Ggmania reported via Shacknews reports that id Software's upcoming shooter, Rage (PC, PS3, 360, Mac) will suffer from asset compression on the Xbox 360 version due to Microsoft's high licensing fee's for each DVD.

According to Carmack, the royalty fees to include a third disc in the Xbox 360 version would be so high that it simply isn't a feasible solution, with the programmer hoping for Microsoft to make a concession. He stressed that the issue is merely a storage problem and has nothing to do with the power of the Xbox 360 hardware, while adding that the PlayStation 3's Blu-ray format is Sony's one leg up on the competition. Carmack also noted his belief that neither Doom 4 or Rage will be digitally distributed online, as id isn't looking into that sort of distribution for its major titles at this point.

id Software's John Carmack also announced that work on the technology behind the company's upcoming shooter Rage is almost finished. Carmack said that a change to the animation system is coming soon, and that a few tweaks need to be made to the MegaTexture system, but that the heavy lifting is mostly over. The programming wizard reflected on the long development period for the id Tech 5 engine, which first began some three years ago. Carmack mentioned that the Rage code will mostly be carried over to Doom 4, where the focus will then be mainly on level design and creative aspects.

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This processor model popped up the radar a couple of times now. Yet it's confirmed that the Intel Core 2 Duo E7300 is to be released by Intel on August 10th.

The processor is a 45nm-based Core 2 Duo chip with 2.66GHz frequency 1066FSB support and 3MB cache. This is a faster version of the recently launched E7200 with 2.53GHz frequency 1066FSB support and 3MB cache.

The E7300 is expected to be selling for $133 at launch, while E7200 will drop to $113 on the same date. These are very decent processors and it's good to see the pricing now match complketely to mainstream.

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It really is quite an achievement .. Corsair announced today that its Dominator DDR3 memory modules shattered the record for frequency. The record was set using the Asus ROG Rampage Extreme motherboard (Intel X48 chipset) and Corsair Dominator memory, utilizing Corsair
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NVidia publisher POV decided to modify the stock 8800GT with an 128Bit memory interface. NVidia said, it wouldn
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CPUCalc is an overclocking-calculator able to "simulate" 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

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In roughly three weeks from now a big NVIDIA event will take place in San Jose California, it's called NVISION and definitely is going to be huge.

The big NVIDIA visual event is looking pretty impressive as some big names are showing up at this event. A large selection of conference attendees will be there like Buzz Aldrin who will debut a 3D Film "Fly Me to the Moon". There are more names for keynote speeches though. Shuttle Commander Eileen Collins, first women ever piloting the Space Shuttle, is going to speak likely about the fast evolution of technology within that cockpit.

Actress Tricia Helfer (yes the gorgeous blonde) from Battlestar Galactica is to Speak at NVISION 08 as well together with NVIDIA's CEO in likely the opening speech. In the lineup the MythBusters just have been added as well as Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage now been announced as special guests at NVISION 08 and rumor is .. there's some sort of world record to be broken at NVISION.

The Guinness attempt is quickly shaping up to be a flagship event at NVISION with a separate area for LAN Game record attempters.  The will play continuous for 36 hours with an allotted 10 minute break per 60 minutes played. Oy .. i can smell the energy drinks and coffee already.

Also the World's top professional gamers land in downtown San Jose to compete in ESWC grand final at NVISION 08. Next to all this there will be several workshops in several segments, from gamers, 3D professional, press, channel members and investors.

The NVISION 08 event goes from August 25 to the 27th, more info can be found here. There is lots of exciting stuff going on there.

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The graphics card we will test today is based on the immensely popular Radeon HD 4850. Probably the best value card one can buy. These cards at default come with 512 MB gDDR3 memory. Now, I can see a manufacturer double up that memory to 1 GB. The effect would be small but measurable when you would like to game in very high resolutions. Then there is an incremental step to that as well. And that's what we'll test today. PowerColor released a Radeon HD 4850 graphics card with, get this ... 2 GB memory. That certainly brings a smile to my face, as if anything, I like innovation.

But even yours truly is going .. "Hmmm, that's not gonna work, is it?".

You can read the review right here:
http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-hd-4850-2-gb-gddr3-review/

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Samsung America, announced the launch of the new Series 9 LED LCD HDTV. The 2008 flagship Series 9, Samsung's 2nd generation LCD HDTV to use LED SmartLighting technology, offers consumers the powerful combination of LED and 120Hz technologies, resulting in a 1,000,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio for a crisp, full HD 1080p picture.

The Series 9 is also distinguished by Samsung's new addition to the art-inspired ToC (Touch of Color) design

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The folks at Hitachi launched a pair of CinemaStar drives for users of DVRs and any other computer or device that needs to run for long periods of time. The 1TB 7K1000.B relies on the same basic design as its normal DeskStar counterpart but is tuned to run all day and in harsher conditions. The new version is both more resilient against high temperatures as well as modified to run more quietly while it seeks data on the drive. The disk further borrows power optimization tricks from Hitachi's notebook drives to cut down on its energy draw.

The capacity is twice as much as for the previous best CinemaStar and is enough to hold 247 hours of HD video in MPEG-4, Hitachi says, also noting that it can handle as many as ten data streams at once. The 7K1000.B should be ready in August at an unlisted price.

For smaller devices, the company is also launching the 5K320. The slower, 5,400RPM disk holds 320GB and shares much of the same heat and power behavior as its larger-capacity sibling. It appears slightly later and ships in September.

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MSI confirmed that it would raise the official price of its Wind mini notebook by an average of $50. A base model with a three-cell battery pack now costs $499 while a longer-lasting six-cell version costs $549.

The company has had "no choice" but to increase the price as the raw manufacturing costs for the battery and other notebook materials have increased significantly, according to an MSI official. Retailers such as Buy.com are being asked to cancel orders at the original prices to avoid facing sanctions from the PC builder.

The Wind was set to be one of the least expensive mini notebooks available and undercut multiple Eee PCs and similar models despite its 1.6GHz Atom processor, 80GB drive and 10-inch screen, which put it at the top end of the system category. These increases reduce the gap between the Wind and same-size opponents like the $649 Eee PC 1000H and are compounded further by unofficial increases by resellers hoping to expand their own profits. A six-cell Wind now sells for $599 at some retailers.

It's unknown whether the cost increase will spread to other mini notebook designers that may share similar parts.

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Check this mod out. The final version of The Delta Sector modification for FarCry has been released. This mod features three singleplayer missions, a multiplayer mode and has dramatically improved graphics. More info and link to downloads over here.

You are a member of a special forces team. It's your job to check what's happen in eastern europe, because many military forces accumulate in one area. In the later game, you find out that the others examine an old alien space ship from earlier space invaders which is bury in the deep earth.

But something go wrong...

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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

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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:

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Asus has announced a new board for AMD processors utilising the much awaited SB750 southbridge.

The SB750 is somewhat of a white light of hope for overclockers wanting to push AMD Phenom CPU's to the limit. In preliminary tests it appears that the SB750 can enable even original B2 based Phenoms like the 9600 BE to overclock far more readily than has previously been possible while using lower voltages.

This is Asus's first board based on the new chipset, combining the 790FX Northbridge and SB750 Southbridge.

M3A79-T DELUXE

CPU -

AMD AM2+ / AM2 CPU Support

Chipset -

AMD 790FX + SB750

Memory -

DDR2 1066* / 800 / 667 / 533
* DDR2 1066 is supported by AM2+ CPU only

System Bus -

Up to 5200 MT/s HT3 interface

Expansion Slots -

4 * PCIe 2.0 x 16
2 * PCI

Storage -

6 x SATA 3Gb/s ports with RAID 0, 1, 5, and 10 support
1 x Ultra DMA 133 / 100 / 66
1 x eSATA 3Gb/s port (SATA On-the-Go)

LAN -

Gb LAN

Audio -

8-channel HD

Form factor -

ATX, 12
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A new search engine to be known as 'Cuil' was launched over night. The creators have tried to set it apart from your average search engines by claiming they have a largest index of sites available.

Claiming an index of 120 billion websites, which they suggest is three times more than Google currently does.

There are some visual differences, mainly to do with layouts displaying results in columns.

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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.

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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. 
 

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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.

	GeForce 8800 GT	GeForce 9800 GT
Stream (Shader) Processors	112	112
Core Clock (MHz)	600	600
Shader Clock (MHz)	1512	1512
Memory Clock (MHz) x2	900	900
Memory amount	512 MB	512 MB
Memory Interface	256-bit	256-bit
HDCP	Yes	Yes
Two Dual link DVI	Yes	Yes

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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/

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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)

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