IT-Code-News: IT News HeadLines (Elite Bastards) 14/05/2010

Mac OS X Portal performance

Apple users can now get their hands on Valve's Portal (for free no less) as part of yesterday's Steam for Mac release - But how does it look and perform?

We went ahead and ran a timedemo from test chamber 18 and beyond on both the Mac OS X and Windows versions of Portal. We kept the settings cranked up at all times, but varied the resolution between 1280x800 and 2560x1600 to look at different GPU loads. At the worst-case of 2560, the Mac version of Portal runs at only 54% of the speed of the Windows version. That moves to 63% at 1920x1200, and 66% at 1280x800.

Portal â€“ like all Source engine games â€“ is CPU limited when given a powerful enough GPU, and even with just a GTX 285 we can approach that under Windows. Under Mac OS X however, we look to be GPU limited at all times. The framerate never suffers as weâ€™re always averaging more than 60fps, but we can easily turn off MSAA and AF to improve performance if we needed to.

Anandtech has the details.

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AMD said to use bulk 40nm at TSMC for Fusion chips

While it's pretty much a given that AMD will be using GlobalFoundries for some of the manufacturing requirements of their "Fusion" parts, it appears that TSMC will also be employed by the company to handle some these needs as well according to the latest speculation.

AMD reportedly plans to outsource wafer starts for its Fusion CPUs with integrated graphics to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) using bulk 40nm process technology, and related backend services to Siliconware Precision Industries (SPIL), according to industry sources.

Globalfoundries, AMD's spun-off fabrication arm, has also secured orders for the Fusion chips. A recent TechEye report quoted a senior VP of Globalfoundries as indicating that the foundry is in production for the AMD Fusion using 32nm SOI technology.

DigiTimes has the full story.

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The State of DirectX 11 - Image Quality and Performance

Now that DirectX 11 has been with us for a little while and we have a handful of game titles making use of it, is this latest iteration of Microsoft's API living up to expectations?Â Hot Hardware investigates by taking a look at both performance and image quality in available DirectX 11 games.

The DirectX 11 API is a superset of DirectX 10, including all of DirectX 10's features inside of it, in addition to a couple new ones. The new features are the addition of native support for tessellation, improved multi-threading support, two new texture compression algorithms, increased texture cache, Shader Model 5.0, and the DirectCompute API. Out of this list, the only features that will have any real impact on gamers are hardware tessellation, better multi-threading and the DirectCompute API. The rest will be welcomed by developers, but will have little direct impact on end users.

Take a look at all of their thoughts and findings right here.

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Elite Bastards Mobile Update: First Edition

This is a new feature of EB that we might visit in the near future and even continue as a series. With all that's happening in the mobile world, it's hard to ignore the fuss surrounding the gadgets, designers, companies that sue one another and everybody else involved in the gadget lust industry. Rory Kiefer has written up our first edition of this mobile related feature. Give it a read and weight in if you have something to add.

â€œSmart phones,â€ or those diminutive computers you (may) have in your pocket right now that also happens to handle your phone calls, are an undeniable fad as of late. Focus is changing Â in the computing world toward catering conventional media and products to mobile form factors and mobile-friendly designs in fevered attempts by corporate giants like Intel, Apple, Microsoft, Google, and many others to tap into the profit boon emanating from this trend.

Mobile Update: First Edition

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Steam for Mac available for download

Do you own an Apple Mac and want to play games?Â You'll be wanting to download Steam for the Mac then, and if you do it before May 24th, you'll even get a free copy of Portal.

You can download Steam for the Mac from the official Steam web site, while you can find Valve's full press release here.

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Friday, May 14, 2010

IT News HeadLines (Elite Bastards) 14/05/2010

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