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NewsDon't Toss that Voodoo Videocard, New 3DFX Driver Released

Posted 12/01/08 at 06:37:22 AM by Paul Lilly

So you thought 3DFX was dead and gone? Well, you're right. The graphics company largely responsible for ushering in 3D gaming bit the dust nearly a decade ago when Nvidia devoured the company and announced it would not support 3DFX products. But that hasn't stopped others from stepping in to fill the void left by 3DFX's demise and its once mighty Voodoo videocard lineup.

For those of you still getting your old school game on, 3dfxzone.it has released new drivers covering a variety of vintage GPUs. Models supported by the SFFT 1.5 driver release include:

Voodoo3 2000
Voodoo3 3000
Voodoo3 3500
Voodoo4 4500
Voodoo5 5500
Voodoo6 6000

We don't imagine too many Voodoo owners are concerned with running Vista, but for the sake of full disclosure, the new drivers support Windows 2000/XP 32-bit and XP 64-bit.

Comments: 0
TAGS: graphics, videocard, voodoo, gpu, driver, 3dfx

NewsATI Releases Driver Hotfix to Improve Performance in Far Cry 2 and Stalker Clear Sky

Posted 10/29/08 at 02:15:17 PM by Paul Lilly

ATI recently updated its Catalyst driver package, and now the company has released a hotfix to address problems gamers might have been having in Far Cry 2, Stalker Clear Sky, and Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway. Specific fixes include:

Performance boost in Far Cry 2 with DX9 and CrossFire
Performance boost in Far Cry 2 with DX10 on both single-card and CrossFire setups
Performance boost in Stalker Clear Sky with DX10 and DX10.1 on both single-card and CrossFire setups when running "higher resolutions"
Addresses a corrpution issue in Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway on the 'Black Friday' level

The hotfix applies to both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Vista and XP starting with ATI's Radeon X1600 series and moving on up to the Radeon HD 4800 graphics cards.

Comments: 1
TAGS: games, amd, Software, videocard, ati, hotfix, driver, Videogames, far cry 2, stalker clear sky

NewsSLI / Multi Monitor Support Shown In Leaked Forceware Drivers

Posted 10/18/08 at 05:27:45 PM by Justin Kerr

Many Monitors

Nvidia owners with an SLI setup who have dreamed of running multiple monitors have been left in the cold for quite some time now. Stretching your real estate out onto a second monitor forced GeForce owners to disable SLI and reconfigure settings from scratch each time. This could take up several minutes and in some extreme cases, even a reboot. ATI owners on the other hand have had the ability to run crossfire on multi monitors for quite some time now and even Nvidia’s Quadro lineup has a fix in place. The day of reckoning is at hand however for GeForce owners and the wait for a fix may soon be over. According to leaked drivers which were previewed by VR-Zone an update from Nvidia may put the issue to bed once and for all. Screen shots and even a download link to the driver shows SLI multi monitor support in action.

Version 180.10 which Nvidia dubs “Big Bang II” could be rolling out soon and these drivers show that significant progress has been made on the issue. The site currently only offers the 64 bit version and this “leaked” copy features a few limitations which are important to know. Currently only clone mode is available for the second monitor, and 3D applications will match the resolutions on both displays regardless of compatibility. Additionally, these features come with roughly a 5% performance hit acording to 3DMark. Additional program specific conflicts are also being discussed in forums, and Nvidia (understandably) isn’t saying much.

The company has not confirmed the authenticity of these drivers or given any official release date on “Big Bang II”. The suggested launch date of September has obviously come and gone and ForceWare version 178.24 debuted just last week. Since driver releases are traditionally a minimum of one month apart, I highly doubt we will see anything new before late November or sometime in December at the earliest.

Comments: 3
TAGS: windows, Software, graphics, videocard, video, nvidia, gpu, sli, driver, build a pc, Forceware, multi-monitor, big bang ii

NewsNvidia to Finally Deliver Multi-Monitor SLI Support in September?

Posted 08/05/08 at 03:29:14 PM by Paul Lilly

It doesn't matter if you seek solace in Creationism or prescribe to the theory of evolution, everyone should be equally stoked about what Nvidia's calling "Big Bang II." No, the graphics chip maker isn't gearing up to end the debate on man's existence, but even better, the company will improve man's quality of life with a new driver package that looks poised to earn its codename by bringing gamers at least one big, long overdue improvement.

Bang Part I

The biggest news associated with Nvidia's ForceWare Release 180 (R180) is the introduction of SLI multi-monitor support. Ever since Nvidia introduced SLI, the inability to run a second monitor while gaming has been a major complaint, and even more so as LCD displays have fallen in price. That finally looks to no longer be the case with the new driver release, and gamers will be able to frag opponents while simultaneously keeping an eye on their email inbox, incoming IMs, and everything else that would previously be blacked out on a second monitor.

Find out what else is bangin' with the new driver after the jump.

Comments: 5
TAGS: windows, Software, graphics, videocard, video, nvidia, gpu, sli, driver, build a pc, Forceware, multi-monitor, big bang ii

NewsNvidia Soon to Release WHQL Certified PhysX Drivers

Posted 07/24/08 at 10:02:36 AM by Chris Moody

Nvidia is preparing to release their WHQL certified PhysX driver on August 5th for GeForce 8, 9, and GTX series videocards. The new ForceWare driver will expand PhysX support to currently available PhysX titles like Ghost Recon 2: Advanced Warfighter, Warmonger and Cell Factor: Revolution.

WHQL or Windows Hardware Quality Labs is a testing process that when passed allows vendors to use a "Certified for Windows" logo, which certifies that the hardware or software has had testing by Microsoft to ensure compatibility with Windows. Many vendors like being able to hang that logo on their products, so we will see more videocards touting PhysX support and the Windows certified logo hitting big box store shelves soon.

Nvidia acquired PhysX when they bought Ageia. PhysX is now part of CUDA (Compute Unified Device Architecture) that Nvidia developed. CUDA may take off in a big way if some driver modders succeed in getting it to run on Radeon videocards. No word yet if ATI plans to support the project at all.

Yet another reason to upgrade my trusty 7900GT. Is PhysX support enough to make you upgrade your older card?

Comments: 11
TAGS: news, nvidia, physx, driver, Release, Forceware

NewsVista Activation Strikes Again - Time to Fight Back

Posted 10/26/07 at 10:45:31 PM by Mark Soper

Vista's activation DRM may shut you down for 'too many' hardware changes, even if you changed drivers, not hardware. Here's how to avoid getting nailed - and some advice for Microsoft.