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As a gaming enthusiast, you may be constantly seeking ways to enhance your gaming experience or optimize your graphics card’s performance. If so, the Rivatuner Statistics Server could be the game-changer you’ve been looking for. This free tool gives you detailed insights about your graphics card, encompassing framerates, temperatures, and more.

A powerful tool in its own right, the Rivatuner Statistics Server can optimize your graphics settings for peak performance. Regardless of whether you’re a hardcore gamer or simply looking to improve your computer’s overall performance, this software is a must-have addition to your digital toolbox.

What is Rivatuner Statistics Server?

Rivatuner Statistics Server is a utility that allows you to monitor and adjust your computer’s performance in various ways. Its functionality extends to tweaking GPU and overclocking settings, optimizing your PC’s power consumption, and enhancing graphics processing capabilities. Rivatuner Statistics Server, often abbreviated as Rivatuner or RTSS, is a versatile tool for overclocking, hardware monitoring, and fan control. It collects data from your video card and provides detailed information on how different graphics settings impact performance. In essence, Rivatuner Statistics Server empowers you to fine-tune your graphics settings for optimal framerate and quality, without compromising on either aspect. You can even disable specific graphical features if necessary, leading to significant performance boosts.

Learn more about FPS limiter

How Does Rivatuner Statistics Server Work?

Rivatuner Statistics Server works by continuously gathering data from your computer’s graphics processing unit (GPU). This data includes metrics such as temperature, usage, clock speed, and voltage, among other things. It then displays this information in real time, enabling you to monitor the performance and status of your GPU. This information can be invaluable for optimizing your system’s performance, diagnosing issues, or tweaking your GPU’s settings.

To get started using RivaTuner Statistics Server, you should first download and install the program. When you launch it, RTSS will automatically detect your GPU—whether it’s an internal or external card. The default installation directory is usually C:\Program Files (x86)\RivaTuner Statistics Server for 32-bit systems or C:\Program Files\RivaTuner Statistics Server for 64-bit systems.

Once RivaTuner is running, you can select “Settings” from the main menu to customize how you’d like to view information about your graphics card. If you navigate to the “Monitoring” tab, you can control what data is displayed in the monitoring window. Simply check the boxes for the data that you want to be shown.

What Are Rivatuner Statistics Server’s Features?

At its core, RivaTuner is an overclocking tool—a great one at that. But it has evolved into so much more than just another overclocking program.

• Comprehensive hardware monitoring capabilities, extending to over 300 graphics cards.
• An integrated benchmarking tool with support for DirectX 9, 10, and 11 3-D benchmarks.
• Support for multi-GPU configurations.
• Hardware monitoring on all Direct3D devices.
• Customizable resolutions, refresh rates, anti-aliasing levels, texture quality, and detail levels.
• Support for custom profiles that can be shared with other users.
• Automatic thread priority optimization, maintaining high-priority application performance without interrupting other apps or services.
• In-depth performance data presented in graphical format.
• A temperature monitor for all hardware components.
• Direct fan speed control from the app’s interface, eliminating the need for BIOS access.
• Power supply configuration management, including total system power consumption calculations.
• Customizable event logging to monitor system activity when you’re away.
• An overclocking checker to help determine the optimal system clock speed for your hardware.

Some of these features are Windows-only, so you won’t find them on OS X or Linux systems. But for gamers who use Nvidia graphics cards running Windows, this powerful tool is a must-have.

How to Use Rivatuner Statistics Server To Improve Gaming Performance?

RivaTuner Statistics Server (RTSS) can be an excellent tool to enhance your gaming experience. It enables users to fine-tune their hardware, especially the GPU, to optimize performance. Below are some steps you can take:

1. Monitoring Performance

Firstly, RTSS can provide you with real-time data on your GPU and CPU usage. By monitoring this data during gaming, you can identify if your hardware is being pushed to its limits. If you notice that your GPU or CPU usage is consistently at or near 100%, it may be a sign that your hardware is struggling to keep up with the demands of your game. In such a case, you could consider upgrading your hardware or lowering the graphics settings in your game to reduce the load.

2. Overclocking

With the help of associated software like MSI Afterburner, RTSS can be used to safely overclock your GPU, allowing it to run at a higher speed than its default setting. Overclocking can potentially improve game performance by allowing your GPU to process more data. However, remember to monitor your GPU’s temperature to ensure it doesn’t overheat.

3. Frame Rate Limit

RTSS allows you to set a frame rate limit. If your game is running at a much higher frame rate than your monitor’s refresh rate, it could result in screen tearing. By setting a frame rate limit that matches your monitor’s refresh rate, you can eliminate screen tearing and potentially reduce the load on your GPU, which can reduce heat and power usage.

4. On-Screen Display

RTSS allows you to display hardware monitoring statistics in-game, so you can keep an eye on how your hardware is performing without leaving your game. This can help you spot performance problems as they occur.

5. Scanline Sync

Scanline Sync is a feature in RTSS that can help reduce screen tearing by syncing your game’s frame rendering with the refresh rate of your monitor. This can be an alternative solution to V-Sync, which also aims to reduce screen tearing but can sometimes introduce input lag.

How to Download Rivatuner Statistics Server?

In this section, you will find a step-by-step guide to downloading and installing Rivatuner Statistics Server. Click on the download rivatuner button below and it will take you to the next page. Once you’re on the download page, look for the latest version of the program. Make sure that the version you’re downloading is compatible with your system’s architecture (32-bit or 64-bit).

Click on the download link or button to start the download process. Save the file to your preferred location on your computer.

Step 2: Installing the RivaTuner Statistics Server

1. Once the download is complete, navigate to the location where you saved the file.
2. Double-click on the downloaded file to start the installation process.
3. You may be asked to grant permission for the program to make changes to your device. Click on ‘Yes’ to proceed.
4. The setup wizard will open. Follow the instructions on the screen. You’ll be asked to choose a directory for the installation—unless you have a specific reason to change it, it’s usually best to stick with the default.
5. If given the option to install additional components such as bundled software or drivers, ensure you’re only installing what you need. For instance, sometimes RivaTuner Statistics Server is bundled with MSI Afterburner. If you don’t plan on using MSI Afterburner, you might opt not to install it.
6. Once you’ve configured the installation options, proceed with the installation. The process may take a few minutes.
7. After the installation is complete, you might be asked to restart your computer. Save any open files, close your programs, and restart your computer if needed.

Step 3: Running the RivaTuner Statistics Server

1. After your computer restarts, you should be able to find RivaTuner Statistics Server in your list of installed programs.
2. Run the program. You may need to provide administrator permission.
3. Once the program opens, you can configure it according to your needs.

System Requirements for Running RivaTuner Statistics Server?

RivaTuner Statistics Server (RTSS) is a lightweight application that typically has modest system requirements. Here are the general system requirements for running RTSS:

Operating System: Windows XP or later (including Windows 10/11)

CPU: Any modern processor should be sufficient. RTSS does not heavily rely on CPU performance.

RAM: A minimum of 1 GB of RAM is recommended. However, for optimal performance, it is advisable to have at least 2 GB or more.

Graphics Card: RTSS itself does not have specific graphics card requirements as it primarily monitors and manages the graphics card. However, it is often used in conjunction with MSI Afterburner, which is a graphics card overclocking utility. If you plan to use both applications together, ensure that your graphics card is supported by MSI Afterburner.

Storage: RTSS does not require much storage space. The application itself is relatively small in size.

Other Requirements: RTSS relies on DirectX and Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable packages, which are usually already installed on most systems. However, if you encounter any issues, make sure you have the latest versions of these packages installed.

How to Use Rivatuner Statistics Server?

To start using Rivatuner Statistics Server, you need to first download the software from its official website or a trusted software provider. Once downloaded, install the software onto your system.

After installation, follow the steps below:

Start the Software: Open Rivatuner Statistics Server from your list of installed programs or from the desktop shortcut (if created during installation).

Monitor: You can monitor your GPU’s performance, temperature, and other parameters directly from the Rivatuner Statistics Server interface. The tool provides real-time data, making it easier for you to gauge how your system responds to different games or applications.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Rivatuner Statistics Server?

Rivatuner Statistics Server is a program that acts as a middleman between a video game and the driver to provide precise in-game framerate information, measured in frames per second (fps). It can also be used for framerate monitoring by specifying a constant frame time.

My FPS fluctuates a lot, is there any way to lock it?

RivaTuner Statistics Server (RTSS) provides a feature that allows you to lock or limit your frames per second (FPS) to a specific value. This can help stabilize your FPS and prevent it from fluctuating too much.

To lock your FPS using RTSS, you can follow these steps:

• Open RTSS and go to the “Framerate limit” settings.
• Enable the framerate limit option.
• Enter the desired FPS value in the designated field. For example, if you want to lock it at 60 FPS, enter “60” in the field.
• Apply the settings.

Once you’ve set the FPS limit, RTSS will ensure that your game or application does not exceed that specified FPS value. This can be particularly useful if you experience fluctuations in FPS that may cause stuttering or uneven performance.

Keep in mind that locking your FPS may result in a more consistent but potentially lower overall FPS, depending on the value you set. It’s important to find a balance between performance and visual smoothness based on your system capabilities and personal preferences.

Why should I use RivaTuner Statistics Server?

RTSS is the most widely used fps monitoring software to date. With its many features, it’s a great tool for anyone who needs precise in-game fps information and framerate monitoring with very little overhead (memory and performance).

How should I configure RivaTuner Statistics Server?

There are two ways to configure RTSS, the first is by using the .ini configuration file that’s generated when you first run Rivatuner Statistics Server (.\Rivatuner Statistics Server\Profiles\RTSS_profile.XML) and the second is by adjusting the settings inside RTSS UI.

How do I uninstall Rivatuner Statistics Server?

To uninstall Rivatuner Statistics Server, simply open Control Panel and choose Programs and Features (for Windows 10/8/7) or Add/Remove Programs for earlier versions of the Windows operating system. Then right-click on RivaTuner Statistics Server in the list and choose Uninstall.

What is the difference between RivaTuner Statistics Server and MSI Afterburner?

RTSS and MSI Afterburner have a lot in common. The main difference is that MSI Afterburner offers additional overclocking features, while RTSS focuses on benchmarking features only. It’s important to understand that overclocking your GPU will not impact fps and framerate.

How do I automatically start RivaTuner Statistics Server with Windows?

You can create a shortcut to “C:\Program Files\RivaTuner Statistics Server\RTSSHost.exe” in your Windows startup folder and you will always have RTSS start with your computer booting up.

How do I use RivaTuner Statistics Server with games not listed in the dropdown?

If the game you want to use with RivaTuner Statistics Server (RTSS) is not listed in the dropdown menu, you can manually add it to the application’s profile. Here’s how you can do it:

• Open RTSS by double-clicking its icon in the system tray (near the clock).
• In the RTSS main window, click on the “Add” button or navigate to the “Profiles” tab and click on the “Add” button there.
• A file explorer window will appear. Browse to the location where the game’s executable file (usually ending in .exe) is located. Select the executable file and click “Open” or “OK” to add it to RTSS.
• Once the game is added, you can configure various settings for it, such as the OSD (On-Screen Display) statistics, framerate limit, and more. Customize these settings according to your preferences.
• Save the profile and exit RTSS.

After adding the game to RTSS and configuring the desired settings, the application should now work with the game even if it wasn’t initially listed in the dropdown menu.

When you launch the game, RTSS should automatically detect it and apply the configured settings. The OSD statistics, framerate limit, and any other settings you specified should now be active during gameplay. Manually adding games to RTSS allows you to use the application with any game or application on your system, regardless of whether it is included in the default list or not.

How do I use an online account to access my statistics?

To set up an online account and be able to access your statistics from anywhere, go into the RivaTuner Statistics Server program folder (C:\Program Files\RivaTuner Statistics Server) and open up RTSSHost.exe with Notepad and look for “OnlineKey=”. Then insert your online account key in the quotes. For example, this is what an OnlineKey would look like: “

OnlineKey=”””xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxx””’

What is the purpose of custom color when recording?

It allows the recording of video with transparent background. By default, RTSS records with a white background which you can see in some videos on YouTube, but it does not look very nice when trying to add a watermark. I suggest using 50% transparency for this; It will make your video cleaner without being too distracting.

Where can I download Rivatuner Statistics Server?

You always should download it from Guru3D. com

Gaming computers are now more powerful than ever and can provide gamers with a great experience. However, there is one thing that can spoil the gaming experience – fps lag. This can be caused by a number of things, but one way to limit fps is to use Rivatuner. Generally, higher fps means smoother animation. It is important to limit your fps when you are playing games to avoid any lagging issues.

RivaTuner is a popular tweaking software for Nvidia and AMD video card owners. FPS limiter is one of the features that allow you to limit your frames per second (FPS) in games. This can help eliminate screen tearing and stuttering, as well as save battery life on laptops.

Please, feel free to contact us. Please do file a form or send requests for help if you are experiencing problems with your computer hardware. For that please post your questions in our discussion forums.

 

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Hilbert Hagedoorn

Editor, owner & PC hardware aficionado -- Guru3D.com

Guru3D - Driver Sweeper

Guru3D - Driver Sweeper is a fast tool to remove driver leftovers from your system. It's very important to remove your drivers on a proper way, because driver leftovers can cause problems like stability and startup problems. You can use it if you want to update/remove drivers from your system.

How to use ?

There are two methods to use Driver Sweeper.
Both methods achieve the same results. This method is always able to clean all files.

This method will delete remaining files upon reboot (if deleting failed).  You can clean your drivers this way:

• Use the official uninstaller(s) of the driver(s) you want to uninstall.
• Reboot your PC in Safe Mode.
• Run Driver Sweeper and select what to clean.
• Analyse lists all the entries possible to remove, cleaning removes the entries selected.
• More drivers can be selected for the same cleaning process.

What can it be used for ?
The current supported drivers are NVIDIA (Display and Chipset), ATI (Display), Creative (Sound) Realtek (Sound), Ageia (PhysX) and Microsoft (Mouse).

All the settings are saved in an ini file. Nothing is created in the registry, so it's possible to use it as a portable program. Log files can be saved to the harddisk and viewed as well. You can find the logs under the Tools menu.

Driver Sweeper has been replaced with Display Driver Uninstaller. Download here.

The AMD/NVIDIA video drivers can normally be uninstalled from the Windows Control panel, this driver uninstaller program was designed to be used in cases where the standard driver uninstall fails, or anyway when you need to thoroughly delete NVIDIA and ATI video card drivers. This software is backed by Guru3D.com 
The current effect after you use this driver removal tool will be similar as if its the first time you install a new driver just like a fresh, clean install of Windows. As with any tool of this kind, we recommend creating a new system restore point before using it, so that you can revert your system at any time if you run into problems.

If you have problem installing older driver or newer one, give it a try as there are some reports that it fix thoses problems.

We have an extensive  AMD support thread over here and an  NVIDIA over here.

Recommended usage

• The tool can be used in Normal mode but for absolute stability when using DDU, Safemode is always the best.
• I would like to gather feedback from you guys. Tell me if it was success or not. 
• Make a backup or a system restore (but it should normally be pretty safe).
• For people with driver problem, if this tool gave you any success into fixing some issues your are currently experiencing, please share your result.

Keep note that NVIDIA/AMD did not have anything to do with this, I do not work at or for NVIDIA/AMD and they should not be held responsible for anything that may go wrong with this application.

NOTE: .NET framework 3.5 Required - Windows XP up to 8.1 is supported X86/X64 (not sure for WinXP x64)

Driver Sweeper has been replaced with Display Driver Uninstaller.  Download here.

Folding@Home is a project where you can have your CPU help out solving diseases by folding proteins. Guru3D team is ranking in the Folding@Home top 70, yes... I'm very proud of our guys crunching these numbers, especially since there more than 185000 teams in the world! Our team number is 69411 and if you decide to purchase an AMD/Intel product, guys, promise me you'll use it to fold for us. By making this move my dear friends, you can help fight the biggest mysteries in diseases and illnesses. Again, let's make Team Guru3D the biggest one available guys, join our team.

Available Clients are:  

Use SMP2 BETA Client if: {normal for Windows; Linux 64-bit; OSX; Details} [AMD & Intel]
1) You have a powerful system
2) Know your way around with F@H cores
3) System is on 24/7
4) Would like to contribute significantly to F@H in terms of scientific value and get the advantage of high points
Note:As this Client is in BETA Stage, expect some rough edges.

  Use SMP2 BETA Client if: {bigadv for Windows; OSX; Linux 64-bit (Suspended); Details} [AMD & Intel]
1) You have an extremely powerful system
2) 100% familiar with F@H cores
3) System is folding 24/7
4) Would like to contribute the most to F@H in terms of scientific value plus get the advantage of massive points
Note: As this Client is in BETA Stage, expect some rough edges.   Guru3D's F@H Homepage: <Click>

Detailed FAQs: <Click>
Quick-Start Guide: <Click>
Guru3D's F@H Forum: <Click>
FaHWiki: <Click>

Team guru3d has number 69411

We have our own Folding@Home Team which is currently in the Top 50 Teams in the World. Considering that there are more than 185000 teams in the world, that is quite an achievement! Bravo Guru Folders!

What is Folding@Home?

Folding@Home is a distributed computing project that is managed by Standford University. Their aim is to study protein folding, misfolding (when proteins do not fold correctly), aggregation, and related diseases. This will help scientists understand many well known diseases, such as Alzheimer's, Mad Cow (BSE), CJD, ALS, and Parkinson's disease (Details can be found here). Stanford uses novel computational methods and large scale distributed computing, to simulate timescales thousands to millions of times longer than previously achieved. This has allowed us to simulate folding for the first time, and to now direct Stanford's approach to examine folding related disease.

Two hints:

• Want to join in ? Team Guru3D has number 69411
• Seek help ? Here is our Guru3D F@H support  Forum

What will your computer be computing (aka folding)?

Basically you donate CPU and/or GPU cycles to the cause by running an appropriate F@H client, which you  can configured to Team Guru3D # 69411. Stanford's algorithms are designed such that for every computer that joins the project, Stanford gets a commensurate increase in simulation speed. Below is the list of available F@H Clients that you can run on your system: (Remember that putting your PC at work means that it'll consume power. Please always bare this in mind)

Use Classic Client if: {Windows; Linux 32-bit;} [AMD & Intel]
1) System isn't running 24/7
2) You want a set-and-forget client that doesn't need any monitoring
3) You would like to contribute with the least amount of effort
4) Points aren't your priority
5) You want F@H to remain unobtrusive
Note: If you have a powerful system but runs for <15 hours, you can install multiple Classic Clients (one per CPU)

Use GPU2 Client if: {Windows} [ATI & Nvidia]
1) You have a discrete GPU (Fermi GPUs aren't supported)
2) System is on for 15+ hours
3) Would like to get some more points with some effort
Note: If you fold with an ATI GPU, please use Environment Variables to make folding more efficient.

Use GPU3 BETA Client if: {Windows; Linux (Unofficially); Details} [Nvidia]
1) You have a discrete GPU
2) System is on for 10+ hours
3) Would like to get some more points with some effort
Note: As this Client is in BETA Stage, expect some rough edges.

Use SMP2 BETA Client if: {normal for Windows; Linux 64-bit; OSX; Details} [AMD & Intel]
1) You have a powerful system
2) Know your way around with F@H cores
3) System is on 24/7
4) Would like to contribute significantly to F@H in terms of scientific value and get the advantage of high points
Note: As this Client is in BETA Stage, expect some rough edges.

Use SMP2 BETA Client if: {bigadv for Windows; OSX; Linux 64-bit (Suspended); Details} [AMD & Intel]
1) You have an extremely powerful system
2) 100% familiar with F@H cores
3) System is folding 24/7
4) Would like to contribute the most to F@H in terms of scientific value plus get the advantage of massive points
Note: As this Client is in BETA Stage, expect some rough edges.

Please remember that there are no hard and fast rules for which F@H Clients you can or can't use. Installation Guides for all the above F@H Clients can be found here . Feel free to experiment with them as long as your system supports it and you can return the WU before the Preferred Deadline. Below is the relationship between the WU assigned to you and its deadlines:

Classic Client WUs:
Before Preferred Deadline - You will get assigned Credit
Exceed Preferred Deadline - WU will be reissued. You will get assigned Credit
Exceed Final Deadline - WU is useless. You won't get any Credit

GPU2 Client WUs:
Before Preferred Deadline - You will get assigned Credit
Exceed Preferred Deadline - WU will be reissued. You will get assigned Credit
Exceed Final Deadline - WU is useless. You won't get any Credit

GPU3 BETA Client WUs:
Before Preferred Deadline - You will get assigned Credit
Exceed Preferred Deadline - WU will be reissued. You will get assigned Credit
Exceed Final Deadline - WU is useless. You won't get any Credit

SMP2 BETA Client WUs: (normal and bigadv)
Before Preferred Deadline - You will get Bonus Credit (The Bonus varies from system to system and increases for faster completion and return)
Exceed Preferred Deadline - WU will be reissued. You will get Base Credit (It is much less when compared to Bonus Credits)
Exceed Final Deadline - WU is useless. You won't get any Credit

For monitoringF@H Clients, you may use HFM.NET as it supports a lot of new features and is actively being developed.

Introduction To F@H Jargon

While browsing this our Guru3D F@H Forum or the Official Forum, you may come across some unusual acronyms which are commonly used by F@H donors. Below is a list of commonly used acronyms:

WU - "Work Unit" It is a small time-slice of Protein processing that is downloaded by your F@H Client from the appropriate Server. Your system will process it and once it finishes folding, it will upload the result to the Server and will request for another WU.
Note: The duration to process this WU will vary from an hour to few days depending on the type of WU, F@H Client, system usage and several other factors.

PRCG - "Project Run Clone Gen" It is used to identify a WU that is assigned to you. A simple explanation and a detailed one can be read for further explanation.
Note: For a given Project number (and Protein Name) there are several Run/Clone/Gen's so don't be alarmed if you seem to be processing the same protein again. The Pande Group doesn't assign duplicate WUs on purpose to keep donors busy.

PPD - "Points Per Day" It is calculated by third party applications so please visit this tools list and install an appropriate one.
Note: PPD will vary from WU to WU (even if they belong to the same Project) and will be effected by system usage and other factors.

TPF - "Time Per Frame" Each WU has 100 frames and it is the time taken to finish 1 frame.
Note: This is calculated using third party applications.

A list of further abbreviation is available here.

Now that you have a basic understanding of what Folding@Home does, please be a true Guru and join the cause! We thank you for your help and support.

Detailed FAQs: <Click>
Quick-Start Guide: <Click>
Guru3D's F@H Forum: <Click>
Official F@H Forum: <Click>
Official F@H Homepage: <Click>
FaHWiki: <Click>
Official Stats: <Click> 
Extreme Overclocking Stats: <Click>

Team guru3d has number 69411

We have our own Folding@Home Team which is currently in the Top 70 Teams in the World. Considering that there are more than 185000 teams in the world, that is quite an achievement! Bravo Guru Folders!

What is Folding@Home?

Folding@Home is a distributed computing project that is managed by Standford University. Their aim is to study protein folding, misfolding (when proteins do not fold correctly), aggregation, and related diseases. This will help scientists understand many well known diseases, such as Alzheimer's, Mad Cow (BSE), CJD, ALS, and Parkinson's disease (Details can be found here). Stanford uses novel computational methods and large scale distributed computing, to simulate timescales thousands to millions of times longer than previously achieved. This has allowed us to simulate folding for the first time, and to now direct Stanford's approach to examine folding related disease.

Two hints:

• Want to join in ? Team Guru3D has number 69411
• Seek help ? Here is our Guru3D F@H support  Forum

What will your computer be computing (aka folding)?

Basically you donate CPU and/or GPU cycles to the cause by running an appropriate F@H client, which you  can configured to Team Guru3D # 69411. Stanford's algorithms are designed such that for every computer that joins the project, Stanford gets a commensurate increase in simulation speed. Below is the list of available F@H Clients that you can run on your system: (Remember that putting your PC at work means that it'll consume power. Please always bare this in mind)

Use Classic Client if: {Windows; Linux 32-bit;} [AMD & Intel]
1) System isn't running 24/7
2) You want a set-and-forget client that doesn't need any monitoring
3) You would like to contribute with the least amount of effort
4) Points aren't your priority
5) You want F@H to remain unobtrusive
Note: If you have a powerful system but runs for <15 hours, you can install multiple Classic Clients (one per CPU)

Use GPU2 Client if: {Windows} [ATI & Nvidia]
1) You have a discrete GPU (Fermi GPUs aren't supported)
2) System is on for 15+ hours
3) Would like to get some more points with some effort
Note: If you fold with an ATI GPU, please use Environment Variables to make folding more efficient.

Use GPU3 BETA Client if: {Windows; Linux (Unofficially); Details} [Nvidia]
1) You have a discrete GPU
2) System is on for 10+ hours
3) Would like to get some more points with some effort
Note: As this Client is in BETA Stage, expect some rough edges.

Use SMP2 BETA Client if: {normal for Windows; Linux 64-bit; OSX; Details} [AMD & Intel]
1) You have a powerful system
2) Know your way around with F@H cores
3) System is on 24/7
4) Would like to contribute significantly to F@H in terms of scientific value and get the advantage of high points
Note: As this Client is in BETA Stage, expect some rough edges.

Use SMP2 BETA Client if: {bigadv for Windows; OSX; Linux 64-bit (Suspended); Details} [AMD & Intel]
1) You have an extremely powerful system
2) 100% familiar with F@H cores
3) System is folding 24/7
4) Would like to contribute the most to F@H in terms of scientific value plus get the advantage of massive points
Note: As this Client is in BETA Stage, expect some rough edges.

Please remember that there are no hard and fast rules for which F@H Clients you can or can't use. Installation Guides for all the above F@H Clients can be found here . Feel free to experiment with them as long as your system supports it and you can return the WU before the Preferred Deadline. Below is the relationship between the WU assigned to you and its deadlines:

Classic Client WUs:
Before Preferred Deadline - You will get assigned Credit
Exceed Preferred Deadline - WU will be reissued. You will get assigned Credit
Exceed Final Deadline - WU is useless. You won't get any Credit

GPU2 Client WUs:
Before Preferred Deadline - You will get assigned Credit
Exceed Preferred Deadline - WU will be reissued. You will get assigned Credit
Exceed Final Deadline - WU is useless. You won't get any Credit

GPU3 BETA Client WUs:
Before Preferred Deadline - You will get assigned Credit
Exceed Preferred Deadline - WU will be reissued. You will get assigned Credit
Exceed Final Deadline - WU is useless. You won't get any Credit

SMP2 BETA Client WUs: (normal and bigadv)
Before Preferred Deadline - You will get Bonus Credit (The Bonus varies from system to system and increases for faster completion and return)
Exceed Preferred Deadline - WU will be reissued. You will get Base Credit (It is much less when compared to Bonus Credits)
Exceed Final Deadline - WU is useless. You won't get any Credit

For monitoringF@H Clients, you may use HFM.NET as it supports a lot of new features and is actively being developed.

Introduction To F@H Jargon

While browsing this our Guru3D F@H Forum or the Official Forum, you may come across some unusual acronyms which are commonly used by F@H donors. Below is a list of commonly used acronyms:

WU - "Work Unit" It is a small time-slice of Protein processing that is downloaded by your F@H Client from the appropriate Server. Your system will process it and once it finishes folding, it will upload the result to the Server and will request for another WU.
Note: The duration to process this WU will vary from an hour to few days depending on the type of WU, F@H Client, system usage and several other factors.

PRCG - "Project Run Clone Gen" It is used to identify a WU that is assigned to you. A simple explanation and a detailed one can be read for further explanation.
Note: For a given Project number (and Protein Name) there are several Run/Clone/Gen's so don't be alarmed if you seem to be processing the same protein again. The Pande Group doesn't assign duplicate WUs on purpose to keep donors busy.

PPD - "Points Per Day" It is calculated by third party applications so please visit this tools list and install an appropriate one.
Note: PPD will vary from WU to WU (even if they belong to the same Project) and will be effected by system usage and other factors.

TPF - "Time Per Frame" Each WU has 100 frames and it is the time taken to finish 1 frame.
Note: This is calculated using third party applications.

A list of further abbreviation is available here.

Now that you have a basic understanding of what Folding@Home does, please be a true Guru and join the cause! We thank you for your help and support.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. - Shadow of Chernobyl

Shortly after another disaster in Chernobyl, the authorities surround the area with the Russian equivalent of the U.S. National Guard, and they begin to hear weird screams and rumblings coming from within. After a while though, most of them are returned to earlier posts. Curiosity gets the better of some people, so they sneak into the 30-kilometer area to do some good old-fashioned investigating. These people are called Stalkers, and they report back to the authorities with their findings.

The 3D engine shines in a few key areas, all crucial in shaping the game's atmosphere. It's got a huge draw distance, which leads to the palpable feeling that this is a big world. Lighting and shadowing are its other big strengths. For this benchmark we have the in-game settings at maximum.

Image Quality setting:

• In-game Software Anti Aliasing enabled
• 16x anisotropic filtering
• Dynamic lighting enabled

For the second set we have Dynamic Lighting enabled as today's VGA cards will allow this lovely feature.

Enemy Territory - QUAKE Wars

The latest offering from Id, Activision and Splash Damage, Enemy Territory: Quake Wars is set in the Quake universe. Here are a few basic facts: It will involve humans fighting aliens. As the invasion begins, players choose to battle as one of five unique classes in either the EDF (Earth Defense Force - humans) or the barbaric alien Strogg armies, each augmented with specialist weapons and combat hardware. The game features John Carmack's "Megatexture" technology that employs extremely large environment and terrain textures that cover vast areas of maps without the need to repeat and tile many small textures.

The splendor that is called megatexture technology is that each unit only takes up a maximum of 8MB of frame buffer memory. Add to that HDR-like bloom lighting and leading edge shadowing effects. Enemy Territory: Quake Wars looks great, plays nice and works high end graphics cards robustly. We test the game with all of its in-game options set to their maximum values with one exclusion, soft particles are disabled as the Radeon HD series does not support this feature; obviously we measure at 4X anti-aliasing and 16x anisotropic filtering.

Benchmarking is however a little more complex with this game and therefore we first had to record a proper and objective timedemo. Secondly I had to program a script that would execute and collect the final data. In the future more and more results with diverse cards will be added.

Image Quality setting:

• 4x Anti Aliasing
• 16x anisotropic filtering
• Soft Particles disabled (as it's not supported by the Radeon HD cards).

 We just started using this software for benchmarking; in time more and more graphics card results  of course will be added.

Quake Wars is no longer updated as we removed it from our test suite. Soon more new titles will be added to the charts. 

Navigation (click on link below)

VGA charts main page:

• VGA Charts - Homepage

 VGA charts:

• VGA Charts - 3DMark06 - 3DMark Vantage & Fear
• VGA Charts - Crysis
• VGA Charts - Call of Duty 4
• VGA Charts - Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 2 & Frontlines: Fuel of War
• VGA Charts - S.T.A.L.K.E.R. & Quake Wars
• VGA Charts - F.e.a.r. 

F.E.A.R (First Encounter Assault & Recon)

As many of you will be aware, F.E.A.R (or First Encounter Assault & Recon in short) involves a rather mysterious looking girl in a red dress, a man with an unappetizing taste for human flesh and some rather flashy action set pieces aka The Matrix. All of this is brought together by one of the best game engines around.

F.E.A.R. makes its cinematic pretensions clear from the start. As soon as the credits roll, and the music starts, you are treated to the full works. The camera pans across scores of troops locked 'n' loaded and ready to hunt you down, all seemingly linked to 'Paxton Fettel', a strange kind of guy with extraordinary psychic power capable of controlling battalions of soldiers and a habit of feeding off any poor unfortunate innocents - presumably to aid his powers of concentration. It doesnât end there, after a short briefing at F.E.A.R. HQ you are sent off to hunt down Fettel equipped with reflexes that are 'off the chart'. These reflexes are put to excellent use, with a slow motion effects like that of Max Payne, or the before mentioned Matrix. But here, it is oooohhhh so much more satisfying thanks to the outstanding environmental effects. Sparks fly everywhere, as chunks of masonry are blasted from the walls and blood splatters from your latest victim. The physics are just great, with boxes sent flying, shelves tipped over, and objects hurtling towards your head. And the explosions, well, the explosions just have to be seen, and what's so great about this is you can witness it in all its glory in slow motion.

Let me confirm to you that based on this, F.E.A.R. will have you shaking on the edge of your seat, if not falling off it. The tension is brought to just the right level with key moments that will make your heart leap. Play the demo and you will see what I mean. The key to this, is the girl. Without revealing anything significant, lets just say that she could take on the whole of Mars for creepiness.

Image Quality setting:

• 4x Anti Aliasing
• 16x anisotropic filtering
• Soft Shadows Disabled

F.E.A.R. has a built in test which we used to measure performance, you should try it yourself, it's actually really fun to look and compare with our results. Yet F.E.A.R. after all this time still is a tough title for the graphics cards; especially when you configure it to maximum image quality. This game is heavily pixel shaded and shows some dark and creepy effects. Again 4xAA and 16xAF where applied here.

Navigation (click on link below)

VGA charts main page:

• VGA Charts - Homepage

 VGA charts:

• VGA Charts - 3DMark06 - 3DMark Vantage & Fear
• VGA Charts - Crysis
• VGA Charts - Call of Duty 4
• VGA Charts - Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 2 & Frontlines: Fuel of War
• VGA Charts - S.T.A.L.K.E.R. & Quake Wars
• VGA Charts - F.e.a.r. 

Call of Duty 4

Activision recently released Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, the next installment in the popular war game series. Moving away from the World War II setting, Modern Warfare instead centers around a conflict involving Russia and the Middle East. And hey, you even get to die ... and then continue the game in the past. Let's have a look and suit up in our best cloaking gear for COD4. For this benchmark we use disguise ourselves in the Ghillie suit, load up ACT II - All Ghillied up.

This particular "All Ghillied up" level I liked the most. Not just for gameplay, but also the intense and dense graphics utilized are breathtaking. Massive high-quality texturing, shaders and a serious amount of shadows, fog and debris are applied in this level to mask and hide as best as you can.

Image Quality setting:

• 4x Anti Aliasing
• 16x anisotropic filtering
• All settings maxed out

Navigation (click on link below)

VGA charts main page:

• VGA Charts - Homepage

 VGA charts:

• VGA Charts - 3DMark06 - 3DMark Vantage & Fear
• VGA Charts - Crysis
• VGA Charts - Call of Duty 4
• VGA Charts - Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 2 & Frontlines: Fuel of War
• VGA Charts - S.T.A.L.K.E.R. & Quake Wars
• VGA Charts - F.e.a.r. 

PC Buyerâs Guide â High End
The budget for this gaming PC is $2000 US. This is a guide to putting together a complete computer, which means speakers, keyboard, mouse and monitor are included.  

This is a guide to putting together a complete computer, which means speakers, keyboard, mouse and monitor are included. For this guide I have tried to put together the computer that will give you the most reliable PC and the best overall gaming experience, AS IS. That means I am assuming that you will not be overclocking the system (since most people do not!). So please, no flames concerning âthis [name of part here] is a better overclocker than [name of part I recommended]!â 

 

 

Processor â AMD Athlon 64 3200+

Capable of running both 32 bit and 64 bit software, possessing an on-chip memory controller and 1 MB of L2 cache gives the Athlon 64 a huge boost in performance over the previous generation of AMD CPU's.

 

Now why do I choose this over the similarly priced 3.2 GHz Pentium 4? Not only does the Athlon 64 hold its ground against the Pentium 4 in most benchmarks, it wins most of the gaming benchmarks, important when youâre trying to put together a gaming PC. Also thereâs something to say to future proofing your PC. Rest assured that as software developers begin to develop 64 bit software or modify their existing software to take advantage of the Athlon 64âs capabilities, you will see a nice boost to your PCâs performance. 

 

FYI the Athlon 64 3400+ should be making its debut shortly, so if youâre patient you can pick up the faster model, or pick up the 3200+ when it drops in price.

 

For those of you who don't want to take a risk on the brand new processor from AMD, then the Pentium 4 3.2 GHz 800 MHz FSB will be your choice, it is currently the fastest CPU speed offering from Intel and can be found for the same price as the AMD Athlon 64 3200+.

 

 

 

Heatsink and Fan â Thermaltake Venus 7+

Thanks to the integrated heat spreader and lower core voltage of the new Athlon 64, these CPUs do not need quite as elaborate a heatsink that the Athlon XP needed to stay cool. Still a solid copper cooler like this guarantees the Athlon 64 will stay exceptionally cool. If you chose the Pentium 4 processor then the stock heatsink/fan included in the retail CPU bundle will easily suffice. 

 

Motherboard â VIA K8T800 Based

The two main chipsets for the Athlon 64 motherboards right now are the nForce3 150 and VIA K8T800, however the VIA chipset seems to have the performance edge right now. Keep an eye out though, there will be more chipsets on the way from Ali, SiS and NVIDIA (the nForce3 250). My recommendation is either the Asus K8V Deluxe or the MSI K8T Neo-FIS2R. Both offer all the goodies you would expect with from a high end motherboard such as Serial ATA RAID and Gigabit onboard LAN.

 

If you choose the Pentium 4 as your CPU of choice then you will want to choose an i875 "Canterwood" based motherboard.

 

Hard Drive â 36.7 GB Western Digital Raptor

This drive is fast, thanks to the 8 MB cache, the Serial ATA interface and the 10000 RPM speed! Made to compete with SCSI hard drives, it will do much towards cutting down your load times in games. It also comes with a 5 year warranty! For those of you craving a little more storage space, buy a couple of these drives and set them up in RAID 0. Or if you have a bit extra money there is a new 74 GB Raptor model now on sale which Western Digital boasts that it will be 30% faster than the previous model.

 

Memory â 1 GB Corsair XMS TWINX1024-3200C2PT DDR

Corsair has a reputation for producing high quality, overclockable memory modules. Their XMS series boasts lower memory timings to allow for increased memory bandwidth. The TWINX series is designed to take advantage of motherboards with dual channel memory controllers, so if you chose a Pentium 4 and i875 motherboard, this will be a plus. This RAM also sports some stylish aluminum heatspreaders. If you plan to overclock consider purchasing the faster PC3500, PC3700, or PC4000 modules. If you plan to overclock consider purchasing the faster PC3500, PC3700, or PC4000 modules. Just be sure to make sure it still uses the tighter memory timings (Cas 2-3-3-6 T1) and doesn't require higher default voltages (some high-speed DDR modules have required default voltages of up to 2.9v, well above the normal 2.5 and which cannot be supported by some motherboards).   

 

Video Card â ATI Radeon 9800 XT or NVIDIA GeForce FX 5950 Ultra 

The current flagship cards from ATI and NVIDIA run neck and neck in the benchmarks. The Radeon 9800 XT comes with a coupon good for Half-Life 2, but the GeForce FX is slightly less expensive. Either way you choose, the ATI Radeon 9800 XT or the GeForce FX 5950 Ultra will offer you top-notch performance in games today. So if you're an ATI fan, go with the Radeon, while you NVIDIA fans go with the GeForce. And have fun!

 

If you want to save some money then look no further than the Radeon 9800 Pro. Thanks to the release of the Radeon 9800 XT, the prices on the previous ATI flagship card is dipping. The 9800 Pro is nearly as fast as the 9800 XT; offering you the superior 3D performance and image quality youâve come to expect in a high end card, while costing significantly less (about $150 US).

Check out Guru3D related reviews:

ATI Radeon 9800 XT

GeForce FX 5950

HIS Excalibur IceQ9800 Pro

Gigabyte Radeon 9800 Pro

Hercules 3D Prophet Radeon 9800 Pro

ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 

Sound Card â Creative Labs Audigy 2 ZS

For the discerning audiophile, there is only one sound card. And that is the Audigy 2. This newer version features support for the new EAX 4.0 Advanced HD and Dolby Digital 7.1 sound.

 

If you want a non-Creative Labs alternative, consider the M-Audio Revolution 7.1 or AudioTrak Prodigy 7.1. Both use the VIA Envy24HT audio processor, offering Dolby Digital 7.1 sound, 24-bit/192kHz audio playback and 24-bit/96kHz recording; the same capabilities as the Audigy 2 ZS.

Check out Guru3D related reviews:

Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Ex

Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Platinum

AudioTrak Prodigy 7.1

M-Audio Revolution 7.1 

DVD-RW Drive â Enlight DVD -/+ RW EN-5601529 

There are a number of reasons why I recommend this DVD burner. It comes with an increased 8 MB cache (a normal drive only has a 2 MB cache) for improved DVD burning performance. This drive can also burn in a wide variety of formats: 4x DVD +/- R; 2.4x DVD+R and 2x DVD-RW writing. It burns normal CD-Rs at 24x and CD-RWs at 10x. It also happens to be one of the cheaper DVD burners on the market. 

 

CD-RW/DVD Drive - Samsung 52x24x52x16x SM-352BRNS 

That DVD burner is a little slow on burning normal CD's so do yourself a favor and get this nice combo drive. I chose the Samsung model not only because it supports the fastest burning speeds, but it is one of the few combo drives that comes with an increased 8 MB buffer (a normal drive only has 2 MB) that allows for improved burning performance. And you can still watch your DVDs with this drive. 

 

Network â Onboard Gigabit NIC

No need to buy a separate network card, either of the motherboards I recommended come with the fastest NIC available onboard. For those of you wondering where the modem is, let me say this: gamers donât use modems! Get broadband.

 

Case and Power Supply

Okay Iâm going leave this one open to your decision. Find a case you think suites you. The most important thing is to make sure it has a reliable power supply though, or purchase a case without a power supply and purchase a power supply seperately. For a high end machine I recommend getting at least a 400 Watt power supply and I recommend the following brands: Antec, Enermax or Thermaltake.

 

My personal recommendation: the Antec Sonata. A stylish black case, it comes with a pair of 120mm case fans (for excellent airflow while maintaining a quiet PC) and it comes with a rock solid power supply: the Antec TruePower 380 Watt power supply. All this for under $100 US. 

 

Monitor â 19â CRT or 21" CRT 

While an LCD monitor may be nice and definitely save on desktop space, it is rather pricey. If you like you can try to find an inexpensive 17" LCD or 18" LCD screen, just be sure to check out the response time (you'll want it to be lower than 30ms to avoid "ghosting in games). However, I recommend a CRT, you could buy 2 19" CRTs can for the price of a 17" LCD. For CRT you should be looking for a flat screen, a low dot pitch (0.20 is considered quite good) and support for higher resolutions and refresh rates. 

 

My personal recommendation: the Samsung SyncMaster 955DF-T/T. A sleek black and silver monitor featuring an extremely good .20 dot pitch, a flat screen and supports resolutions up to 1600x1200 @ 68 Hz. All this makes this low-cost monitor an excellent choice for this gaming PC. 

 

 

Speakers â Logitech Z-5300 THX 5.1

Regardless of what choice you made for your sound, you will want a good set of speakers. The quality of sound can really add to the gaming experience so donât sell yourself short on the speakers. You want to hear when someone is sneaking up from behind you in multiplayer, enjoy the theater experience watching DVDâs and enjoy the best quality sound when listening to your CDs and MP3s. Also there is no point of buying an expensive sound card if you donât have the speakers to take advantage of it. For a good and comparitively inexpensive THX certified speaker setup, look no further than the Logitech Z-5300 THX certified 5.1 speakers.

 

Got some extra money to burn? Want a REALLY nice pair of speakers?! Then consider investing in the Logitech Z680 or Klipsch Promedia Ultra 5.1 speakers. Both offer an earth-shaking 500 Watts of THX goodness, although between the two I would stick with the Logitech speakers as they will run you about $100 US less.

 

Keyboard and Mouse - Logitech Cordless MX Duo

This combo features the Logitech Cordless Elite Keyboard and the Logitech MX700 Mouse. Cordless is the way to go if you want to eliminate the clutter on your desktop. The MX700 is the finest cordless mouse on the market, featuring rechargeable batteries (charged via a docking station) and higher precision than any other mouse.

 

Check out Guru3D related reviews:

Logitech Cordless MX Duo

 

Hello there ..

From the staff of Guru3D.com merry Christmas to you and yours .. thanks for all the great support in 2003. And we wish you a fantastic 2004 ! We surely did have a fantastic year and of course we hope you did also.

Don't eat and drink too much ;)

Hilbert Hagedoorn, chief editor

               

The Definitive Multi-GPU World Tour is a collaboration between nine respected sites around the world to cover the entire ecosystem of products that make up the multi-GPU marketplace.  In this comprehensive series of articles we cover the basics of implementing a multi-GPU setup and the technology behind it, what products we feel represent the best performance and feature-set for each price point, and how each setup performs using 60+ applications and benchmarks.  Throughout this series we will receive an in-depth look at the strengths and weaknesses of the products covered here, as well as what might be right for users in multiple price ranges. His article in a couple of days will be followed by Tim Smalley of Bit-Tech will be covering the GPUâs utilized throughout these articles.  He will explain the reasons we chose what we did, as well as what advantages and disadvantages each choice has. Bjorn Endre of Bjorn3D is testing the motherboards and processors.  He will not only cover performance, but the feature-sets offered between the different price points, as well as the competitors from the CrossFire and SLI series. Jon Fabricious Fog of HardInfo will cover the common benchmarks and applications that are seen throughout most reviews.  This should be a very large article, and Jon certainly has his work cut out for him. Howard Ha of Neoseeker shows up next taking a look at applications which are high on the Xfire list of games being played by gamers today.  These may not be the most graphically stunning or cutting edge, but they are applications which a lot of people are playing. Mike Chambers of NVNews, Mark Thorne of Rage3D, and Brian Wallace of Legit Reviews will be covering the more uncommon benchmarks and applications.  I am sure this series of articles will really show which setups are well supported, and what ones may fall behind. Finally yours truly Hilbert Hagedoorn of Guru of 3D will be providing the conclusion and wrap-up of this series.  I will be presenting our opinion on what's hot and what is not with an analysis of all the articles and components used.   Timeframe Article Website Status July 10th Introduction PenstarSys Live! July 12th GPUs Bit-tech Live! July 14th Motherboards Bjorn3D Pending July 17th Common Benchmarks Hard-Info Pending July 19th Xfire most Played NeoSeeker Pending July 21st Uncommon Benchmarks NVNews Pending July 24th Uncommon Benchmarks Rage3D Pending July 26th Uncommon Benchmarks Legit Reviews Pending July 27th The Verdict Guru3D Pending The articles from the other member sites will be released every other day, throughout the work week.  Part I: Introduction - July 10th, Penstarsys.com "ATI also has a history of multi-GPU with several products.  The first big product was the Rage3D Fury Maxx, which placed two Rage 128 chips onto a single card to act in unison.  With the Radeon 9700 Pro and following R3x0 and R4x0 series of cards, ATI supported SuperTiling in the simulation market.  SuperTiling is essentially the splitting of a frame into equal size tiles, with each GPU rendering alternating tiles, or in larger arrays perhaps rendering two to four of these tiles." Read more... Part II: GPUs - July 12th, bit-tech.net "NVIDIA's SLI Technology was built from the ground up and was finally introduced with NVIDIA's PCI-Express based GeForce 6800-series video cards, after over three years of development. Initially, SLI was incredibly finicky - you could only use a matched pair of video cards with exactly the same BIOS on each card. However, around eight months after its initial realisation, drivers were released to correct these shortcomings, allowing users to pair any video cards, so long as they were from the same product family (i.e. you could pair a GeForce 7800 GTX with another GeForce 7800 GTX, but not with a GeForce 7800 GT)." Read more... Part III: Motherboards - July 14th, Bjorn3D.com Coming soon. Part IV: Common benchmarks - July 17th, Hardinfo.com Coming soon. Part V: XFire most played - July 19th, Neoseeker.com Coming soon. Part VI: Uncommon benchmarks - July 21st, NVNews.net Coming soon. Part VII: Uncommon benchmarks - July 24th, Rage3D.com Coming soon. Part VIII: Uncommon benchmarks - July 26th, LegitReviews.com Coming soon. Part IX: Conclusion - July 27th, Guru3D.com Coming soon.

NeoSeeker Site description, logo, etc Rage3D Rage3D has been serving ATI owners since 1998 and has since grown to become the largest and most popular ATI fansite on the internet. Mark Thorne is the lead reviewer, designer, and webmaster. HardInfo Site description, logo, etc Guru3D Guru3D started in 1997 after transforming 3dfx fansite 'the Voodoo Guru' into the diverse 'the Guru of 3D'. Hilbert Hagedoorn is the chief editor of the site and responsible for all it's content, staff, conceptual development and press-relations. Bjorn3D Site description, logo, etc bit-tech Site description, logo, etc Legit Reviews Site description, logo, etc NVNews Site description, logo, etc Penstar Systems PenStar has been covering the computer industry since 1999, with a primary focus on 3D graphics and the economy around it. Josh Walrath is the owner and editor in chief, and has 9 years of writing experience in the industry.

Folding@Home is a project where you can have your GPU help out solving diseases by folding proteins. Guru3D team is ranking in the Folding@Home top 70, yes... I'm very proud of our guys crunching these numbers, especially since there more than 185000 teams in the world! Our team number is 69411 and if you decide to purchase the GeForce GTX 200/400 product, guys, promise me you'll use it to fold for us. Of course I recommend all GeForce 8800/9800 owners give this a try as well. By making this move my dear friends, you can help fight the biggest mysteries in diseases and illnesses. Again, let's make Team Guru3D the biggest one available guys, join our team. Available Clients are:

Use GPU2 Client if: {Windows} [ATI & Nvidia]
1) You have a discrete GPU (Fermi GPUs aren't supported)
2) System is on for 15+ hours
3) Would like to get some more points with some effort
Note:If you fold with an ATI GPU, please use Environment Variables to make folding more efficient.

Use GPU3 BETA Client if: {Windows; Linux (Unofficially); Details} [Nvidia]
1) You have a discrete GPU
2) System is on for 10+ hours
3) Would like to get some more points with some effort
Note:As this Client is in BETA Stage, expect some rough edges.

While the GPU3 BETA Clients can run on virtually any Nvidia 8000 Series GPU or above, running a Fermi and a Non-Fermi GPU in one box can be tricky to do so. Remeber that if you are running a F@H CPU Client on the same machine, make the F@H GPU Clients' priority low/slightly higher and the F@H CPU Clients' to idle. That way, your GPU is constantly feed with data to fold.

Guru3D's F@H Homepage: <Click>
Detailed FAQs: <Click>
Quick-Start Guide: <Click>
Guru3D's F@H Foru: <Click>
FaHWiki: <Click>

Changelog (2.6.0)

New:

• Added ASUS - Sound cleaning.
  Thanks to topyrz.
• Added process stopping to prevent several entries being locked.
  This includes several OS processes and third party software (RivaTuner, Afterburner, etc).       
• Added service stopping and cleaning.

Updated:

• Improved file cleaning methods.
• Improved ATi - Display cleaning.
• Improved Creative - Sound cleaning.
  Thanks to DyP and MrBozack.
• Improved NVIDIA - Display cleaning.

Fixed:

• Some registry entries not showing up in the analyse list.
• Some file and directory entries not marked as cleaned.
• Additional cleaning methods not working when files are protected by OS.
• Unhandled Exception crash occurred while trying to find some directories.

Changelog (2.5.0)

New in this release:

• Replaced cog icon with a new icon.
• Character to seperate registry keys from registry values in the analyse list.
• Some layout changes.
• Increased default window size.
• Update notifications, auto update has been removed.
• Directory wildcard search for custom filters.
• Added Norwegian translation. Thanks to Magnus GranÃ¥s.
• Added Arabic translation. Thanks to Awadh.

Updated:

• Improved registry cleaning methods.
• Improved directory cleaning methods.
• Rewritten the readme file.
• Rewritten the help file.
• Internal libraries.
• Improved Creative - Sound cleaning.
• Thanks to Karol C. Improved ATi - Display cleaning.
• Thanks to several people for supplying additional entries.
• Improved NVIDIA - Display cleaning. Thanks to theGryphon.

Fixed:

• Rare crash using backup.
• %WinDir% variable not working properly.
• Command Prompt after reboot in rare circumstances. Potential crash. Special thanks fly out to TwL for making this release possible.

 

Changelog (2.1.0) - 26-11-09

 New:

  - Added Brazilian Portuguese translation.
    Thanks to Thiago Lara.
  - Added Turkish translation.
    Thanks to Oguz Ari.
  - Parameters for Desktop Icon Restoration.
    -icon:last   Uses the last known backup.
    -icon:first  Uses the first known backup.
    -icon: Uses the backup known from date and time as can be found in the item list.

 Updated:

  - Changed clean parameters to -clean:"NVIDIA - Display".

 Fixed:

  - Exception while trying to restore desktop icons.
  - Desktop Icon not working properly on Windows 7.
    A big thanks to Thorsten Blauhut for his Desktop Icon program which helped me address this issue.

Changelog (2.0.5) - 22-07-09

 New:

• Added Slovakian translation.
      Thanks to Gizmo[SK].

 Updated:

• Improved startup time again, should be fast enough now.
• Improved load speed of several screens.

 Fixed:

Exception in rare cases while saving options.

Delay when checking for updates.

Restored manifest file to automate UAC prompts.

Changelog (2.0.0) - 21-07-09

 New:

  - Resizable window.
  - Lowered requirements to .NET 3.0.
  - Windows 7 support.
    Only the final version is supported.
  - Added Polish translation.
    Thanks to Skeleton.
  - Added Italian translation.
    Thanks to Matteo.
  - Added Simplified Chinese translation.
    Thanks to 王不留行.
  - Added Hungarian translation.
    Thanks to Thrawn.

Changelog (2.0.0 - Beta 2) - 31-01-09

 New:

  - Added select/deselect in clean screen.
  - Added Bulgarian translation.
    Thanks to Ивомир Петров.
  - Added Czech translation.
    Thanks to Kofi.
  - Added Danish translation.
    Thanks to Animatrix.
  - Added Finnish translation.
    Thanks to Anarion.
  - Added French translation.
    Thanks to NiukNiuk.
  - Added German translation.
    Thanks to Bravo.
  - Added Japanese translation.
    Thanks to ot_inc.
  - Added Korean translation.
    Thanks to unplugkim.
  - Added Lithuania translation.
    Thanks to Linas.
  - Added Russian translation.
    Thanks to un1c0de.
  - Added Spanish translation.
    Thanks to _GalForD_.
  - Added Swedish translation.
    Thanks to Stefan.
  - Added Traditional Chinese translation.
    Thanks to 呆呆烈.
  - Added Ukrainian translation.
    Thanks to un1c0de.

 Updated:

  - Improved startup time.

 Fixed:

  - Some translations not working and missing.
  - Made some buttons larger for translations.
  - Error at desktop icons.
  - Reboot not working on all systems.
  - Update check not working properly.
  - Drag and Drop in main menu.

Changelog (2.0.0 - Beta 1) - 24-01-09

 New:

  - Driver Sweeper is completely rewritten from scratch.
    This version requires at least .NET 3.5 installed.
  - Experimental Windows 7 support.
  - UAC message requiring administrator access on Windows Vista and Windows 7
    on startup if UAC is enabled.

 Updated:

  - Improved ATi - Display cleaning.
  - Improved NVIDIA - Display cleaning.
  - Improved NVIDIA - PhysX cleaning.
  - Renamed AGEIA - PhysX to NVIDIA - PhysX.

 Fixed:

  - Registry not working properly on Windows x64 versions.
 

Revision History v 1.5.5

 New:

• Single click restore from system tray.

 Updated:

• Improved NVIDIA File cleaning (CUDA).
• Several translations.

Revision History v 1.5.1

New:

• Redone GUI.
• You can now check after cleaning if an entry has been removed or not without opening Logs. If a checkbox is checked the entry is removed.
• Added popup after cleaning has been finished.
• Added French translation.
• Added Simplified Chinese translation.
• Added Danish translation.
• You can now add custom filters. You can add filters for almost everything. Not only drivers, but also filters for applications. It's also possible to extend the current filters. If you add a filter or extend a current filter, please send it to me. This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Files:

• You can use wildcards: * , this will find everything matching the wildcard. You can use multiple wildcards at the same time.
• You can use all System Environment variables, like %Systemroot%.

Registry:

• If you want to remove a key in the registry, make sure the value you want to clean ends with a \ .
• Values can be removed without a \ at end of value.

Directory:

• You can also use System Environment variables.

Fixed:

• NVIDIA LAN driver problem after deleting NVIDIA Display drivers.
• Deleting directories could cause an error.
• ASIO cleaning redone for Creative - Sound, previous cleaning could cause problems with other ASIO drivers.
• Registry restore not working properly in some cases.
• File cleaning now works properly on Windows x64. On older versions almost no files where detected to be cleaned. This is a known bug which exists in a lot of programs. This build fixes this problem, but you need to have .NET 2.0 or higher installed.

Updated:

• Optimized scanning of files and registry keys.
• Changed save date and time format to yy-mm-dd.
• Improved ATi Registry cleaning.
• Improved NVIDIA File cleaning.
• Rewritten Desktop Icon Restorer, it's now compatible with Windows x64 as well. Multiple displays are also supported. On x64 version's you need to have .NET 2.0 or higher installed.

Changelog (1.0.0) - 23-09-07
 New: 
 - Desktop Icon Position Restorer. This can restore the positions of your desktop icons.Only 32-bit Windows versions are supported at the moment.

Updated: 
- Help is now opened maximized.  
- Improved Creative File Cleaning. Thanks to MrBozack.  
- Improved Creative Registry Cleaning. Thanks to MrBozack.  
- New icons on toolbar.  
- Added Spanish translation. Thanks to _GalForD_.  
- Added Portuguese translation.     Thanks to AmnesyA.  
- Optimalizations.  
- Window positions from Logs, Backups, Options and Desktop Icon Restorer are now at the center of main.
  Special thanks to Na'Ryan and Mr. T. for this release! 

Changelog (0.9.0) - 27-07-07

 New:

  - You can now create a backup. You can enable this in Options.
    You can restore a backup in Tools->Backup. All existing files
    will be overwritten.
    Files not able to backup will be backuped upon reboot.
    Files not able to restore will be restored upon reboot.
    Total diskspace used by backups and the diskspace per backup
    can be found in Tools->Backup.
  - Added option to remove the C:\ATi.
  - Items can be selected using Enter if you are in the
    select box.
  - Items can be deleted using Enter if you are in the
    remove box.
  - You can "Run Sweeper" using Ctrl+R.

 Fixed:
 
  - On some systems reboot logged the PC off, instead of rebooting.
    Thanks to JR.
  - Bug in Options->Cleaning.
  - System beep if you close Options, Log, Backup or About.
  - Start a new cleaning process while the current
    cleaning process is still running.
  - Reboot will only occur if something is deleted.

 Updated:
 
  - Improved NVIDIA Registry Cleaning.
  - Improved NVIDIA File Cleaning.
  - Improved ATi Registry Cleaning.
  - Added Japanese translation.
    Thanks to ot_inc.
  - Added Turkish translation.
    Thanks to Kenan Balamir.
  - Added Korean translation.
    Thanks to unplugkim.
  - Optimalizations.
  - New layout of Logs.
  - New main layout.
  - Icons at messages (Warning, Reboot) are back.
  - Reduced load on loading and saving logfiles.
  - Logs are now saved in Unicode.
  - Any open screens need to be closed now before
    continue using application. 

Changelog (0.7.5) - 07-07-07

 New:

  - Added a Help File. You can open this in Help->Contents
    or by pressing F1.
  - AGEIA PhysX File and Registry Cleaning.
    The parameter is -AGEIA.
  - Microsoft Mouse File and Registry Cleaning.
    The parameter is -MMouse.
  - Added English example to Languages.ini.
  - You can now close Options, Logs and About using
    the Escape button.
  - Unicode support for Multilanguage, now you aren't
    limited to ANSI signs anymore.
  - Added program logo.
    Thanks to z3r0x for his work on this.
  - New layout for Options.
    All cleaning stuff is splitted now. If you want
    to Enable or Disable ALL File and/or Registry
    Cleaning you can click on Cleaning.
  - Layout changes for Logs and About.
  - You can now select the Logs you want to remove
    using checkboxes.
  - Option to reboot the system after cleaning.
  - Folders not able to delete will also be deleted
    at reboot.

  Fixed:

  - Language selection could crash the program.
  - Directory of executable wasn't properly
    selected in some parts of the program
    if you opened G3DDS using another application.
  - File not found error.
    Thanks to Na'Ryan and Jelle for helping me out
    with this.
  - Progressbar is now working as it should be.
  - Everything is now reloaded if you open Options,
    Logs or About.
  - Logfiles weren't saved properly.

  Updated:

  - Added Finnish translation.
    Thanks to Anarion. 
  - Added Russian translation.
    Thanks to un1c0de and Adept. 
  - Added Ukrainian translation.
    Thanks to un1c0de.
  - Added German translation.
    Thanks to z3r0x.
  - Added Hungarian translation.
    Thanks to Thrawn.
  - Using different way to display the warning message.
    This results in 17KB smaller exe size and localized
    buttons.
  - Removed some double language translations.
  - Added translations for SystemTray.
  - Massive improvement in ATi File Cleaning.
  - Massive improvement in ATi Registry Cleaning.
  - Improved NVIDIA Registry Cleaning.
  - Improved Creative Registry Cleaning.
  - Improved Realtek Registry Cleaning.
  - Improved Realtek File Cleaning.
  - More optimalizations done for translations.
  - Further optimalizations.
  - Items in Logs are now sorted.

 Changelog (0.4.5) - 20-06-07

  1) New: Multilanguage support.
     You can now add your own languages for G3DDS.
     How to add more languages:
     Open the languages.ini file. If you open it you
     see a sample of the translation into Dutch and Polish.
     Copy one translation and paste it in the same
     file. Rename [Dutch] or [Polish] to the language you want
     to translate. Finished translations can be send to:
     DriverSweeper@Guru3D.com
  2) New: Buttons to add and remove everything.
  3) New: Parameter '-Quit' will Quit the application
     after drivers have been cleaned using parameters.
  4) New: It's possible to delete C:\NVIDIA.
     You can enable this in Options->Miscellaneous.
     It's no problem if you have Windows installed
     on a different drive then C:\.
  5) New: Display warning message before cleaning.
     You can disable this in Options->Miscellaneous.
  6) Fix: Disabled Remove buttons if nothing is selected.
  7) Fix: Deleted and Not deleted in Logs weren't
     always working properly.
  8) Fix: Directory of executable wasn't properly
     selected if you opened G3DDS using another
     application (Like Total Commander and FTPRush).
  9) Fix: Realtek Audio cleaned under weird circumstances
     a file from Realtek LAN.
     Thanks to nCaine for notifying.
  10) Updated: A lot of optimalizations are done.
  11) Updated: Removed some unneeded code.
  12) Updated: Creative and Realtek Files & Registry fixes.
  13) Updated: Files not deleted (In use, for example)
      will be removed at next reboot.
      You can disable this in Options.
      This also means it is now possible to properly
      clean drivers without booting into Safe Mode.
      After using the official uninstaller of the drivers,
      you can use Driver Sweeper and reboot your PC.
  14) Updated: Options rearranged.
  15) Updated: Added Dutch translation.
  16) Updated: Added Polish translation.
      Thanks to NekroSoft13.

Changelog (0.4.1) - 06-06-07

  1) Parameters aren't case sensitive anymore.
  2) The parameters are now:
     -NVIDIA
     -NVIDIAChipset
     -ATi
     -Creative
     -Realtek
  3) Improved NVIDIA File Cleaning.
  4) Guru3D - Driver Cleaner has been renamed to
     Guru3D - Driver Sweeper (G3DDS).
  5) No log files will be created anymore if nothing
     is cleaned.
  6) Rewritten some code for Clean & Select box.
  7) Some layout fixes for main.

Changelog (0.4.0) - 03-06-07

  1) XDC is renamed to Guru3D - Driver Cleaner.
     The short name will be G3DDC.
  2) Added version information to the executable.
     It is now possible to check information about G3DDC
     using Properties under Microsoft Windows.
  3) Reduced filesize.
  4) Changed the version numbers to x.y.z (previous x.yz).
  5) Added the option to start with parameters.

     These are the current supported parameters:
    
     NVIDIA
     NVIDIAChipset
     ATi
     Creative
     Realtek
    
     For example,

     "\G3DDC.exe" NVIDIA ATi

     will clean NVIDIA Display and ATi Display drivers.

     You can do this by creating a shortcut to the
     program's exe file and add the parameters next to it.
     With this you don't have to select the to-be-cleaned
     drivers anymore, and will save you time if you
     are always cleaning the same drivers.

  6) Added key combinations to open program parts.
     Check menu for the key combinations.
  7) Internal optimalizations.
  8) Improved NVIDIA File cleaning.
  9) Resizing is disabled.
  10) Improved progressbar.
  11) Rewritten most logs code.
  12) Redone some About code.
  13) Removed minimize and maximize buttons
      from About, Options and Log.
  14) It is now possible to minimize to systemtray.
      You can enable this in the options (Standard disabled).
  15) You now have to double click on items
      in other logs to get them in Deleted and Not deleted.

Changelog (0.35) - 28-05-07:

  1) Improved NVIDIA File cleaning.
     Thanks to adrichardson for providing some filenames.
  2) Improved NVIDIA Registry cleaning.
     Thanks to adrichardson for providing some keynames.
  3) Improved NVIDIA Chipset Registry cleaning.
  4) Redone About. Please check it.
  5) Improved ATi File cleaning.
  6) Added Realtek File and Registry cleaning.
     This includes InstallShield cleaning.
  7) Added ability to save the logfiles. This is disabled
     by default. You can enable this in the Options or
     change it in the ini file under the Logfiles section.
     You can view previous logfiles by clicking on Older
     Logs. Click on the logname what you want to view.
     The items will be added under the proper sections.
     After clicking the Clean button, the most recent
     logs are found also under Deleted and Not deleted.
     You can remove the log files by clicking on a logname
     and then the remove button. Remove All removes all
     logfiles from the Logs folder.
  8) New layout for Log.
  9) New layout for Options.

Changelog (0.30) - 20-05-07:

  1) Added Options in the menu to check what you want to clean.
     (Eq NVIDIA File, NVIDIA Registry)
     Now it isn't needed anymore to edit it in the ini file. 
  2) Rewritten all ini files code (again).
  3) Changed the captions of the Select and Delete buttons to >> and <<.
  4) Fixed a bug with ATi File cleaning if install path wasn't standard.
  5) Updated NVIDIA File cleaning. There are a lot of new files added.
  6) Rewritten all delete code.
  7) Removed some unneeded code.
  8) Added InstallShield cleaning to Creative File cleaning
     (Thanks to adrichardson).
  9) Fixed a bug in the progressbar, it did not work properly.
  10) Updated the functions to get the System directories.
  11) Added NVIDIA Chipset cleaning.

Changelog (0.23) - 16-05-07:

  1) Added ATi Registry cleaning and improved ATi File cleaning.
  2) Added a Menu to improve the layout.
  3) Added Creative Registry cleaning and File cleaning.
  4) Further optimalizations.
  5) Changed the selectable names. Type is now included.
  6) Rewritten the ini files code.
  7) Ini file will now be saved when the program closes.
     Now it isn't needed to delete the ini file after a program update.
  8) Changed the maintitle of the program.

Changelog (0.2a) - 14-05-07:

  1) Bug fixed that no files from NVIDIA where deleted.

Changelog (0.2) - 12-05-07:

  1) Log to check if your remaining files are deleted or not.
  2) Ini file. You can change in here (1 <-> 0) if you want
     NVIDIA Registry cleaning and/or NVIDIA File cleaning.
     I decided to go for ini files because I want it to be a
     portable application too. If no ini file exists, a new one
     will be created with both NVIDIA Registry cleaning and NVIDIA File cleaning on.
  3) A lot of internal cleaning/fixes.
  4) Completely rewritten the Registry cleaning (Not the values to be cleaned).
  5) Added a new file to NVIDIA File cleaning.
  6) Redone "About".

Changelog (0.1) - 09-05-07:

  1) Improved File cleaning for NVIDIA
  2) Basic ATi File cleaning
  3) Added NVIDIA Registry cleaning
  4) Improved layout
  5) Internal fixes

Changelog (initial version) - 07-05-07:
  1) Initial version.

 

USE AT OWN RISK.

  3) Improved NVIDIA File Cleaning.
  4) Guru3D - Driver Cleaner has been renamed to
     Guru3D - Driver Sweeper (G3DDS).
  5) No log files will be created anymore if nothing
     is cleaned.
  6) Rewritten some code for Clean & Select box.
  7) Some layout fixes for main.

Changelog (0.4.0) - 03-06-07

  1) XDC is renamed to Guru3D - Driver Cleaner.
     The short name will be G3DDC.
  2) Added version information to the executable.
     It is now possible to check information about G3DDC
     using Properties under Microsoft Windows.
  3) Reduced filesize.
  4) Changed the version numbers to x.y.z (previous x.yz).
  5) Added the option to start with parameters.

     These are the current supported parameters:
    
     NVIDIA
     NVIDIAChipset
     ATi
     Creative
     Realtek
    
     For example,

     "\G3DDC.exe" NVIDIA ATi

     will clean NVIDIA Display and ATi Display drivers.

     You can do this by creating a shortcut to the
     program's exe file and add the parameters next to it.
     With this you don't have to select the to-be-cleaned
     drivers anymore, and will save you time if you
     are always cleaning the same drivers.

  6) Added key combinations to open program parts.
     Check menu for the key combinations.
  7) Internal optimalizations.
  8) Improved NVIDIA File cleaning.
  9) Resizing is disabled.
  10) Improved progressbar.
  11) Rewritten most logs code.
  12) Redone some About code.
  13) Removed minimize and maximize buttons
      from About, Options and Log.
  14) It is now possible to minimize to systemtray.
      You can enable this in the options (Standard disabled).
  15) You now have to double click on items
      in other logs to get them in Deleted and Not deleted.

Changelog (0.35) - 28-05-07:

  1) Improved NVIDIA File cleaning.
     Thanks to adrichardson for providing some filenames.
  2) Improved NVIDIA Registry cleaning.
     Thanks to adrichardson for providing some keynames.
  3) Improved NVIDIA Chipset Registry cleaning.
  4) Redone About. Please check it.
  5) Improved ATi File cleaning.
  6) Added Realtek File and Registry cleaning.
     This includes InstallShield cleaning.
  7) Added ability to save the logfiles. This is disabled
     by default. You can enable this in the Options or
     change it in the ini file under the Logfiles section.
     You can view previous logfiles by clicking on Older
     Logs. Click on the logname what you want to view.
     The items will be added under the proper sections.
     After clicking the Clean button, the most recent
     logs are found also under Deleted and Not deleted.
     You can remove the log files by clicking on a logname
     and then the remove button. Remove All removes all
     logfiles from the Logs folder.
  8) New layout for Log.
  9) New layout for Options.

Changelog (0.30) - 20-05-07:

  1) Added Options in the menu to check what you want to clean.
     (Eq NVIDIA File, NVIDIA Registry)
     Now it isn't needed anymore to edit it in the ini file. 
  2) Rewritten all ini files code (again).
  3) Changed the captions of the Select and Delete buttons to >> and <<.
  4) Fixed a bug with ATi File cleaning if install path wasn't standard.
  5) Updated NVIDIA File cleaning. There are a lot of new files added.
  6) Rewritten all delete code.
  7) Removed some unneeded code.
  8) Added InstallShield cleaning to Creative File cleaning
     (Thanks to adrichardson).
  9) Fixed a bug in the progressbar, it did not work properly.
  10) Updated the functions to get the System directories.
  11) Added NVIDIA Chipset cleaning.

Changelog (0.23) - 16-05-07:

  1) Added ATi Registry cleaning and improved ATi File cleaning.
  2) Added a Menu to improve the layout.
  3) Added Creative Registry cleaning and File cleaning.
  4) Further optimalizations.
  5) Changed the selectable names. Type is now included.
  6) Rewritten the ini files code.
  7) Ini file will now be saved when the program closes.
     Now it isn't needed to delete the ini file after a program update.
  8) Changed the maintitle of the program.

Changelog (0.2a) - 14-05-07:

  1) Bug fixed that no files from NVIDIA where deleted.

Changelog (0.2) - 12-05-07:

  1) Log to check if your remaining files are deleted or not.
  2) Ini file. You can change in here (1 <-> 0) if you want
     NVIDIA Registry cleaning and/or NVIDIA File cleaning.
     I decided to go for ini files because I want it to be a
     portable application too. If no ini file exists, a new one
     will be created with both NVIDIA Registry cleaning and NVIDIA File cleaning on.
  3) A lot of internal cleaning/fixes.
  4) Completely rewritten the Registry cleaning (Not the values to be cleaned).
  5) Added a new file to NVIDIA File cleaning.
  6) Redone "About".

Changelog (0.1) - 09-05-07:

  1) Improved File cleaning for NVIDIA
  2) Basic ATi File cleaning
  3) Added NVIDIA Registry cleaning
  4) Improved layout
  5) Internal fixes

Changelog (initial version) - 07-05-07:
  1) Initial version.

With a new stereo section we of course will also start a series of reviews on 3D Glasses. Today we want to bring you the first review of our Stereo section, the review of the eDimensional "E-D" shutterglasses.

We strongly recommend you to read our generic stereo article first as this will make you understand the technology a tad better.

First up, what can we tell about the company that is called eDimensional:

Founded in mid 2000, eDimensional, Inc. has been focused on providing a quality economical, yet extremely effective tool for the average PC user to greatly enhance his or her multimedia experience.

So let's see what multimedia experience you can expect with their Stereoglasses shall we ?

eDimensional has sent us the wireless version of their Stereo3D shutterglasses which is quite a nifty gadget, no more wires from your PC towards your glasses. The wireless trend is growing rapidly and we for see a good and big future for wireless products.

the whole package

The package includes the following items:

• a pair of E-D glasses

• one VGA adapter

• an infrared transmitter (DIN-3 IR-emitter)

• a power adaptor for older video cards

• the "quick start instruction guide"

• two sets of bows for big and small heads :-)

• two CDs with

  • 400MB of 11 different game demos
  • 100MB drivers and tools: several NVIDIA Stereo control panel versions (23.11, 26.50, 28.32), NVIDIA Display drivers, the Guru3D Detonator Destroyer :) and HZTool
  • the Wicked3D "H3D" driver CD, for use with non-NVIDIA videocards

We found it very interesting to find unofficial drivers on the CD, which we don't see as a bad point btw :) It simply shows they stay up-to-date.

The minimum system requirements to use the gear are:

- 233MHz CPU
- Win9x/ME, Win2k/XP
- CRT monitor
- standard 3-D accelerator vga card

 

Installation of the glasses

The installation really is not that difficult, their installation guide shows it clearly:

(click to show full guide)

Connect the VGA connector to the VGA card, then connect the transmitter to the dongle.

That's all (for wireless glasses) ..

For compatibility with old cards (e.g. Voodoo2) they've added a power adaptor that gets extra energy from the PS2 port of your computer to deliver the necessary power.

Once everything is connected correctly it should look like this:

ehm please, just ignore that dust on the case...

Finally you can mount that IR transmitter somewhere in your field of view (the best is to place it upon your monitor):

Infra Red transmitter

Two different drivers

The driver installation review needs to get divided into two parts, because of one reason: there are two possible drivers that you can use.

• The NVIDIA Stereo3D driver (which works with all NVIDIA cards from RivaTNT up to GeForce 4)

• The Wicked3D "H3D" driver version 4.11 (which works with: 3Dfx Banshee, 3Dfx Voodoo2, 3, 4, 5, ATI Radeon, ATI Rage 128 & 128GL, ATI Rage 128 Pro, Intel i740, Intel i752, Intel i810, Matrox Millennium G200, G400, G450, NVidia GeForce 256, GeForce 2 GTS, GeForce 2 MX, NVidia RivaTNT, TNT2, TNT2 Ultra, TNT2 M64, PowerVR Kyro I, S3 Savage2000, Savage 4, Savage 3D)
  or version 5.02 beta (Added support for NVIDIA GeForce2 Integrated GPU, GeForce3; ATI Radeon RV200, Radeon RV100, Radeon Mobility, Radeon M7, Radeon U1, Radeon A3; PowerVR KYRO)

Both H3D driver versions came with the package, we went for the 5.02 here.

The easiest way towards Stereo3D - only for NVIDIA cards

If you own a NVIDIA card (RivaTNT or better) then the Stereo3D driver installation is very easy.

Just install a current Detonator driver (at least version 10.xx for Win9x/ME, and 22.xx for Window 2000/XP). That's all.

There's no need to install any other "driver", because the Stereo drivers are already included in the Detonator driver.
(If you want to search for a separate stereo driver file, you will not find that. The Stereo driver is included within the OpenGL and Direct3D driver.)

The only thing you still need is a configuration tool to set up the stereo properly, and of course that is where we come in.

For this you can either use our homegrown GeForce Tweak Utility which can do all the necessary things to set up your stereoglasses.

Or you download the NVIDIA Stereo Control Panel. (NVIDIA falsely calls this software a "driver", but it is no driver, it's just a tool to configure the stereo mode).

Driver installation (continued)

At first we need to install the control panel from the driver cd.
We used the version 28.32 ("StereoE28.32.exe") for the next tests.

Once it's installed and the pc was restarted, we can begin to configure the glasses. Mind you that the author of this article is German and therefor you'll notice some German items in the tool.

The main points to take note of here are:

1. At first the Stereo Separation slider needs to be set to a value of our choice. Later it will definitely be necessary to change this value again, but for now, it doesn't matter.

2. Our glasses are "Page Flipped" so we need to set this too.

3. Finally, we enable the stereo mode by clicking on "Enable".

Yes, that's basically all, simple wasn't it ? :-)

Now the driver is set up and will use the Stereo mode with the next OpenGL / Direct3D application.

Let's do the first test:

By clicking the "Medical Test Image" button we can check if everything works.

But we also have to turn the glasses on to see stereo:

Of course the glasses will not turn on if they don't find the IR trigger signal, so now we can see if we found a good place for the IR transmitter. After a second or two the glasses will respond and turn on.

Voilà ---> Stereo!

This of course was only a shortened way to enable stereo, you can control much more of the stereo feature. But this is to be discussed in another article ;-)

Installation of the Wicked3D "H3D" Stereo drivers for non-NVIDIA cards

The H3D driver comes from the company Wicked3D, they are working on stereoscopy for several years now. AFAIK Version 5.02 was the last driver that was released by Wicked3D.

You want to know more about H3D? Just look here.

The eDimensional glasses are "H3D enabled", but it is highly recommended not to use the Wicked3D driver if you have a NVIDIA videocard ! Otherwise you should be able to use the driver with no problems at all.

Due to the lack of a non-NVIDIA videocard we will do this test with a GeForce 3.

The Wicked3D driver installation is quite simple. We put the CD into the drive and the installation begins.

Select the videocard of your choice:

Version 4.11 works with: 3Dfx Banshee, 3Dfx Voodoo2, 3, 4, 5, ATI Radeon, ATI Rage 128 & 128GL, ATI Rage 128 Pro, Intel i740, Intel i752, Intel i810, Matrox Millennium G200, G400, G450, NVIDIA GeForce 256, GeForce 2 GTS, GeForce 2 MX, NVIDIA RivaTNT, TNT2, TNT2 Ultra, TNT2 M64, PowerVR Kyro I, S3 Savage2000, Savage 4, Savage 3D
Version 5.02 beta also supports NVIDIA GeForce2 Integrated GPU, GeForce3; ATI Radeon RV200, Radeon RV100, Radeon Mobility, Radeon M7, Radeon U1, Radeon A3; PowerVR KYRO)

After you've chosen the videocard and went through the small rest of the installation you will be asked to restart the pc.
When Windows starts the next time then the real configuration will begin.

After the last step you will be shown a test application, which instantly worked well with my Geforce 3.

But we also have to turn the glasses on to see stereo:

Of course the glasses will not turn on if they don't find the IR trigger signal, so now we can see again if we found a good place for the IR transmitter. After a second the glasses will respond and turn on.

Voilà ---> Stereo!

There was no noticeable difference between the NVIDIA Stereo driver and the H3D driver at this time.

But later, when we wanted to play some games,we noticed that with the H3D driver the Stereo3D did not work AT ALL with the GeForce 3.
Only the test application worked.

So I installed my old Voodoo2 (combined with a 4MB S3 PCI videocard) to see if that really was a "GeForce-only" problem.

And indeed - on the Voodoo2 the Wicked3D drivers worked well as planned.

Performance

Of course the stereo mode is a quite a hit in your performance when we measure it in framerate. We did some tests to reflect this.

First of all, bare in mind that the performance does not depend on your stereoglasses, but on the driver you use. We did some quick benchmarks on Windows 98, because the NVIDIA stereo driver sometimes still has problems with Windows XP. (The Wicked3D driver also does only support Windows 98.)

We will do a separate article about NVIDIA Stereo drivers soon, that's why we only made tests with 3DMark 2001 SE at 1024x768x32.

Test system:

- Athlon C 1.4 GHz @ 1.4 GHz
- Abit KT7A mainboard @ 133MHz FSB
- 256MB of Tonicom PC-166 SDRAM
- SB Audigy Player
- Windows 98 SE

Drivers:

- NVidia Detonator 28.32, no FSAA, no AF
- Via 4in1 4.39beta

We used the following videocards for testing:

- Elsa Erazor X (GeForce 256 SDRAM)
- MSI Starforce 822 (GeForce 3)
- Creative Labs 3D Blaster MX 440 (GeForce 4 MX 440)

As you can see in the above charts the stereo mode is a huge hit for the performance. In 1024x768x32 the stereo mode drains the performance down by 60% here (with all tested videocards!), you definitely need a GeForce 3-class or better videocard to keep all current games playable at this resolution with full quality.

But don't let you impress by these examples, in several games the performance drop will not be that big.

If you want to see some benchmark details then click on the thumbnails below.

- Elsa Erazor X (GeForce 256 SDRAM)
  standard: 120MHz / 166MHz, overclocked: 133MHz / 175MHz

no stereo

stereo

stereo + overclock

- MSI Starforce 822 (GeForce 3)
  standard: 200MHz / 460MHz, overclocked: 250MHz / 550MHz

no stereo

stereo

stereo + overclock

- Creative Labs 3D Blaster MX 440 (GeForce 4 MX 440)
  standard: 270MHz / 400MHz, overclocked: 300MHz / 450MHz

no stereo

stereo

stereo + overclock

 

Some technology and background

Before we want to come to a conclusion we have to talk about some other things.

• eDimensional are producing their glasses in Hong Kong.
  In earlier days the E-D glasses were based on the H3D/Wicked3D glasses, but now they're different in several parts:
  - the dongle is different from the old H3D adapter
  - it supports more modes of 3D
  - it supports different kinds of media
  - the design has changed for better reliability and functionality

• The glasses use a technology called "sync doubling" to create the stereo effect. (here you have the reason for the huge performance drop when you use Stereo3D)

  Sync doubling arranges the left and right eye images up and down. It will render two images at the same time. (which should be the "two slightly different pictures" that are necessary to create the stereo effect)
  
  One image is situated on top of the rendered frame, one is on the bottom. The trick of sync doubling is to place an additional v-sync between each of the "subimages". That's where "sync-doubling" got its name from: because of the additional v-sync the whole sync rate gets doubled.
  
  Now these two subimages are being interlaced and then drawn synchronized to the refresh rate. (the shutterglasses are synced to this too)

  Be sure that you have a monitor that supports at least 100Hz in your preferred resolutions.
   

• The dongle and IR transmitter get their power from videocard via the monitor connector. (You cannot use the DVI connector for this!)
  
  If you have one of the older videocards that do not support this then you have to use the power adaptor. Otherwise your pc might not boot because the videocard cannot be initialized.

 

Conclusion

Remember, on the first page of the review you could read:

Founded in mid 2000, eDimensional, Inc. has been focused on providing a quality economical, yet extremely effective tool for the average PC user to greatly enhance his or her multimedia experience.

After playing games with the E-D glasses for hours now, in all honesty we can say "Yes, they really enhanced my multimedia experience",
Stereo3D with the E-D glasses surely is a fine thing to own.

The glasses work very well and they are good and comfortable to wear (the size is adjustable, there are two sets of bows coming with the package). They even are good to wear when you already have to use eyeglasses, you simply put the E-D glasses over your eyeglasses.

The ghost effect nearly can't be noticed (even though you can make it noticeable with a trick, but during gaming you won't notice it), they are even better than my 3D Revelator glasses. At least with some driver tweaking you can get rid of this effect.

But before you get your pair of E-D glasses you should be aware of the following facts:

1. Your monitor should support at least 100Hz in your preferred resolutions. The best would be that it can do 140Hz.

2. Your videocard should be powerful enough to play current games at reasonable resolutions.
   At least a GeForce 2 Pro / Radeon 7500 or similar should be yours.

   For older games or smaller resolutions the required MHz power is not that big. (I'd think a RivaTNT2-like videocard with a 600MHz CPU should be rather okay for games like Counterstrike)

3. Your monitor should either use no DDC signal or the DDC2 signal, because the E-D glasses will be controlled by the DDC1 signal.
   
   Ask your monitor vendor to find this out.
   (Usually all new monitors should fullfill this requirement)

When your system fulfills these requirements they you'll have much fun with the eDimensional E-D shutterglasses. It really is an awesome experience and makes gameplay so much more enjoyable.

E-D glassed can be bought from eDimensional, the wireless version will sell for $99.95 and the wired version will cost you $69.95
If you have enough money then better go for the wireless version, this way you won't have problems with that cable flying around in your field of view...