Friday, August 17, 2012

The Midaged Gamer Report 8-17-2012



This is the midagedgamerreport for August 17, 2012...

This week...

The 660Ti is out, a new boost for AMD's 7950 could be a bust for current owners. Is OnLive dead?  and co-op on the rise!

The cat's out of the proverbial bag and Nvidia's 660Ti has launched.  Depending on who's review you read it's either a 7950 killer or a midrange also-ran assuming you stay at resolutions below 2560x1600  that is.   Sharing the important bits with its big brother the GTX 670 the 660Ti specs show just how close the family resemblance is.

As you can see from the chart, the big differences are the number of ROP's down to 24 from 32 on the 670 as well as the 192bit instead of 256 Bit memory bus which drops the memory bandwidth from the 670's 192.2 GB/sec to 144.2 GB/sec.


GeForce GTX 670
GeForce GTX 660 Ti
Shaders
1344
1344
Texture Units
112
112
Full Color ROPs
32
24
Graphics Clock (Base)
915 MHz
915 MHz
Texture Fillrate
102.5 Gtex/s
102.5 Gtex/s
Memory Clock
1502 MHz
1502 MHz
Memory Bus
256-bit
192-bit
Memory Bandwidth
192.2 GB/s
144.2 GB/s
Graphics RAM
2 GB GDDR5
2 GB GDDR5
Die Size
294 mm2
294 mm2
Transistors (Billion)
3.54
3.54
Process Technology
28 nm
28 nm
Power Connectors
2 x 6-pin
2 x 6-pin
Maximum Power
170 W
150 W
Price
$400
$300
According to one review the 660Ti  can best a high end ATI 7950 at HD resolutions and below even with a bit of boost ( more about that in a minute) but loses at higher resolutions.  Considering this card is meant to go against a 7870 and trounces it completely when it does it's unlikely that was ever the real target.  At $299 with the same feature set as it's bigger brothers, speculation is another round of price cuts from AMD is likely. 


Speaking of ATI and the 7950, apparently a lot of 7950 owners and a few reviewers are upset about a recent firmware release that unlocks higher clocks for the HD 7950.  AMD released the update to reviewers who then had the choice to offer it to their readers. 

The update is not being offered directly through AMD,  however.   Board vendors have also vowed to void the warranty of existing 7950's that apply the firmware.  AMD is not changing the SKU for the 7950 but does plan to provide the firmware update to new 7950's. 

Some reviewers and end users feel slighted by having bought a more  expensive and less capable card due to the restrictions on applying the new update.  Most manufacturers have been showing new box art with some derivation of "Boost" in the name. 

That should address any perceived confusion between the new versus old firmware cards.  Still, there's nothing to suggest any difference in the hardware between this next batch of 7950's aside from  possible binning to ensure compatibility.  Arguments aside, ATI would have been better off just introducing a new SKU to avoid all the whining.


Half Life 3 rumors?  Probably not...

At Gamescon this week the Half Life 3 rumor mill got revved up again when the game showed up on the event's website in a PDF file.  Valve did have private meetings but denied any software announcements.  Here's a tip folks, find better sources for your rumors.  That includes you gamescon.


The latest installment in the gaming portal wars...

Origin is expanding to other platforms including Mac.  Another Gamescon announcement has Sim City 3 coming out around the same time EA plans the launch on the MAC platform.  Looks like another example of imitation being not so flattering as Valve's Steam has supported MAC's for over 2 years.  Other platforms planned are android, facebook and smart tvs.  No word on Linux yet, Guess Gabe beat 'em to the punch...

Crysis 3 dev team "promise to melt down PC's"

So said Crytek CEO Cevat Verli

This time around Crytek plans to concentrate on pushing the limits of PC hardware again.  The excuse for the last go-around was compromises made for consoles.  Acknowledging that consoles are generations behind PC's in terms of graphics capability they say they won't compromise this time but will push the limits of consoles. 

I still question whether Crytek was actually pushing the envelope the first time around.  Was it really that advanced  or just less than optimal coding?  How can you develop for next gen hardware when it doesn't exist?  How can you judge how it will react?  My guess is that we won't see Crysis 3 until the next generation of consoles appear with hardware much closer to a PC.


 I n driver news...

A New AMD Catalyst 12.8 driver has been released.  Aside from performance improvements the biggest news is certification for Win 8.   There's also Support for Ubuntu Linux 12.04 in this iteration of the AMD video drivers.

Highlights...

Performance highlights of AMD Catalyst 12.8 (versus AMD Catalyst 12.6)
  • Up to 25% in Elder Scrolls: Skyrim
  • Up to 3% in Battlefield 3
  • Up to 6% in Batman: Arkham City
  • Up to 3% in Dues Ex: Human Revolution
  • Up to 6% in Crysis 2 Up to 15% in Total War: Shogun
  • Up to 8% in Crysis Warhead
  • Up to 5% in Just Cause 2
  • Up to 10% in Dirt 3

I'd like to say I was surprised but I'm not...

Cloud gaming service OnLive has reportedly laid everyone off and is filing for bankruptcy... or have they? In a story first released on Kotaku then picked up by Joystiq and CVG there was apparently a meeting this morning where OnLive CEO  Steve Perlman apparently called a meeting with the company staff and told them,
 "no one would be employed by the current OnLive going forward."  That was followed up by a denial from OnLive's director of corporate communications, Brian Jaquet saying, ""We don't respond to rumors, but of course not." Which seemed to be supported by an announcement about their built in app arriving in customer homes via Vizio's Co-Star players.  This is either a case of rumor run amok or the first indications of the company's imminent failure.  Pick one guys...


Finally,

With the growing anticipation toward Borderlands 2 and the recent release of Orcs Must Die 2 it seems there's a resurgence of the cooperative video game.  Not so long ago developers thought adding an online lobby to their multiplayer games constituted co-op.  The few remaining titles either had bad AI or were so neglected that a minor update to the operating system could break them. 

When Battlefield 3 was released last October with co-op mode it sent a signal.  No Battlefield game since 1942 had that option.  The competition did, however.  Most major releases of Call of Duty had a cooperative play mode that still remains among the best in the genre even if the story wasn't  always stellar. 
Now comes the latest shock.  As of August 15th, Team Fortress 2 has a new cooperative play mode called Man Vs. Machine.  The object of which is to defeat legions of robots resembling the normal TF2 players.  Team fortress 2 has been exclusively online multiplayer sine its inception and the fact that a cooperative play mode has been added is significant. 

Seems  co-op may be making a comeback

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