Archive for July, 2007

Competition is tough at this level (sub-$200 dual-core processors). That is the reason why TechWareLabs decided to compare both CPUs: Intel’s E6420 vs. AMD’s 5600+. This is a confirmation that prices are set to make CPUs quite comparable. There is a slight performance advantage to Intel but for a slightly higher price.

Posts about EOS 40D: EOS 40D initial scoop All of them

Again, Chasseur d’Images provided its forecast/rumour collection for the upcoming Canon 40D. Since some people wanted to see the list because it may be difficult to find the magazine out of Western Europe, here is a summary:

• Same chassis as the 30D
• Same viewfinder as the 30D
• No specific weather protection (competitive disadvantage against Nikon and Pentax)
• 12/13 Mpixels APS-C sensor with LiveView (as on the Canon 1D MkIII) with a possible USB or Wifi control
• 14-bit encoding (as in the Canon 1D MkIII)
• 1600 and 3200 ISO
• Sensor cleaning
• Still no wireless flash
• Same read LCD as on the Canon 30D
• 5 frames/second
• Improved AF, but no real detail about it or any forecast
• 1/8000s max speed (with 1/250s flash synchro)

Personnally, I found interesting the possible convergence with some of the features of the Canon 5D (I see the advantage Canon would have to do this), but Chasseur d’Images still keeps a possible Canon 3D in a rumoured timeline for 2008.

Chasseur d’Images, the first European photo magazine published the rumoured/forecasted characteristics of the upcoming Nikon D300 (or would it be Nikon D200x?):

• Will come end of July
• Same good viewfinder as D200
• Same chassis as D200
• Weather protection
• Sony sensor APS-C of 12/13 Mpixels (possibly improved over the standard Sony version)
• New chip for better exposure
• 3200 ISO (optional 6400 ISO)
• AF 11 zones derived from Nikon D2x
• Max speed 1/8000s with 1/250s flash synchro
• Improved battery system

GameTrailers brought back fro mthe E3 game fair a whole bunch of videos of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. - Clear Sky, the FPS video game that presents the prequel to S.T.A.L.K.E.R. - Shadow of Chernobyl with its best elements.

Here is an example, but I think you should also follow the link to find some more (even HD versions of the same videos).

The only thing I would complain about is that the guy playing while being filmed is specially not a top-notch one and has to use God mode (he has not to be afraid of bullets since they have no effect on his health). Of course, if helps to present the game easily, byt realism is shatteredin those game sequences (in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. - Shadow of Chernobyl the adversaries are not always brillant, but you would not survive more than a second or two if you aimlessly wandered under their fire like that).

Now, we know what PC configuration you will need to play Bioshock.

Operating Systems: Windows XP (with Service Pack 2) or Windows Vista

Minimum System Requirements:

• CPU: Pentium 4 2.4GHz Single Core processor
• System RAM: 1GB
• Video Card: Direct X 9.0c compliant video card with 128MB RAM (nVIDIA 6600 or better / ATI X1300 or better, excluding ATI X1550).
• Sound Card: 100% direct X 9.0c compatible sound card
• Hard disc space: 8GB free space

Recommended System Requirements:

• CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo processor
• System RAM: 2GB
• Video card: DX9: Direct X 9.0c compliant video card with 512MB RAM (NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GT or better). DX10: NVIDIA GeForce 8600 or better
• Sound Card: Sound Blaster X-Fiâ„¢ series (Optimized for use with Creative Labs EAX ADVANCED HD 4.0 or EAX ADVANCED HD 5.0 compatible sound cards)

You’ll need and Internet connection for game activation.

And to round it up, a trailer video:

Some time ago, I had spoken here of SequoiaView, a Windows utility to visualize the space used by files on a hard disk drive (a great way to prepare for freeing space on a hard drive choking full of hundreds of GB of data).

Today, I found a free utility doing about the same task on a Mac: GrandPerspective. Recommended.

Source: LifeHacker.

Now, we had announced them: Summer sales. AMD started with nearly all its CPU products, Intel followed immediately, AMD announced that they would not go further for now. Today, Intel does it again for quad-core processors (but prices are already so high that you need breathing assistance to observe them in the rarefied air of this altitude, and you and I don’t dwell there).

AMD (previously ATI) has prepared entry-level graphics cards under the names of Radeon HD 2400 and Radeon HD 2600. These lines were quite eagerly expected since nVidia was nearly alone on the DirectX 10-compatible card market (mostly with its geForce 8600 line). Even if the DirectX 10 games are still uncommon, we expect many of them to be coming up (including Crysis from EA - an FPS expected for September 11, 2007).

Recently, we saw a number of analysis of these new cards, that I would like to share with you:

• HD video comparison of geForce 8600 and Radeon 2600 (Guru 3D)
• AMD’s Radeon HD 2400 and 2600 series graphics processors (TechReport)
• AMD 2400/2600 74-page monster test (HardSpell)
• Radeon 2000-series and Linux (Phoronix)

BibliOdyssey is a web site about art in antique prints. You love books, you love quality books, you must stay tuned to BibliOdyssey.

Today, I just want to point to one single impressive post there: Drawing on the Renaissance.

For the music lovers, the sound amateurs, the podcasters, Audacity is a tool out of the usual: despite its cheap price (it’s free) it has near professional features.

We are speaking a lot about the exceptional FPS game known as Crysis which is prepared by Crytek and EA (launch in September 2007). Everything has already been said about the very high image quality and playability. However, Ubisoft announced that they bought the rights to the Far Cry franchise and are preparing Far Cry 2, as a sequel to the 2004 game title.

Forecasted for Spring of 2008, it will probably try to draw from the past success of Far Cry and the expected success of Crysis. But nobody knows if it will be using FarCry technology (most probable) or Crysis technology (not to be expected).

See also: FarCry2 web site.

AMD just announced two things nearly simultaneously : loosing $600 millions in operations in the last quarter (the financial balance is not good, but the message in there is: “it’s gonna be better soon”) and receiving a €262 millions from the German government (approved by the European Commission) to support the investments in their Dresden plant.