DirectCompute 11 benchmark available for download
We've been hearing quite a bit as to how the introduction of compute shaders (aka DirectCompute) will broaden the uses of GPUs over the coming years, but just how fast are current DirectX 11 graphics boards at handling DirectCompute 11 code?آ NGO HQ have released a synthetic benchmark to help you find out.
A forum member by the name of Pat has recently released a new benchmark tool for DirectCompute. This tool allows you to benchmark DirectX 11 latest general-purpose computing feature by calculating tons of FFT-like data and some memory transfers. DirectCompute is an application programming interface (API) that takes advantage of the massively parallel processing power of a modern graphics processing unit (GPU) to accelerate PC application performance. Be advised that DirectX 11 and the latest display drivers are required to run this benchmark.
You can download the benchmark and give it a try for yourself here.
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Elite Bastards competition: Win a copy of Shattered Horizon
To celebrate the launch of Futuremark Game Studios first foray into the marketplace via their innovative zero-gravity first-person shooter Shattered Horizon, Futuremark have been kind enough to provide us with two copies of this game to give away to a pair of our lucky readers!
Entering our competition is simple - Just send an e-mail to competition@elitebastards.com with the subject line of Shattered Horizon, and leave us your name and a contact e-mail address within the body of the e-mail's text.آ The competition closes at 9AM UK time on Monday, November 9th, and we'll be announcing and contacting the winners shortly after.
Please note that the winners of this competition will be presented with a working product key which enables you to download and install a copy of the game via Steam, so obviously you must have a working and functional Steam account/installation to be able to make use of your prize!
If you want to know more about Shattered Horizon and what it's all about, then be sure to check out the official web site.آ That aside, what are you waiting for - Send us an e-mail, and good luck!!
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Left 4 Dead 2 demo now available for all users
Want to give Left 4 Dead 2 a shot before you consider buying it?آ The demo is now available to all PC users (via Steam) and Xbox Live Gold account holders.
Nov 3, 2009 - Valve, creators of best-selling game franchises (such as Half-Life and Counter-Strike) and leading technologies (such as Steam and Source), today announced the availability of the Left 4 Dead 2 demo to all PC gamers and all Xbox LIVE Gold Members.
The Left 4 Dead 2 demo features gameplay taken from "The Parish" campaign, set in the New Orleans French Quarter. Playable by 1 to 4 players over local or Internet connections on both the Xbox 360 and PC (with two-player split screen available on the Xbox 360), the demo features all the new boss infected zombies and many of the new melee weapons included in the full product.
Coming exclusively to Xbox 360 and PC, L4D2 promises to set a new benchmark for co-operative action games and become one of 2009's marquee titles. Set for release on November 17, the title adds melee combat to enable deeper co-operative gameplay, with items such as a chainsaws, frying pans, axes, baseball bats, and more.
With the AI Director 2.0, L4D's dynamic gameplay is taken to the next level by giving the Director the ability to procedurally change weather effects, world objects, and pathways in addition to tailoring the enemy population, effects, and sounds to match the players' performance. The result is a unique game session custom fitted to provide a satisfying and uniquely challenging experience each time the game is played.
Adding new Survivors, boss zombies, weapons, and items, Left 4 Dead 2 offers a much larger game than the original, featuring more co-operative campaigns, more Versus campaigns, new Survival maps, and the new competitive game mode, Scavenge, all available at launch.
The Left 4 Dead 2 demo features gameplay taken from "The Parish" campaign, set in the New Orleans French Quarter. Playable by 1 to 4 players over local or Internet connections on both the Xbox 360 and PC (with two-player split screen available on the Xbox 360), the demo features all the new boss infected zombies and many of the new melee weapons included in the full product.
Coming exclusively to Xbox 360 and PC, L4D2 promises to set a new benchmark for co-operative action games and become one of 2009's marquee titles. Set for release on November 17, the title adds melee combat to enable deeper co-operative gameplay, with items such as a chainsaws, frying pans, axes, baseball bats, and more.
With the AI Director 2.0, L4D's dynamic gameplay is taken to the next level by giving the Director the ability to procedurally change weather effects, world objects, and pathways in addition to tailoring the enemy population, effects, and sounds to match the players' performance. The result is a unique game session custom fitted to provide a satisfying and uniquely challenging experience each time the game is played.
Adding new Survivors, boss zombies, weapons, and items, Left 4 Dead 2 offers a much larger game than the original, featuring more co-operative campaigns, more Versus campaigns, new Survival maps, and the new competitive game mode, Scavenge, all available at launch.
As always, more information can be found on the Left 4 Dead web site.
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AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition 125W reviews
This might not be the most ground-breaking product launch in history, but if you're looking at picking up a new high-end AMD CPU some time soon it may be of interest to you, as the company launch a revamped version of their Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition part which lowers the processor's TDP from its original 140 Watts down to just 125 Watts.آ Aside from the obvious power savings, what does this mean for CPU temperatures and overclocking?آ A couple of sites have had a gander at this streamlined CPU.
It turns out that AMD’s latest revision for the Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition incorporates numerous improvements over the original RB-C2 revision, which AMD has used previously for all Deneb Phenom II CPUs, including the old AM2+ parts launched at the beginning of this year.
The new Phenom II X4 965 Black revision is “RB-C3â€, or C3 for short.
Here’s the list of improvements introduced with the C3 revision, straight from AMD:
- TDP = 125W (down from 140W)
- Hardware C1E implemented: Faster switching of power states means virtually no impact to performance by power management when BIOS support is properly implemented
- “Heavy†load support for DDR3-1333: With proper BIOS implementation, memory controller will now support up to 4x DDR3 DIMMs at 1333MHz
The new Phenom II X4 965 Black revision is “RB-C3â€, or C3 for short.
Here’s the list of improvements introduced with the C3 revision, straight from AMD:
- TDP = 125W (down from 140W)
- Hardware C1E implemented: Faster switching of power states means virtually no impact to performance by power management when BIOS support is properly implemented
- “Heavy†load support for DDR3-1333: With proper BIOS implementation, memory controller will now support up to 4x DDR3 DIMMs at 1333MHz
The AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition processor (HDZ965FBK4DGM) is specified as having a 0.825-1.4V nominal voltage, and uses the 45nm (.045-micron) DSL Silicon on Insulator (SOI) process technology construction. AMD's 125W X4-965 is a socket AM3 938-pin organic micro pin grid array (micro-PGA) processor by design, with backwards compatibility to the AMD2+ socket. There's also "Heavy" load support for DDR3-1333, and with proper BIOS implementation the memory controller will now support up to 4x DDR3 DIMMs at 1333MHz.
The Phenom II X4 965 BE processor offers a total cache of 8.5MB, split into three levels. The L1 cache delivers 64K of L1 instruction and 64K of L1 data cache per core (512KB total L1 per processor), while the L2 cache offers 512KB of data cache per core (2MB total L2 per processor). The final level 3 (L3) cache shares 6MB among the four processor cores.
The Phenom II X4 965 BE processor offers a total cache of 8.5MB, split into three levels. The L1 cache delivers 64K of L1 instruction and 64K of L1 data cache per core (512KB total L1 per processor), while the L2 cache offers 512KB of data cache per core (2MB total L2 per processor). The final level 3 (L3) cache shares 6MB among the four processor cores.
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DirectX 11 Trinigy Engine previewed
Want to see how another DirectX 11 capable game engine is shaping up?آ Of course you do, and PC Games Hardware has the low-down on the Trinigy Engine and what it plans to bring to the table.
PC Games Hardware talked to Trinigy's Florian Born about the capabilities of the Trinigy Engine. For demonstration purposes Trinigy developed a tech demo that is shown to possible customers. The demo shows a nicely lighted city scene as it could be found in a typical role-playing game. The following technical features are worth mentioning:
• Deferred shading with depth of field
• Screen Space Ambient Occlusion
• Parallax Mapping
• Glow/Bloom/Tone Mapping
• Dynamic Cascaded Soft Shadows for Time of Day
All those features are also available in the DirectX 9 and DirectX 10 versions of the Trinigy Engine. A specific DirectX 11 feature is a special Soft Shadows technology that is called "contact hardening shadowsâ€. This technique makes use of the fact that the GPU can, with DirectX 11 respectively Shader Model 5.0, take a whole area of pixels from a texture and apply a complex filter. Thus it is possible to realize softer dynamic shadows at a good performance level.
• Deferred shading with depth of field
• Screen Space Ambient Occlusion
• Parallax Mapping
• Glow/Bloom/Tone Mapping
• Dynamic Cascaded Soft Shadows for Time of Day
All those features are also available in the DirectX 9 and DirectX 10 versions of the Trinigy Engine. A specific DirectX 11 feature is a special Soft Shadows technology that is called "contact hardening shadowsâ€. This technique makes use of the fact that the GPU can, with DirectX 11 respectively Shader Model 5.0, take a whole area of pixels from a texture and apply a complex filter. Thus it is possible to realize softer dynamic shadows at a good performance level.
You can read more and find some screenshots of the game running on DirectX 11 hardware right here.
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Batman AA scandal, round 2
Just read this post by Richard Huddy, if you're not familiar with the back story just post up and I'll be glad to explain it in excruciating detail for ya with lots of colourful references. Here are some snippets.
Lars Weinand: ... Batman AA is not our property. It is owned by Eidos. It is up to Eidos to decide the fate of a feature that AMD refused to contribute too and QA for their customers, not NVIDIA. ...
Richard Huddy: ... I’m surprised and pleased by authorised NVIDIA spokesperson Lars Weinand’s clarification that “Batman AA is not our property. It is owned by Eidos. It is up to Eidos to decide the fate of a feature that AMD refused to contribute too and QA for their customers, not NVIDIA.†...
Just wunnerful stuff!
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