B.Ob.

A *cough* common system supposely scores 10200 3DMarks in 06, thou I think they are on crack. Maybe if they said common NEW system, then I would believe them.

Happy Birthday Nem!!!

ATI Radeon HD 3000 Series Real-Time Demo Ping Pong: DirectX® 10.1 demonstration and video The Ping Pong demo illustrates some of the new graphical techniques made possible by the new features of Microsoft DirectX® 10.1 and the ATI Radeon HD 3000 Series of graphics processors. First shown on the AMD "Codename: Spider" platform, the demo shows off a new lighting technique known as real-time global illumination, together with a scalable physics simulation optimized for multi-core systems. It's also interactive - move around the room and see how many ping pong balls you can maneuver into the goals!

Cool, good luck!!!

GeForce 9800 GX2 in Quad SLI Tested "Officially, Quad SLI isn’t due out till the 25th, so there is still a high chance that NVIDIA have another driver up their sleeves. We can see that we just couldn’t play Crysis at 1920 x 1200 which is a bit of a bummer due to the fact that at medium I think we could have pulled out some decent numbers."

Strange, my pc's are busy.

CoH v2.202 to v2.300 - 40.63MB Of course this applies to Opposing Forces as well. GamersHell.com Company of Heroes Patch 2.300 Changelog Online - 2v2, 3v3, 4v4 Team Automatch enabled. - Added a number of missing tooltips and information popups. - Re-factored competition logic for ranks and results. - Fixed some bugs where whispers were not being sent properly. - Leaderboard search is now not case sensitive. - Fixed a number of crashes. - Fixed a bug that would lock out valid match type options when kicked from a team or an invitation is cancelled. - Players should no longer get disconnected from a game if the server goes down. - Forcing ping updates when joining automatch games. - Tabs will now flash if there is activity in the tab and it is not the currently selected tab. (ie. Game setup / Automatch) - Reduced frequency of the Ping of Shame warning for other players. - Fixed a performance tooltip bug that made it display the wrong number of players. - Fixed some arbitration logic for random teams. - Notifications will now be sent if the user ranks up or down. - Fixed a number of issues with tool-tip layers. - Added "Exit Game" option on the Count Not Verify Media pop-up. - Refactored host notifications and automatch messages. - Added user feedback to the Relic Online Account Details screen whenever an invalid input is given. - User is now removed from channels when disconnected. - Responses to invitations while in game and while returning to main menu after a game will be sent automatically. - Resolved the issue where a win was awarded to the wrong faction. Fixes - Fixed a game crash caused by a British player producing a Cromwell Command Tank and using the Creeping Smoke Barrage ability near any ally tank. - Gliders should not be able to land in enemy base sectors. - Laying barbed wire should be fixed and back to how it was in vanilla CoH. - Fixed the minimap so that it is not mis-aligned. - Fixed a bug that prevented the British from acquiring resources properly if the HQ truck was moved. - Items are now transferred to remaining members of a squad instead of dropping them on the ground. If the team is fully absorbed into a team weapon, the items are dropped. - Fixed AI unit production limit so that certain units won’t be built more than specified amount. - Added additional unit demand multiplier, which lowers production demand if AI player has the same unit already. Bug Fixes - Removed phantom Vet 2 and Vet 3 upgrades on Panzer Elite Jagdpanther and Hetzer. - Fixed Panzer Elite Incendiary Mortar weapon causing constant engine criticals - Panzer Elite Light AT halftrack modifier set correctly for cooldown modifiers (was enable 2.5, is now multiply 1.5) - Panzer Elite Fallschirmjager attack trigger priority value when camouflaged reduced from 90 to 80. Fallschirmjager will more reliably exit camouflage to attack infantry targets when autoattacking. - Springfield Sniper Rifle had some backwards modifiers fixed (min cooldown was larger than max cooldown) - British Lee Enfield should play bolt action animation now. Fire Wind up variable added 1.3 seconds, removed 1.3 seconds from cooldown to compensate. - Updated penetration of captured Bazookas and Recoilless Rifles vs some British Tanks. - Wehrmacht Pistol armed weapon crews had their camouflage attack priorities tuned and will reveal themselves less often when camouflaged. - Fixed flamethrower infantry death critical. Critical type now only applies to squad member carrying flamethrower. - Fixed timing issues and left behind sim-boxes with several smoke abilities. - Commando squad reinforcements cost increased to fix UI rounding issue (UI showed 34, actual cost was 35). Cost should display as 35 now. - Fixed Hetzer Reinforcement requirements to match squad popcap - Panzer Elite vehicles should visually use proper Panzer Elite crews. - British mortar emplacements no longer have phantom third crew member. - Fixed a bug in British Captain FOO artillery. Artillery will recharge properly if Captain is moved quickly before artillery starts to land. - Bug fix for Overwatch Artillery. Overwatch Artillery projectiles won't intersect incorrectly with world objects enroute to their target destination. - Bug fix for Nebelwerfers. When shooting nearby tall objects (buildings etc.) the rockets could intersect with the building and destroy the Neblewerfer crew. This should be addressed for most situations. - Fixed several UI and text issues. - Fixed an issue with sniper camouflage. Both Wehrmacht and Allied snipers can be detected if a unit gets within 3m. - Fixed a bug where British Artillery would not leave overwatch mode when killed and taken over by enemy troops. - Fixed a bug where Panzer Elite Scout cars could not 'un-setup' if the point it was securing was Scorched. - Fixed recharge timer on sector artillery. Recharge timer and duration were not matching. - Fixed a bug where British Mortars would not leave overwatch or counterbattery mode when killed and taken over by enemy troops. - Fixed a bug where Fallschirmjager were able to infiltrate from neutral trenches or friendly vehicles. - Registered artillery will hide properly when Wehrmacht player has lost their HQ - Wehrmacht assault will work on trenches. - British Cromwell Flank Speed ability will be disabled when the Cromwell is Hull Down. - Building moved on Hochwald Gap to prevent US and Wehrmacht AT units from getting stuck - Map balance fix on Hill 331 - Map bug fix on Route N13 Gameplay - Wehrmacht and Panzer Elite Panzerschreck projectile scatter tuned to closer match that of US bazooka. This will reduce number of accidental hits on enemy vehicles. - Wehrmacht and Panzer Elite Panzerschreck accuracy at short and medium ranges increased. - Stuka zu Fuss rocket damage modifiers have been tuned vs British infantry. Damage modifier reduced from 1.0 to 0.4 - A new mine-drop ability was added to the Panzer Elite Munition halftrack and the Goliath Drop was moved to the Funkwagen 'Vampire' Halftrack. - PE Munitions halftrack minelaying ability shortcut is set to 'N' - Panzer Elite AT halftrack Treadbreaker ability had its range increassed from 32 to 42 - Allied Snipers don't get a camouflaged speed modifier until they reach vet 3. - HMGs (i.e. Vickers, Browning, .50 cal,mg42 HMG) increased 1.15 suppression vs tp_infantry_soldier. - HMGs have increased suppression area (from 12 to 15m) - US Quad 50 halftrack weapon does more damage and has more accuracy vs pinned targets. Suppression modifier boosted to 1.2 - US Quad 50 halftrack upgrade reduced from 125 to 100 munition. - Wehrmacht MG42 LMG suppression modifer to tp_infantry and tp_infantry soldier increased from 1.0 to 1.15 - US P47 Strafing run increased in damage vs tp_infantry_soldier - tuned strafing run and P47 weapons to improve effectiveness against enemy infantry. - Additional tuning to P-47 Strafing run. Weapons do more suppression, but are less effective vs units in cover. - Tuning target step distance on Strafing run. Should spread damage more along length of strafing run and bombing runs. - US Supply Drop reduced in cost from 200mp to 100mp - US Ranger Reinforce cost increased to 45mp - US Off-map Howitzer barrage delay set to 3 seconds. - Panzer Elite 222 Armoured Car gets 30 health bonus when receiving any first level veterancy. - Added Button Vehicle ability to British Bren carrier. This ability works on the unupgraded Bren carrier, and is replaced by Armor Piercing Rounds when the Vickers MMG is upgraded. - Tuned priority of Bren Carrier weapon and modified Bren Carrier Button ability so that it more reliably shoots at target of Button Ability. - Panzerfaust damage modifier reduced vs Bren Carrier from 2 to 1.5 - Reduced accuracy of AT weapons and Panzerschreck vs Bren carrier (moving accuracy modifier set to .5) - Kettenkrad set to use a different turn plan with modified rotation rates to to help it from being blocked by micro-managed jeeps. - Wehrmacht Inspired Assault cooldown weapon modifier changed from .2 to .6 to fix sniper issues. - Bren Carrier percent unload on death changed from .5 to .75 so more garrisoned units will survive destruction of the carrier. - Tuned some priorities on Wehrmacht Ostwind weapon to reduce its chances of shooting at tanks over emplacements. - Wehrmacht Medical Kits can be used inside garrisonable structures or vehicles. - StuH 105mm does more damage to hedgerows. - Changed Wehrmacht sniper cooldown modifiers on veterancy from 2.5s shorter cooldown to .6 cooldown modifier - British HQ trucks are limited to one Secured Resourcing Upgrade. - Damage on US Turret mounted and M3 halftrack .50 cal HMGs increased vs tp_infantry_soldier. - Increased Radius of Wehrmacht Rocket Barrage from 15m to 20m - Increased Damage of Wehrmacht Rocket Barrage weapon from 100 to 175 - Reduced cost of Wehrmacht Rocket Barrage by 50mun to 200mun - Reduced number of shells in Rocket Barrage from 15 to 12. FX changed. - Reduced delay of Wehrmacht Firestorm barrage by approximately 3 seconds. - Wehrmacht 280mm Rocket Barrage weapon tuned vs buildings and British HQs. Damage increased vs British HQs and decreased vs US buildings. - British Commando Infantry reinforce cost increased from 25 to 35 - British Commando Concealing Smoke and Commando Grenades share timers - abilities cannot be used at the same time. - British Commando Glider, with the exception of the Glider HQ, will not allow reinforcements or be able to build units outside friendly territory. - British Commandos cannot capture when using Concealing Smoke. Using smoke while capturing will disable the capture. - British Commando Gliders will be able to land anywhere except enemy base sectors. - Suppression on some HMG and LMGs increased vs tp_infantry_soldier. - Wehrmacht bunkers gain 300 health when Wehrmacht players choose Fortify the Perimeter command tree ability. - Wehrmacht Observation Points receive a health bonus when Wehrmacht players choose Fortify the Perimeter from the Defensive Doctrine. - Wehrmacht and Fallschirmjager Panzerfaust damage increased vs heavy armour (roughly 50% more damage) and increased roughly 30% vs Light Armoured vehicles - British Lt. Heroic charge duration reduced from 20s to 15s. - Added one more reload cycle to US Ranger M1 thompson. Rangers would fire two bursts before reloading. Will now fire three. - US Ranger M1 Thomspon cooldowns and reloads tuned to decrease damage output. - Jagdpanther and Hetzer squad veterancy requirements doubled. These tanks take longer to reach each level of veterancy. - PIAT ambush ability cost removed. - British Overwatch artillery projectile speed increased marginally - British Overwatch weapon scatter tuning adjusted - angle reduced, area reduced marginally. Should make for more concentrated effect - British Overwatch recharge reduced. Overwatch used to take 30s to disable itself, now takes 22s. - British Overwatch ability passively reduces the recharge rate of 25pounder barrage abilities - British Creeping barrage has increased artillery rounds incoming. - British Creeping barrage passively reduces the recharge rate of 25pounder artillery barrage abilities. - British 25pounder rotates faster to make it more responsive during Counter Batttery operations - British Artillery in Counter Battery mode will fire back at enemy artillery even if it does not damage friendly units - British Counter Battery should be a bit more responsive. - British Counter Battery takes less time to disable itself. 22s instead of 30s. - British Sappers will move at normal speed outside territory when upgraded as Demolition and Disposal Section - British Mortar Overwatch will use proper range (same as Supercharge) - Infantry Antitank weapons will do less damage to Flak 88s and Flakvierling weapons. - Panzer Elite roadblocks offer heavy cover. - Panzer Elite roadblocks are buildable as walls and the object was made smaller to accomodate more precise construction. - Panzer Elite Panzer Grenadiers are able to construct barbed wire when they get RoadBlocks. - British Captain's FOO artillery ability is improved. First round lands faster and does suppression. That round is followed shortly by 3 rounds and then finally by 5 rounds in expanding areas. - British FOO artillery tuned. - Panzer Elite 22x, Greyhound M8, and Werhmacht SdKfz 234 Puma Armoured Cars no longer use a unique rear damage critical type. - Light vehicles (M8s, 234 Armoured Cars, Panzer Elite Armoured cars) are easier to hit when suffering engine damage. Engine damage increases accuracy penalty to 1.25, Engine destroyed increases accuracy penalty to 1.6. - Panzer Elite Fallschirmjager Panzerfaust ability recharges much faster and no longer requires munition halftracks for a faster recharge. - British Cromwell had some target priority issues resolved. - British Command trucks can no longer reinforce when mobile. - Panzer Elite Luftwaffe Flakvierling cost reduced from 300mp\35fuel to 300mp\30fuel - Panzer Elite Marder III accuracy and damage reduced vs AT guns. Accuracy from 1 to .65, damage from 1 to .65 - Marder III has a short delay in movement when it leaves "Site Main Gun" ability. - British Firefly damage reduced vs AT guns from 1 to .65 - British Firefly cost increased from 420mp\100fuel to 450mp\100fuel. - British Firefly reload time increased by 2.5s. - British Command tank modifies reload time of Firefly by an additional .8 to offset increase in reload time. - British Firefly reload duration multipliers increased at short and medium ranges. - Wehrmacht Panther Cost reduced from 640mp\125fuel to 600mp\110fuel. - Wehrmacht Panther main gun range increased from 40 to 47.5. - Allied Sherman 76mm Upgun upgrade reduced in cost from 200mp\85fuel to 200mp\50fuel - King Tigers and Jagdpanthers have reduced accuracy vs moving M10 Tank Destroyers. - Panzer Elite Wirbelwind suppression increased. - Panzer Elite Wirbelwind Accuracy vs airplane targets increased. - Wehrmacht Stug and StuH improved vs British Emplacements and Command trucks (penetration increased, damage marginally increased). - Wehrmacht and Panzer Elite Goliaths receive camouflage similar to Fallschirmjager. When in cover and not moving, the Goliaths will be camouflaged. - Panzer Elite Infantry Halftrack health increased by 15. - British Casualty Clearing station requires 5 casualties to spawn a 5 man squad (previously required 6 casualties for a 5 man squad.) - Wehrmacht Stormtrooper MP44 upgrade available at Assault Phase. - Panzer Elite Sector Artillery duration increased to 130s from 90s. - Wehrmacht Panther main gun accuracy vs infantry reduced from .75 to .6 - Wehrmacht Veteran tank top mounted MG does less damage. - US Pershing tank main gun penetration increased by 30% vs Panthers (0.5 to 0.65), approximately 80% vs Jagdpanthers (approx 0.22 to approx 0.4). - US Pershing tank main gun damage increased by 10% vs Panthers, Jagdpanthers. - Wehrmacht Mortar Smoke ability is available from Skirmish Phase - Wehrmacht Nebelwerfer recharge is increased from 60 to 90s, but decreases by 10s at each level of support veterancy. - Wehrmacht Knight's Cross Holders have their Panzerfaust ability available at the first level of veterancy. - Sherman Smoke upgrade reduced by 15fuel. - Panzer Elite Marder III deflection damage modifier reduced from .5 to .35. APCR upgrade to Marder III remains at .5 deflection damage multiplier. - Most tank guns, Bofors emplacements, have had their moving target modifiers improved vs Armoured Car targets (M8s, SdKfz234 Pumas, Panzer Elite 22x) from .6 to .75. - British 17pounder antitank gun accuracy modifier against moving armoured cars increased from .1 to .3 - Wehrmacht Stug IV main gun accuracy reduced vs tp_infantry_soldier target type (British Infantry) - Panzer Elite 221 Scout car build time increased by 10s. - Bren Carrier receives small health boost when upgrading with Vickers MMG. - Tuned some stacking modifiers on British Command Tank veterancy abilities. - Wehrmacht Sniper build time reduced by 10s to 50s - Wehrmacht Officer build time reduced from 60s to 45s - Fallschirmjager reinforce cost reduced from 45 to 37 - Fallschirmjager veterancy values reduced from 12/26/40 to 8/24/38. Fallschirmjager will gain veterancy more quickly. - US Bazooka penetration reduced vs Panzer Elite Hetzer front armour. Rear penetration modifier increased marginally. - US Calliope Rocket FOW scatter multipliers reduced. The Rockets will be slightly more concentrated when firing into the FOW. - US Calliope recharge time reduced to 80s - US Calliope Rocket barrage scatter tuned to fall more reliably around target location instead of scattering long. - US Calliope rockets do equal damage modifiers to tp_infantry and tp_infantry soldier - British Vickers HMG emplacement weapon range increased by 5m - British Vickers HMG emplacement sight radius increased by 5m - Mortar damage vs US and Wehrmacht Observation Posts and Vickers HMG emplacements reduced. - Infantry AT weapon damage vs US and Wehrmacht Observation Posts and Vickers emplacements reduced marginally. - British Command Tank veterancy values increased from 14/28/42 to 24/48/72. - British Cromwell Flank Speed ability increased in cost from 25mun to 35mun.

Windows Vista Service Pack 1 Released Update 'em if you got 'em!

Nvidia GeForce 9800 GX2 Review - Tom's Hardware.com "Having said this, we do not recommend buying a GeForce 9800 GX2 for those who rarely change graphic cards and want to invest in a very high end card and keep it for a long time. There are times when a card like this should excel, like in higher resolution and with demanding settings, but the 9800 GX2 is barely better than a simple GeForce 8800 Ultra. The blame, just like on the 3870 X2, is on the amount of memory being limited to only 512 MB, a quantity incompatible with the very high resolutions and even more with antialiasing. Numbers speak for themselves, when the 9800 GX2 out performs the 8800 Ultra (with 768 MB) by 29% on average and up to 41% in 2560x1600, activating antialiasing at this resolution shortens the gap to 13%! Yet, in many games, it's the only mode that still isn't smooth and the 9800 GX2 doesn't deliver much." More Single Card Dual GPU Madness: NVIDIA's Flagship 9800 GX2 - Anandtech.com "The point is that you can't judge a book by its cover or a graphics card by some other part that is much faster. Take each case as it comes and make a decision based on what is best at that price point at that time. If your price point happens to be $600 to $650, by all means, pick up a 9800 GX2. If not, make sure you do your homework." XFX GeForce 9800 GX2 - HardOCP.com "One of our major beefs with SLI right now is the lack of multi-monitor support with SLI enabled. We give praise to AMD for providing multi-monitor support with CrossFireX enabled to end users. NVIDIA needs to fix this. The shoe is on the other foot and SLI now looks broken compared to CrossFireX in terms of features. NVIDIA have informed us that a driver update is all that is needed to include this feature. We want them to provide this support immediately. SLI without multi-monitor support is SLI’s Achilles heel. There are some of us here at HardOCP that refuse to use SLI because of this missing feature alone."

Everything I've read so far shows the drivers for the quad 9800gx2 is more immature than the drivers for the 3870x2. Unfortunately, this thread is on the 9600GT, which does continue to fall in price, for those wanting an nvidia card!

Epic Games on Steam

Fortunately, at least BOINC is a fast install, getter done!!!!

Fans await return of Star Wars "Lucas said he plans to produce at least 100 hours worth of TV episodes of "Clone Wars." He also is moving forward with a live-action "Star Wars" TV show focusing largely on new characters removed from the Skywalker family. That show will be set in the decades between "Revenge of the Sith" and the period when the original film, 1977's "Star Wars," takes place."

Zero Punctuation: Burnout: Paradise Don't think he liked it....

Wow, didn't know they were making that!! 8 Upcoming Movie Adaptations That Must Be Stopped #2. THE SIMS: THE MOVIE

You are so close to me, I was ready to conceed. You'll pass me soon enough I'm sure. That sucks thou, team points were doing so well!!!

Building your own Solid State Drive (guide) "These devices are called CF-IDE converters and if you visit e-bay, search a little .. you can find them dirt cheap. I ordered one through the Dutch e-bay partner Martkplaats, and IDE pluggable DUAL CF (two CFs can be used on this device) to IDE adapter. We can stick two CF's in there and get two SSD drives. The downside, we are limited to the CF 2.0 standard, there are four main speeds of cards including the original CF, CF High Speed (using CF+/CF2.0), a faster CF 3.0 standard and a yet faster CF 4.0 standard that is being adopted as of 2007."

Stalker Clear Sky Screenshots and video Hmm, does this look simlar or better than Crysis?!?

ATI Catalyst 8.3 Analysis - XP & Vista "Final Thoughts This is a pretty good driver as far as performance increases go for Vista users. Crysis sees a very nice bump in performance and so does UT3. CINEBENCH also sees gains but the OpenGL increase isn’t carried over to our OpenGL based game Enemy Territory: Quake Wars. The Windows XP driver on the other hand seems to be horrendous for X2 users with some severe power drops. We tried multiple X2 cards and tried the other Catalyst drivers and the dropped score in a few key benchmarks were consistent on the 8.3s. There is also the added bonus of Crossfire X support now which we have had a brief look at with a pair of HD 3870 X2 cards recently. On a whole, the Vista driver is very good but the XP variant is a bit of a letdown. It will be interesting to see what happens with the Catalyst 8.4s due next month. Until then, it might be time to fire up Crysis and bump up a setting or two."

2008 Movie Must Watch List: Iron Man - May 2nd Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - May22nd Wall-E - June 17th Star Wars animated movie - August 15th Max Payne - October 17th Am I missing any? post 'em

There are a couple new Teaser videos up on Pixar's Wall-E site Should be another awesome movie!

Welcome nomad!!!

A photo from Max Payne the movie emerges "The movie adaptation of the cult-status game Max Payne is currently in the works, and the first photos from the shoots are already on the internet."

This thread, has become:

Hehe, THAT was fun!!