Aperture surprises: Apple slips in new release when fans were losing hope
Posted by Kathleen Maher on February 16th 2010 | Permalink
Categories:
Software Review
Tags:
apple
review
faces
adobe
images
aperture
photography
lightroom
geotaggin
photographer
Aperture 3 is here and Apple has made it a lot more flexible and friendly. In fact, Apple has reversed the waterfall and pulled the popular Faces and Places feature in iPhoto up to Aperture. Features like photo books, which have existed in both products, have become easier to use in Aperture but there are also more options. Aperture, if you don’t remember, is a photo management tool introduced for professional photographers. It was brought forth sometime before Adobe introduced Lightroom and it caused a sensation. It handled some of the most common tasks performed by professional photographers—and in so doing…
Reviewing the Boxx 4850 Extreme workstation
Posted by Alex Herrera on April 2nd 2010 | Permalink
Categories:
Hardware Review
Tags:
amd
review
firepro
... and another look at the AMD FirePro 8750 At JPR, we get several opportunities over the course of a year to check out OEMs’ new workstation models. And while we always see or learn one or two new things, by and large, the differences are usually relatively minor. After all, they’re all built from similar IHV-based components from Intel, Nvidia and AMD, so companies designing workstations with similar goals of price and price/performance are going to more often than not end up with similar results. And that’s precisely why we were eager to review the 4850 Extreme workstation from Boxx.…
“Singularity”—first impressions - game review
Posted by Jon Peddie on July 8th 2010 | Permalink
Categories:
Software Review
Tags:
review
games
fps
We got a copy of Activisions’s “Singularity” (developed by Raven) and started playing with it. It’s a FPS set on a island where the Russians built a research facility in the 1950s to test a newly discovered element E99. Things didn’t turn out quite the way the scientist had hoped and the Russians (Soviet Union at the time) shut down the research center and abandoned the island. Rediscovered by a satellite scan in 2010 a U.S. special ops force is sent in to investigate, find the E99 and well, I’m not sure what they are supposed to do with it yet.…
AMD on AMD with AMD - The platform company shows its stuff
Posted by Kathleen Maher on July 8th 2010 | Permalink
Categories:
Hardware Review
Tags:
amd
graphics
gaming
review
After too many years of being criticized for not tooting their own horn enough, the technical marketing folks at AMD sent us a Vision Black machine to put through the paces. I think we may have to toot their horn—this is one impressive machine. As configured, the system was pre-loaded with Windows 7 64-bit Ultimate, all the drivers already installed, and pre-loaded with AMD’s Fusion Media Explorer and the Fusion Utility software. Here is the system configuration: Antec Six Hundred Chassis. Corsair 750W PSU. Asus Crosshair IV motherboard based on AMD’s 890FX chipset with four PCIe slots. 4GB of OCZ DDR3.…
Nvidia GTX580 Review
Posted by Jon Peddie on November 9th 2010 | Permalink
Categories:
Hardware Review
Tags:
nvidia
review
fermi
gtx580
Nvidia GTX 580 review - a firmer Fermi It’s only taken over a year for a product already a year late to be realized in all its fullness, but the GTX580 does it – and it just shows how hard developing a GPU really is. Ambition, node changes and an unrealistic cadence have created almost impossible hurdles for GPU vendors to jump in the time frames the market demands, but jump they do. Gone are the days of sub-billion transistor and order of magnitude advances in architecture and performance, but the echoes of those extraordinary days linger and the press, investors…
Review of Trainz—A railroad simulator
Posted by Jon Peddie on December 8th 2010 | Permalink
Categories:
Software Review
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review
trainz
simulation
simulator
Simulators for airplanes, ships, cars, and even spaceships are what people usually think of first when the word sim is mentioned. But for folks who like trains, a railroad simulator is a fabulous entertainment tool. When I was younger and seemed to have unlimited time I built model railroads. And then when my son was old enough to appreciate them, we built one together. Model railroads have one major problem, available space. Clever schemes of hanging the platform from the ceiling or folding up sections into the wall to reclaim the space when not in use are the stories of legends.…
The Sandy Bridge Review
Posted by Jon Peddie on January 12th 2011 | Permalink
Categories:
Software Review
Tags:
gpu
intel
cpu
review
benchmark
sandybridge
CES is over and the hope, promise, and promise of Intel’s Sandy Bridge CPU with embedded processor graphics (EPG) has been revealed. There is rejoicing through the press and the webosphere. We’ve been testing and using a 4-core version Sandy Bridge Core i5-2500k running at 3.3 GHz. We ran a variety of tests and compared the Sandy Bridge against the previous generation, Clarkdale. As you might expect, Sandy Bridge, code named “SNB,” is a “Tock,” and considerably faster in all the operations we tested, including CPU tests, and graphics. Intel's new Sandy Bridge desktop processor architecture has a lot going on,…
Review Cyberlink’s MediaEspresso
Posted by Jon Peddie on January 13th 2011 | Permalink
Categories:
Software Review
Tags:
review
software
media
cyberlink
convert
converter
Ultra fast universal media converter CyberLink has impressed us almost since day one with their courage, cleverness, and consistency. One of the first companies to offer a suite, innovative with their attempt to auto edit video for action scenes (they called it "emotional"), and really good looking and easy to use UIs. MediaEspresso has been cut from that same cloth, and version 6.5 is the best yet. The program can convert video with its batch function.. You import files or complete folders, and let MediaEspresso handle the video conversion process, no need to sit by your computer till the end. The…
ARMA 2 Review: A tale of wasted FLOPS
Posted by Ted Pollak on February 10th 2011 | Permalink
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Tags:
gpu
nvidia
amd
review
games
arma
For the uninitiated, ARMA 2 is widely known amongst Enthusiast PC Gamers as one of the most system intensive and realistic games on the market. This is so because the environmental effects are dynamic, view distance can be set to 10,000 meters and is affected by light, reflection, rain, and mist. As in real life if you are walking thought the forest with the sun in front of you, the terrain can take on a shadowed nightmare as your retinas struggle with both light and darkness. Additionally there is what is known as the "the sandbox element." Sandbox games can be…
Review: AMD’s HD 6990 and Nvidia’s GTX 590 - Dueling dual GPUs, and AIBs
Posted by Robert Dow on April 12th 2011 | Permalink
Categories:
Hardware Review
Tags:
gpu
nvidia
amd
market
review
pmark
The dual GPU AIBs are marvelous products. They are awe inspiring, and not for everyone because of their price, but they are the Ferraris of the market in every sense. Nvidia officially released the GeForce GTX 590 dual GPU AIB 24 March, 2011, just 16 days after AMD introduced their dual GPU AIB the Radeon HD 6990. That's not a big gap in time relative to what these designs represent, and more of a marketing move between the two companies than a technology gap or indication of any problems. Nvidia is the more clever of the two at marketing and in…