News
Headline:
Nvidia Pulls GPU Overheating 196.75 Driver
Date:
March 5, 2010
Story:
Nvidia has pulled its 196.75 driver amid complaints that it's malfunctioning and frying graphics cards.
According to incgamers, several people have had their PC or video cards croak after installing the Nvidia 196.75 drivers. StarCraft II Beta players were the first to notice a problem and following complaints that it was something to do with the latest patch from Blizzard, Blizzard tech support explained that the problem is Nvidia's latest driver and Starcraft II Beta is not the only application affected
Blizzard says the problem has to do with the driver's fans control not working properly. This in turn causes the card to overheat and in some cases it can cause video card, motherboard and/or processor damage. Blizzard support has instructed all players to uninstall the driver immediately and use the older 196.21.
"We're getting reports where users are getting intermittent low FPS after installing these drivers. It seems that it is related to the fan control included in these drivers not working correctly and is causing the video card to overheat on 3D applications. This will affect Warcraft 3, World of Warcraft and StarCraft 2 Beta. Please uninstall the drivers and revert back to the older ones."
When contacted by incgamers, Nvidia said it was aware of the issue and that the drivers had been pulled until they can verify a root cause.
"We are aware that some customers have reported fan speed issues with the latest 196.75 WHQL drivers on NVIDIA.com. Until we can verify and root cause this issue, we recommend that customers stay with, or return to 196.21 WHQL drivers. Release 196.75 drivers have been temporarily removed from our Web site in the meantime."
We'll keep you posted on this one. In the meantime, has anyone experienced this particular problem? Let us know in the comments below.
Headline:
SPIED: Nvidia GeForce GTX 480 Fermi Board Shot
Date:
March 4, 2010
Story:
With CeBit underway in Germany, Nvidia is quietly showing off its GF100-based silicon ahead of its March 26 official unveil.
Earlier this week, we already caught a glimpse of the GeForce GTX 470 with its cutout vents that will work together with the cooler. Now Dutch site Tweakers.net (translated) has a few pictures of the GeForce GTX 480, which shows the GPU without a cooler in the way.
Tweakers.net notes that the package is stamped with an A2 revision, meaning that it may not be final silicon since an A3 is known to exist as well. The site notes that there are 12 chips of 128MB each, making up 1.5GB of RAM. There are also two SLI connectors for the possibility of three-way SLI.
Headline:
Corsair Launches Fast SandForce Powered SSD
Date:
March 4, 2010
Story:
Corsair's been fairly busy lately with the release of multiple SSD products. Today the memory company brings us another one that should look enticing to speed demons called the Force Series of SSDs.
The new Corsair Force SSD line gets its name from SandForce SF-1200 SSD controller, which performs with up to 285MB/s read and 275MB/s write to the MLC NAND memory.
"The Force Series are the fastest SSDs that Corsair has launched to date," stated Kevin Conley, Vice President of Engineering at Corsair. "We have been very impressed with the SandForce SSD Processor innovations in the months that we have been working with them, and we can’t wait to get these extraordinarily fast SSDs into the hands of our most demanding customers."
The Force Series of SSDs are available in capacities of 100GB and 200GB and support the TRIM command in Windows 7.
The Force Series of SSDs will be available sometime in mid-March. Prices weren't announced, but they won't be the SSDs sitting on the cheaper end of things.
Headline:
Nvidia: OEMs to Blame for Re-branding GPUs
Date:
March 4, 2010
Story:
It's big OEMs that are causing this re-branding madness, says Nvidia.
Zoom
Most recently, GeForce 300-level GPUs appeared on Nvidia's website. Although Nvidia made it clear that the 400-level cards would carry the latest GF100 Fermi technology, the new 300-level cards quietly appeared without any fanfare – likely because they were rebrands meant for OEMs.
What's with this rebranding business? Nvidia explained to Bit-tech that it is something that OEMs want in order to keep their spec sheets looking fresh and cutting edge. The company also said that rebranding is something it does at the request of large PC OEMs, but did not name specific brands.
Nvidia stressed that rebranded products are not likely to make it to the retail space, so that the enthusiast buying a GPU won't be faced with confusing rebrands. Those buying a complete PC, however, could be getting an older technology with a new name
Headline:
R.I.P.: Open Casket Funeral for Internet Explorer 6
Date:
March 4, 2010
Story:
Internet
Explorer 6 is old, out of date and tantalizingly close to extinction. One design firm decided to speed things up and has announced the browser's death, along with plans for a funeral set to take place this evening.
With the launch of ie6funeral.com, Aten Design has announced the death of Internet Explorer 6. The group will hold a funeral for the browser this evening in Denver. With hundred of pages of 'Remembrances' for IE6 left on the website, Aten has changed the venue to accommodate the number of RSVPs it has received.
"In the days ahead, we’ll be working to address the overwhelming response to the funeral invitation. What we know so far is there will definitely be a casket, a body, and from all appearances, mourners a-plenty," said Justin from Aten.
If you're interested in attending the funeral, it takes place at Forest Room 5, 2532 15th Street, Denver, CO 80211-3902. Things kick off at 7 p.m. The Aten team urge those who can't make it to send flowers and with prizes for the best dressed (as well the best remembrance), funeral attire is encouraged.
Headline:
WD Launches SLC-based SSD for Heavy Duty Use
Date:
March 4, 201
Story:
In addition to Western Digitals
launch of its consumer-oriented SiliconEdge Blue SSDs, the storage company yesterday also announced the solid-state solution for industrial uses.
WD calls it the SiliconDrive N1x, a 2.5-inch SSD that uses single-level cell (SLC) memory. The N1x SSDs feature a native SATA 3Gb/s interface with target read speeds up to 240MB/s and write transfer rates up to 140MB/s.
What's interesting to note is that WD today also launched the consumer-oriented SiliconEdge Blue SSDs, which have read speeds up to 250MB/s and write transfer rates up to 170MB/s. The difference, of course, is that the industrial N1x uses SLC while the SiliconEdge Blue models use MLC, making them not as well suited to data-intensive applications.
That point is observed on WD's estimates for operational lifespan for both drives. WD estimates that the N1x would go through a write cycle of 701.4GB per day, while the consumer SiliconEdge Blue drive would do less than a tenth of that at 70GB per day. Both drives carry the same MTBF of 1,400,000 hours.
As an OEM product, WD did not reveal pricing, but does list models of up to 128GB in capacity
Headline:
Nvidia Optimus Allows 'Hot' Removal of GPU
Date:
3/3/2010
Story:
Nvidia yanks GPU from live-running computer system.
Nvidia Optimus is a hardware and software technology that determines when applications require discrete graphics via software, supplying power to the GPU in response. This is done automatically, without the need to manually switch between integrated and discrete graphics.
For notebook users, this is a particularly useful technology as the additional power requirements of the GPU are only called upon only when needed. This should extend battery life, making all notebook users happy.
Nvidia has released a video showing Optimus in action that should help drive home how slick this new technology is. Rather than just put the GPU into an idle or low-power state, the system completely powers down the graphics part. With the GPU off, the system doesn't even mind if the dedicated graphics part is completely removed even while running.
"Few people ever get to see this demo because it requires a completely open notebook system – no chassis – just the motherboard, CPU, GPU, Hard drive, and monitor, so it is not exactly portable. This demo is really killer with engineering teams that design notebooks," said Matt Wuebbling, senior product manager of notebooks at Nvidia.
Headline:
Microsoft Boasts 90,000,000 Windows 7 Sold
Date:
3/3/2010
Story:
Even when Windows 7 launched into a warm reception (and brisk sales), Microsoft didn't reveal exact sale numbers for its new OS – until today.Microsoft CFO Peter Klein announced at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom Conference that Windows 7 has sold 90 million licenses to-date.Up until recently, Microsoft's company line when boasting about Windows 7 sales is that is the fastest selling operating system in history, but without any accompanying number.
This news comes just days after the expiration of the free use of Windows 7 Release Candidate.
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