Tech updates, holidays and overclocking. 25 September 2009

Finally, it’s the mid semester break. After rushing through assignments and spending late nights studying (and watching TV), I’m euphoric today as it’s actually the start of my break (no class on Fridays). Everything seems much less depressing now. No joke.

This week was exciting for tech world as Intel is having their IDF gathering and AMD is launching the Radeon 5870/5850 graphic cards. New Nehalem processors in 32nm process tech (codenamed Westmere) will be launched late this year. Those will be dual-core, quad-thread CPU with integrated graphic processing unit, the old (and sucky) Intel G45 variant to be precise. Unfortunately, 32nm quad core is not planned but there will be a hexa core version in the middle of next year. Until then, we’ll have to wait till codenamed Sandy Bridge launches in Q1 2011 to have cheaper, cooler quad core. By then AMD will also have its new wonder weapon ready, codenamed Bulldozer. Expect quad core, IBM licensed SMT technology (4 threads per core) and lots of cache (Z-RAM or maybe even better, IBM’s just-announced 32nm eDRAM). Personally, I won’t buy anything with Intel GMA on it. The thought of having a power sipper that does nothing right in everything annoys me. However I might recommend Core i5/i3 to low end users if it’s cheap.

On to my favourite subject, graphic processing units! AMD’s Radeon HD 5800 GPU might not be a huge change from the 4800, it still is the first DirectX 11 GPU in the world (and beat NVIDIA to it). It’s nice to see NVIDIA being a sore loser by releasing statements insulting AMD. Don’t forget that NVIDIA were the first to release DX10 GPU. And DX11 will definitely be more popular than its predecessor. However, I’m still on Windows XP, taking advantage of lower game requirements. DX9c can still perform as good as DX10 at this point. I will not migrate to Windows 7 until my next major hardware upgrade which will be the next gen AMD Bulldozer and probably Radeon HD 6 series. Until then I’m considering a graphic card upgrade as the GeForce 8600GTS is showing its age. The Radeon 5600-series GPU is rumoured to have 640 stream processor and low power output that are suitable for my current setup. But it won’t be available until next year. The older Radeon 4770 has similar specs, but it is unclear how much supply there will be. I’ll buy whichever is cheaper in the end.

This week was also a strange one for me as I’m suddenly interested in overclocking. Probably because there will be some great games coming soon. I have a terrific processor (Athlon64 X2 3800+ 2GHz) that can go 2.6GHz without extra voltage. Probably if I stabilize the vCore of my motherboard I can squeeze more juice out of that CPU. Now that’s a bargain! GPU overclocking is more of a grey area for me, but it’s easier if not the same as CPU overclocking. Now this particular GPU of mine has a horrific history of mass suicide in notebooks. Overclocking it probably won’t do any good. But what the hell, no pain no gain, right?

Fans of Left 4 Dead bewarned, the Crash Course DLC is confirmed on the 29th next week. New maps and new story that bridges the link between the hospital campaign ending and beginning of boathouse campaign (am I right?), the usual stuff. It’s FREE for Windows and XBox users need to pay for it. Life’s unfair, I know. But better be you than me, right?

I’m into modern combat games right now. And Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising looks to be an interesting one. Might be a nice time waster while waiting for November 10th. Nice graphics, lots of real life guns and plenty of modern warfare tactiques. What is there to complain?

Today’s special: Pointless research: top 10 Ig Nobel award winners for silly science. Of all the things we can do while sending an astronaut to space, I’m sure playing gasing is already experimented by NASA long ago. Enjoy my holiday, cheers!