According to The Inquirer ATI has managed to tape out its next big chip. R600 is taped out and it works well, we're told. When we say big, it will be physically big, very fast and very marchitecturally advanced.

Since it's introduction there have been a lot of people reporting crackling and popping caused by their SoundBlaster X-Fi making games unplayable. In an effort to fix this problem Creative released a new X-Fi driver (beta) and wrote a technical analysis. If both failed, which still seems to be the case for many X-Fi owners, here is a new update straight from Creative.

After publishing this article, we got some inquiries on testing the effects of lower memory latencies and Core 2's performance. This is exactly what we've done on this page using the Corsair DDR2-1066 kit that has 2 x 1GB modules with SPD timings of 5-5-5-15. The following table shows the latencies we've used and the results with specific applications

T-Break

Windwithme got his hands on Intel?s latest CPU and spend several days checking out its performance and to see how far he could overclock it with an air cooled heatsink.

I've had quite a few people asking me to see more of the Inno3D Dry Ice Automater and 7950GX2 Quad SLI water-cooling system we displayed at Innovision booth during Computex 2006. Here are the details of it!

In the wake of reports about the possible cancellation of certain Athlon 64 X2 processors, we've received confirmation from AMD that changes are indeed coming. AMD plans to simplify and consolidate its product lineup by bringing several of its current processor model numbers to end-of-life status. These products include Athlon 64 X2 processors for Socket AM2 with 1MB of L2 cache per core, but that's not the whole story.

The TechReport

Reports of liquid-cooled Power Mac G5?s leaking have been been popping up around the Net.

MacsimumNews

ATi has a live demo of their RS600 IGP chipset for Intel at Computex which is slated for launch in July and ECS is among the first board manufacturer to come out with the design. We have learned that RS600 supports AVIVO and HDCP as well as HDMI.

VR-Zone

In some cases, an updated motherboard BIOS is sometimes necessary for NVIDIA's newly-released GeForce 7950 GX2 to function as intended. In my preview, I used an Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe motherboard, which I flashed from BIOS version 1103 to 1205. Updating a motherboard BIOS is not to be taken lightly and should not be attempted unless it corrects a specific issue, such as an incompatibility.

Nvnews.net

VR-Zone check out the upcoming ATi 80nm GPU offerings which is none other than the RV560 and RV570 slated to launch in Q3 this year. Interestingly, ATi has also revealed the new Crossfire bridges which is very similar to NVIDIA SLI bridge concept.

We benchmarked the complete set of Intel Conroe Core 2 processors including X6800, E6700 and E6600. Photos included!

Since ATI's announcement this morning about their own solution for PC game hardware physics seemed to us to be a challenge to AGEIA's PhysX hardware, we decided to contact AGEIA to get their side on things. Here is AGEIA's response via their vice president of marketing Michael Steele:

FiringSquad

I have a little bit of a treat for you guys today. ATI used the first day of Computex to announce its strategy for GPU-based physics processing. Radeon X1000 series graphics processors will be capable of accelerating the Havok FX physics API as a part of what ATI is calling a "boundless gaming" experience.

ATI and NVIDIA have been briefing power supply manufacturers in Taiwan recently about what to expect for next year?s R600 and G80 GPUs. Both GPUs will be introduced in late 2006 or early 2007.

Make no mistake, physics acceleration is going to be the next big thing in game visuals, much like when GPU's first arrived, so you may as well get used to it! ATI appear to mean business with their offering for physics acceleration and are strutting around rather confidently claiming they will hold a major performance advantage over the competition. If it does turn out to have a performance edge over Nvidia and AGEIA it will surely boost CrossFire sales. It may be just what ATI needs to get CrossFire in every enthusiasts home.

On Wednesday, Seagate announced its first hybrid hard drive that uses flash memory: the Momentus 5400 PSD. It incorporates 256 MB of flash memory that serves as a fast cache for booting and saving data. When booting the PC, the operating system loads data from the flash memory first, speeding bootup times and negating the need to quickly spin up the drive, a power-consuming process.

PCMag.com

So you thought the GeForce 7950 GX2 was performance shattering? Just wait till you see the performance potential of going Quad SLI with a pair of these beauties. Though not officially ready for end-users, that didn't stop us from bridging two of the highest-performing graphics card solutions. Read on.

You know those Intel Core benchmarks floating around the internet, posted by sites that benchmarked systems prepared by Intel, supervised by Intel? Yeah, we didn't do that. Instead, we bring you independent results from Computex.

FiringSquad

If you've wondered if it's possible to run two systems with a single power supply unit, then the answer would definitely be a YES. We took it further with Intel's Core 2 Duo processors and running them silent with passive heatsinks. Find out more about this Computex Taipei 2006 technology demo at MSI's booth right here.

HardwareZone

Intel is expected to disclose its launch plans for its next-generation Core 2 microprocessors, as well as a new low-voltage Core Duo chip that will be featured in thin-and-light notebooks from Dell and HP. Of longer-term importance will be the introduction of the Intel P965 or "Broadwater" chipset, marking the end of older parallel ATA disk drives and IDE storage within the PC.

ExtremeTech