It's quite late to the market, but AMD recently released the non-X SKUs of several processors. Today we look at the AMD Ryzen 5 5600. The processor has a locked multiplier but still is configured at 6 cores and 12 threads. With a base clock of 3.50 and boost speeds up to 4.40GHz, this boxed processor is just 199 EUR, and could be a really good deal for a nice gaming rig.

Read the review here.

 

According to claims from Chinese site Expreview a new-and-improved GTX 260s with more stream processors will quietly hit stores in mid-September. These cards will supposedly feature nine thread processing clusters (TPCs) instead of eight, which should work out to 216 stream processors and 72 texture units (up from 192 SPs and 64 TUs on the current model).

For reference, the top-of-the-line GeForce GTX 280 sports 240 SPs and 80 TUs. Expreview goes on to say the new GTX 260 will retain the same 65nm GT200 GPU, clock speed, memory interface width, and memory capacity as its predecessor. We won't hazard a guess as to exactly how the extra TPC will impact performance, but the move should still narrow the gap between the GTX 260 and the 4870. Right now, the Radeon HD 4870 has a slight performance edge and tends to sit between the GTX 260 and GTX 280 in many benchmarks.

All this is unconfirmed though.

A lot of game trailers today as we are covering the Games Conference in leipzig today. Tom Clancy's EndWar is a real-time tactics game designed by Ubisoft Shanghai for the PS3, Xbox 360, PSP and NDS, to be released on October 15, 2008 in North America and October 14, 2008 in Europe.

A PC version is planned for release at a later date. It is set in 2020 at which time World War III is ongoing. Now Germany's giant game show gives us another look at the war to end all wars. Check out the trailer.

I've seen the trailer and was able to play the game myself at the GC in leipzig today. But the lads over at The chaps over at IGN got some hands-on time with Call of Duty: World at War's four-player co-operative action and where able to snag video from it:

The objective is to take out three antiaircraft guns atop some concrete fortifications. The easiest way to take them out is the bazooka; just stand off at a distance, get a clear shot, and avoid having to take out the mess of infantry between you and it. However, you can blow them with charges if you're short of rockets. Then comes an Japanese counter-attack, so you have to man some machine guns and take up positions on top of the fortifications.

This was a co-op battle, so there was naturally a lot of chatter going on about who should go where and who should shoot what. Apart from that, the campaign is the same whether you're playing solo or playing with three others, though the difficulty does scale in relation to the number of players in the battle. If someone is killed, another player can revive the fallen but if everyone dies at the same time, it's back to the previous checkpoint. That's if you're playing regular campaign co-op. There's a nifty little twist called competitive co-op that basically adds a scoring mode; you get points for kills, extra points for head shots, etc. The winner, of course, is the one with the most points. It's possible to really rack up a high score if you manage to snag score modifiers that multiply your points. The kicker is that in competitive co-op, if you die, you lose points, and if someone revives you, they earn points. That mechanic is designed to reign in players, because if you charge ahead or take a lot of risks or play wildly and get killed, you lose points.

At the GC in Germany Black Lion Studios has released the first trailer for Shadow Harvest, a third-person, near-future stealth action game in development for Xbox 360 and PC. Check it out folks.

At the Games Conferecne In Germany GTA IV has been announced. The first details and shots of the PC version of GTA IV have emerged online today. The game features include a replay editor, better search options for matches online, the ability to play with a controller instead of keyboard and mouse (for all the masochists out there) and of course polished visuals worthy of the platform.

• The number of multiplayer slots may be expanded for the PC version (16 is the limit for the console versions).
• The maximum resolution is 2560x1600. 
• Players can record 30 second clips and then they can add filters and adjust the camera angle using the replay editor. They can also paste clips together and then upload them to R* Social Club for others to view online. 
• Players can search for multiplayer games more specifically (e.g. a deathmatch with pistols only). 
• The Xbox 360 controller is compatible with the PC version.

GC Germany - Word on the new Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning trailer is that it 'brings the Age of Reckoning to life in stunning detail and showcases the ongoing conflict between the armies of Order and Destruction, the catalyst for WAR's groundbreaking Realm vs. Realm gameplay.'

 Battle of good vs. evil gets epic real quick in MMO. EA Mythic's MMORPG Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning is coming to the PC.

EA announced at its Leipzig Games Convention press conference today additional details on the cast of Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3, including the casting of Jenny McCarthy, pictured, as Tanya, the staple special ops unit. But that's not all. The leaders of the three factions -- Allies, Empire of the Rising Sun and the Soviet Union -- will be played by JK Simmons, George Takei and Tim Curry, respectively. In the trailer we were shown, Takei's lines appear to be dubbed with his own voice, dialogue intentionally out of synch with his lip movements.

Also announced was the appearance of Kelly Hu, who will join Gina Carano and Gemma Atkinson as the Empire of the Rising Sun's obligatory sexpot. EA's definitely going straight for the groin with this one. Finally, in the cinematic trailer shown at Leipzig, it appears that Peter Stormare will play a part in Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3. Oh snap!

Well, if it is alright with you guys I'm only showing the sexy female cast okay ?

Gemma Atkinson                    Jenny McCarthy                 Ivana Milicevic

Gina

Guess what, we're gonna be busy the upcoming 9 days or so. Tomorrow Guru3D travel to Germany and see if we can shoot a nice pictorial for you guys at the GC Leipzig Game Convention. But Starting on Monday, in San Jose California this will get really interesting as one of the biggest conferences, hosted by NVIDIA, will start. If you are into this industry (as any Guru of course is) then keep an eye out at Guru3D as we'll be green for that week and report back to you guys what NVISION is all about.

Just a few of the things happening:

• Learn from the professionals about how to make better pictures and videos at home
• Learn how to build your multimedia dream computer
• See Diggnation broadcast live from NVISION 08
• See how experts overclock and tune PCs
• Watch the world's Super Bowl of professional gaming

AMD announced the following existing products as the first CPUs to bear the new AMD Business Class

A bit late with the announcement but Gigabyte now also launches their GV-R4870 X2 graphics card, based on the extremely succesful Radeon 4870 HD X2. The GV-R487X2-2GH-B is built on the highly anticipated ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 GPU ­­­­­­­

TUL Corporation announced PCS+ HD4870 1GB solution, special cooling design delivers amazing gaming performance. Difference with reference board design, PowerColor PCS+ HD4870 1GB uses ZeroTherm exclusive cooling system, included dual S-shape heatpipe and 94pcs fin design, with 4 phase core power on-board, efficiently reduces up to 10

Futuremark Games Studio revealed Shattered Horizon, a new game where players fight to survive in the aftermath of a catastrophic Moon mining accident that throws billions of tons of rocky debris into near-Earth space. In this multiplayer first-person shooter for PC teams of players experience realistic zero gravity combat surrounded by the broken remains of orbital infrastructure and the millions of asteroids now encircling the Earth.

 

At IDF Intel is feeding new details of its widely reported dual-core Atom processor. Though not providing all formal details itself, the company is expected to launch an Atom 330 with twin cores at 1.6GHz and will be built on a 45 nanometer process that reduces the amount of power use despite the additional core. The chip should remain on the same 533MHz system bus.

Other details of the processor itself are still unknown, though past leaks have pointed to a continued use of Hyperthreading that would let each core handle as many as two code threads at one time and create up to four effective cores with optimized apps. A doubled Level 2 cache of 1MB should also help improve performance.

The semiconductor firm has already confirmed that its initial implementation will include at least a desktop version for nettops and other very low-power, budget systems. A new mainboard, the D945GCLF2, will fit into any mini-ITX case and will include both GMA 950 integrated graphics as well as support for up to 2GB of memory in a single slot, gigabit Ethernet, as well as equal pairs of Parallel and Serial ATA connections for storage.

A launch for the new mainboard is scheduled for September and should be accompanied by the Atom 330 itself; an N330 for netbooks and other very small mobile systems hasn't been confirmed but is possible given a predicted power consumption of just eight watts, or less than half the energy needed for most of Intel's low-voltage Core 2 Duo processors.

Peripheral maker Razer has announced a new headset, the Megalodon. Intended for gaming, the unit has a microphone for voice chats and commands, with sensitivity adjustable through a desk-based control module. The headset's focus however is on simulating 7.1-channel surround sound, a task handled through a decoder which Razer claims is eight times faster than similar chipsets. As necessary, the control module also lets users toggle back to 2.0-channel sound, and tweak settings for bass, volume and positioning.

The headphones produce 200mW of power, and have a frequency response range between 20Hz and 20KHz. To make the headset more comfortable, both the headband and earphones are cushioned. Razer plans to ship the Megalodon sometime in the fourth quarter of the year.

SSD is the future, make no mistake. With Silicon Power's product the dynamics change a bit. A couple of weeks ago they released a new series of drives. We got one fresh from the factory, this is their all new revised version. Optionally they make use of SLC NAND flash based memory. In certain situations this type is not only faster, it's also 10 maybe 20 times more reliable as the number of write cycles (per cell) starts at 100,000 writes.

A couple of weeks ago Silicon power released a new series of SSD drives. We got one fresh from the factory, and this is their all new revised version. Optionally they make use of SLC NAND flash based memory. In certain situations this type is not only faster, it's also 10 maybe 20 times more reliable as the number of write cycles (per cell) starts at 100,000 writes. So in theory if the OCZ drive would last 5 years, this one could last 50 years.

Check out the Guru3D review right here.

It is time to build that dream PC before you head off for school! Surely you do not have to take our advice for granted, but at the very least let us help you a little. Guru3D's guide will only cover the box. Monitor, keyboard, mouse and speakers are not included. I do this for brevity's sake, as the monitor alone would require its own guide, especially if I were to cover LCD monitors. Since this site is called "Guru3D" this guide will target a system intended for gaming primarily. So what sort of criteria do I take into account when deciding what parts to recommend?

• Price and Performance: First and foremost, what gives the most bang for your buck, in terms of gaming primarily of course.
• Reliablity: Second on the list but just as important. This includes things such as compatability (ever had RAM that worked on one motherboard but not in another?), trustworthiness of a brand overall (do they have a history of making reliable parts?) in addition to the reliablity of the part in question.
• Overclockability: Overclocking can help squeeze out that extra performance out of a system and can make a big impact on price versus performance (why should you buy a $1000 CPU if you can overclock a $200 CPU to match it?) so this factor can always swing my decision.
• Heat and Power Issues: Heat is the enemy of a computer and it can affect the stability (and reliablity) of your machine. Performance per watt has become a buzz word and as power requirements for computers rise I eye this more and more closely.

Check it here:
http://www.guru3d.com/category/pcbuyguide/

CPUCalc is an overclocking-calculator able to overclocking with many Intel and AMD processors.  You just need to set your wished clock and it calculates all other settings, for example. It automatically sets the correct CPU-RAM-ratio and Referenceclock:HTT-Ratio. It

In the wake of last Friday's leak, Intel has now formally announced its Mainstream series of SSD drives. Models will be available in 1.8- and 2.5-inch sizes, and rely on MLC (multi-level cell) NAND memory, which should in theory aid to keep prices down. One of the first examples is the 80GB X25-M, which is also Intel's first SATA-based SSD for notebook and desktop OEM builders.

The new drives are built around the standard 1.8 inch and 2.5 inch form factors found in netbooks, notebooks and compact desktops. 80GB drives will roll off the  production line at the end of next month, with 160GB versions hitting in first quarter of 2009.

Intel has yet to reveal pricing for any of the Mainstream drives, but claims that benchmarking shows a 50 percent boost in system performance, and a nine-times enhancement in HDD performance. While expensive and short on capacity, SSD drives are becoming an increasingly common alternative to regular hard disks, due to their faster seek times and increased reliability.

Intel claims the X18-M (1.8 inch) and X25-M (2.5 inch) drives have read speeds up to 250MB/s, write speeds to 70MB/s and a read latency of 85 microseconds. More of a concern for many would-be users is the life of the drive, however Rao says that based on 100GB of transfers per day the drives would deliver