7200 RPM

The new GoFlex Slim USB 3.0 drive will be available as a 320GB version for now squeezed inside the 124x78x9mm (LxWxH) case that weighs 280 grams. We must agree that it certainly is the thinnest and sleekest looking portable drive that we've seen so far. The GoFlex Slim drive will be bundled with the Dashboard management tool as well as some sort of backup software

The GoFlex Slim USB 3.0 is backed by three years of warranty and is priced at US $99.99 while the second, Mac version, should launch in May with a similar pricing

Corsair rolls out new Vengeance memory kits

DDR3 2000MHz at 10-10-10-27

 

Corsair has announced the availabilty of three new memory kits that will be a part of its Vengeance DDR3 lineup. The 2000MHz DDR3 4GB, 6GB and 12GB kits that will join the already available DDR3 1600 and 1800MHz Vengeance kits.

All three new kits will be cooled by Corsair's aluminum Jet Black Vengeance heatspreaders and, as noted, will be available as a 4, 6 and 12GB memory kit. All three kits are rated to work at 2000MHz with 10-10-10-27 latencies at 1.5V. According to Thi La, Vice President of Memory Products at Corsair, the new kits are the perfect choice for PC gamers and enthusiasts, as well as system integrators that are familiar with the overclockability of Vengeance series.

The new DDR3 2000MHz Vengeance kits are still not available but can be found on pre-order for €54,54 for the 4GB one and €104,37 for the 6GB one.

EVGA rolls out its own GTX 590 cards

Water-cooling ready GTX 590 Classified Hydro Copper

 

EVGA is the first partner that has dared to change the reference cooler on the recently launched Nvidia dual-GPU GTX 590 card. EVGA has announced two models that will feature a factory-overclocked settings, both under its Classified series. The EVGA GTX 590 Classified and the EVGA GTX 590 Classified Hydro Copper as EVGA decided to brand it will still use Nvidia's reference PCB and feature a total of 1024 CUDA cores thanks to those two GF110 chips

Both cards will end up with the same clocks, so you are looking at 630MHz for GPUs, 1260MHz for those 1024 CUDA cores and 3456MHz for 3GB of GDDR5 memory paired up with a dual 384-bit memory interface. The EVGA GTX 590 Classified will use Nvidia's reference cooler while the more interesting one, GTX 590 Classified Hydro Copper will replace it with a full-cover, single-slot waterblock with chrome plated electrolytic C110 copper base plate, a 0.6mm thin pin matrix and a full cover back plate to keep things well cooled and supported

Both cards will also be available as an Quad-SLI bundle, which basicaly means that you can buy two of these cards for some insane SLI fun. The single card editions are priced at US $729.99 for the Classified and US $879.99 for the Classified Hydro Copper, while the dual-card bundles are selling at US $1,429.99 and US $1,729.99.

Asus rolls out its own GTX 590

First one at Newegg.com for US $699.99

 

As you probably already know, yesterday was a big day for Nvidia and most, if not all, partners have announced their own GTX 590 cards based mostly on Nvidia's reference design. Although the suggested price tag was set at US $699/€649, some retailers/e-tailers are asking for more in order to score some extra cash thanks to the hype. Asus was no exception as it has launched its own card yesterday, but the good news is that this is the first one that is actually listed at Newegg.com with the Nvidia suggested price tag of US $699.99.

As far as the specs go, Asus' card carries a slight factory overclock and while reference cards are mostly clocked at 607/1214/3420 for GPU, shaders and those 3GB of GDDR5 memory, Asus' card works at at 612/1244/3420MHz. In case you somehow manage to miss the GTX 590, we are talking about Nvidia's flagship dual-GPU card that features two fully enabled GF110 GPUs with 2x512 CUDA cores, or simply two GTX 580 GPUs paired up on a single PCB

Newegg.com was always our reference for US prices and it is no wonder that we see a GTX 590 card priced correctly. Asus is simply the first partner that managed to get one to Newegg.com but we are sure that more will follow pretty soon

Today is Nvidia GTX 590 day

It all comes down to price

 

The long wait is finally over and Nvidia has finally lifted the NDA veil off its crown jewel, the dual-GPU GTX 590 card. In case you haven't been reading any news post recently, the GTX 590 is Nvidia's dual-GPU card based on two GF110 GPUs placed on a single PCB. The reviews have gone live, benchmarks are posted and we can now relax and take a look on how good, or bad the GTX 590 really is

As noted, the Nvidia Geforce GTX 590 features two fully enabled GF110 GPUs packed on a single PCB and this sums up to a total of 1024 CUDA cores, or simply 512 per each GPU. The rest of the specs include 2x48 ROPs, 3GB of GDDR5 memory (2x1536MB) paired up with a dual 384-bit memory interface. Due to plain power limitations the card doesn't share the clocks the single GPU GF110 based GTX 580 as it was brought down to 607MHz for the GPU, 1214MHz for shaders and 3420MHz for those 3GB of memory

The performance of the GTX 590 is pretty much on par with AMD's Radeon HD 6990, which is clearly something that Nvidia can't be proud of, as the Radeon HD 6990 showed up a bit earlier and we might even see a price drop coming from the red camp pretty soon. Of course, you can always say that one is faster than the other, but we are still talking about just a few FPS and those advantages are game dependant, as one wins in some games while other takes the lead in others

The noise, temperatures and power consumption are just one of the key factors here. We are still talking about enthusiast class products, and most of the customers that usually go for such a card, simply aren't interested in power consumption, noise or even temperatures. Nevertheless, the noise is pretty much the same on both cards. Exception is the "full load/Furmark" where both cards are pushed to its limits and the fan kicks into highest possible gear, and where Nvidia's choice of big fan probably makes a difference

The temps are pretty much the same as well, and both cards tend to stay below 90C or to be precise somewhere around 45C in idle and around 86C to 90C when pushed under load. Of course, this is very dependable on the test system configuration or simply how well cooled is your case and some other factors as well

The power consumption issue is a bit complicated as both cards have a way of limiting the maximum power consumption. Nvidia's OCP does a pretty good job at it but AMD's Radeon cards were always better in idle consumption. The story goes its way with these two cards as well, as the GTX 590 uses over 10W more than the HD 6990 in idle and around 10W when you compare them in games. Under full load, Nvidia's card tends to take up to 356W while AMD is keeping its own at around 301W              these are taken from TechPowerup.com review

So, since the cards are pretty much on par, it all comes down to the price. Despite the fact that some retailers/e-tailers will try to score more money on this card thanks to the hype, the suggested price that came from Nvidia is set at US $699/€649. It all makes sense if you take a look at Newegg.com site that sells the HD 6990 for US $709.99 but since the price of it should be US $699 we'll hold our Newegg.com judgment for later. Luckly, TigerDirect.com has both cards and is listing the GTX 590 for US $729.99 while the cheapest HD 6990 is selling for US $709.99.

Europe is a different story as the Radeon HD 6990 can be found for as low as €550. Just to be fair, we managed to find both cards at the same retailer/e-tailer shop in Germany, Ditech.de. It currently has three GTX 590 listed and the cheapest one comes from POV with a price tag set at €673,34. The same retailer/e-tailer is selling Sapphire's HD 6990 for €633,67. The UK is pretty much the same as Scan.co.uk has a couple of GTX 590 but the cheapest one is priced at £569.51 while Overclockers.co.uk has one priced at £614.99. The cheapest HD 6990 at Scan.co.uk is selling for £539.63 while the Overclockers.co.uk has HIS HD 6990 for as low as £514.98.

Most reviewers agree on the same thing, and just by looking at these prices in Europe we must say that HD 6990 looks like a better option. We might see more of those price wars pretty soon

Here are some of the reviews that have gone live

Anandtech
Benchmark Reviews
OverClockersClub
Neoseeker

Battlefield 3 will not beat COD

Pachter claims both titles will see higher sales

 

The sometimes outspoken and controversial Wedbush analyst, Michael Pachter, has apparently stepped into another firestorm since he claimed that there was no chance for Battlefield 3 to beat the next Call of Duty in sales

He apparently told Industry Gamers that, “EA is trying to gain share incrementally, and I’m sure that if it is a great game, Battlefield 3 will sell 25% - 35% more than the last version. It would have to sell more than 300% than the last version to catch Call of Duty

Pachter does admit that it is possible that the both games will see higher sales in 2011, but he apparently isn’t sure that it will translate into EA actually taking any share from Activision

While we agree that it will be difficult and nearly impossible for Battlefield 3 to outsell the next Call of Duty, we think based on what we have seen so far that the game will indeed make a significant impact; and we predict that it will gain market share. We believe that the advantage of a new next generation engine will be a clear advantage that Battlefield needs to attract players. Much of what we have seen in Battlefield 3 is revolutionary, not just evolutionary

The major key to the success of Battlefield 3 does, however, depend heavily on two factors, we think: it has to be very polished and bug free when it is released and it must ship on time before the end of this year. The release date will be important, and we suspect that this variable could greatly affect the sales numbers of the title

Read Pachter’s take on Battlefield 3 here