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• First of all let me sort the facts: As soon as Core 2 Duo hits the market, it will... be the fastest x86 processor (both single and dual core models) make the Pentium D and all predecessors look like antiques be the clear choice for performance users despite its rather expensive price outperform the complete Athlon 64 family (X2 and FX) in all areas, including gaming, where AMD has traditionally been very strong consume less energy than other standard desktop processors transform the whole Intel platform from an energy-hungry beast to a reasonable solution that is competitive in terms of performance per Watt We expect Core 2 Duo to roll out slower than Intel proclaims, so don't expect to get every model in every shop right from the start. All eyes are staring at Intel, especially after it announced decreasing revenues and layoffs. For these reasons we believe that it will do everything that is necessary to ensure a stable processor supply. Is the game over for AMD then? By no means. The performance race might be over for the time being, but it still can look at more attractive platforms for the enthusiast customer base (for ATI Crossfire and Nvidia SLI). In addition, AMD spokesperson Damon Muzny told us earlier this week that AMD intends to adjust its processor prices to keep delivering the best price/performance for the customer. Although we do not have any numbers yet, you can be pretty sure that the price cuts will be substantial, so check processor prices before you buy! And that is not all: There are AMD's low-power Athlon 64 X2 processors, rated at 65 W and 35 W - these will help the firm to compete in the digital home space. As Intel moves towards its first quad core processor in the winter and AMD will rollout first 65 nm processors, we will certainly see the battle heating up even more. Read the TG Daily news on Intel's July 27 Core Duo launch. slide shows Test System slide show Core 2 Duo/Extreme Motherboards slide show Benchmark Charts slide show Join our discussion on this topic: ( ) Messages

• CUDA-Enabled Apps: Measuring Mainstream GPU Performance

  I like an eye-popping benchmark as well as the next guy. But at the end of the day, I’m a user. I use computers to do useful things. And on days when I have to give back the Tom’s Hardware Lear jet, and all the ski bunnies go back to their warrens, I have a modest computer with modest components and not much budget to spare for $500 upgrades. I need technology that’s going to help me do what I want more efficiently, whether it’s play games, edit video, or help model genetic sequences. Some applications are linear in nature and merely want to crank as quickly as possible on a single processing thread until the cows come home. Others are built to leverage parallelism. Everything from Unreal Engine 3 to Adobe Premiere has shown us the benefits of CPU-based multi-threading, but what if 4 or 8 or even 16 threads was just a beginning? This is the promise behind Nvidia’s CUDA computing architecture, which, according to the company’s definition, can run thousands of threads simultaneously. We've written about CUDA in the past, so hopefully you’re no stranger to the technology (if you did miss our coverage, check out Nvidia's CUDA: The End of the CPU?) For better or worse, though, most CUDA coverage in the press has focused on high-end hardware, even though the supporting logic has been present in Nvidia GPUs since the dawn of the GeForce 8. When you consider the huge enterprise dollars wrapped up in the high-performance computing (HPC) and professional graphics workstation markets—targeted by Nvidia’s Tesla and Quadro lines, respectively—no wonder this is where so much of Nvidia’s marketing attention has been. But in 2009, we finally see a change. CUDA has come to the masses. There's a huge install base of compatible desktop graphics cards, and the mainstream applications able to exploit that built-in CUDA support are hitting one after the other. From Nothing To Now The first consumer-friendly CUDA app was Folding@Home, a university distributed computing project out of Stanford in which each user can crunch a chunk of raw data about protein behavior so as to better understand (and hopefully cure) several of humanity’s worst diseases. The application transitioned to CUDA compatibility in the second half of 2008. Very shortly afterward came Badaboom, the video transcoder from Elemental Technologies that, according to Elemental, can transcode up to 18 times faster than a CPU-only implementation. Then came a whole slew of media applications for CUDA: Adobe Creative Suite 4, TMPGEnc 4.0 XPress, CyberLink PowerDirector 7, MotionDSP vReveal, Loilo LoiLoScope, Nero Move it, and more. Mirror’s Edge looks to be the first AAA game title to fully leverage CUDA-based PhysX technology for increasing visual complexity, allegedly by 10x to 20x. Expect to see more titles emerge in this vein—a lot more. While AMD and its ATI Stream technology have been mired in setbacks, Nvidia has been hyping its finished and proven CUDA to everyone who will listen...and developers now seem to be taking the message to heart. That’s all well and good, but proof of CUDA’s incendiary capabilities has largely been proven on high-end GPUs. I’m on a tight budget. Friends are getting mowed down around me by lay-offs and wage-cuts like bubonic plague victims. You bet, I’d love to drop ten or twelve Benjamins on a 3-way graphics overhaul, but the reality is that, like many of you, I’ve only got one or two C-notes to spare. On a good day. So the question all of us who can’t afford the graphics equivalent of a five-star menage-a-troi should be asking is, “Does CUDA mean anything to me when all I can afford is a budget-friendly card for my existing system?” Let’s find out. Today, we'll be looking at some of the most promising titles and measuring the speed-up garnered from a pair of mid-range GPUs. eVGA GeForce GTX 275 Video Card (896MB,... (5 offers) Online shop Price Newegg.com $249.99 TigerDirect $249.99 TheNerds.net $256.99 Amazon.com $262.35 Directron $264.98 See more products