All that's missing from Logitech's newest flight simulation controller is a cockpit. The Flight System G940, as it's being dubbed, is the company's first ever force-feedback flight sim peripheral and has enough pieces to keep hardcore flight sim fans busy, and those new to the genre thoroughly overwhelmed. And that's just fine with Logitech.

"There's nothing ordinary about a G-series gaming peripheral, and the G940 is no different," said Ruben Mookerjee, Logitech's director or product marketing for gaming. "We approached this project with the goal of redefining the flight sim experience. Whether you're flying an A380, an F/A-18 Hornet, or a Comanche helicopter, when you want to feel the wind on your winds, control engines together, or independently or master tricky maneuvers, the G940 behaves and feels like the real thing -- from takeoff to landing."

The three-component G940 comes with a force feedback joystick and dual throttle and rudder pedals, along with no less than 250 programmable button options integrated in a fully featured Hands On Throttle-and-Stick (HOTAS) design.

Logitech says its G940 will start shipping in September with an MSRP set for $299.

Most parts of the country aren't expected to see any more snowfall until next winter, but the relationship between Nvidia and Intel couldn't be any more chilly. At odds with each other over Nehalem licensing, netbook platforms, and other tech related spats, the two sides seem all to happy to take digs at one another when the opportunity arises. For Nvidia, that means calling to question Intel's claim that its Core i7 processor can improve game performance by up to 80 percent.

"I have a copy of Intel’s latest deck that they share with press and customers, and on there they have a slide that is called The Intel Core i7 920 Processor, where they claim that gaming performance goes up by 80 percent when you use a Core i7, said Tom Peterson, Nvidia's technical marketing director. "Now, I was impressed by that claim, and I was trying to figure out how they could possibly say such a thing, and it turns out that Intel is basing that claim on only 3DMark Vantage’s CPU test."

Peterson went on to point out that the synthetic benchmark's CPU test doesn't actually measure game performance, and to say otherwise would be disingenuous. To drive his point home, Peterson showed Nvidia's own benchmarks of a Core 2 Duo E8400 machine outfitted with a GeForce GTS 250 videocard. The PC averaged 41.6 FPS in Nvidia's testing, and only increased to 42.4 FPS after upgrading to a Core i7 965. But after upgrading to a pair of GeForce GTX 260 videocards, that number jumped to 59.4 FPS.

"In real gaming, there's no difference between a Core i7 and a Core 2 Duo," Peterson concluded.