Filed under: Desktops, Gaming

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Filed under: Desktops

Really, eMachines? You’re honestly going to give your newest cheap-o PC this kind of tagline? Truth be told, we’re not exactly sure what a standard sized dictionary even looks like (there’s this thing called the internet…), but apparently, it’s exactly the same size as the EL1200 desktop. Not sassy enough to be called a nettop, this here mini-tower is 40% smaller and 55% lighter than the company’s second tiniest rig, and while it won’t handle the likes of Crysis, it shouldn’t have too many issues surfing the web and opening Word documents. As for specs, we’ve got a 1.5GHz AMD Athlon 2650e 64-bit CPU, NVIDIA’s GeForce 6150SE integrated graphics, 1GB of DDR2, 160GB hard drive, a dual-layer DVD burner, 14-in-1 multicard reader, seven USB 2.0 ports and a $298 (MSRP) price tag. That system we just rattled off is available now at Wally World, while a slightly more stacked edition can be had at Best Buy for $349.

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Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

AMD’s breakup into two separate companies is certain to have wide-ranging impact in the industry, and unsurprisingly, Intel’s among the first to react — it’s warning that it has “serious questions about this transaction” as it relates to its patent cross-licensing agreement with AMD and that it’ll will “vigorously protect” its intellectual property rights. That’s about as aggro a patent attorney can get without coming to your house and peeing on the lawn (or, uh, filing a lawsuit), so we’ll see how this shakes out — for its part, AMD says that it’s taken the deal into account, and that it’ll “continue respecting Intel’s intellectual property rights, just as we expect them to respect ours.” That’s a respect throwdown, right there — you gonna take that, Intel?

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Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

AMD just issued a release saying that president and CEO Dirk Meyer will be making a “significant corporate announcement” tomorrow, which sounds ominously like those breakup rumors are coming true — particularly since Dirk’s on record saying that the chipmaker plans to spin off manufacturing and fabrication into a new company. We’ll see in the morning — anyone planning on throwing a blowout “last night of the old AMD” party in the meantime?

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Filed under: Desktops, Gaming

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Filed under: Desktops

Let’s not beat around the bush: AMD’s oft-delayed Barcelona quad-core processor was a flop. It arrived late and buggy, an undesirable reception that helped to drive the company’s $1.2 billion Q2 loss this year. AMD can’t afford another flub like that and is hoping that processor’s successor, Shanghai, finds more success in the server market. It’s a 45nm quad-core chip with three times the cache (6MB) and HyperTransport 3, apparently equating to a 20 percent boost in speed and even thriftier power consumption. AMD is saying the chip is already under production and will be available for sale before the year is out, actually beating expectations for once. That should be shortly followed by the release of 45nm Deneb processors for desktops, then six-core Istanbul chips sometime late 2009. Meanwhile, Intel’s six-core, 45nm server chips are now shipping.

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Filed under: Desktops

Get out your processor score sheets, folks (both of you), ’cause it looks like your world is about to get shook up again. According to some unnamed “industry sources,” AMD is going to be welcoming its new 45nm Phenom processors by slightly revising its conventional naming scheme, although it’s not going quite so far as to ditch the main Phenom X3 and Phenom X4 branding all together. Instead, it’s supposedly going to be switching the model numbers from four to five digits, with the lower-end processors following a 1xx00 format and the higher-end CPUs using a 20xx0 scheme. That, of course, is being done in the name of “simplying” things, although we’ll let you be the judge if that’s the first word that pops in your mind or not when you take a glance at the table available at the read link below.

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Filed under: Desktops

Get out your processor score sheets, folks (both of you), ’cause it looks like your world is about to get shook up again. According to some unnamed “industry sources,” AMD is going to be welcoming its new 45nm Phenom processors by slightly revising its conventional naming scheme, although it’s not going quite so far as to ditch the main Phenom X3 and Phenom X4 branding all together. Instead, it’s supposedly going to be switching the model numbers from four to five digits, with the lower-end processors following a 1xx00 format and the higher-end CPUs using a 20xx0 scheme. That, of course, is being done in the name of “simplifying” things, although we’ll let you be the judge if that’s the first word that pops in your mind or not when you take a glance at the table available at the read link below.

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Filed under: Handhelds, Laptops

Maybe it’s a netbook, or maybe it’s a ridiculously small notebook. Whatever it is, it’s recalled. Raon Digital has issued a recall for its delightfully tiny Everun Note due to a handful of “failure symptoms” detailed on its Korean website. Best we (and Pocketables) can tell, users hearing a high-pitched fan tone, seeing a “Blue Screen phenomenon,” or getting torched by an unfathomably hot CPU have a problematic unit, and even if your battery indicator is acting wonky, you too are entitled to a replacement. It’s not clear whether affected users will be gifted with a new unit or if they’ll receive their old machine back in tip-top condition, but either way, we’d hit the read link and do a little investigating if you own one of these puppies.

[Via Pocketables]

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Filed under: Laptops

AMD’s Ultra Value Client line might be set to go head to head with Intel’s Atom in the netbook market, but it sounds like the company isn’t particularly confident that users will accept the design compromises involved in building cheap, small laptops. According to Pat Moorhead, AMD’s VP of advanced marketing, the choice between a $499 netbook and a $499 full-sized laptop with 15.4-inch screen and a dual-core processor is clear to him — a netbook might be fine for “around the house,” but the shorter battery life and lack of features means that “it’s a big tradeoff.” Those are some fair points, even if they have a hint of sour grapes to them, but it certainly seems like consumers don’t care — Intel can’t make enough Atom chips, and machines like HP’s Mini-Note are selling like crazy. So, we put it to you: if this was your $499, would you rather get a netbook (say, the Eee 901) or a full-featured 15.4-inch laptop like this AMD-powered Acer Extensa? Video after the break.

[Via Eee PC News]

Continue reading AMD VP says netbooks only good “around the house”

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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Another day, another disgruntled ex-employee trying to schelp stolen trade secrets. This time it’s a former Intel engineer named Biswahoman Pani, who nabbed 13 files containing over 100 pages of internal Intel design documents drawings on his way to a new gig at AMD. The FBI got involved when another Intel employee noticed some funny business on system access logs, but so far Biswahoman has denied everything — although his passport’s been confiscated and he never got to take that AMD job. Crime don’t pay, kids.

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Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

[Thanks, Luiz H]

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Filed under: Desktops

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Filed under: Desktops

ATI just announced its new mainstream graphics cards, the Radeon HD 4670 and 4650. At the heart of both cards is a 55nm 320-core TeraScale GPU, which is a modified version of the RV770 chip found in the Radeon HD 4800 series — it’s a lower spec chip, but it has essentially the exact same feature set. The $80 HD 4670 has 512MB of GDDR3 RAM, while the $60 HD 4650 uses 512MB of GDDR2 memory; both are relatively power-sipping with 60 watt and 50 watt draws respectively under full load. Should be out soon — HotHardware just tested an HD 4670 and found it to be quite a performer, check it all out at the read links.

Read - ATI Radeon HD 4600 series PR
Read - HotHardware test

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Filed under: Desktops

If it’s Thursday, then it must be time for more AMD rumors - this time a few different sources report the chipmaker’s given its channel partners the high sign indicating “Kuma” dual-core Phenom-based processors will finally see the light of day. For those too shy to indulge in triple- or even quad-core action, El Reg says Phenom X2 dual core chips will range from 2.3GHz to 1.90 Ghz, sporting 1MB L2 cache and 2MB L3 cache for. Freaky 3-core overclockers can look forward to new, better performing 2.4Ghz Black Edition Phenom 8750s, and more efficient 125-watt Phenom 9950 CPUs, if we can trust leaked German sales charts — and we always do, don’t you?

Read - The Register
Read - PC Perspective

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Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

AMD’s going through some rough times, no doubt about it, but for fanboys of the CPU maker (wait, do CPU fanboys still exist?) here’s your feel-good story of the year. The always-thorough Tom’s Hardware has pit Intel’s 1.6GHz Atom 230 processor against AMD’s Athlon 64 2000+, and the results just might surprise you. The 1GHz Athlon (with a core voltage of 0.90 volts and a power draw of just 8 watts) managed to best the aforementioned Atom in both energy consumption and processing power tests. The gurus at Tom’s credited the more modern 790G platform and the highly efficient K8 architecture as big players in the Athlon’s strong showing, finally deeming said chip “more economical, faster and quieter” than the Atom. We know you’re in disbelief — good thing there are 14 pages of proof waiting in the read link.

[Thanks, Carl]

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Filed under: Desktops, Gaming

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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Those AMD breakup rumors are back with a bullet this morning thanks to some chatty sources speaking to TG Daily. Though this one can hardly be called rumor since it was AMD’s own freshman CEO, Dirk Meyer (pictured), who said that AMD was “just months away” from spinning off its manufacturing and fabrication business into a separate entity. TGD’s sources claim that an announcement is indeed planned for next month in fruition of its Asset Light and Asset Smart strategies. With it, we’ll see Meyer take over the development of chip technologies while someone else (possibly Hector Ruiz, who recently shed his CEO role but stayed on as the board’s chair) taking responsibilities of manufacturing. Let’s just hope that they can get past this distraction in short order — a strong, focused AMD is good for the industry and that’s good for us consumers.

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Filed under: Gaming

Looks like all the Cinema 2.0 fuss that AMD has been blustering about with its new RV770-based GPUs is fully warranted. The benchmarks are in and AMD’s new $549 ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 — what AMD calls the “world’s fastest graphics card” — is an out and out screamer, besting the best cooked up over at NVIDIA thanks to that RV770 GPU pair nuzzled up next to 2GB of GDDR5 memory. As noted by PC Perspective, the new champ, “is able to run away from NVIDIA’s GeForce GTX 280 1GB card handily. Our various game tests proved this - Crysis, Call of Duty 4 and GRID showed big gains for AMD’s new card at resolutions 2,048 x 1,536 and 2,560 x 1,600,” though performance gains are less dramatic as resolutions drop to 1,600 x 1,200. Not that any self-respecting gamer would push so few pixels. CrossFireX performance was disappointing, however, as the systems didn’t scale well when going from 2 to 4 GPUs. In fact, Crysis seemed to barely notice the additional CrossFireX horsepower, something that should be corrected with future driver releases. Make no mistake though, as power-hungry, expensive, and hot-running as the new HD 4870 X2 may be, it’s a big day for AMD as it retakes the graphics crown from NVIDIA, as short-lived as this victory may be.

Read — HotHardware
Read — PCPer
Read — Tweaktown
Read — CustomPC
Read — AMD press release

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Filed under: Desktops, Gaming

Sure, times might be tough at AMD, but that’s not stopping the crew at ATI from gunning for NVIDIA’s newest gear — the company just announced the new HD Radeon 4850 X2 and 4870 X2. Aimed at the “super high-end” of the market, the $399 4850 X2 and $599 4870 X2 feature two GPU chips on a 625 or 750MHz bus, respectively, with up to 2GB of 900MHz GDDR5 RAM. ATI says that there’s a 20 percent overhead from pairing up the processors, so the X2s should offer 180 percent of the single GPU cards — certainly enough to outgun a single NVIDIA GTX 280, and reportedly enough to match a dual-280 setup depending on the game. We’ll see for sure when the inevitable flood of benchmarks hits when these bad boys arrive next month — any gamers out there going to take the plunge?

Read - ExtremeTech
Read - CNET

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