Posted 10/08/09 at 07:00:00 PM by David Murphy

I'll admit, I was a little bit excited when I read earlier this week that Netgear was launching a quote-unquote open-source router. It's not very often--well, hardly ever--that one sees a larger corporate manufacturer of computer hardware so brazenly embrace the ideals (and code) of the open-source enthusiasts. If anything, it seems that companies in the networking space tend to go a little out of their way to ensure that one can't add or tweak a store-bought device with unofficial firmware. I think they'd much prefer to up-sell you additional features than watch you unlock them yourself, but that's just me.

And yet, here we are! An open-source router! Just the kind of thing you want to bring home, install into your network, and begin updating with the best DD-WRT, OpenWRT, or Tomato firmware you can get your hands on. Imagine the possibilities! Imagine the new features you might be able to play around with! Imagine the joy in your family's eyes when you tell 'em how you've transformed your Jekyll of a local area network into an beastly, unrestrained Hyde. They'll talk about this day for the next five family gatherings at least!

I exaggerate, but only because it seems that the marketing team for Netgear's WNR3500L gigabit router is probably benefiting the most from this "switch" to open-source. I can't see average consumers using this device to its fullest potential, if that's even possible to begin with. The WNR3500L isn't actually open-source all the way. By incorporating closed-source drivers into the product--and triumphing third-party firmware that may or may not run afoul of the GPL itself--Netgear could actually be costing consumers valuable security and functionality. 

That being the case, why would one ever want to switch to open-source?

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Posted 08/17/09 at 01:15:06 PM by Paul Lilly

Those who attended Quakecon 2009 (as well as those who follow AMD's blog) were able to get an early look at AMD's Catalyst 9.8 drivers, and sometime today, the company is expected to release them to the general public.

The new driver package comes with support for the Radeon HD 2000, HD 3000, and HD 4000 series while serving up support for OpenGL 3.1 extensions. AMD also claims several performance gains, including:

• Up to 50 percent better performance in Battleforge DirectX 10/10.1
• Up to 77 percent better performance in Company of Heroes (DX10)
• Up to a 10 percent (dual CrossFireX) and 34 percent (quad CrossFireX) performance boost in Crysis (DX10)
• Crysis Warhead DX10 performance of CrossFireX technology in dual mode improves up to 7 percent and quad mode up to 69 percent
• Far Cry 2 DX10 performance of CrossFireX in dual mode improves up to 50 percent and quad mode up to 88 percent
• Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X. DX10/10.1 performance of CrossFireX in dual mode improves up to 40 percent and quad mode up to 60 percent
• UninginTropics OpenGL performance improvements of up to 20 percent
• UningineTropics DX10 performance of CrossFireX in quad more improves up to 20 percent
• World in Conflict DX10 performance improves up to 10 percent

If you don't feel like waiting for the drivers to show up on game.amd.com, you can grab them right here:

Windows XP 32-bit
Windows XP-64-bit
Vista / Win7 32-bit
Vista / Win7 64-bit

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Posted 06/30/09 at 04:00:00 PM by Mark Edward Soper

Until the introduction of Windows 7, device management was a multi-application nightmare. Want to see a device's hardware configuration? Open Device Manager. Want to browse the contents of a storage device? Open My Computer. Need to manage the settings used by a specific device? Open the appropriate applet in Control Panel (Mouse, Keyboard, Game Controller, and so on). If you have a multifunction device, you would need to open separate applets to manage the printing, faxing, scanning, and file management functions of one device.

In Windows 7, the Devices and Printers applet in Control Panel provides a single entry point to managing single-purpose and multifunction devices. Microsoft considers Devices and Printers so important to system management that you can start Devices and Printers directly from the Start menu. To learn how Devices and Printers will make your life easier, and what you need to do to make it work better for you, join us after the jump.

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Posted 05/20/09 at 10:18:54 AM by Paul Lilly

It took a bit of waiting, but those Catalyst 9.5 downloads that started appearing on the web days ago are finally available direct from AMD. For those of you who grew impatient and snagged the download from an alternate source, they should be the same ones now appearing on AMD's site.

Catalyst 9.5 promises a handful of performance improvements, including:

• Performance gains of up to 11 percent for single GPU and ATI CrossFireX configurations with AA enabled in Unigine Tropics DX9
• Up to a 10 percent boost in Company of Heroes
• Up to a 10 percent boost in BattleForce for CrossFireX configurations

Several bugs have been squashed in the new release, a handful of which apply to Windows 7. Win 7 owners should no longer see dropped frames while playing certain Blu-ray interlaced content, and moving a video clip across an extended desktop should no longer cause the system to flicker or for the media player to stop working.

Release Notes (PDF)
Download

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Posted 05/08/09 at 09:04:06 AM by Paul Lilly

Nvidia has just released a new WHQL-certified driver, version 185.85, for GeForce videocard and ION platform owners. The new driver adds official support for the recently released GTX 275 videocard, as well as support for CUDA 2.2, which Nvidia says will result in improved performance in GPU computing applications. Other performance claims include:

• Up to 25 percent in The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena
• Up to 22 perent in Crysis: Warhead with antialiasing enabled
• Up to 11 percent in Fallout 3 with antialiasing enabled
• Up to 14 percent in Far Cry 2
• Up to 30 percent in Half-Life 2 engine games with 3-way and 4-way SLI
• Up to 45 percent in Mirror's Edge with antialiasing enabled

You read that right - that's up to a 45 percent boost in Mirror's Edge, according to Nvidia. In addition, 185.85 updates the PhysX software to 9.09.0408 and offers "numerous bug fixes." Barrage of links below.

Documentation

Release Notes (v185.85) PDF
New Control Panel Users Guide

Driver Downloads

Windows XP 32-bit
Windows XP 64-bit
Windows Vista 32-bit
Windows Vista 64-bit
Windows 7 32-bit
Windows 7 64-bit

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Posted 05/06/09 at 08:25:12 AM by Paul Lilly

Asus this week announced new beta drivers for several of its motherboards that "enable Asus motherboard users to run Windows 7 RC." By doing so, Asus claims its mobos are the world's first to support the newly released operating system.

"Asus' industry-leading Research & Development team has kept close pace with each new beta release of Windows 7, and has developed beta drivers that enable Asus motherboard users to try Windows 7 RC immediately," Asus wrote in a press release. "The drivers can be downloaded from the Asus Motherboard Support website (http://support.asus.com/)."

Asus notes the following models are now officially supported:

• P6T Deluxe V2
• P5Q-E
• P5Q PRO Turbo
• P5Q SE PLUS
• M4A78-EM 

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Posted 03/19/09 at 09:37:16 AM by Paul Lilly

Windows 7 is already feeling the love from both graphics camps. Earlier this month, Nvidia released a specialized Forceware driver for the beta OS along with the promise of regular updates, and now AMD has followed suit with its new ATI Catalyst 9.3 driver this week. However, the new Catalyst driver rolls both Windows 7 and Vista support into a single download, allowing the company to lay claim as offering the "first unified driver installation package to incorporate Windows 7 support." AMD says future Catalyst releases will also be unified for both the current and upcoming Windows OSes.

"AMD's expertise in visual computing shines through in the combined experience of Windows 7 and ATI Radeon graphics," said Anantha Kancherla, group manager responsible for Windows graphics, Microsoft. "With today's release of a Windows 7 unified driver, AMD once again demonstrates its ability to deliver perfromance and cutting-edge driver support."

Hit the jump to find out what else to expect from the new Catalyst 9.3 unified driver.

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Posted 02/19/09 at 11:20:51 AM by Paul Lilly

Nvidia this week released new WHQL GeForce drivers for GeForce 6, 7, 8, 9, and 200-series owners. The new drivers, version 182.06, promise around a 10 percent performance increase in Fallout 3 at high resolution with AA, F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin, Half Life 2 at high resolution with AA, the insanely entertaining Left 4 Dead at high resolution with AA, and Race Driver: GRID, also at high resolution with AA.

In addition to double-digit performance boosts, Nvidia says its new drivers include full support for OpenGL 3.0 on GeForce 8, 9, and 200 series GPUs and automatically installs the new PhysX software (version 9.090203. The drivers also fix a bug in Vista 32-bit where GeForce 9800 GTX/GX2/GT/GTX+ and 8800 GTS/GT/GS owners experienced a system hang when switching between performance states.

More information available in the release notes (PDF).

Windows XP 32-bit
Windows XP 64-bit
Windows Vista 32-bit
Windows Vista 64-bit

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