Posted 03/27/2009 at 11:58:32am

Oh, shut up you lousy cunt.

Posted 03/26/2009 at 07:56:56pm

Everyone can agree OnLive is obviously not PC gaming, its just that it can play PC games, and you all know the distinction. "Cloud" PC gaming, and cloud personal computing in general, would maybe look more like this - you would subscribe to a service, like Onlive, for the processing power of a virtual x86 CPU and a GPU that runs the latest DirectX/OpenGL, and maybe an online virtual drive, but you would still have access to the program files in your own OS enviroment. You would still have to install a game. In my opinion, the ability to program, write and manipulate code, access program files, is what makes a PC a PC.

Something like this is inevitable, but its still a baby and won't blossom into its own for probably another decade. when it does, "cloud" gaming will replace console gaming. PC gaming will still be seen as "dying" while  still being the de facto technical standard by which all gaming evolves, aka DirectX/OpenGL.

Posted 03/26/2009 at 03:25:04pm

I agree with your concern. Its probable that as more people gravitate towards the conveniance of "the cloud", there'll be less market incentive to give people the ability to have their own "stand-alone systems". And which do you suppose our government prefers in terms of national security. Join the cloud or have the freedom to stand alone?

Posted 03/13/2009 at 10:08:28pm

Sorry, I just didn't want that last idiot's post below me to be the first post unwitting MaxPC fans read after having read this article. those are five seconds of my life i'll never have back

Posted 02/17/2009 at 08:26:51pm

Well my gripe isn't with the size, but quality. For example, with your Acer, when sitting in front of it at a usual distance, looking at white page, is the whole screen a shimmering yellow except for a small circle in the middle about 6 inches in diameter. I'm guessing not.

Posted 02/17/2009 at 02:40:54pm

I hope this is the last time they mention that shitty Envision monitor

Posted 02/05/2009 at 08:17:33pm

I've been getting frustrated with MaxPC reviews of monitors lately, aside from my utter disappointment with my recent purchase of an Envision G2219w1. You guys find a lack of HDCP support important enough to knock it's score down, even though, as you mentioned, that's an easily remedied problem, but never bother testing or mentioning input lag, which is, in my opinion, more important to your readers, and a problem with most S-PVA type panels.

It should also be mentioned that the 24" model is also brighter (250 cd/m2 as opposed to 200), though not the 400 cd/m2 the XHD3000 can put out. 30" is too big for my taste, anyway, and its ultra-high resolution requires more of an investment for videocards than what most people are willing to shell out. Hopefully, in a year, LaCie's 700 series will lower into the sub-$1000 like the XHD3000 eventually did cause i definitely want one. 

Posted 01/29/2009 at 10:50:50pm

Don't waste your money, this is a horrible monitor for the money. I ordered two from staples, one from Amazon (under the "Nspire" brand). The viewing angles are embarressingly bad for an LCD sold in 2008, lots of backlight bleeding, and you will find at least one corrupt pixel, as all 3 monitors i bought had one.

Why would MaxPC say this is "The best 22-inch display we've ever tested"? Maybe they've lowered thier standards. Maybe because the monitor they reviewed, or even an LCD monitor displayed at your local Best Buy, has nothing to do with the monitor you actually buy. You can just dismiss any monitor review you read.

As its stated on CNET - "like a snowflake, every monitor is unique. There can be significant differences from one monitor to another -even among the same make and model." (http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-3173_7-6871537-4.html?tag=contentMain;contentBody). Maybe its a "bait and switch" type operation, where manufacturers make a decent LCD model to began with, and when they find that its become popular and moving off the shelves, they switch the LCD panels for shitty ones they weren't able to sell before.

Either way, don't buy this monitor based on this review like I did. I'm gonna wait another year to buy a monitor. Maybe by then IPS and PVA panels, LED backlighting, with low input lag and pixel response, that target the consumer market (thinner, stylish black bezels) will be more prevalent and decently priced.

Posted 01/12/2009 at 07:39:00pm

Are you sure you got that right about CUDA being a higher level language than OpenCL? From what I read in this article-

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081209-gpgpu-opens-up-with-opencl-1-0-spec-release.html

- it would seem OpenCL gives programmers more direct access to hardware.

Posted 12/20/2008 at 07:43:28pm

You obviously haven't read up on the Hydra. The fact that its a "non-proprietary" solution is least notable feature of the technology, and to answer your question, no, ATI and Nvidia apparently don't know what they're doing with their crossfire and SLI solutions because they couldn't come close to 100% scaling of multiple GPUs to save their stock value.