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.

The next release of Emergent's Gamebryo, scheduled for this fall, will ship with the NVIDIA PhysX engine directly integrated into the platform, representing a significant step in Emergent's goal of transforming the Gamebryo engine into a single, integrated framework of game production software and design tools that developers can use to create any type of title on any platform. As a result, developers will be able to accelerate development cycles and spend more time making their games more lifelike with dynamic, real-time environments.

Gamebryo has been fully optimized for development on Playstation 3, Xbox 360, PC and Wii, and was recently selected as the development platform for the next-generation console titles Civilization Revolution by Firaxis and Splatterhouse by BottleRocket. Gamebryo is also being used by EA-Mythic for its upcoming game, Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning as well as Divinity 2: Ego Draconis from Larian Studios.

Emergent's CEO sees this agreement as a major milestone in the next generation of game development. He views NVIDIA(R) PhysX technology and Emergent's Gamebryo as a natural fit both strategically and technically.

"More than becoming the standard for creating immersive games, NVIDIA is as dedicated as Emergent to delivering the tools, runtimes and technologies needed to radically improve the state of development," said Geoffrey Selzer, CEO, Emergent. "Both companies are committed to platform agnostic, flexible modular solutions that harness the power of multi-core, multi-threaded development. With NVIDIA's deep support for these values, we will offer the industry the most powerful, flexible, and easiest development environment available to push the edge of video game technology and creativity."

The NVIDIA PhysX development solution consists of a robust physics engine, API, and middleware designed to give developers and animators unprecedented creative control over the look of their final in-game interactivity by allowing them to author and preview physics in real time. PhysX technology works across all major gaming platforms, including Nintendo Wii, Playstation 3, Xbox 360, and the PC, and can be accelerated by both the CPU and any CUDA(TM) general purpose parallel computing processor, including NVIDIA GeForce(R) GPUs.

"We are delighted to be building a fusion of our PhysX technology and the Gamebryo engine," said Roy Taylor, vice president of content relations at NVIDIA. "The combination will provide developers a unique platform for introducing the world to their creative vision and technology innovation."

Some more details have surfaced on ATI upcoming mid-range products, the  RV730-based Radeon HD 4650 and 4670 GPUs that is.

Reportedly, both offerings will feature 320 stream processors-just like today's Radeon HD 3850 and 3870-but with memory interfaces only 128 bits wide. Core clock speeds will range up to 750MHz for the Radeon HD 4670, while memory will top out at 1,000MHz (presumably an "effective" 2,000MHz).

The spec sheet mentions 480 gigaFLOPS, 32GB/s of memory bandwidth, and a 59W power envelope for the 4670, compared to a respective 429 gigaFLOPS, 53GB/s, and 95W for the Radeon HD 3850. As for the 4650, that card will crank out a tamer 384 gigaFLOPS with up to 21.3GB/s of memory bandwidth. Assuming those specs didn't originate from a demented homeless man, the Radeon HD 4670 could turn out to be a fairly potent low-end offering.

Very loose numbers I agree.

Yeah baby, I'm so gonna like this one. Codemasters today announced it will publish French-developed racing game Fuel, previously known as Grand Raid Offroad.

The game is currently in development at Bordeaux based developer Asobo Studios (The Mummy, Ratatouille and Wall-E makers) and will be released on the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 next year. They claims to have the largest environment ever created in a race game, with over 5,000 square miles of simulated space. According to its creators, Fuel is set in an "alternate present" where much of the globe has been devastated by the effects of climate change and environmental abuse. Races involve a competition for oil in rally-style cars reminiscent of the Mad Max film series.

The graphics look phenomenal btw !

Expect a lot of new coming from the Games Conmvention in Leipzig this week. Guru3D will also be there starting on thursday to see if we can get some coverage for you guys.

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.

A woman has been ordered to pay

When it comes to ergonomic keyboards, people either love or hate them. If you are on the "pro-ergonomic" side, the Logitech Wave Pro might catch your attention: its "wave" design "cradles your hands" for added comfort.

The keys themselves are shaped and laid out in such a way that your hands won't have to move much - if you know how to type properly, that said. If the hands aren't moving, the palms have to rest on something soft: a cushioned palm rest area. Each of us will have different keyboard preferences, so you really have to try one for a few minutes.

If you want to do the jump, this is Logitech's most ergonomic keyboard+mouse combo.

Logitech keyboards page

It's quite a boring day today news wise, so if you are in that same state .. feel free to grab some game-demo's we just added into the download section.

  LEGO Indiana Jones Game Demo (PC)
  Spore Game Demo (PC)
  WALL-E Game Demo (PC)
  Space Siege Game Demo (PC)

Spore

It's the right thing to do we say, props to Dell for it.

Dell announced today it will offer an additional 12-month limited warranty to customers affected by failing NVIDIA GPUs. The warranty enhancement covers the following fifteen notebooks:

• Dell Precision M2300, Precision M4300, Precision M65
• Dell Inspiron 1420
• Dell Latitude D620, Latitude D630, Latitude D630c, Latitude D820, Latitude D830
• Dell Vostro 1310, Vostro 1400, Vostro 1510, Vostro 1710
• Dell XPS M1330, XPS M1530

Dell says details of the service plan will be available in the next few weeks. More info over here.

Yay ! ... finanly a new fligh-sim in our benchmark suite ? :) Atari sent out a press release announcing that it will publish Heroes over Europe, an ultra-realistic seat-of-the-pants tactical flight combat game. Heroes over Europe will be available on the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 in 2009.

The sequel to the mighty World War II flight combat game Heroes of the Pacific, Heroes over Europe takes aspiring combat pilots into the bullet-ridden heart of major World War II European air battles in glorious dogfight-friendly high definition. Heroes over Europe follows the Allied campaign from the attacks on London to the destruction of Berlin, with players under orders to strap themselves into the authentically rendered cockpits of the campaign's iconic aircraft. Their mission: to survive the most ferocious dogfights ever seen in a flight combat game.

Developed by Transmission Games (formerly IR Gurus) in Melbourne, Australia, and powered by an all-new engine, Heroes over Europe is set to raise the bar for flight combat games, with new and unique game modes, and deeper and more comprehensive online gameplay for up to 16 players. Visually, the game takes no prisoners with meticulously rendered environments including faithful recreations of London and Berlin, and ultra-realistic iconic warplanes of the era, all presented in stunning high definition graphics. With additional content available to download from launch, Heroes over Europe is scheduled for release in 2009.

Shit man, that's looking good.

A sequel to Ascaron's Sacred, Sacred 2 promises to flesh out the world of Ancaria with bigger playing fields and improved graphics. Coming soon to the PC, PS3, and Xbox 360.

Here are some fresh looks at the upcoming action RPG, Sacred 2: Fallen Angel. The trailer mostly focuses on the updated graphics technology and new features such as combat while riding a mountable creatures. Then there are powerful spells that are enhanced through team play.

And I've got the proof to back it up. A new industry report released by IBISWorld, reveals women and older adults -- not the proverbial nerdy teenage boys -- are the new driving force behind the success of the video games industry as console manufacturers and software developers race to expand their offerings beyond the traditional action genre which has always appealed to youngsters.

According to the report: 38 percent of U.S. gamers are women and the average player is 35 years old, The average purchaser of video games is 39 years old, *4 percent of game players are aged over 50, around a third of American households have a gaming console.

Phew -- I feel so much better now :)

The percentage of female gamers has increased from 33 to 38 percent in just five years as women flock to purchase not just Nintendo's Wii Fit, but interactive group games such as Singstar, Rock Band, and Lips, as well as The Sims, The Movies, Nintendogs and NeoPets. Games targeting girls, such as Bratz Rock Angels and Dora the Explorer have also succeeded in introducing a new generation of female gamers to the console format.

"Wii Fit is the perfect example of how recent developments in game design and marketing are opening up female gamers as the potential growth market in the industry, and the fact women comprise 38 percent of game players indicates the level of growth available to the industry, as there are still very few titles designed specifically to target that demographic. Wii Fit shows the attention women can expect to receive as manufacturers and developers actively chase the female dollar," predicted Mr. Van Horn.

As the young male demographic is comprehensively served by existing game titles, and the female market is the latest focus, IBISWorld expects one of the remaining markets ripe for the picking is older gamers.

Until recently, the teenage pioneers of video games 25 years ago were under 40 years old. Today, those gamers are approaching their mid-to late- forties. In order to retain those original fans, games are being designed specifically to appeal to older players are most likely the next, and perhaps final frontier for developers and publishers to cross. This has already begun, with Nintendo's DS 'Brain Age' testing games, and IBISWorld anticipates it will continue as the industry faces a diminishing number of potential new customers in the longer-term.

"Parents also fall into the 'older gamer' category, and the sheer number of them playing games with their children is another factor driving industry growth," said Mr. Van Horn. "Some surveys (NPD) suggest that 93 percent of parents playing video games have children who are playing too. In fact, nearly half the games sold in 2006 held an 'E' rating, and with 39 the average age of a game buyer, that would suggest the Mom and Dad market is a major one."

Arts-technica reported that one of the longest running file-sharing lawsuits has come to a close, as Denise Barker and the RIAA have mutually agreed to settle a three-year-old lawsuit for $6,050. Barker has been represented by Ray Beckerman, known for his Recording Industry vs The People blog, who used the case as a platform to attack the foundations upon which the RIAA has built its legal campaign.

Barker had admitted to using KaZaA, but argued that the statutory damages sought by the RIAA were unconstitutionally excessive with damages. Instead, Beckerman argued that damages should be capped at no more than $3.50 per song

OCZ Technology Group announced the ModXStream Pro, a superior gaming-grade power supply series that offers consumers a combination of OCZ

After releasing the 2.5-inch SATA/IDE SSD (which Guru3D will review tomorrow) , Silicon-Power is expanding product lines on the emerging SSD market, today SP introduces its 1.8-inch microSATA SSD drives aimed at small laptops.

At 1.8 inches, the drive is the smallest on the market to use a microSATA interface. The new product also supports SATA I/II interface. For fulfilling customer needs in seeking cost-effective solution, the 1.8?h microSATA SSD drives use SLC NAND Flash modules, offering higher performance and reliability, and MLC NAND Flash modules respectively. The product using SLC flash memory has a read speed of 160MB/sec and a write speed of 90MB/sec. With the aforementioned high speed data transfer, the 1.8-inch microSATA SSD also features ECC function, shock resistance and vibration, enabling the operating system to work well even if it is on the move. Silicon Power 1.8-inch microSATA SSD decreases power consumption and heat when the system runs. It has thin size, light features that are especially suitable for micro-laptops.

The 1.8?h microSATA SSD with low power consumption and noise-free operation is fully compatible with RoHS requirement, with capacities ranging from 8GB to 64GB, often enough for customer needs.

Feature

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eWeek heard from AMD Senior Vice President Randy Allen that the firm will ship out its first 45nm Shanghai server processors in the fourth quarter of this year. The AMD processor is designed to compete against the Intel Nehalem processor, especially in the volume two-socket server market.

"On the eve of the Intel Developer Forum, at an Aug. 15 press conference, AMD Senior Vice President Randy Allen said these 45-nm chips will ship in the fourth quarter of 2008, which means that some of AMD's OEM partners could have early systems for sale by the end of the year.

In previous statements, AMD executives have said the first 45-nm processor products would ship in the second half of 2008. Intel has not specified when the first of its Nehalem chips for servers will ship to partners. The first of these processors will appear in high-end desktops.

But it is clear that Intel will want to counter what AMD has to offer, especially in the high-volume, two-socket server market. This could mean Nehalem-based chips for two-socket servers will appear in the fourth quarter as well.

During the press conference, Allen attempted to claim that AMD would be ready with its products before Intel, especially those chips for two- and four-socket servers. While this can be seen as a classic fear, uncertainty and doubt campaign, it at least shows that AMD feels it has overcome the problems that led to delays with the quad-core, 65-nm Opteron chip in 2007.

"They [Intel] won't be factoring our 45-nanometer Shanghai product and be making shipments of that by the end of the year," Allen said. "I think some of the questions that should be asked are, What is their [Intel's] specific schedule for their two-socket offering around Nehalem and when is that going to make its way into the four-socket platforms?"

courtesy of chip-architect

1. NCAA Football 2009 (360): 398,000

2. Wii Fit (Wii): 370,000

3. Guitar Hero: On Tour (DS): 310,000

4. Wii Play (Wii): 284,000

5. NCAA Football 2009 (PS3): 243,000

6. Soul Calibur IV (360): 219,000

7. Mario Kart Wii (Wii): 175,000

8. Rock Band (Wii): 166,000

9. Soul Calibur IV (PS3): 156,000

10. Sid Meier's Civilization Revolution (360): 148,000

BFG is in the house with their latest weapons of mass gaming. They recently altered something in their product line-up and released the "OCX" series of products. Typically any manufacturer has it's normal baseline product, then an OC (overclock) products and in the case of BFG, they added an "X".

Well X marks the spot, and OCX obviously is short for Overclocking eXtreme. So we picked up two of their OCX models and see what the difference is all about and have a look at their BFG 9600 GT OCX and GeForce 8800 GT OCX.

Read the article here.