The reversal is due to what the study shows is a "higher than anticipated consumer demand for Enthusiast, Performance, and Mainstream hardware." In addition, the study claims that 2010 will see a massive surge in this category to $27.617 billion, up 30 percent from this year's predicted numbers.
Hardware
Study: PC gaming hardware market to grow this year
The reversal is due to what the study shows is a "higher than anticipated consumer demand for Enthusiast, Performance, and Mainstream hardware." In addition, the study claims that 2010 will see a massive surge in this category to $27.617 billion, up 30 percent from this year's predicted numbers.
New ATI Radeon HD 5970 is "fastest graphics card in the world"
The big reason for such a boost is AMD's decision to put two of their high end GPUs from ATI on one card. That should enable the card to run upcoming DirectX11 PC games like Dirt 2, Aliens Vs Predator and Battlefield Bad Company 2 with all of the graphics turned up but still have a decent frame rate. Of course you will have to pay a whopping $600 for that privilege. Nvidia, we have to ask . . . where are you and why are you letting AMD beat you like this?
ATI and Nvidia come out with new graphics card drivers

Not to be outdone, ATI's main rival Nvidia has released new beta drivers for its GeForce family of graphics chips today. Among other things the beta drivers add new SLI support for a number of recently released PC games such as Borderlands, Modern Warfare 2, and others.
Former Alienware team members form new Origin gaming PC company
The Miami-based company has just announced their first products, the Genesis desktop and the EON18 notebook. In addition to offering high end componants and overclocking (they will even let you pick whatever case design you want) Origin also provides for custom paint jobs for both their desktop and notebook model. The big question: can this new company compete with all of the other gaming PC vendors already out there?
Razer launches new Abyssus gaming PC mouse

They managed to skip October but today Razer has yet another brand new gaming PC mouse product to reveal. It's called the Abyssus and this mouse is being designed and priced for someone who wants a Razer but who doesn't want to pay the usual premium price for one. The $49.99 Abyssus has an ambidextrous design with three programmable buttons and support for up to 3500 dpi sensitivity. The mouse is now available to purchase at Razer's web site and will be available in stores worldwide by the end of the year.
Is the Emotiv Epoc PC thought-based controller really coming out soon?
The device, which is supposed to let PC gamers control actions with just their thought while wearing the device on their heads, made its official debut at the Game Developers Conference in 2008 with a press event with lots of media attending. It turned out to be a bomb as the Epoc did not work as expected (at the time he company blamed interference from nearby high-powered wireless equipment).
While the device was supposed to go on sale by the end of 2008, the company delayed its release and went into semi-stealth mode until recently. During the GDC 2008 demo the company announced that developer Demiurge Studios would create a game specifically for the Epoc controller but there's no sign of such a game being included with the device.
[Via Engadget]
EVGA launches hybrid Nvidia based graphics card/PhysX card
The GTX 275 has a Nvidia GTX 275 graphics chip just for GPU duties plus another Nvidia chip, the GTS 250, that's set up specifically as a PhysX chip only. The card also has SLI support which means you can have three GPUs plus the extra just for PhysX support.. As you can see the card has the Joker's face just waiting to give you the creeps as EVGA and Nvidia are branding this card as the perfect way to play the PhysX-supported Batman: Arkham Asylum. Pricing for the card will be a bit high (over $300) but it looks like Batman: Arkham Asylum will be bundled with the card.
[Via PC Percepective]
Interview: Maingear's CEO talks about their revamped gaming PC lineup

Big Download got the skinny from Maingear founder and CEO Wallace Santos about Maingear's "shift" in direction, along with what he thinks about the newly launched Windows 7 and the future of gaming PCs.
Continue reading Interview: Maingear's CEO talks about their revamped gaming PC lineup
Maingear prepping for big announcement?
So what is it? We have no idea although the weird animation of a red cloud sky thingie and the "Something Wicked This Way Comes" on the teaser site makes us thing that something downright sinister is going to launch. And we are all about sinister here. In any case we should know Monday morning if Maingear will launch a new PC or if the apocalypse is due.
DirectX11 for Windows Vista now available
One of the big problems with Windows Vista was the fact that Microsoft's next-gen 3D graphics API DirectX10 was exclusive to the OS. That was likely the big reason why game developers were reluctant to offer a lot of DirectX10-supported games since the audience for such games would be limited. The release of Windows 7 last week brought out a new version of the API, DirectX11, but Microsoft promised that it would make an apperance on Vista.That time has apparently come as a new automatic update for Vista has now implemented DirectX11 support for the nearly three year old OS. With two versions of Windows now supporting DirectX11 we expect game developers will embrace using the API in their games than they did with DirectX10.
[Via Blue's News]
On-demand PC game buying and packaging at new Microsoft store
Instead of a boxed product you go to a kiosk in the store and select which PC game titles you wish to buy. After you pay for your games, a store employee then creates the disk, case, insert and game manual in the back of the store and hands them to you. The entire process supposedly takes just a few minutes. Perhaps GameStop should consider such a move. It certainly will allow them to offer more PC games than anemic few titles they have in their stores right now. We also wonder why Microsoft failed to mention this rather cool feature in their own promotions about the Microsoft Store.
[Via Joystiq]
Hardware requirements revealed for PC Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
Now the PC version's developer, Aspyr Media, has revealed the PC system requirements for Star Wars: The Force Unleashed Ultimate Sith Edition. As we have reported before, the PC version will have all of the content of the original console game plus some extra missions. You can check out the system specs after the jump:
Continue reading Hardware requirements revealed for PC Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
AMD releases new ATI Catalyst drivers for October
We suspected that AMD might wait until the Windows 7 launch date to release its regular monthly driver updates for its ATI Radeon graphics cards, and we were right. The Catalyst 9.10 drivers are now available for download from AMD's gaming web site.The release notes for the new drivers give the 411 on what's new, improved and fixed in this release. One of the new features is a new anti-aliasing method called Super Sampling that AMD claims will improve image quality for its ATI Radeon HD 5800 graphics card (the only ones that currently support DirectX11) while still allowing for solid performance. There are also some bugs addressed for games like Ghostbusters and Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena.
R.U.S.E to use Windows 7's touch screen features

The WWII-themed strategy game was first introduced earlier this year via a trailer that used a fictional touch screen interface to show off the game's unique RTS features such as no fog of war and using deceptive units to throw off opposing players. At E3, Ubisoft showed the game being demoed on a table that used Microsoft's Surface touch technology. Today's announcement means that any PC running Windows 7 with a supported multi-touch monitor will be able to manipulate R.U.S.E. on the screen itself instead of just the usual mouse and keyboard set up. R.U.S.E. is currently scheduled for a first quarter 2010 release date.
[via email press release]
Feature: Should PC gamers upgrade to Windows 7?

But what if you want to upgrade your existing PC or even buy a new one? The big question for you is whether an upgrade to Windows 7 is right for you. We try to give you the 411 in this latest feature.
Continue reading Feature: Should PC gamers upgrade to Windows 7?










