July 24 - 31, 1999
Archive

Putting the week 21 Celerons into the BP6 was an eye opener. I figure without the SlotKET in the way these Celeron should really do well, and I was right. Both Celerons were able run on the 110Mhz bus of the BP6 at just 2V! That's 605Mhz! However it wasn't 100% stable. Upping the voltage to 2.2V stabilized the system to where it could run Prime 95 and Unreal test loop 24 hours a day! It's really too bad the BP6 doesn't come with a 112Mhz bus as I think these 2 Celerons would be able to do 616Mhz or more. Both Celerons POST at 682Mhz! WOW!

With this new technology, and the 3D cards that will support it, 3dfx is going for speed. As Scott Sellers, Executive Vice President, Chief Technical Officer, and co-founder of 3dfx told us, "We think that 60 frames per second is the minimum to do what you want a computer game to do." And although they're promising a 60fps minimum, Scott also told us that the development team is aiming at 85fps so gamers can set their monitors at 85Hz and play flicker-free.

• Spectra 2500/3200 Driver + Utilities (Win9X - v3.10.01 - 5.77 MB)
• Spectra 2500/3200 Driver Only (Win9X - v3.10.01 - 842 KB)

• Voodoo3.net's T-Buffer Article
• CombatSim's T-Buffer Article
• 3dfx T-Buffer Pics @Riva3D
• The Reverend Pulpit's Voodoo4 Article
• The ShugaShack's 3dfx Technology Update
• AGNHardware's T-Buffer Article
• Thresh's Firing Squard T-Buffer Article
  
  
  

With its use of multiple buffers, the T-Buffer will work in a very similar fashion to an accumulation buffer but in real time on your PC. As most of the dramatic visual effect is achieved in the first four to eight 'layers', a close approximation of the Accumulation Buffer technique can be achieved in real time by cutting down on the number of repetitions, bypassing the accumulation step and also by applying particular effects to only a selected portion of an image instead of re-rendering the whole image to add effects to only one part. That is just what 3dfx proposes.

• Aureal A3D Driver (Win9X - version 2.22 - 287 KB)
  
  
  

The Gainward TNT 2 is one of the most feature rich TNT 2's we've seen thus far, especially considering it's a standard TNT 2, and the price which is estimated at roughly $150 isn't too shabby either, still though there are cheaper TNT 2's out there with the same performance but without the LCD and S-video out features, so as it stands the Gainward TNT 2 is a great choice if you need LCD and S-video out, if you don't look towards Skywell's MagicTNT 2 or Guillemot's TNT 2 both of which go for about the same price but each has higher core and memory clock default settings.

The Voodoo3 3500 TV features 3dfx's acclaimed VisualReality software, http://visualreality.3dfx.com which allows the user to adjust and tune television display including screen size, tint, channel-blocking for parental control and closed captioning. VisualReality software also features advanced VCR operations, and will record up to seven programs throughout the week. In addition to its cutting edge feature set and multimedia capabilities, Voodoo3 3500 TV comes with an external A/V connection “pod” and six-foot cable. The pod connects to the back of the Voodoo3 3500 TV and allows for convenient connection of various audio and visual devices such as a VCR, camcorders and speakers. The new board also ships with a full-featured multimedia software suite including: Microsoft NetMeeting; VDONet VDOPhone; WDM drivers for WebTV support; Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0; and Ulead VideoStudio video editing software.

Right out of the box, I could tell I was in for a treat.  The DTT2500 are bundled with everything you need to get the best quality multimedia available for the PC. The DTT2500 improves upon the design of the FPS 2000 in several ways.  For starters, there is an included center channel, which brings the speakers into the range of true surround sound.  Cambridge has also included all of the power of Dolby Digital by adding a Dolby ProLogic decoder and several levels of control via a new Decoder Amplifier (based on the original Desktop Theater 5.1).  The end result is a speaker system that thoroughly impressed us with features and performance.

3Dfx Interactive (TDFX: news, msgs) will release a new version of its Voodoo 3 graphics card on Friday, Chief Executive L. Gregory Ballard said Thursday. Voodoo products are largely used to speed up the flashy graphics in video games. The next big release for 3Dfx will be the Voodoo 4, which is "on schedule" for an October release, Ballard added. The products should help the San Jose company more than double sales this fiscal year. Analysts expect sales at 3Dfx to hit about $550 million in the current fiscal year, up from $220 million in fiscal 1999. 3Dfx is currently in its quiet period ahead of its fiscal second quarter release, but Ballard said the quarter is going "about as we expected."

• Voodoo3 Tweaker (Win9X - version 2.0 - 100 KB)
• Voodoo3 Pro (Win9X - version 1.5 - 1.1 MB)
  
  
  

"PGC will not be released by Alienware. This is due to the fact that the next generation of chipsets is simply weeks away.

In this industry products often become outdated before they are ever released. PGC simply ran out of time. It would not be logical for the gamer to invest in PGC when in about 5 weeks the next generation of video chipsets will be released. There was also an end user focus on a TNT2 based PGC solution that quite frankly , was not developed. We have had great success with our exclusive multi-card setup and there simply was not enough consumer interest for us to continue PGC.

Alienware will continue to bring the gaming community unique and innovative products. We do not see PGC as a viable solution any longer."

Alex Aguila
VP Marketing
Alienware

The XPERT 2000 will make 32 MB of graphics memory a standard with system builders. As games become more complex, the 32MB will continue to provide the necessary bandwidth for high frame rate, texture intense game play for future games. The XPERT 2000 is fully optimized to operate in 32-bit true color to provide optimal visual quality graphics. And it does so with minimal performance degradation, providing true color with a performance level equal to that of a card that supports only 16-bit color.

With hardware DVD, the XPERT 2000 produces high quality DVD images at full-screen, full frame rate playback. XPERT 2000 allows even low cost PCs the ability to play back DVDs without burdening the processor. This makes the XPERT 2000 the ideal solution for running interactive DVD applications and watching DVD movies.

The core of the TNT2 M64 chip is very overclockable. I was able to overclock the core speed from 100Mhz to a mind blowing 160Mhz! This is faster than the stock speed of a TNT2 Ultra! Not bad for just $100!

• CL Voodoo2 miniGL Beta Driver Page
• CL Banshee miniGL Beta Driver Page
  
  
  

There's just something about getting a processor to run faster than it should; it's like you're getting a special deal no one else knows about. Currently (7/27/99), you can buy a Pentium III 450 for about $250 and you can get a Pentium 3 550 for around $650. Many people have reported being able to overclock their P3-450 processors to 560MHz. It's almost like getting $650 worth of performance for only $250. Of course, nobody knows how much damage you're causing by running a CPU outside specifications, but considering that most processors become obsolete in a matter of years, overclocking isn't that big of a risk if your CPU lasts 5 years instead of 10.

• Gamecenter's P3 600 Review
• VoodooeXtreme's P3 600 Review
  
  
  

I have received several mails from people that said that I was lying about the release date but it is real. I mailed Guillemot one more time to get it confirmed a second time and I know that there have been people phoning Guillemot and they also got it confirmed that there will be a NV10 card on the market in September. I got a bit more exact date today and the latest from Guillemot is that we will be seeing the NV10 in the stores in mid September this year.

• Creative Labs Unified Driver (Win9X - version 1.16)
  
  
  

• Voodoo3 Pro (Win9X - version 1.1 - 1.1 MB)
  
  
  

• Added support for the new Video Mode
• Added support for the new Alpha Blending
• Changed the look of the prog (added Tab Strip)
• Added the "Voodoo3 Information" frame
• Some little design change & bugs fixed
  
  
  
• Voodoo3 Tweaker (Win9X - version 1.9 - 100 KB)
  
  
  

Just a quick note for you, running SMP, with all high quality settings, adjusted so textures set to the highest level, the dual 585 were at about 92fps on timedemo2. The P3-600 running at 672Mhz under Windows 98 (opposed to Windows NT on the duals) was a full 10 fps behind at about 82fps.

These are the same Celeron 500s that Intel marked "For Uniprocessor Systems Only". Well what you read is not always what you get. Printing a label is a lot easier than changing an entire assembly line to disable SMP. I have posted the WCPUID for each Celerons that are for "Uniprocessor Systems Only" on my main news page.

Yesterday, many sites reported that Intel has disable SMP for Celerons because the box that these Celerons ship with says "For Uniprocessor Systems Only"

Well, I got two boxed Celeron 500's here with that for uniprocessor only label on them. They work just fine in the BP6, and are both currently running at 585Mhz rock solid (78mhz bus) and I will try for an even 600 shortly.

It seems that the "For Uniprocessor Systems Only" label is just that. A label.

Okay, so it's big and bulky, but it's programmable, it's a fantastic USB device (actually it's the only force-feedback USB stick on the market), it has a bunch of buttons to use, it features a throttle dial, and it offers the best force-feedback effects of any force-feedback device on the market today. You can even use it with a set of gameport rudder pedals. How's that for versatility? Can't knock it for what it does well. Now if only they could just make this damn thing a little smaller!

• Voodoo3 Pro (Win9X - 1.1 MB)
  
  
  

• Creative Labs 3D Blaster TNT2 Ultra
• Gigabyte GA-660 TNT2
• Hercules Dynamite TNT2
  
  
  

Now it’s confirmed. The NV10 chipset from Nvidia will be released in a month and we will also see a graphic card in early September using the NV10 Chipset. I have been talking with a press spokesman at Guillemot and he confirmed that Guillemot will show the graphic card at ECTS and that’s probably the first time that we will see some image quality and speed specs of the chipset.

• Abit BH6 BIOS (version LN - 137 KB)
• Award Flash Utility (30 KB)

Update:  It appears, that this file is just a repackaged LH BIOS, hopefully they will fix this error soon.

• Abit BX6 R2 BIOS (version MN - 137 KB)
• Award Flash Utility (30 KB)
  
  
  

What is most exciting is the sheer power that the NV10 will unleash upon its debut this fall. Suffice it to say that the NV10 will blow away anything currently on the market, as well as anything to be released in the near future. This includes 3DFX's upcoming 32 bit Napalm chipset, which is purported to have a fill rate of 1600 MPPS (mega pixels per second). Combine that with the NV10's triangle fill rate of 20 million triangles per second, and you've got a serious, serious card, folks.

In addition to raw horsepower, NV10 will also deliver new DirectX 7.0 3D rendering features, which we'll cover next month. The NV10 will also support HDTV, accelerating x-y video scaling, colorspace conversion, and motion compensation for full 1080i/480p HDTV displays.