crossfire posts

AMD's ATI graphics division is doing things a little earlier than normal this month with the release of their regular monthly update to its Catalyst drivers for their Radeon graphics chips. The 10.6 version of the drivers are now available to download via the AMD Game web site.

The release notes for the 10.6 drivers reveals that the new version has a number of PC games that get performance boosts if you have a CrossfireX PC set-up. Among the games that get some performance improvements are Batman: Arkham Asylum, Company of Heroes, Dirt 2, Crysis Warhead and World in Conflict.

[Via Blue's News]

This patch updates the ATI Catalyst drivers so that anti-aliasing options work in Mass Effect 2 on systems with CrossFire setups. Patch is for Windows 7 and Vista 32-bit systems.

Download Mass Effect 2 ATI CrossFire Hotfix Patch (111 MB)

In less than two months, Microsoft plans to launch Windows 7. The next version of their PC OS has already been praised for months for being more stable and having better performance than its predecessor Windows Vista, which pretty much belly flopped when it was released just under three years ago.

Many PC games have felt that the poor reception of Windows Vista has affected PC games and their development so obviously they feel the launch of Windows 7 (and its support for DirectX11, the next version of Microsoft's game graphics tech) could help the PC gaming industry. But just what do PC gamers currently have in their rigs, just before the launch of Windows 7? Valve's hardware survey on Steam is always a good baseline to use and they have just released their latest info on the subject for August 2009. We've decided to take a look at some of the more interesting stats in the survey; you can check out the entire survey numbers on the Steam web site.

Click on the image above to continue reading how Steam's survey shows us the state of PC gaming rigs before Windows 7's release

So, the curtain is finally up on the Phenom II, and folks seem to be pleasantly surprised by what the green arrow group have pulled out of their collective hats, especially with the Black Edition X3 (model 720), which is aimed solidly at our enthusiast-flavored selves. The BE is the unlocked version, which means we can tinker with both the multiplier and the FSB to find the sweetest spot to hang our performance hats, and is a welcomed throwback to the old days when both chip manufacturers didn't try to dictate what their consumers did with our toys.

Fogey Check: Anyone else remember the pencil trick? Anyone ever do it? BI lacked the deft and delicate touch to succeed in his attempts, but it wasn't for lack of trying. Just another failed DEX check....

Okay, not awards, per se, but at least some recognition of things that didn't suck -- stuff like improved performance and big price reductions (sometimes). Generational advancement in the CPU and video card arenas brought more power to our desktop systems than ever before. DDR3 stopped costing its weight in gold. The Phenom... got its ass handed to it all year long. (Seriously, AMD? You can't roll out a replacement soon enough.)

Also, one of the biggest legends in the realm of physical vaporware finally came to market, but BI doesn't see a lot of folks ponying up two grand for the Optimus Maximus keyboard. At least it made it to market after a rumor-and-tease gestation period that rivals that of Duke Nukem 3D.

There were a handful of big stories in the realm of gaming hardware in 2008, and, for a change, they were almost all good news for gamers.

With the impending deployment of a new calendar (why, hello Miss January), a young gamer's fancy turns lightly to thoughts of higher resolutions, better anti-aliasing levels, and new DX10.1 effects. But something is knocking the luster off the lust faster than dropping Aunt Edna's fruitcake in your lap. Jacking up a single setting is dropping your framerate to a crawl, even with the latest drivers hot off ATI or Nvidia's server.

You've got multiple CPU cores and a fistful of dollarsRAM, and things still aren't remaining as smooth and speedy as you'd like? In short, is stuffing another video card in your box the way to achieve Nirvana? Chances are, if you're already sporting a rig with the aforementioned goodies, a multi-GPU setup is about the only way to get a performance bump. The question becomes, is throwing another couple hundred dollars at the problem worth it?

Late last week gaming PC company Alienware teased its customers on a major new announcement. Today the company revealed what they were hinting at with the announcement of their new M17 gaming PC notebook. The 17-inch display notebook has the Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9300 mobile processor and is the first Alienware notebook to support ATI's Crossfire graphics set-up with two ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3870 cards inside.

Alienware's press release states that their M17 notebook can be configured with a Core 2 Duo processor, Crossfire and 3GB of memory for under $2,000. Of course you can go all out and get one configured with up to 4 GB of memory and 1 TB of hard drive storage via two 500 GB drives in a RAID 0 set-up. Obviously this is a desktop replacement notebook rather than one that would be used to do extensive travelling with.

AMD released patches for the ATI Catalyst video drivers to improve Far Cry 2's DirectX 9 performance on CrossFire compatible systems. DirectX 10 performance improvements include both single card and CrossFire setups.

Download Far Cry 2 ATI Catalyst Driver Hotfix Patch [WinXP] (44 MB)
Download Far Cry 2 ATI Catalyst Driver Hotfix Patch [Vista] (65 MB)
Check out all Far Cry 2 Downloads

Tim Allen wasn't precisely the same flavor of hardware guy that we are, but his Tool Time mantra, "More Power!" certainly resonates with a lot of computer enthusiasts. Not only do the games we play and the applications we use require more and more computational chutzpah to perform well, but the silicon bits themselves are not shy about sucking down the wattage to do it.

If you're considering an upgrade or a new build, you're going to need to feed that beast. Onward, to the supplies of power!

Won IL SUH, Senior Vice President of Neowiz, echoed He's sentiments, saying that "G4BOX is an excellent partner to bring Cross Fire to western gamers."

Look for the military-themed FPS later this fall.