The computing relics unearthed in the PC Pro Labs

Tuesday, December 27th, 2011

The PC Pro Lab is a dark, dingy place full of cardboard boxes, benchmarks and more motherboards, processors and PCs than we care to count, but it’s also home to a variety of kit that’s slipped through the net –  some of it even dating back to before PC Pro launched in 1994.

From iconic machines like the IBM PC to the silliness of Sony’s £1,190 netbook, we’ve scoured the darkest corners and blown dust off some of the oldest, oddest and rarest kit we can find – starting with a true icon of the industry. (more…)

Nvidia and ARM forced to bail out battery makers

Friday, November 11th, 2011

ARM and Nvidia are major mobile players, so it pays to listen when the firms announce new technologies. The latest developments from both serve up an interesting similarity with regards to how these companies are tackling one of the biggest annoyances of the modern smartphone: inefficient batteries.

ARM’s recent announcement, big.LITTLE, pairs one of its high-end Cortex A15 MPCore chips alongside an entry-level Cortex A7, which consumes much less power. It’s designed to seamlessly takes over when a device is tackling low-intensity tasks, so the power-sucking A15 is reserved for intensive games and apps.

Nvidia’s Tegra 3 chipset, meanwhile, uses a near-identical approach: the four cores on the main chip can be turned on and off to tackle everything from basic web browsing to high-end games but, if the phone’s in standby mode or you’re running low-power apps, those four cores will shut down, with processing power provided by a “Companion Core”. It’s based on the same Cortex A9 used by the main Tegra 3 chip but, crucially, it runs at 500MHz instead of 1.4GHz. (more…)

Nvidia and AMD might not release new cards until 2012 — who cares?

Tuesday, August 16th, 2011

I’ve become used to Nvidia and AMD rocking up with new graphics cards on a consistently quick schedule: since 2008 and beginning with the GeForce 9000-series, Nvidia has released six generations of GPUs, and AMD has replied with three of its own, starting with the Radeon HD 4000-series.

Both firms put the finishing touches on their current ranges in the spring, and the trail’s gone quiet since. Nvidia has confirmed that it won’t release any new cards before 2012, and AMD hasn’t mentioned any potential release dates for its new Radeon HD 7000-series — presumably taking extra time to further tweak and perfect the new chips. (more…)

Ultimate PCs (part one): water-cooling, dual-graphics and more

Monday, August 8th, 2011

It’s been two years since an Ultimate PC group test found its way into the pages of PC Pro, and this year’s selection showed exactly what we’ve been missing. Seven systems arrived to fight for the title and, with every single one boasting an overclocked processor and dual graphics, we knew we were in for a fierce battle before we’d even unpacked.

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AMD: losing the battle on all fronts

Tuesday, March 8th, 2011

Remember AMD Barcelona? Delayed and disappointing, the architecture behind AMD’s first Phenom chips finally turned up in November 2007, six months behind schedule, with performance that left us “a little underwhelmed” after months of anticipation – and that’s before it was compared against its Intel equivalents.

At the same time, Intel was preparing to release its Wolfdale-based Core 2 Duo processors, which appeared in January 2008 using the more efficient 45nm architecture – a key improvement over AMD’s 65nm chips. The result? Our review concluded that the new Core 2 Duo E8000-series “wipes the floor with the [older] E6000 series” and that Intel’s new processors were an “unqualified success”.

Fast forward three years, and the similarities are startling. (more…)

AMD Radeon HD 6990 review: first look

Tuesday, March 1st, 2011

We’ve seen some big graphics cards in our time but AMD’s new Radeon HD 6990, which has just been hauled into the Labs by a team of four burly couriers, takes the cake. You’ll have to take our word for it, as AMD is only allowing us to show you these pictures at this time, but we’ve just tried to cram the new card into our test rig — which uses not-inconsiderable Cooler Master CM 690 II Advanced chassis — and it wouldn’t fit, blocked off by the hard disk cages before getting anywhere near the motherboard. (more…)

Is AMD about to put the boot into Nvidia?

Tuesday, September 28th, 2010

It must be tough being Nvidia. A few short weeks after it looked like the green team was back on track thanks to the award-winning GeForce GTX 460, a slide of Radeon HD 6000-series specifications has been leaked – and it looks likely that AMD will kick Nvidia into touch before year’s end.

The leaked information concerns the Radeon HD 6750 and HD 6770 which, if the past two generations are to be believed, will sit in the middle of the upcoming range. There’s evidence to suggest that the new series is more evolution than revolution, with both cards still using the 40nm fabrication process that was introduced way back with the HD 4770 and the GDDR5 memory that’s been commonplace for the past year.

Nevertheless, the list of specifications hints at the increased power that AMD has been able to eke out of its new Northern Islands family, of which the Barts XT core is the first representative. The HD 6750 will allegedly have a 725MHz core accompanied by 1,120 stream processors, and its compute performance of 1.624TFlops sits between the HD 5770 and HD 5850 in the pecking order. (more…)

Toshiba Folio 100 tablet review: first look

Thursday, September 2nd, 2010

After traipsing around the semi-completed halls of Berlin’s IFA show, it seems like every manufacturer under the sun has decided to release a tablet. Toshiba is no exception, but its Folio 100 tablet has decided to tread a slightly different path to its rivals. The 10.1in form factor and Android 2.2 OS come as no surprise, but Intel and Qualcomm don’t get a look in – instead Nvidia’s Tegra 2 takes centre stage.

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Is Nvidia burying the launch of its Fermi GPUs?

Friday, March 26th, 2010

It’s no exaggeration to say that the launch of Nvidia’s Fermi-based cards is one of the most important in the firm’s recent history.

After all, Nvidia has taken quite a beating from ATI, which has released two generations of GPUs in the time that it’s taken Nvidia to unveil its first new architecture since the G92 core, which ushered in a bevy of GeForce 8000-series chips. And then 9000-series cards. And then, after that, a raft of low-end GTX 200 and GTX 300-series parts.

It’s odd, then, that Nvidia has launched its new cards in such a low-key fashion. The official launch was at the Nvidia-sponsored PAX East event, which isn’t a trade show or celebrity-studded party but a gaming festival and LAN event held in Boston. While it’s a big event, it’s not on the level of CeBIT or CES, and there’s no sign of the concurrent global launches that numerous tech firms, including ATI, have favoured in recent years.

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Nvidia responds: There’s cash in CUDA

Thursday, October 1st, 2009

Some companies take a very laid back approach to the press. I could publicly allege that Itanium was a front for a money-laundering operation and I doubt I’d hear a peep of complaint from Intel.

Actually, that might explain a lot. But I digress.

The point is that Nvidia, unlike Intel, is acutely tuned in to what people are saying about it — and can be quick to respond. (more…)