PC News Zone » Gaming

$549 AMD Radeon R9 290X graphics card garners different reviews from trusted tech sites

Chris — Thu, 07 Nov 2013 15:12:26 +0000

AMD finally reveals more information on their AMD Radeon R9 290X graphics card. The graphics card was unveiled last month. It is expected to be one of the best performing graphic cards in the market today.

It boasts of a GCN Architecture and TrueAudio technology which takes your gameplay on a mind blowing level. It delivers the most realistic visuals and sound that you can ever ask for. The AMD Radeon R9 290X is also the fastest among AMD’s 200 series graphic cards.

The R9 290X features the following specs:

2,816 stream processing units
Up to 1 GHz engine clock
4GB GDDR5 memory
Up to 5.0Gbps memory clock speed
320GB/s memory bandwidth (maximum)
5.6 TFLOPS Single Precision compute power
API support for DirectX® 11.2, OpenGL 4.3 and Mantle

It has also garnered mix reviews from the following tech sites:

Anandtech:

“The 290X is not only the fastest card in AMD’s 200 series lineup, but the 290 series in particular also contains the only new GPU in AMD’s latest generation of video cards. Dubbed Hawaii, with the 290 series AMD is looking to have their second wind between manufacturing node launches. By taking what they learned from Tahiti and building a refined GPU against a much more mature 28nm process – something that also opens the door to a less conservative design – AMD has been able to build a bigger, better Tahiti that continues down the path laid out by their Graphics Core Next architecture while bringing some new features to the family.”

Tom’s Hardware:

“After eight months of watching Nvidia go uncontested in the ultra-high-end graphics market, AMD has a new GPU based on existing technology that promises to challenge the top position. It gets mighty loud at times, but you can’t ignore the R9 290X’s price.”

“And now AMD is billing its new Radeon R9 290X as a ready-for-4K solution. Them’s fighting words, particularly with Ultra HD targeted as the next frontier in PC gaming. The technology is still very expensive, and it’s far from refined. But I challenge you to enjoy your favorite title on a 32”, 8.3-million-pixel screen, and then hand it back willingly. Expect 4K to be the battleground on which AMD and Nvidia drop their high-end GPUs moving forward.”

Bit-tech:

“The most important thing to say about the new Radeon R9 290X 4GB is that on the price performance scale it’s a clear winner against Nvidia’s GTX 780 3GB, at the time of writing. It undercuts it by at least £50 in the UK and $100 stateside, yet outperforms it almost universally. In doing so, it makes GTX Titan look even worse value than the GTX 780 3GB already does.”

“Compared with other AMD cards, it’s value isn’t quite as good, however. For example, while its performance is a huge jump over the R9 280X 3GB (up to 40 percent in some tests), it’s also double the price of it. Sadly, diminishing returns are to be expected with the highest end cards. We’ve also seen some very good deals on the HD 7990 6GB recently as well, although whether or not a dual GPU card is for you is another story. These cards also lack the TrueAudio DSP that the R9 290 series features, although this is mostly an unproven technology for now.”

“The card is a decent enough overclocker, although the Overdrive interface certainly needs some work. That said, it shouldn’t be long before better third party overclocking utilities fully support the card’s new approach to overclocking.”

TechPowerUp:

“The Radeon R9 290X is an important product for AMD because it’s the first truly new high-end graphics chip from the company in a very long time (21 months). AMD’s other late 2013 graphics card launches, led by the Radeon R9 280X, are merely rebrands of the company’s close to two-year old HD 7000 series, with price adjustments and repositioning within the product-stack. We must point out that NVIDIA didn’t handle its lineup any differently. Barring the GTX TITAN and its cut-down GTX 780, the rest of the GTX 700 lineup is largely derived from the previous generation GTX 600 series. Under the Radeon R9 290X’s skin is the swanky new 6.2 billion-transistor “Hawaii” silicon. Built on the existing 28 nanometer silicon fabrication process, it has solid credentials on paper, looking NVIDIA’s GTX TITAN and the GK110 silicon it’s based on right in the eye.”

Guru 3D:

“With the release of the Radeon R9 290X series AMD brings an incredibly fast product to the market. It rocks all performance scores in pretty much any game to date. Having that much raw unadulterated horsepower under the hood will bring options to the table. You play your games at 2560×1440 and flick on every quality setting that you can think of. Even then the cards will do a terrific job. For the few of you that already made the step towards UHD or 4K gaming at 3840 x 2160 that where these card do make sense. Admittedly just one 290X would probably be borderline acceptable when you select the finest image quality settings. So I foresee that the Ultra High Definition games simply will go for two R9-290X cards setup in Crossfire, which would be my recommendation. The product is often as fast or faster then a GeForce GTX Titan, whilst it is going to be priced a good chunk below the GeForce GTX 780. So that in retrospect means (even at this price level) performance for money. Honestly I am really excited to see prices below 499 EUR (incl VAT for this little powerhouse of a graphics card. But let’s bullet some stuff up and walk through the several segments and experiences from the review.”

The AMD Radeon R9 290X is now available in the market for $549.

ROCCAT Power-Grid App combine with Phobo gaming keyboard

pcnz_admin — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 08:58:20 +0000

Razer’s switchblade idea may not have made it out of CES 2011, but its dynamic, adaptive keys lived on, both in the outfit’s Star Wars: The Old Republic keyboard and Blade laptop. The hardware is slick, to be sure, but what if you could snag similar functionality for free from your local app marketplace? That’s what ROCCAT hopes to deliver with its newly announced Power-Grid application. In addition to providing quick-key hungry gamers with a programmable touchscreen grid of applications and in-game macros, the handheld suite will let iOS and Android users monitor their gaming PC’s imperative statistics (such as CPU status, RAM usage, hard leave space, etc), manage Facebook, TeamSpeak, Skype and Twitter traffic, and even good-looking tune their audio settings — all without the want to minimize their game.

Of course, delegating all of your text chatter to your smartphone means you’ll be tapping up your responses on its itty-bitty touchscreen keyboard — at least until ROCCAT finishes its friend keyboard, Project Phobo. The modular PC keyboard not only provides a dock for your Power-Grid equipped mobile, but also lets you rejoinder to texts, chats and tweets using its comprehensive array of keys. Pairing your phone with the Phobo will even route declare calls to your PC’s gaming headset, leaving you free to continue to rack up kills without lacking principal business calls. The German peripheral outfit will be rolling out the beta to iOS devices after CeBIT, and says an Android version is scheduled for free at Gamescom 2012. Hit the break for the official press free and a see at the Phobo keyboard.

A First for PC Gaming: Command Using a Smartphone with ROCCAT Power-Grid

Exclusive technology represents a breakthrough in PC gaming control, makes expensive touch-display gaming devices obsolete, works with every PC, and is free to get started

Hamburg, 6 March 2012 â€“ German gaming peripherals manufacturer, ROCCAT Studios, has introduced a groundbreaking technology called the ROCCATâ„¢ Power-Grid that â€“ for the first time in the history of PC gaming â€“ lets players control their games and computer with their smartphone. And, in what is surely music to the ears of many players, the Power-Grid is completely free to get started.

Gaming evolved

“Some gaming companies claim PC gaming is sick and needs help,” says RenÃ© Korte, ROCCAT Founder and CEO. “We at ROCCAT have never thought that. We know PC gaming is alive and well. It just needs to keep evolving. Power-Grid represents that natural evolution. Why? Because it makes possible the dream of millions of gamers: to stay fully absorbed in the game no matter what happens in the real world. It works with every PC, makes expensive touch-display gaming devices obsolete, and is completely free to get started. Is PC gaming sick? Hardly. Is it dead? Of course not. It’s evolving and getting a hell of a lot better.”
Connect, monitor and control â€“ all from a smartphone

The free-to-download Power-Grid is a tool that lets gamers connect, monitor and control their game and PC in real time while staying completely absorbed in the action. The app comes standard with four control displays â€“ or “grids”. Three grids have been preloaded with a wide range of essential gaming tools â€“ and the fourth is completely customizable.

The first of Power-Grid’s three pre-installed control grids is called the “Incoming Center”. It routes all outside voice and text communication â€“ from Skypeâ„¢, FacebookÂ®, TeamSpeak, Twitter, etc. â€“ to an at-a-glance display on the gamer’s smartphone. This means players can get messages from friends and teammates while staying in the game.

The “Stats Control” grid also comes preloaded with Power-Grid, letting gamers quickly and easily monitor their computer’s vital data via their smartphone â€“ info such as CPU status, hard drive space and network traffic.
The third preloaded display is the “Sound Control” grid, which allows gamers to set and fine tune every aspect of their gaming audio using just their smartphone. Gamers can even change audio settings in, for example, Skypeâ„¢, with in-game music, or with their media player together or independently â€“ for custom-tailored audio control made simple.

Create, build and share

In addition to the free Power-Grid app, gamers will need to download the free ROCCAT Power-Grid Launcher from www.roccat.org. This program not only connects smartphone and PC, it also features a powerful editor that lets players create their own custom control icons, or “blocks” â€“ like individually-designed macro buttons from their favorite games, or specialty buttons like a pizza timer â€“ for the ultimate in command customization.
Plus, users can easily share their self-styled blocks and grids with teammates, colleagues and friends.

Combine

At the end of the year gamers will be able to connect their Power-Grid-loaded smartphone to ROCCAT Smart Gear â€“ new gaming hardware that delivers the ultimate smart gaming experience.
First on the horizon is Project Phobo â€“ the “Phone Board”. The Phobo is not only one of the world’s most advanced gaming keyboards, it’s also the perfect home for a smartphone using Power-Grid. And once gamers have connected their Power-Grid-enabled smartphone to the Phobo, they’ll never need to separate the two. That’s because players can write any kind of text message using the Phobo’s keyboard â€“ via FacebookÂ®, Skypeâ„¢, TeamSpeak, you name it â€“ and because the Phobo also lets gamers take voice calls with a connected headset. And while connected, the Phobo will naturally charge a user’s smartphone in case they do need to unplug it.

And following in the footsteps of the world famous ROCCAT Apuri Active USB Hub with Mouse Bungee, ROCCAT plans on introducing the Apuri 2.0 â€“ a ROCCAT Smart Gear gaming assistant that acts as a stylish stand for a gamer’s Power-Grid-enabled smartphone â€“ and is the perfect way to keep it charged for when a player needs to step away from the game.

When will it be available?

Select attendees will be able to see the Power-Grid in action for the first time at CeBIT 2012. And everyone can apply to be a beta tester at power-grid.roccat.org.
Initial versions of Power-Grid work with all Apple iPhones using the latest version of iOS, as well as with the iPod touch. In addition to a compatible smartphone, Power-Grid requires a PC with Wi-Fi capability. ROCCAT will launch Power-Grid for Android smartphones at gamescom 2012.

Blog: My Name Is Kingsley, And Iâ€™m A Notebook Gamer

PC News Zone — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 07:00:23 +0000

Editor’s note: This is a contributed blog post from Kingsley Nwaogu, who won the grand prize in our “Why I&rsqu

PS Vita face-tracking demo tips SmartAR gaming [Video]

PC News Zone — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 06:36:59 +0000

Sony has demonstrated the face-recognition and tracking capabilities of the upcoming PlayStation Vita handheld, using the portable consoleâ€™s front-facing camera to track head movement and have on-screen avatars respond accordingly. In the demo, filmed byÂ Siliconera and which you can see after the cut, Sony showed a two-way video chat being held between a pair of animated avatars, the head, mouth, eye and other movements being mapped to those of the gamer.

Although head-tracking has been done before, the system Sony demonstrated was able to track minor details like eye-blinking and eyebrow twitches, for a more lifelike animation. Sony wasnâ€™t saying a video calling app would necessarily be the final use of the technology, 4gamer reports, but that the software was merely a demonstration of the power of the Vitaâ€™s abilities and its potential in augmented reality (AR) gaming.

Rather than using specific glyphs that can be identified and tracked by an AR system, Sonyâ€™sÂ Yoshikatsu Kanemaru suggested that objects and even people could be distinguished by the Vita and have computer-generated graphics overlaid. Itâ€™s a technology that appears to have borrowed from Sonyâ€™s previous SmartAR research, which canÂ intelligently spot unique elements -such as posters, magazines or more complex forms, like body outlines â€“ in the cameraâ€™s frame and then track them accordingly.

Archive augmented reality gaming PlayStation Vita PS Vita video

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Razer Transformers collectorâ€™s edition gear isnâ€™t more than meets the eye

PC News Zone — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 15:58:07 +0000

The gaming geeks over at Razer have been making some of the best computer peripherals like mice and keyboards for gamers for a number of years now. The company has more recently taken to releasing special edition mice rather than completely new designs. The favorite mouse to get the custom collector’s edition touch from Razer is its DeathAdder mouse. In fact, the last time we talked about the DeathAdder it was getting dressed up in Dragon Age II livery.

Razer is back and that DeathAdder mouse is getting dressed up for fans of the Transformers franchise. The mice are for the tie in to the new flick that opens this week in theaters everywhere. The DeathAdder comes in both Autobot and Decepticon versions with the good guy mice in red for Optimus Prime and yellow for Bumblebee. The bad guys are in silver for Megatron and purple for the new baddies that pop out of the dust on the moon.

All of the mice have the same 3.5G sensor and 3500dpi sensitivity. You can pick up any of the four designs for $69.99 each. To complete your Transformers desk swag you can also get a Transformers Vespula dual sided gaming mouse pad with Optimus on one side and Megatron on the other for $44.99. Razer also has a line of laptop sleeve cases in Transformers style for $49.99 each.

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SteelSeries Diablo III headset and mouse: demon slaying flair for your skull and desktop

pcnz_admin — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 06:46:25 +0000

STEELSERIES ANNOUNCES FAMILY OF EXCLUSIVE DIABLOÂ® III PERIPHERALS, CO-DESIGNED WITH BLIZZARD ENTERTAINMENT

The New DiabloÂ® III Mouse and Headset Feature “Demon Red” Illuminated Designs and Technology Specifically Tailored for this Mouse-Intensive, Dark Fantasy Game

LOS ANGELES â€“ E3 â€“ JUNE 6, 2011 â€“ As the game industry waits for E3 to kick off this week, SteelSeries, a leading manufacturer of professional gaming peripherals today announced a co-branding partnership with Blizzard Entertainment on the SteelSeries DiabloÂ® III family of products. The Diablo III Mouse, Diablo III Headset, and two Diablo III QcK mousepads – Witch Doctor and Barbarian Editions, were co-designed with technology, hardware, and illumination features that support the look and feel of the third installment of Blizzard Entertainment’s highly anticipated, mouse-intensive Diablo series.

“The level of excitement for the Diablo III release is massive. When the opportunity was presented to partner up with Blizzard for a new family of co-branded peripherals, we knew that they had to be engineered for this particular type of gameplay by being both durable and able to bring out the Diablo III theme onto a player’s desktop,” said Kim Rom, SteelSeries CMO. “The mouse offers both simplicity for new players and unprecedented durability that will support the series’ distinctive mouse-driven gameplay, while the headset optimizes the high, spine-chilling snarls of otherworldly creatures and the booming lows of a barbarian battle cry. Together, the headset and mouse will help immerse players into the game through their extended comfort, compelling designs and high performance.”

SteelSeries Diablo III Mouse
The fast-paced, dark fantasy world of Diablo III features high-velocity gameplay that benefits from quick response times and a weapon that will withstand the punishment of rapid clicks. The SteelSeries Diablo III Mouse features a laser sensor with up to 5,000 CPI, 7 ergonomically positioned buttons that can survive relentless punishment with a guaranteed lifespan of 10 million clicks – more than 3x the click lifespan of an average mouse. The mouse’s ambidextrous shape and comfortable matte grip coating makes it a versatile option for all gaming grip styles.

In true Diablo III style, the SteelSeries mouse is enhanced with “demon red” illumination in 3 areas on the mouse â€“ the scroll wheel, CPI Indicator, and Diablo III logo. You can also customize the logo with ON/OFF illumination and 3 levels of pulsation. While the mouse hardware was built for battle, including the double-braided nylon cord and gold-plated USB connection, the software and setting capabilities are easy to navigate through preloaded, SteelSeries Engine software. Compatible with both MacÂ® and PC, the software offers players a drag & drop Diablo III-themed interface with pre-defined skills and game commands. All 7 mouse buttons can also be quickly remapped for a personalized set-up. The SteelSeries DiabloÂ® III Mouse’s MSRP will be $69.99 / â‚¬69.99.

SteelSeries Diablo III Headset
Whether it’s the faint clinks of loot dropping or the booming bass of demon spawn meeting their end, Diablo III is a game that must be heard. The SteelSeries Diablo III Headset has a lightweight, over-the-head suspension design that provides players with closed-type, leather earcups keeping the outside world out and the game sound in. Its earcups comfortably surround the ear and reproduce an optimized soundscape through 50mm driver units that are meant to immerse a player even further into the Burning Hells.

Its matte-black finish replicates the SteelSeries Diablo III Mouse theme by featuring a unique, knot-work design on the headband, together with “demon red” illumination. The first illuminated headset designed by SteelSeries, it will offer players ON/OFF illumination and 3 levels of pulsation options. Coming from a total of 18 LED lights throughout the headset, the red glow is seen in two places each on the right and left side – surrounding the edge of each ear cup, and the three Diablo slashes.

The headset will also include SteelSeries’ signature, uni-directional retractable microphone-system for clear voice communication through Battle.netÂ®. Its in-line volume and mute controls are found on a durable, double-braided nylon cord with a USB connector. For players looking for more control over their sound settings, the headset is also powered through SteelSeries Engine software, where they will find microphone volume and equalizer settings via an easy-to-navigate Diablo III interface. The Headset MSRP will be $119.99 / â‚¬119.99.

SteelSeries Diablo III Mousepads
To accompany the SteelSeries Diablo III Mouse, players can choose between two high-quality, cloth mousepad designs. The SteelSeries award-winning QcK mousepads have a non-slip rubber base to keep the mousepad from moving and an optimized texture surface featuring Diablo III artwork. The SteelSeries Diablo III QcK Barbarian Edition includes official character artwork of the barbarian class along with the deep reds and earthy tones associated with this brutal fighter. The SteelSeries Diablo III QcK Witch Doctor Edition summons the cooler, green and purple tones that are linked to this new and powerful summoning character. Each will have a $14.99 / â‚¬14.99 MSRP.

Available at game launch, the SteelSeries Diablo III family of products will be available online and in select retail locations. To catch hands-on previews of the new products, and news about all things SteelSeries and Diablo III check out http://steelseries.com/diablo3. Be sure to follow SteelSeries to stay up to date throughout E3 at http://steelseries.com as well as on Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr.

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PR: AMD resurrects its ‘FX’ brand for speed freaks, lexicon lovers

pcnz_admin — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 05:47:49 +0000

AMD Continues to Power the Ultimate PC Gaming and Hi-Def Experience With FX Brand and New “Gaming Evolved” Collaborations
June 7, 2011 12:01 AM EDT

LOS ANGELES, CA — (MARKET WIRE) — 06/07/11 — AMD (NYSE: AMD) today reintroduced the FX brand for PC processors and platforms at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3). FX-branded products will be geared toward enthusiast PCs and HD entertainment aficionados. AMD also announced new members for its “Gaming Evolved” program, driving the PC gaming experience forward with native HD3D support in Eidos Montreal’s “Deus Ex: Human Revolution,” and new collaborations with Bioware, Creative Assembly and Codemasters.

FX Brand Enables Top-Flight Experience for Gamers and HD Media Enthusiasts The FX brand is associated with AMD’s fastest processors and most powerful platforms — those designed for unrestrained PC performance for the ultimate gaming and HD entertainment experiences. In addition, these processors and platforms drive rich visuals for graphics-intensive applications and high-resolution AMD Eyefinity multi-monitor configurations. The first platform to earn the FX title, the “Scorpius” platform, will feature the now-available AMD 9-series chipset motherboards and AMD Radeon” HD 6000 Series graphics cards, plus the upcoming “Zambezi” unlocked, native eight-core processor.(1)

“AMD’s FX brand will enable an over-the-top experience for PC enthusiasts,” said Leslie Sobon, vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing, AMD. “By combining an unlocked, native eight-core processor, the latest in chipset technology, and AMD’s latest graphics cards, FX customers will enjoy an unrivalled feature set and amazing control over their PC’s performance.”

AMD Adds New Members, Titles to Gaming Evolved Furthering its commitment to PC gaming innovation and promoting an open and advanced experience for gamers, AMD continues to add members and grow relationships in the second year of the Gaming Evolved program. True to its previously announced commitment to PC gamers, AMD remains focused on working with the best software developers to maximize the user experience. Gaming Evolved combines AMD’s expanded support for Microsoft DirectXï¿½ 11 games (which use the latest graphics technology from Microsoft), along with AMD Eyefinity multiple-monitor configurations, AMD Dual Graphics (which enable multiple graphics processors in one computer), and native AMD HD3D support to enable standards-based stereo 3D display capabilities for a truly immersive 3D visual experience.(2)

“Since the launch of AMD’s open stereo 3D initiative last year, developers have been embracing native 3D support that will work with a range of 3D glasses and monitors from different vendors,” said Neal Robison, director of ISV Relations, AMD. “This excitement by developers is starting to pay off with the announcement by Eidos-Montreal that ‘Deus Ex: Human Revolution,’ will enable native stereo 3D support.”

With AMD HD3D, gamers can experience amazing stereoscopic 3D gaming image quality for a more realistic experience. AMD HD3D technology supports more than 400 titles through AMD’s technology partners, and AMD’s open 3D ecosystem approach encourages the broadest selection of 3D solutions, available at the most affordable cost.

“We are thrilled to be working with AMD, an innovative leader in PC hardware and software, incorporating their technology into Deus Ex: Human Revolution for PC,” said Stephane D’Astous, general manager of Eidos-Montreal, a Square Enix studio. “It’s also exciting that Deus Ex: Human Revolution is the first video game title optimized to natively utilize AMD HD3D-capable hardware. Coupled with AMD Eyefinity functionality, PC gamers will be even more immersed in the action-rich gameplay and compelling storyline.”

In addition to Eidos, AMD’s new partners include major developers of critically acclaimed titles, including Bioware’s “Dragon Age II,” Creative Assembly’s “SHOGUN 2: Total War” and Codemasters’ “DiRT 3,” which will include native support for DirectX 11, AMD Eyefinity and AMD Dual Graphics technologies.

AMD at E3 2011 E3 attendees can experience these stunning technologies with their own eyes at the AMD booth (#823 South Hall), which will feature demos of AMD technologies and upcoming game titles including “Orcs Must Die!” from Robot Entertainment and DirectX 11-enabled “Blacklight: Retribution” from Perfect World.

Supporting Resources

Read AMD posts from E3 on the Game Blog.
Learn more about AMD Gaming Evolved here.
Get additional information on AMD HD3D technology here.
Follow news from the AMD team on Twitter at @AMD_Unprocessed.
Become a fan of AMD technology on Facebook.

About AMD AMD (NYSE: AMD) is a semiconductor design innovator leading the next era of vivid digital experiences with its groundbreaking AMD Fusion Accelerated Processing Units (APUs) that power a wide range of computing devices. AMD’s server computing products are focused on driving industry-leading cloud computing and virtualization environments. AMD’s superior graphics technologies are found in a variety of solutions ranging from game consoles, PCs to supercomputers. For more information, visit http://www.amd.com.

AMD, the AMD Arrow logo, Radeon and combinations thereof, are trademarks of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. Other names are for informational purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective owners.

(1) AMD’s product warranty does not cover damages caused by overclocking even when overclocking is enabled via AMD software.

(2) AMD Eyefinity technology works with games that support non-standard aspect ratios, which is required for panning across multiple displays. To enable more than two displays, additional panels with native DisplayPort” connectors, and/or DisplayPort” compliant active adapters to convert your monitor’s native input to your cards DisplayPort” or Mini-DisplayPort” connector(s), are required. Support for six simultaneous displays may require complementary products compatible with DisplayPort 1.2 Multi-Stream Transport. Maximum number of configured displays may vary — check with your component or system manufacturer for specific model capabilities and supported technologies. SLS (“Single Large Surface”) functionality requires an identical display resolution on all configured displays.

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NVIDIA Launches PhysX 3.0 With Support For Emerging Gaming Platforms

pcnz_admin — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 17:41:58 +0000

I am very pleased to announce the launch of a brand new version of the very popular NVIDIA PhysX SDK. The new PhysX 3.0 SDK is available to all registered developers on our developer support website located at:Â http://supportcenteronline.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=1949

PhysX is the worldâ€™s most pervasive physics solution for highly realistic and real-time simulation based effects for games, film and more. Version 3.0 of PhysX has been over three years in the making and features a new modular architecture and a completely rewritten PhysX engine. It provides a significant boost in overall performance, as well as efficient, reliable simulations across a broad spectrum of multi-core gaming devices â€“ such as PCs, notebooks and gaming consoles, as well as emerging gaming platforms like handheld game devices, tablets, and smartphones.

Letâ€™s take a look at some of the key features and capabilities of PhysX 3.0 SDK:

Larger Levels: Game levels are getting larger these days. That means they require more actors. In PhysX 3.0, developers can combine multiple actors into a single â€œaggregateâ€, which is managed as a single bounding-box entity in the broadphase stage of the collision pipeline. This reduces the computing load required to predict collisions between actors, and helps improve overall performance and memory efficiency of PhysX-3 relative to earlier versions.

Streaming: PhysX 3.0 enables efficient streaming of asset data into a simulation through a new feature,binary in-place serialization, which allows quick and memory-efficient insertion of actors into a scene. In addition, out-of-scene actor creation, which allows actors to be created outside the scene and stored rather than being created and destroyed on demand, provides developers with better asset management while minimizingÂ troublesome compute load spikes.

More Effective Multithreading: The new Task Manager with managed thread pool allows games to take advantage of multi-core processors on all platforms, resulting in greatly increased performance and a much improved gaming experience.

Flexible and Powerful Tools: In addition to a highly optimized physics runtime, NVIDIA isÂ releasing improved tools for artists that have been tailored to work within the developerâ€™s asset production pipeline.Â A new release of PhysX Visual Debugger allows superior performance profiling, detailed memory analysis and improved visualization of all PhysX content across all major platforms.

PhysX 3.0 is available for all major gaming platforms, including PC, Xbox360â„¢, PLAYSTATIONÂ®3, OSX, Linux and Android. PhysX 3.0 is designed to run on a variety of CPU architectures. Performance can be accelerated by any CUDAâ„¢-enabled NVIDIA GPU â€“ including any GeForce 8-series or higher graphics card.

Like its predecessor, PhysX 2.8, the new PhysX 3.0 SDK binary version is available without charge to all registered and platform-authorized developers for both commercial and non-commercial applications.

For more information on NVIDIA PhysX and APEX technologies, please visit: www.nvidia.com/physx.

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