NeutralX2 » Tech

GTX 680 Installed

NeutralX2 — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 23:49:16 +0000

I got my GTX 680 in the mail today and I have to say I am pretty impressed with it so far. I am enjoying high frame rates in Battlefield 3 and (relatively) high FPS in Natural Selection 2. Pics below. Sorry for the very poor quality, I will be getting my new phone soon.

Nvidia’s GTX 680 Released

NeutralX2 — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 02:32:00 +0000

Nvidia released the GeForce GTX 680 Kepler GPU today. “With Kepler we wanted not only to build the world’s fastest GPU, but also the world’s most power efficient,” said Nvidia’s James Wang.

The company says the GTX 680 introduces two major changes: A completely redesigned streaming multiprocessor and a new GPU Boost feature to increase clock speeds. It also draws “at most” 195 watts of power compared to 244 watts on the GeForce GTX 580.

Last year Epic Games showed off its next-gen target demo Samaritan running on three GTX 580s. That same demo now runs on a single GTX 680 with power to spare.

The card is available from $499 to $530, but is sold out everywhere. NVIDIA says that the supply will get better in the weeks and months ahead, so expect to wait a bit if you didn’t already get one.

Neal Stephenson on Getting Big Stuff Done

NeutralX2 — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 03:00:56 +0000

Neal Stephenson, one of my favorite authors, talks about “our society’s inability to execute on big stuff”.

Got Cable Internet

NeutralX2 — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 00:36:08 +0000

After getting extremely tired of waiting for FIOS, I decided to get Cable internet instead. It feels good to join the modern age again. I just hope I don’t hit any of those usage caps.

Before:

After:

HTC Titan 2

NeutralX2 — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 01:15:25 +0000

The touchscreen on my Samsung Impression stopped working recently so I have been looking for a new phone. I was all set on getting a HTC Titan next week, when they announced the Titan 2 at CES today. I am certainly glad they announced this now instead of next week. The Titan 2 looks pretty good and will probably be my next phone. I just hope I don’t have to wait too long before its available.

Xfire Updating Software

NeutralX2 — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 15:56:47 +0000

Xfire, the instant messaging/social network service for gamers recently raised $4 Million From Intel Capital, and is now an independent company again. A little over a year ago, Xfire was acquired by Titan Gaming, and since then development on the software has been pretty slow. Client updates have been few and far between, and new game support was outsourced to a team of community volunteers instead of being developed and tested in-house. As a result of the capital injection, Xfire is now flying solo again, and they have some big plans for the software in the future.

They are already testing a beta build of the client that supports in-game rendering for DirectX 10 and 11. This means that Xfire will start working with modern games, allowing you to chat, take screenshots, record video, and broadcast live gameplay all from the Xfire overlay that appears on-top of the game. They are currently testing with World of Warcraft (DX11), The Lord of The Rings Online (DX10/DX11), Dungeons & Dragons (DX10/DX11), and Battlefield 3 (DX10/DX11). If all goes well, expect to see a lot more newer games supporting XIG.

They are also focusing on fixing some of the social network features. Xfire has a network manager feature that allows you to chat on other networks such as AIM, MSN, and Twitter. However since it was first implemented, some of the protocols have changed, creating issues with the Xfire client. Fixes are promised, as well as support for additional networks.

Overall, it seems like it is a good time to be an Xfire user, and they want your feedback. If you currently use Xfire, take a few minutes to complete this survey and let them know how you feel about it.

Now to go download that beta client so I can get Xfire working in Battlefield 3.

Corsair H60 Installed

NeutralX2 — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 02:15:29 +0000

Got my Corsair H60 today to replace the extremely loud stock air cooling on my Phenom II X4 965. Wow what a difference it made. Before my PC was pretty loud idle, and sounded like a airplane taking off when I played games. Now the thing is very quiet all the time, and the temps while gaming are only slightly higher then what my idle temps were with the stock cooler. Not bad for $59.99 thanks to Amazon and Prime Shipping.

Also a big thank you goes out to the LASERSHIP guy that left my box sitting outside during a tropical storm. Its not that type of water cooler dude.

Now I just need to get my RAM back.

New PC Processor & Case

NeutralX2 — Sat, 03 Sep 2011 23:32:56 +0000

I got a new processor and PC case over the weekend. I got my parts moved over and the processor installed without any issues. I have to say I really like the Corsair Graphite Series™ 600T Mid-Tower Case. It has some nice cable management options, pretty cool moveable drive bays, and pretty nice cooling. The stock cooler on my new Phenom II X4 965 is pretty loud though, so I am going to replace it with a Corsair H60. I went with the 965 because I did not feel like replacing a motherboard and RAM, and the 965 will run on my Socket AM2+ motherboard. Its not a top of the line processor by any means, but its a nice upgrade over my aging AMD Phenom 9600 Agena.

Now I just need to get my RAM back.

Bad RAM

NeutralX2 — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 02:24:11 +0000

Don’t you just love it when your memory randomly goes bad? All aboard the RMA Train!

John Carmack Quakecon 2011 Keynote

NeutralX2 — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 02:33:50 +0000

The video is a bit old, but I wanted to post it anyway. The keynote is nearly an hour and a half long, but it is all really interesting stuff. It gets pretty technical, so if you are not into programming game development the video probably is not for you.