AMD’s Next CPU Architecture To Be “Completely Different”

CustomPC had the opportunity to talk to AMD’s technical director of sales and marketing about the company's next generation architecture. According to the article, AMD’s rep said that the company’s next CPU will be completely different than today’s processors. What did he mean by that? Probably somewhere along the lines of what the company showed us last year.

AMD’s technical director of sales and marketing for EMEA, Giuseppe Amato, told Custom PC that ‘if I look at the next generation architecture of our CPU, then it will definitely not be, how can I say, comparable with the Phenom. It will look completely different.’ Amato was unable to give us any specific details of the new architecture, but did add that it would ‘solve problems that today we think can never be addressed by hardware.’

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[H]ardware Round-Up

Cooling

Scythe Shuriken Low Low-Profile CPU Cooler @ Pro-Clockers

ETC.

Hardware Leader Board @ PC Perspective

Vantec NexStar Hard Drive Dock @ Virtual Hideout

Video

NVIDIA GeForce 9800GTX SLI @ T-Break

Dual Core Processor Required Gaming

We have heard for a while now that Assassin’s Creed would be a “Dual Core CPU or Better Required.” After finishing up our AC DX10.1/Vista SP1 vs. DX10 AC article, Mark went back in with our best performing video card, the 9800 GX2 and did some single core versus dual core testing. Even at 16x12 resolution, which we have traditionally considered “GPU Bound” mostly (yes, there are exceptions to that), we found that disabling one CPU core totally killed performance. So yes, dual core or better is pretty much required when it comes to real world Assassin’s Creed gaming. We have to remember that this is a current-gen console port that had many cores at its disposal during its full development cycle. And we are very likely to see more.

Windows XP SP3

After several attempts last week, I think we finally have a good link for the Windows XP service pack 3. As always, until the official version hits the net, double check these service packs to make sure they aren’t releases candidates or betas. Please feel free to hit the comments link below and let us know your experiences with this in the comments section.

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GTA IV First Impressions

HardForum posters are sounding off about their GTA IV experiences. No spoilers.

The 10 Worst HDTV Scams, Lies and Video Ripoffs

HD Guru has compiled a list of the Ten Worst HDTV Scams, Lies and Video Ripoffs. There are some really good ones on the list but I have to go with this one as my favorite:

Most buyers don’t realize how close you must be to a 1080p set to notice the full benefit over a 720p display. The average viewing distance in America is 9 ft. To see all the detail in a 32” 1080p set you have to sit 4 feet 2 inches from the display (or closer).

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AMD Quad-Core Chip Hits Compatibility Snag

AMD has confirmed that its high-end 125W quad-core Phenom processors are are not compatible with 780G motherboards. An AMD spokesman says that the problem is that the Phenom 9750 and 9850 processors have a 125W TDP while the 780G chipset only supports 95W. Thanks to Atech for the link.

"What people have done, mistakenly, is paired a 780G (chipset-based) motherboard with the higher frequency Phenom--the 125-watt Phenom," said Jake Whitman, an AMD spokesperson. Whitman is referring to the fact that the high-end 9750 and 9850 Phenom processors have a Thermal Design Power (TDP or thermal envelope) of 125 watts versus the lower-end 9600 and 9550 models that have a TDP of 95 watts. The higher-watt parts will not work with motherboards that contain the 780G chipset. The lower-end models do not have these TDP issues.

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Critics Slam 'GTA IV' Without Test Drive

GTA IV is a video game intended for a mature audience. With that said, GTA IV is guaranteed to bring out the worst in certain people, just not the people the media would have you believe. The people it happens to be bringing the worst out in are the politicians, activists and pundits…most of whom have never even played the game.

In the lead-up to the midnight Tuesday release of Rockstar Games' follow-up game, Grand Theft Auto IV, Thompson was at it again. According to online technology news site Softpedia, Thompson wrote an e-mail to Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick's mother (Take-Two is Rockstar's parent company).

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GTA IV Locking Up?

It would seem there is an issue with both the PS3 and Xbox 360 version of GTA IV locking up. Reports are supposedly coming in from all over that the problem is bad enough to cause your system to hard lock, requiring users to unplug their systems completely to reset. Most of our users seem to really like the game and no reports of hard locks yet. Any of you experiencing problems?

That's what many forums - as well as many of our readers - would have you believe, with reports of the game locking up during/following the game's first cutscene, an error so severe you apparently have to unplug your console at the wall.

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7 Confessions Of An Apple Macintosh Specialist

Normally I like to link stories like this so I can poke fun at Apple but this time around things are a bit different. While you can still get a chuckle at Apple’s expense, there is actually some pretty good info here for those of you that might have to visit an Apple store at some point.

If you fill out the survey and rank us 6 or lower, a manager will call you the same day or the next, corporate policy. They usually will ask why you had a bad experience, and offer to make it better, usually by discounting something or another for you. These are directly related to the salesperson who checked you out, so we get our asses reamed when we make a detractor. Also, If you complain to a manager, nothing usually gets done, it goes in one ear and out the other. Buy something very small, have them email your receipt, and fill out the survey. The management will wait on you hand and foot. Oh, and return the product.

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AMD: 100 Laptop Designs Being Readied for Puma

According to this report, AMD will have almost one hundred laptop designs based on its upcoming Puma platform ready by June, twice as man as the company had at the launch of its last mobile platform.

AMD plans to launch its Puma laptop platform during the Computex trade show in June, where many of the upcoming laptops based on the chips are expected to be on display. Pairing greater power efficiency with improved graphics, Puma is based on AMD's upcoming Turion X2 Ultra processor, previously known by the code name Griffin.

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Die Spammer, Die

It looks like the “spam king” is making it easy for MySpace to kick his ass in court. The guy fails to respond to court orders or even show up. Hopefully all spam defendants act like this guy.

Sanford Wallace, the so-called spam king, has often been accused of sending annoying messages that are typically ignored by the recipient. Perhaps he considered a series of court orders as something he could blow off. If he did, he was wrong. MySpace has won a legal judgment against Wallace after he failed numerous times to turn over documents or even to show up for court.

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