AMD's two-fisted ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 card goes official

A week after it was supposed to, AMD announced its Radeon HD 3870 X2 graphics card today. Roughly US$450 will get you this high-end 3D card, which melds two Radeon HD 3870 chips onto a single 3D card package. The resulting performance is basically the same as two standalone Radeon HD 3870 cards in AMD's multicard ATI Crossfire mode. Various review sites show it competing more or less well against Nvidia's GeForce 8800 GTX and 8800 Ultra cards, although neither AMD nor Nvidia can claim an across-the-board victory.

Our illustrious colleagues at GameSpot are working diligently on updating their benchmarks for this card after a late-breaking driver update (the reason for the cancellation of last Monday's announcement). We weren't originally going to retest, but for reasons unrelated to the driver, we decided we would. Once we have scores, both CNET and Gamespot will post our respective reviews. In the meantime, Anandtech, ExtremeTech, and PC Perspective have well-done coverage of AMD's new card. And how do those sites find the DirectX 10 performance picture?

It depends on your definition of an acceptable frame rate. On the DX10 version of Company of Heroes, for example, Anandtech shows all cards in this high-end neighborhood performing well. The DX10 implementation in that game is minor, though. In Crysis, the posterchild for next-gen gaming, neither AMD nor Nvidia can muster an average of even 30 frames per second at even a forgiving 1,280 x 1,024. Where we come from, it's 60 frames or nothing for first-person shooters like Crysis. So either Crysis is ahead of its time, or the graphics card vendors have been too slow to adjust. Either way, it's frustrating for gamers that even their multi-thousand-dollar rigs will still likely choke on a game that's been out for three months.

Via CNET Crave

PNY, Transcend flash cards move to 32GB

Jumping the Photo Marketing Association trade show gun by a few days, PNY Technologies announced several new 16GB and 32GB flash cards for cameras and video cameras on Thursday.

The 32GB SDHC card can keep up with high-definition video captured at 9 megabits per second, the company said. And the Optima Pro CompactFlash card, has a 266x transfer speed, or 40 megabits per second, using a UDMA interface.

Both cards will be available in the second quarter. The SDHC card should cost about US$250 and the CompactFlash card about US$400, though the company cautioned prices could change given volatility in the flash memory chip market. PNY purchases its flash memory chips from Toshiba, Samsung, Intel, and others, the company said.

Capacity of 32GB may sound like overkill for digital photography--that's enough to hold more than 10,000 3MB images--but there are reasons it's useful. Raw files, especially newer 14-bit files, have moved well beyond 10MB apiece, shooting in combination with JPEG adds even more, and trigger-happy high-end cameras that shoot 5, 6.5, 9, and even 10.5 frames per second chew through memory in no time. And, of course, flash memory-based video cameras need all the capacity they can get.


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A line of "workstations" for the arcade

It must be tough for the Nex-sys salespeople to keep a straight face while pitching their products as "workstations". Clearly, whoever ends up using the company's line of V1 desks and chairs won't be getting much work done because they'll be too busy honing their skills on Halo 3.

While initially touting their workstations' ergonomic and space-saving designs, Nex-sys immediately adds that they can also be used as a "gaming chair, flight simulator, and racing simulator", as well as a "personal movie theater".

In addition to its height-adjustable monitor stand (apparently able to handle triple screens), the apparatus sports surround-sound speakers, custom colors, and actual car seats instead of a standard office chair, according to MobileWhack.

It looks like it would make a pretty good set of drums too.

Via Crave CNET

Combo mouse phone for desperate situations

This is one of those gadgets that has Maxwell Smart written all over it. With all the mouse phones available today--or even keyboard phones, for that matter--it's beyond us why anyone would want this silly-looking model with a microphone sticking out of it like a mutant appendage. Its saving grace, if it can be called that, is that it costs only US$16, according to SlashGear. But we'd just as soon use the money to make a regular cell call.

Via Crave CNET

USB MSN Missile Launcher coming

As with all things tech, the next upgrade is always waiting around the corner. The Missile Launcher is no exception. Besides getting laser sight in one iteration, this latest update sports sight of another kind--a Webcam.

Just where this is going isn't clear, though. While the MSN features lets you hook up with IM pals, the launcher could work against you. If your nice buddies find a way to hack the program, they can commandeer your artillery, scan you out on the onboard Webcam, and basically nuke you unawares. Great if you're into pain therapy.

Hong Kong e-tailer Brando says this shoots up to 15ft "at an extremely fast rate". However, shipping will take just a tad longer as this US$48 weapon of mass destruction goes out only in February.

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