Nvidia launch Fermi-Class Quadro cards at SIGGRAPH 2010
28th, July, 2010

Nvidia has used the SIGGRAPH 2010 conference to launch a new class of Quadro graphics cards aimed at the professional market. The Quadro 4000, Quadro 5000, and Quadro 6000 all use Nvidia’s latest technology by incorporating the Fermi GPU architecture. Nvidia claims that 3D applications see a 5x performance increase, and computational simulation benefits from an 8x increase with Fermi-Class Quadro cards compared to a CPU-only solution.

In real terms the Fermi cards are capable of processing 1.3 billion triangles per second, and take advantage of Nvidia’s Scalable Geometry Engines (SGE) and Application Acceleration Engines (AXE). High-precision computing is where Nvidia wants these cards used and has included Error Correction Codes (ECC) memory and IEEE double-precision floating point performance for that reason.

These cards aren’t cheap, but then they are for use in professional areas such as medical imaging, computational fluid dynamics, and finite element analysis. Nvidia has also announced the Quadro Plex 7000 array offering multiple GPUs as a complete system solution. Both the Quadro 4000 and 5000 are available immediately while the Quadro 6000 and Plex 7000 are due in the fall.

UK Game Software Charts: Crackdown 2 still #1
20th, July, 2010

Crackdown 2 took the UK GfK Chart-Track all-formats Top 10 by storm last week, and today it continues to do so as it clings on for a second week. With a 36% sales drop, it manages to beat the incoming Dance On Broadway by a mere 800 units.

1 - Crackdown 2 - Microsoft - (2)
2 - Dance On Broadway - Ubisoft - (3)
3 - Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4 - Warner Bros. Interactive - (4)
4 - Red Dead Redemption - Rockstar - (9)
5 - Toy Story 3 - Disney Interactive Studios - (1)
6 - 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa - EA Sports - (12)
7 - Super Mario Galaxy 2 - Nintendo - (6)
8 - Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11 - EA Sports - (3)
9 - Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 - Activision - (36)
10 - Just Dance - Ubisoft - (33)

Crackdown 2 tops UK game chart
14th, July, 2010

Microsoft’s sci-fi shooter game Crackdown 2 has made it to number one in this week’s all-format UK video game chart, according to Chart Track. Despite only selling on the Xbox 360 format, Crackdown 2 ousted Lego Harry Potter from the top spot, pushing it down to number two.

At number three is Red Dead Redemption, Rockstar’s epic sandbox western shooter known as Grand Theft Horsey in some circles. And number four plays host to another dance game from Ubisoft, Dance on Broadway, which has doubled its sales since last week. EA’s 2010 Fifa World Cup is at number five, followed by Super Mario Galaxy 2, and then another from the EA Sports stable, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11. This week also sees UFC 2010: Undisputed storm back into the top ten, at number ten, thanks to price promotions apparently. The only other new entry is Pokepark Wii: Pikachu’s Adventure, which managed number twenty-five.

ATI Radeon HD 5570 gets a GDDR5 makeover
09th, July, 2010

The idea that you needed to spend big bucks on a graphics card if you wanted to use it for gaming was shattered when AMD/ATI earlier this year released the Radeon HD 5570. Sure, you had to make compromises and pull down the resolution and detail sliders a bit, but for the price it was an excellent card. Now the Radeon HD 5570 just got better.

AMD has taken the same HD 5570 card and given it 1GB of GDDR5 RAM as opposed to the slower DDR3 on the older model. The Radeon HD 5570 basically wipes the floor with NVIDIA at that price range. The HD 5570 offers support for DirectX 11 and Eyefinity triple-monitor support.

With the HD 5570 GDDR5 model what you get is a HD 5570 with GDDR5, so you can’t expect miracles when it comes to a performance boost. However, benchmarks to suggest that this upgrade puts the HD 5570 GDDR5 between the HD 5570 DDR3 and the HD 5670. So, should you buy the HD 5570 GDDR5 or the HD 5670? Depends on what you want. If you’re looking for the cheapest GPU possible to allow you to fire up the odd game, then the HD 5570 GDDR5 represents a excellent deal.

YouTube hacked
05th, July, 2010

Google's video site forced to disable comments system for two hours. Controversial forum community 4chan oppressed vulnerability in the YouTube comment's system to target singer Justin Beiber's videos.

The attack exploited a HTML injection vulnerability to insert scripts into the comments which allowed 4chan members to initiate pop-ups or redirections to other sites for anyone who viewed the impacted YouTube video pages. Videos relating to teen idol Justin Beiber were most affected as 4chan users continued a vendetta against the singer.

Google quickly took measures by initially turning comments onto not appearing by default and manually deleting the hack posts. In an impressively rapid turn around for a Sunday, Google had two hours hours later addressed the vulnerability and reinstated the comments system.

Google issued a statement to TheNextWeb.com on the issue: “We took swift action to fix a cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability on youtube.com that was discovered several hours ago. Comments were temporarily hidden by default within an hour, and we released a complete fix for the issue in about two hours. We’re continuing to study the vulnerability to help prevent similar issues in the future.”

Over-50s Dominate New Web Users
01st, July, 2010

Almost one million people aged over 50 years or older went online for the first time last year, according to new research. The study, conducted by online research firm UK Online Measurement Company (UKOM), revealed that more than half of new web users last year were over 50 years of age.

The firm also said that there are currently 38.8 million web users in the UK, rising from 36.9 million last year.

Alex Burmaster of UKOM said: “The internet is getting older in more ways than one. Not only is the medium itself maturing but the audience is shifting towards older age groups." "There is a still a perception that the net is youth-centric but this is clearly not the reality,” he added.

The company also added that 31 per cent of web users in the UK were over 50 years of age, and that most of those were men.

UK CHARTS: Harry Potter takes top spot
29th, June, 2010

Warner Bros Interactive has finally conjured up the spot of magic needed to usurp long-term chart-topper Red Dead Redemption from the top of the ELSPA GfK Chart-Track All Formats Top 40. Rockstar’s free-roaming Western title had until this week enjoyed a five-week spell in command of the software charts. However, the enduring popularity of the both the LEGO and Harry Potter licenses – as well as a very warm critical reception – was too much for the game to handle.

Red Dead slips into second ahead of third placed Super Mario Galaxy 2 and EA’s 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa in fourth. An impressive debut for 505 Games’ distinctive Naughty Bear sees it shoot straight to number five, one place ahead of another UK chart debutant – Namco Bandai’s long-awaited PS3 RPG Demon’s Souls.

Activision’s Transformers: War for Cybertron enters the listings in eighth place and the publisher's other new release, Singularity, debuts in 38th.

Nvidia GF104 Graphics Processor Pictured
22nd, June, 2010

A Chinese source has revealed the first picture of Nvidia’s upcoming GF104 graphics processor which they received as a qualification sample, While the sample itself is based on the A1 silicon. The GPU is similar to the GF100 and makes use of a Integrated Heat Spreader to dissipate heat from underneath the die of the core. One more thing is that the new chip is rectangular instead of being a square which is a step forward to make more compact boards. The chip is built on a 40nm process and will have lower TDP then the GF 100 based chipset. The first GPU to hold the GF104 chip is the GTX 460.

Reports also say that the GTX 460 will have 336 Cuda cores (instead of 256 Cuda cores) as revealed earlier and a 768Mb GDDR5 memory across a 192-bit memory bandwidth. The TDP of the new GPU will be around 150, which is the same as a GTS 250 while the price will be set at a bit higher than 200$.