Chaintech released new Apogee GT Blazer DDR3 1800MHz 4GB memory kits with 8-8-8-24 latencies and a voltage of 1.8V.

What makes this memory module a true DDR3 masterpiece? It performs not only high data rate but also is of low voltage as 1.8v to achieve a beautiful balance between higher system performance and reliability. Dual modules packaged in 4GB kit, APOGEE GT DDR3 1800 of CL latency of 8-8-8-24 can be easily utilized for increasing the operation efficiency for power users.

APOGEE GT Blazer DDR3 1800 4GB kit has earned a performance over 28.8GB/sec on the EVEREST Memory bandwidth read and write test, providing the excellent level professional memory product quality. In addition, in accordance to the high speed of 1800MHz, the cooling performance is particularly enhanced by its famous bridge-alike, patent-pending Cool It Smart

We're slowly moving to that moment where AIBs have had long enough time to develop & customize the new Radeon HD 4000 products. Force3D just announced that both their radeon HD 4850 and 4870 will be available soon in a Accelero Twin Turbo - Black Editon cooling fan. And I have to admit, that's looking pretty dandy with it's four heatpipes.

The cooler was recently announced by Arctic Cooling. Here's the card pixelated:

HIS has been working on a new cooler for the pretty hot Radeon HD 4850 and 4870 products. They are almost ready with the ICEQ4 model. The new ICEQ4 model has a two copper heatpipes based cooling system. As always the design is dual-slot (two slots) even features gold plated DVI connectors.

HIS expects the products to the market in August. Would be great to see some custom 3rd party cooled Radeon HD 4000 series products. This by the way is the Radeon HD 4850.

Here's the first gameplay trailer for FireSky's upcoming MMO, Stargate Worlds, based on the hit television series Stargate SG-1.

Stargate Worlds is an MMORPG based on Stargate SG-1, set in worlds of historical human time periods, alien environments, and outer space locations. 
 

NVIDIA just launched the GeForce 8800 9800 GT.

As expected there's nothing really special about this product as it is nothing else other than a rebadged GeForce 8800 GT. In fact the specifications are too close to call a difference in performance whatsoever.

The product will be have 112 Shader processor-enabled, still be based on the 65nm G92 GPU and have the same frequencies and specs as the 8800 GT counterpart.

So confusing ...

The one thing that did change is that Nvidia's board partners can play around with a customized PCB and choose to make something really special. Think here in an optimized PCB, different PCB colors and next to that somewhat more exotic cooling methods. This first AIB press-relases are already coming in. I'll post an overview of the new boards tomorrow.

Today NVIDIA launches a new budget product. It's called the GeForce 9500 GT and pretty much is the GeForce 8600 GT yet made at a 65nm fab. The good thing is that the card is real cheap, even better is that we have been promised that the card will be faster than that two year old GeForce 8600 GT at half the price.

The card we'll test is an actual retail  sample from the folks at Galaxy technology. This is the Galaxy GeForce 9500 GT Overclock edition by the way.

Read review:
http://www.guru3d.com/article/geforce-9500-gt-review/

There's a new NVIDIA GeForce driver out, this time with build 177.79.
This driver is available for both Windows XP and Vista in 32 and 64-bit versions.

This driver set is commonly distributed on many websites and it is receiving pretty good feedback. Bare in mind this to be considered an official beta driver, use it at your own risk though.

There are several discussion open on these drivers in the Guru3D NVIDIA driver forums, check them here. Driver wise, pretty much any GeForce graphics card build in the last 3 years is supported. We have virus & pest checked these drivers and they are scanned as clean. if you decide to give these a try, please post your feedback in this thread.

Download:
  GeForce ForceWare 177.79 Vista (32-bit)
  GeForce ForceWare 177.79 Vista (64-bit)
  GeForce ForceWare 177.79 XP (64-bit)
  GeForce ForceWare 177.79 XP (32-bit)

It's rumored that NVIDIA is slowly prepping an entire move towards 55nm chip fabrication.

We already noticed that the new GeForce 9800 GTX+'s (G92b) chip is at 55 nm. Today the silent introduction of the G96 aka GeForce 9500 GT will take place (55nm). And as it seems, the GeForce 9600 GT will receive the die shrink as well.

Other than the a smaller chip-die size, the 55-nm silicon will have no new improvements Then again, typically 55-nm runs much cooler, so who know what gain on overclock you guys will see.

I can't help it, but yeah .. I'm again looking forward to the next installment of the game series. EA are planning to launch the open beta test for Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 soon, and in order to allow gamers to check if their PC's will be able to run the game, EA has revealed the first details on the system requirements.

System Requirements:

• OS

Gas Powered Games has a new trailer available for Demigod, they fighting, RTS hybrid for the PC. This new project is called Demigod and is being described as an amalgamation of action, RPG and RTS genres. More importantly, the game revolves around a multiplayer experience. While GPG did mention plans to incorporate a single-player mode, nothing was revealed on the subject at this time.

For those who are unacquainted with the mechanics of DotA, here's how the whole thing works. The key facet of DotA is that players control a single Hero unit, each of which has a variety of unique abilities and is able to level up by taking out AI-controlled enemies across the map. This provides the groundwork for Demigod. You can forget about the worn-out gameplay principals of managing swarms of units and gathering as much resources to outperform your enemies.
 

This should be fairly good bang for bucks. Intel is planning to release a Core 2 Quad Q8200 processor on the 31st of August. The processor is clocked at 2.33GHz CPU.

Obviously the quaddie will have a 1333 MHz FSB and 4MB of cache memory. Ruumored it that the CPU will sell for a wholesale price of $224 (that's per 1000 CPUs). By doing so the  Q8200 will be the cheapest 45nm quad-core that money can get you. Both the Q9300 with its 2.5GHz clock and Q9400 with 2.66GHz clock will remain selling at ~ $266.

It should be a fairly intersting product, especially when you consider these processers typically can be tweaked and oerclocked to really good clocks.

OCZ Technology has the honor to be the first ever manufacturer to have one of their SSD drives tested here at Guru3D.com, and we have others in queue as well. Despite the negative spins from traditional HDD manufacturers and a couple of sour SSD manufacturers who do not have their technology right, let me state .. Solid State Drives are here to stay, and inevitably they will replace HDDs. And by saying that I do not mean in the next 3 years or so. But think of long term usage, this will be the faster technology, this will be a high-volume technology and it will be a reliable technology as there are no more moving parts inside that storage unit.

The SSD technology has advanced to a level where it can compete with even the fastest WS Velociraptor HD, and let us show you exactly that. You can find the review here:

http://www.guru3d.com/article/ocz-core-sata-64gb-solid-state-drive-review/

The Folding@home project expands list of non-gaming applications for graphics processing units (GPU). By running the Folding@home client on an NVIDIA GeForce GPU, protein-folding simulations can be done 140 times faster than on some of today

Buffalo has announced the launch of external as well as internal 8x Blu-ray burners for Japanese market. The internal Buffalo 8x Blu-ray burner BR-816FBS and external BR-816SU2 (USB2.0 & External SerialATA), are based on Panasonic SW-5584 BD burner. Both Buffalo 8x Blu-ray burners support 8x recording for single layer Blu-ray recordable discs (BD-R) and 2x for dual layer BD-R, BD-RE and LTH BD-R media. Buffalo external BR-816SU2 8x Blu-ray burner with 8MB buffer memory, measures 50x164x281 mm, weighs 1.8 kg and will be available in Japan by early August for approximately 44,500 yen ($416). The Buffalo internal BR-816FBS 8x Blu-ray burner with 8MB buffer memory, measures 146

With the new Asus Xonar D1 7.1 PCI soundcard, users can enjoy the same rich gaming audio effects and extensive Dolby Home Theater features as the PCI express Xonar DX soundcard and free up PCI express slots for other uses at the same time. This iteration of the Xonar provides fine-tuned audio components that reach a clear 116dB SNR (Signal-to-Noise Ratio); while the built-in DS3D GX revives support for DirectSound HW multi-channel gaming audio and the latest EAX (Environment Audio Extension) in PC games. The Asus Xonar D1 also comes equipped with the renowned DS3D GX 2.0, which revives EAX HD 5.0 DirectSound HW effects in games for both Windows XP and Vista. DS3D GX 2.0 automatically enables the latest EAX and DirectSound HW after installation, with no additional driver patches, game modifications, or OpenAL required.

Taipei, Taiwan, July 27, 2008