[Title will be auto-generated]

BROWSER WARS Popular Web Browsers, compared!

high

Geek

GRAPHICS CARD

SMACKDOWN NVIDIA and AMD Radeon face off

NET NEUTRALITY

What it means, and why it’s important

EXCLUSIVE EVGA INTERVIEW With Jacob Freeman, EVGA Product Manager

Letter from the Editor I hope you find something interesting

When you see our title, you’re probably thinking about a geek on drugs. Yeah, we think that too. highGeek was born with the simple design principles of simplicity, space, and geometry. The four boxes design found on every page of the magazine was designed with this purpose in mind. All the articles in the magazine all follow the same design principles. Although I prefer consistency in design, some of the articles have modifications not found in the standard two-column article. Take Browser Wars for example. It’s got a very small introduction and all the content sits in a mass of red, yellow, and green boxes. Gamer’s Perspective is another good example, using a blocky, mixed design that still manages to follow our idea of space and geometric shapes.

We hope you enjoy the articles written in highGeek. Maybe you’ll find something interesting and are a geek yourself. Or maybe you’re just another one of those people who do nothing but read music magazines all day.

By Brian Cui

Brian Cui:

Build: -ASUS Motherboard -Intel Q6600 @ 2.4GHz -SAPPHIRE 4650 1GB -350w psu -6GB Various DDR2 -Dragon Case

Trey Gonsoulin:

Build: -ASROCK Fatal1ty P67 Professional -Intel i7-2600K @ 4.4GHz -EVGA GeForce GTX 580 1536MB -XFX 850w Black Edition -8GB Patriot DDR3 1600 -Antec Nine Hundred Case

Zoli K.:

Build: -Gigabyte GA785GMPT-UDP -AMD X2 550 Black Edition @ 3.7Ghz -Sapphire Radeon HD 5870 Eyefinity 6 -575w PSU -4GB DDR3 1333 -Case - custom side window + LEDs

high

Geek

Index.php Linux to win it!

1

Gamer’s Perspective

3

Name Your GPU

5

Browser Wars

6

Opening the Future

7

Is it Christmas?

9

Bailing out the web

11

Hide yo’ kids, hide yo’ wife, and hide yo’ bank accounts

13

Technology Or Not to Be

15

On the Cheap or On the Street

17

Vidia Killed the ATI Card

19

The People’s Product

21

Linux to win it!

An overview of great linux distributions

By Zoli K.

Ubuntu Ubuntu is by far one of the most popular linux disrtibutions out there. While arguably not the best, it definitly has its advantages.

This is the go-to linux distrobution for new linux users. Ubuntu is extremely easy to get into, especially coming from windows. Its GUI (Graphical User Interface) is very easy to use and ectremely simple.

Ubuntu has a massive support forum and new users are happily accepted.

Ubuntu has great hardware support, with all the drivers you will ever need (most of the time) already pre-installed. Ubuntu is a great, general purpose and evtremely versatile linux distibution.

Puppy Linux Puppy linux is a great, user friendly mini linux distribution. This OS comes in at around 120MB, but dont let its size fool you, it packs a punch. The interface looks really friendly, and is great for a portable OS. As for using it as a main OS, its recommended that users “debianize” this distro. This makes commands like “apt-get” work properly.

Puppy linux is great for putting on an old computer thats outdated.

Since puppy linux loads inside RAM, the speed of the computer will be blazingly fast compared to a bulky windows or Ubuntu install.

1

Gentoo Gentoo focuses on extreme customization. It is possible to do the same with any other linux distribution (thats open source), however Gentoo starts as a basic distro and the user basically builds it up from scratch. Gentroo prides itself as being able to be optomized specifically for the users needs.

Gentoo is not for new users, but is recommended for those who enjoy poking around and having an extremely unique system. The fact that Gentoo is so configurable means that after your done, chances are that nobody else will have an OS like yours. Again, this is for more advanced users.

Backtrack Backtrack is the ultimate hacker linux distro. It’s debian based, and comes with a large array of tools which are used by hackers to pentest and just hack things in general. These tools range from port scanners, to password crackers, and everything in between. Popular tools you might recognize are Metasploit, Aircrack, Nmap, and Ophcrack.

Backtrack can be used as a main OS, however it is meant to be run live, from a disk or USB. It is designed to be not only a powerful hacking toolkit, but also portable so it can be taken with the hacker everywhere he goes.

Tiny Core Tiny Core is the smallest of small linux distributions. Technically, there is smaller (at 6MB) version, however the main Tiny Core offers more than just a terminal. Tiny Core, while not complete and possibly not supported, still has a GUI Desktop interface. Tiny Core comes in at 10MB, perfect for that antique system that nobody will ever use.

The usefullness of this Distro is questionable, however you cant go wrong with small. If you happen to still have a 64MB flash drive laying around (yes, they still exist) it might be cool to install Tiny Core on it. Tiny Core is not meant to be installed (it can be though) as it loads itself into ram so it takes up no hard drive space.

2

G

amers want performance in games. Benchmarks are important, but many of even the top benchmarking programs (like 3D Mark) don’t convey the exact translation into gaming performance. And since all games are different, results can vary even futher. One game that requiers tesselation, something Nvidia’s cards are quite good at, would run better on a GeForce gpu, as apposed to another game which might prefer AMD cards. Also, some games are created with a certain manufacturor in mind (“The Way It’s Meant to Be Played” games are a fine example of games designed for Nvidia cards) So, in the end, what can gamers rely on? Actual gaming results.

Thus, I’ve compiled a list of six popular games, and found the frames per second (FPS) of cards for each one.

A Guide To FPS: Most monitors have a refresh rate of 60 Hz, meaning to pixels on the monitor change sixty times in one second. Playing a game at over 60 FPS, in this case, would not have any beneficial effects, because the game would be rendering faster then the monitor can display. “V-sync” was created to lock the framerate to the monitors refresh rate, to allow your computer to not be overtaxed when unnecessary.

- 30 FPS: Playable, but can be choppy - 45 FPS: Very playable - 60 FPS: Max practical framerate

By Trey Gonsoulin 3

Gamer’s Perspective

Mass Effect 2 30 FPS:

- XFX HD 5570

45 FPS: - GeForce GT 240

60 FPS:

- Radeon HD 4770

30 FPS: - GeForce GTX 260

45 FPS: - Radeon HD 5850

60 FPS:

- GeForce GTX 480

Bad Company 2

Left 4 Dead 2 30 FPS:

- Radeon HD 5570

45 FPS: - GeForce 9800 GTX

60 FPS: - Radeon HD 5750

30 FPS: - GeForce 8800 GT

45 FPS: - GeForce GTX 260

60 FPS:

Metro 2033

- HIS HD 5830

Dragon Age

30 FPS:

- MSI 9800 GT

45 FPS: - GeForce GTX 260

60 FPS: - MSI GTX 460

Mafia 2 30 FPS:

- Radeon HD 5770

45 FPS: - Sapphire HD 6850

60 FPS:

- Radeon HD 6950 4

Name Your GPU

By Zoli K.

Browser Wars We took the five major browsers today (Internet Explorer 8 and 9, Firefox 4, Chrome 9, Opera 11) and compared them side by side in a table with some of the most popular features found in Internet browsers. None of the browsers had all the features listed, but hey, it doesn’t hurt to have more than one Internet browser installed in your computer. Here’s how they stacked up.

By Brian Cui

IE8

IE9

Firefox 4 Chrome 9 Opera 11

Fast Startup Add-Ons Open Source Easily Customizable Search using address bar Session management Built in Developer Tools Password Manager Private Browsing* Auto-Updater Mouse Gestures Hardware Acceleration Tab Pinning Tab Grouping** Taskbar Pinning Portable Version*** *Browser must be able to use private browsing and normal browsing at the same time for perfect score. **Both editions of IE will color tabs based on what website you're viewing. ***Opera is the only browser that has an "official" portable option right in its installer.

6

Is it Christmas?

Some of our favorite single serving sites.

Single serving sites are websites with just one purpose or do only one thing, and one thing only. Is it Christmas yet? Is the United States still at war with Iran? These websites with infinitely simplistic designs will tell you just that, and nothing else. Some are useful and can give you small tidbits of information. Others have no real purpose at all and just exist to be seen. Here are some of our favorite single-serving sites, ranging from useful to useless.

By Brian Cui

D-E-F-I-N-I-T-E-L-Y.com

Have a friend who doesn’t know how to spell definitely?

Point them this way and they’ll get the hint. The site showcases the actual spelling, then popular misspellings. Hopefully that friend of yours won’t have to make the same mistake again.

IsItChristmas.com

Don’t know whether or not it’s Christmas? Well now you can find out at IsItChristmas.com. You’ll either get a YES or a NO depending on whether or not it’s Christmas. At the time this article was written, unfortunately, it was not Christmas. Hence, the large NO.

MakePhotoshopFaster.com

This is for you photo manipulators out there - Adobe is notoriuos for making software that’s pretty bloated (and sometimes clunky). MakePhotoshopFaster is a site with two simple steps to help speed up Photoshop so you can resize those giant pictures of goats you have on your hard drive.

7

IsItFriday.org

Fridays! Everyone loves Fridays! Throw all your work in a corner somewhere and go have that party you’ve wanted to have for the last six weeks. How do you know if it’s Friday, though? Go to IsItFriday.org and you’ll find out. If it isn’t Friday, you’ll be presented with a guy barfing non-stop onto the floor. I bet that’s how you feel about days that aren’t Friday too.

RainyMood.com

Live in Texas, a desert, or on the moon? Chances are you don’t get too much rain. Everyone loves it when it rains, especially the sound of droplets hitting the ground. Head over to RainyMood.com to have the sound of continuous rain coming right out of your speakers.

LMGTFY.com

How do I shrink an image? Where can I download Python?

Why does Ubuntu have mediocre graphics performance?

These questions require just one Google search, and yet they’re asked so many times. The next time your friend asks a dumb question, make them a LMGTFY - Let Me Google That For You. They’ll get a ten-second presentation on how to use Google. Question answered!

AmIAwesome.com

Sometimes you need a quick dose of motivation. Point your browser to AmIAwesome.com to find out if you’re awesome or not (yes, you are). Now that you know, you should get back to work.

8

Opening the Future

Open source software and its potential impact on the future

W

worlds have been flooded with software denoted as “open source”, in which the source code of the software is freely distributed to the public, who can then use it as they see fit.

Well, perhaps this seemingly unattainably altruistic future is closer than you might think.

You see, in recent years, the online and software

So a battle has arisen of this new,user-editable open source software against the traditional proprietary-based means of software distribution.

Such can be seen in the fierce competition between Windows and Linux or the more-known fight of iOS and Android.

hat if everybody in the world gave out their work freely? Surely more would get done and ideas would spread and grow faster, but how could anyone ever make any money off of their idea or keep ownership, when anyone is allowed to modify it without restrictions?

Linux is an operating system, like Windows or Mac OS. However, Linux is open source; you can download the operating system, and the source code that goes into it, absolutely free of charge. Because of this, there are many versions of Linux (Ubuntu, Red Hat, openSUSE, Fedora, Damn Small Linux, and others), each made by independant developers accessing the base code of Linux. Despite this freeness, Linux has struggled against Microsoft’s overpowering domination of the OS industry, but as more people add their own ideas and coding into it, Linux-based OS’s have become more and more user friendly and popular. Linux also supports open source software for word processing, image editing, and just about anything else.

9

If you own a smart phone, most likely it either runs Apple’s iOS, or Google’s Android. This is a classic (and quite similar to Linux-Windows competition) example of the open source versus the proprietary closed source. In the beginning of the smart phone era, Apple’s iPhone quickly dominated the entire market, with hundreds of thousands of people buying them up like candy. However, as soon as Google’s new OS arrived, this scale began to shift, and Android now owns more market share than Apple. Because Android is open source, phone companies can modify it to fit their phone, leading to hundreds of different phone models, all running their own Android. Other benefits of being open source, and having a lot of open source software, are visible in the many different apps modifying keyboards, browsers, and creating unique features that Apple users could only dream of.

The question I’m posing is one regarding the future and open source software. Open source creation is gaining more and more popularity, and may eventually even become more common than the traditional system of ownership.

it would cause the sheer amount of user-created software to increase exponentially, each building on others’ works. This could be the beginning of a new era of informational and technological sharing and creation.

It’s such a complex economic issue that it’s almost impossible to see the full effects. Studies have shown that work with the promise of a monetary gain is on average worse than unmediated free work. Think: if you were to create something that you actually wanted to make, wouldn’t it be better made than something you were forced to make?

This current era requires large amounts of money to obtain the proper requirements of being employed at a major software company. Even then, the company must pay millions of dollars to get the rights to various existing technologies, so as to not reinvent the wheel. Even so, the technologic world already has hundreds of thousands of people working on mind-boggling technologic advancements.

But what does this mean? What does this hold for the future? If all (or even most) software were to become open source, the added ability to enhance

Think if that number could be raised to (theoretically) the entire world’s population.

By Trey Gonsoulin

10

Bailing Out the Web Why Net Neutrality is important for everyone

T

he Internet is a valuable resource. By using Google, Bing, Wikipedia, and more, one can easily discover the information they need in fractions of a second. Searching the Web is easier than ever – type in some keywords, click a few times, and you’ve got instant access to thousands of documents, packed with resources. You’re free to visit whatever site you want to get whatever information you need. Your only limit is your available bandwidth, set by your Internet service provider (ISP).

But soon, the ability to search the Web using a search engine like Google or Bing is something you won’t be able to do. Your ISP wants to put even more barriers up between you and the Web – and this time, they want to play gatekeeper. That means, you won’t be able to freely search the entire Web, but you’ll be free to search what you can afford.

Let me give you an example. In the not-so-distant future, you’ll have to pay for specific site access. Want to read the New York Times? Five dollars a month. YouTube? Ten. Everything else? You might as well empty your wallet. Search engines like Google and Bing index millions and millions of sites that each update daily, and if you have a small budget, you’ll only be able to see and use a very small fraction of them. You simply won’t be able to reap the information that you can find on the Internet – because you’re stuck with viewing only the sites of which you pay for.

11

All websites on the Internet each have their own purpose – from video games to animal rights, from online cookbooks to online encyclopedias.

Suppose that you wanted to do a research project, but you could only afford and pay for your favorite Websites. You would have to turn traditional textbooks and encyclopedias – which chances are, turn out to be old and outdated.

The FCC has placed a few Net Neutrality laws down already. TIME magazine puts it well: the current laws force ISPs to allow users to “Access to all legal content online, including applications, online calling services, Internet video and Web applications that may compete against the ISP’s business.” This may seem to be enough to protect the idea of Net Neutrality; however, corporations are already fighting against them and the current rules may disappear.

Verizon’s official stance on Net Neutrality laws is “… the FCC does not have the legal authority to mandate how Internet service providers treat content on their networks,” and has sued the FCC. Even so, Verizon admits that “…the FCC’s rules are supported by consumer groups,” – which acknowledges how even though they know that consumers like the idea and support Net Neutrality, Verizon will continue to push on with its efforts for tiered internet services.

ISP’s like Verizon and AT&T want to offer tiered Internet services for one reason only: Money. Making the internet no longer neutral just puts up more barriers between the consumers and the producers

– a lose-lose situation for both. If they take down the “free access” plans that we know today, we’ll have to pay many times the amount we’re currently paying for services that were free to begin with. Assume that I pay $30 a month for Internet and use Facebook, YouTube, Hulu, and other Internet services. With tiered internet, each service would cost $10 each per month. So if I continue to pay only $30, the only sites I’ll be able to access are Facebook, YouTube, and Hulu. My ability to access any other website is lost – and I’m still paying the same amount of money.

The thing is, ISP’s are already generating more and more profit. In spring 2010, when the iPhone data plans were unveiled by AT&T, the low end plan was $15 for 250MB. In 2011, AT&T has changed this plan to $15 for only 200MB. That’s a loss of 50MB of data - and you’re still spending the same amount of money. ISP’s have already been charging more and more for Internet access – to an extent where they really don’t any more.

site discrimination based on how much you can afford not only impacts you as a user and searcher, but content producers as well. As soon as tiered network plans go into play, think how harder it would be for small businesses or Website owners to get more viewers. No one will be able to access their sites, or even find them, because they will be blocked from access. Looking to start your own Webpage? That’s an idea that you might have to drop. Starting a Website is already hard enough these days, as there’s a lot of competition, but a divided Internet makes it almost impossible. Almost all of your potential traffic won’t exist – they’ll all be viewing the sites they’re paying for, not yours.

By Brian Cui

Content on the Web should be controlled by their producers, not the Internet providers. Web-

>Instead of directly connecting to the internet and getting all its content, content will be filtered out from access based on how much we pay to ISP’s.

Images courtesy of Google, Yahoo, Bing 12

Hide yo’ kids, hide yo’ wife, and hide yo’ bank accounts The importance of keeping your data safe and secure

D

id you know your life, personal information, and all your secrets can be found without your permission? The digital world you interact with and rely on today is like a bucket of water without a bottom, spilling your personal information everywhere.

identity, it’s hard to keep track of each one so you don’t get tricked.” A hacker can set up a fake login page for you to enter your information into (known as phishing), capture the packets sent to your ISP by breaking into your router, or even go as far as hacking into the website’s password database itself.

Just about everyone today has an online profile of some sort, using a social network service like Facebook or Twitter. These profiles can consist of someone’s house address, phone numbers, contacts, and more. It’s possible to choose who to show the information to – complete strangers, friends, or no one. Except, choosing who to show your information to doesn’t mean anything for online hackers – as they don’t need to hack into your profile, but hack into your login instead. Thus, the hacker can login as you and then essentially steal your identity.

“Okay,” you say – “I’ll just not have a Facebook, Twitter, or Myspace.” Keep in mind, however, that it’s not just Internet security that has vulnerabilities.

Technology follows you everywhere, and in some cases you can’t avoid it at all.

Logging into any website is quite a complicated process. First, the user is presented with the login page. Then, the information is sent to a server somewhere via the service provider. The site’s server compares it to a database of known logins, and then sends back a confirmation through the service provider to the user on whether or not the login was successful.

Digital security applies to a lot of things that you may not even know about. Cellular devices are a good example: chances are, you use your phone every day to call a friend, text your boss, and maybe even surf the web on your data connection. Do you know how your service provider knows what phone you’re currently using, though?

However, with each step there are holes for hackers to essentially intercept your information – known as vulnerabilities. Karen Lu, a security expert from Gemalto, a digital security company, explains: “There are so many steps when validating your

13

“Right now society is becoming a digitized society – every aspect in your life, you use digital technologies. Shopping, banking, mobile phones… attackers will go to these places to find vulnerabilities to get money to flow to them.” Karen explains.

“Most people have cell phones – most cell phones have SIM cards,” Karen says. “The SIM card allows you to connect to a wireless network so the network operators can identify your phone.” Identification of your phone is important – if cellular providers didn’t have a proper form of identification, hackers could easily mask their own phones as someone else’s – possibly even yours – and use your cellular plan that you pay for.

You may begin to think that digital security firms like Gemalto should do a better job keeping people’s information safe. Except, it’s actually quite hard to keep a balance between efficiency and total security.

“When you leave your house, it’s easy – just close the door. But it’s not so safe, because people can just open the door to get in. So you put on a lock to make it safer,” Karen says.

“However, if your lock is pretty hard to use, after you unlock it you don’t want to lock it any more. The easiness and the efficiency of security are always pulling in opposite directions.”

When managing security options for your various accounts, whether it’s social networking or your money in the bank, keep in mind that your personal identity is at stake. If a hacker gets into your bank account, they can take all your money and you might not even notice until a week later – when it’s too late. Not only is digital security hard to work on for security companies themselves, attackers are looking for holes in every aspect of it.

What are some things that you can do to prevent security breaches and loss of identity? Locking your phone with a passcode is a start, but looking at the steps of which your information goes through is probably the most important.

“Secure your wireless access point with a WPA2 code.” Karen adds. “It’s a lot better than standard WEP encryption, and infinitely more secure than having no password at all.” After all, wireless hotspots are where you connect to the internet in the first place, one of the many crucial gates that your information passes through.

The use of less credit cards and money-related accounts makes it much easier for you to keep track of the money flowing in and out of each. If a hacker takes your money, close that account because its security apparently isn’t very good.

So watch your step in the digital world. Don’t be lazy and opt in for advanced security, especially for accounts and profiles that are important to your lifestyle. Hackers are out there, and it’s important that you take the proper measures to prevent them from getting to you. The digital world doesn’t have to be a bottomless bucket spilling out your information – maybe one with holes, but not one that’s completely open.

By Brian Cui

Images courtesy of CorbisImages.com 14

Technology, Or Not To Be. Helping Others Through Technology

L

oading... loading... ERROR! BSOD!!!!! We all know the feeling, technology is great, but not perfect. Adam Iscoe, a 15 year old entrepreneur, has set up websites to help those in need. First by launching a site to help the elderly use the new technologies of today. Then by launching a site to help people that want to get into computers to build their own. “[Buy The Best PC] makes it easy for the user to pick out their computer, the parts that they want, and its real easy and real fun.” he says.

Most sites are cluttered and hard to navigate, but not The Best PC. The goal is to make it easy for users to build their own computer. The site doesn’t scare off people who are daunted by complex concepts like building a computer. Technology is headed in a direction in which only the

most advanced users understand what’s going on. Adam has set out to even the odds, giving the average Joe tools to succeed. He is using powerful tools help the less experienced users understand ideas that seem complex.

Almost every website on the web is meant to make life easier, and help other people. Whether its connecting with people you know, learning something new, or just watching cats do silly things on teh webz. “Starting a website is not as expensive as people might think.” According to Adam, it just takes a domain name and hosting.

A domain name costs around $10 a year, and hosting is around $15 a month. Not too shabby considering it allows you to share your wealth of

15

good for entrepreneurs. He has been met with backlash from many, including those closest to him.

knowledge with the world (except maybe china). He encourages other people to be entrepreneurs and lead the way through this technology heavy era.

“This project was a great hello world to the Internet.” As explained by Adam. The truth is that the Internet is very large, and in order to get your voice heard you have to get loud, real loud. It’s a constant stream of more content, better user interfaces, and increased speed. This battle is tough and gruesome, with companies getting at each others throats. But Adam doesn’t give up. sometimes a project fails and he knows when to walk away. Even then though, he never really stops, always moving on to the next big thing.

“Although it was a great project at the time, and we’re going to continue maintaining it, I think our next step is moving on to a secondary project.” Adam would not disclose his next idea, but its sure to be interesting. But life is not all

“I thought that it was interesting and that it had a really good idea, but the design just wasn’t there,” Adams friend, Frank, said. This came from a freshman in high school with no experience whatsoever with web design. The sad fact of life is that people resent change, and it takes a while for it to be accepted. FaceBook did not arise without its caveats, specifically its privacy issues which have been blown to exponential levels in the media. People just couldn’t comprehend the idea of sharing pictures and information about themselves to the world, specifically with people that they didn’t even know.

The thing about Adam, is that he never gives up.

He just keeps pushing forward, through all the ups and downs of sharing his knowledge with the world.

At the end of the day, its all about one thing.

Did it work? In Adam’s case in which the site still has a few flaws, the site works, and that makes the difference between success and failure. He’s still proud of the achievement, and in no way regrets starting the site. In the real world, no matter how good or bad your idea is, if it doesn’t work, then it just doesn’t, and you have to move on. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try, this just means that you sometimes have to go the extra step in order to make the world a better place like Adam has.

By Zoli K.

16

On the Cheap or On the Street Why ATI’s the better deal

I

f you haven’t gamed with 3 monitors, then you haven’t really gamed. ATI eyefinity technology lets you immerse yourself in the gaming experience. You can literally become the soldier on the battlefield, spotting enemies out of the corner of your eye. ATI has offered this amazing technological breakthrough to all users who buy a 5000 series or greater card. Nvidia, ATI’s competitor, however has no plans to incorporate this feature even on its most prestigious card.

What good is a top notch graphics card, when you can only play games at 1920x1080 resolution, when with eyefinity you can go up to 7680x3600. Nvidia is working on a similar feature called “NV Surround” but it has not made of an impact on the gaming community like eyefinity has.

Eyefinity has prompted game developers to change the way they write the game, in order to improve users experience when gaming at a higher resolution.

with all 5000 series and greater cards, with Nvidia trailing months later with only top models supporting DX11. DX11 allows windows based games that use DX11 to use less energy for performance output when using the graphics card. This power saving feature is less for saving energy, and more for increasing performance without compromising power consumption. AMD/ ATI is clearly bent on supporting its users, whether or not they spend the big bucks on a graphics card.

“With eyefinity you can go up to 7680x3600”

AMD/ATI has continued to blaze trails and lead in the graphics processing industry. A good example of this is their DX11 support. DX11 was supported

17

AMD/ATI also has Crossfire support which allows you to scale 2 graphics cards together. This doesn’t seem like it would be so useful if you could only game on 1 monitor, but when gaming with three, the added power really begins to shine. The GPU industry is changing rapidly. In order to keep up its necessary to have good graphics at a reasonable price.

The final nail in the coffin for this argument is the performance to price ratio. As shown in the chart tothe right, in which 4 cards from each price range($50-400) were used, AMD/ATI video cards outperformed Nvidia cards within their price rang-

ATI/AMD vs. Nvidia 3500

Score

3000 2500 2000 1500 1000 500 0 Radeon 4650 Radeon 5830 9500 GT GTX 260 Radeon 5670 Radeon 6970 9800 GT GTX 470

es. All prices came from their respected websites amd. com and nvidia.com. Benchmarks courtesy of videocardbenchmarks.com. There is no good reason why a user should go out and buy an Nvidia card, especially during these economic times, which can be outperformed for less cash by its AMD/ATI counterpart.

By Zoli K.

*Note: Dx11 is an API* that can be used by programmers to increase game performance. **An API is the commands a programmer uses to interact with other software.

Images courtesy of FreeFoto 18

Vidia Killed the ATI Card How nVidia succeeds where AMD/ATI fails

T

homas Jennings, 15, sits in his house with his powerful jealousy-inducing PC, playing Battlefield: Bad Company 2 at max settings. This awe-inspiring display is only enhanced by being splayed across six separate monitors, working together to create a gaming screen of over twenty-four megapixels. AMD’s Eyefinity is undoubtedly spectacular, though the monitors alone can cost you over $5000.

Nvidia also has this feature, known by them as “NV Surround”, including both multimonitor display, as well as ability for Nvidia’s 3D Vision.

“AMD’s Eyefinity is interesting, but Nvidia’s features are actually useful.”

However, this feature isn’t focused on by Nvidia, who instead prefers to develop free softwarebased enhancements like Nvidia’s PhysX, which transfers calculations of physics to the GPU, allowing for faster calculation speed and less strain on the CPU. GPU’s are much faster than CPUs (a quad-core processor is impressive, but the average GPU can have over three-hundred cores) so the increase in various physics operations is obvious. AMD’s Eyefinity is interesting, but Nvidia’s features are actually useful.

This situation mirrors a common difference between Nvidia and AMD: while AMD tries to focus on bigger and faster and flashier, Nvidia goes for the source, and increases efficiency and performance.

And because of this, they are the superior company.

19

PhysX PhysX is a simple Software Development Kit (SDK) that is freely released to developers on a multitude of platforms and even consoles. What it does is simple: it processes physics calculations. It is similar to the Havok physics engine used in many games, such as the Half-Life series.

There is one difference between most other engines for physics (like Havok) and PhysX: PhysX allows GPU acceleration for physics calculations. This creates a massive increase in physics calculation speeds, and lets the CPU focus on other important things.

PhysX has been proven to work much better than a nonphysx setup. Popular gaming hardware sites (like tomshardware.com) have done tests involving comparisons between using and not-using PhysX while playing games like Mirror’s Edge. The result has been better frame rate, and in some cases better

visuals (Mirror’s Edge in specific changes some visuals when PhysX is enabled, and others exist as well). And yet, despite such massive performance increase by using PhysX, AMD/ATI still has been unwilling to license PhysX on their cards, or even create their own substitutute.

On an interesting note, PhysX has been banned from being used in benchmarks (like the ever-popular 3D Mark Vantage) due to the “unfair” advantage it gives Nvidia over AMD’s PhysX-less graphics cards.

AMD/ATI has its own very similar linking support called CrossFireX, and for a long time in the consumer market, CFX was considered to be better than SLI in scaling factor. However, according to a report by MaximumPC, “it is clear that Nvidia’s SLI is currently the superior dual GPU solution.”

This test, however, was a simple, pure benchmarking test, meaning that SLI itself may be inferior to CrossFireX, but Nvidia’s cards surpass AMD’s enough to make up for the difference.

SLI The ability to link separate cards together and have them work towards one graphics goal has been around in Nvidia cards since 2004. This Scalable Link Interfacing (SLI) creates a bridge that links the graphics cards together: they both process frames individually and output it out of one card. This allows you to process roughly twice as much data per second (though the actual scaling value is slightly lesser, about 1.8x).

There are a few cons to using SLI: some games don’t have SLI support, though that number is few, and almost every game made recently does.

The second is that each card still takes the same amount of power, meaning twice as much power usage as having one card. Lastly, because the main card must collect all of the data from both cards and output it, the video RAM does not add up accordingly.

Of course, these few and minor weaknesses are overtaken by the good sides, especially the pricing. For example, currently one of Nvidia’s GTX 580s will run you around $500, while two GTX 460s (about the same performance) only costs $320. Of course, going for the 580 will raise your maximum possible performance, as you can just SLI four GTX 580s together and dominate anything.

>Chart of Usage of Graphics Card Companies

Performance PhysX and SLI are good, but when it comes down to it, you want performance. No other factors matter more: if the cards bench well, and perform well when gaming, they are simply better. And, according to PassMark’s widespread benchmarking software and the results posted at “www.videocardbenchmark.net”, Nvidia wins in this aspect as well.

The top three cards currently are all Nvidia. And these three are quite far ahead from the fourth and fifth places. The current fastest consumer-level computer (Vince “K|NGP|N” Lucido’s Dual-CPU, Quad-GPU, liquid-nitrogen-cooled beast) in the world uses Nvidia’s cards in SLI. Nvidia holds more of the market and consistently makes great products.

Clearly, Nvidia creates superior products.

Their features match or overcome AMD/ ATI’s and their focus on efficiency rather than just blind speed allows thewm access to the place known as the top of Video Card market.

By Trey Gonsoulin All data from PassMark corp 20

The P opl ’s Product Doin’ it for the people.

A

car arrives subtly, squeezing into its reserved parking space. The door juts ajar, and a man steps out, work attire hanging on his shoulders with just the right amount of slack. He begins his short walk, sticking an arm out to push aside the clear, just-cleaned doors.

He nods to the guard as another set of glass doors comes up to meet him. He walks with a kind of confident stride; not boastful, but not willing to step down.

At his workplace, Jacob does what his job names him to do: manage the products. He has say in what direction the company will go in next, what products are going to be released, and does some community talking over email and in the official forums. But his job entails more than just deciding direction himself; EVGA has a core-process which many in the company believe to be the cause of their rank as the number one distributor of Nvidia products.

“Our goal since day one has been developing products and services that our community demands; we believe that this is the winning formula,” Jacob states assertively.

Jacob Freeman is a frequent poster on the EVGA forums, releasing information about an upcoming product or the like. However, his forumviewing is also vital to EVGA’s work-process. He and the company are avid believers in the saying, “The customer is always right.” In many cases, the community decides, whether partially or fully, on what will happen next.

>Joe Darwin (left), Peter Tan (middle), and Jacob Freeman (right); staff of EVGA Corp.

Sitting down into his chair, he pauses a second, resting for just a minute before pressing the power button of his computer. This is the beginning of the day for Jacob Freeman, the product manager for EVGA Corporation.

21

“Most of our products are decided by the community. We listened to feedback on all our social networks, and use this to shape our next generation products,” Jacob says.

EVGA is a company that started in 1999, but quickly rose to the tops of distributing brands.

This was caused by two main actions, done by the staff. The first was focus.

“In order to have a great product, we believe it’s important to stay focused,” Jacob says. “Right now, we are focused on Nvidia and Intel…and we don’t have any current plans to branch out…”

Though restricting them by only appealing to the Nvidia/Intel market, it allowed them to create specialized Nvidia products (and make deals with Nvidia!) And, many gamers don’t necessarily care about brand, as long as the product is good. This focusing of efforts would allow EVGA to make good products that would attract many people.

“EVGA’s participation in ‘Folding @ Home’ stemmed from the community. We like to have programs and services that we believe will appeal to our users, and since our users had already caught on to the power of ‘Folding @ Home’, it was really a no brainer for EVGA,” Jacob says.

“Since our users had already caught on to the power of ‘Folding @ Home’, it was really a no brainer for EVGA.”

The other action they took, however, is a bit more difficult to see the effects of: the use of the community. Almost every of EVGA’s main product points are decided by the community, and the company constantly turns to the people for ideas, events, and community wants. A great example of their influened decision is EVGA’s popular “Folding @ EVGA”, a part of Stanford’s “Folding @ Home”.

EVGA is unique in the importance it takes in these practices of communal inclusion.

Perhaps related is their popularity and communal loyalty.

Leaning back in his chair, Jacob rests his head in his hands. He stretches a bit, his body stiff after a while at work. His head rolls to the side, pushing ever further until the relieving sound of a crack. He takes one more second of silence before leaning back forward and continuing his work.

After all, it’s only lunchtime.

Trey Gonsoulin

Photo by EVGA Staff 22

Final Thoughts Thank you for reading. Seriously, I’m not just using this cliche term as a generic ender. If it weren’t for you, what would our magazine be? Without an audience, art is nothing. Design is nothing. Literature is nothing.

It’s just random pictures and words, perhaps targetted, but unable to reach. The audience is quite literally the life blood of our magazine, bringing us the oxygenic comments, complaints, and criticism; cleaning out the stuck gunk massing around our scattered ideas, and helping us form them into something amazing. Even if you weren’t physically there during our creation process, just the idea of you reading this gave us the inspiration and drive to finish and perfect. Every single article was created not only with our own interests in mind, but with the interests of you (hopefully we share these interests!)

What does it mean for something to have purpose? In my opinion, something has purpose if work--pure, honest work--was put into it. If it was created by someone because of their genuine interest in the subject, and their real desire to create it. Otherwise, it becomes just another assignment, and the spirit behind it is gone.

With that in mind, our magazine, I believe, is not pointless. Maybe I’m wrong (I’m not perfect at anything, much less reading minds) but I honestly think that our entire staff put effort into this project with more reason than just that they were forced to. I know that I, at the very least, did.

Technology is amazing. How far have we come in even just the past three years? And how far do we still have to go? We’re at a point right now where it is almost difficult to actually envision more technologic advances in the future. Sure, we don’t all have hovercars, but how far can we really go from here? And yet, twenty years ago, I doubt that anyone could imagine the self-driving cars and learning artificial intelligences that we have today.

And this is why my peers and I are so swayed by technology: just when you think you know something, just when you think you can’t go any further, or get any faster, someone creates something groundbreaking that completely redefines everything.

This volatility is both unnerving and attracting; both offsetting and exciting. A career choice based on any aspect of computers can be a risky one, as in a year all of the training you have received may be obsolete. But this frantic upgrading and changing is what drives some people, like us; we are forced to outperform ourselves over and over again just to keep above everyone else.

And the results are apparent. If you ever have the opportunity to do so, try this sometime: Play a video game from each semi-decade starting from, say, 1970. You’ll find yourself transported through the changing of computing technology, starting with pre-pong tv-sticker games on the Magnovox Odyssey, to Atari classics, then to the sprite-based NES games, eventually coming to modern masterpieces like Half-Life 2.

Then put it into some context: understand that this progression occured over the span of just forty years, perhaps a long time to some, but look at other periods of technologic development. For example, the history of writing. For more than eight thousand years, writing stayed essentially the same. In 1440, the revolutionary printing press was introduced, changing quite a bit about the process of replicating. The typewriter was created around 1870. But in those past forty years, writing has gone to computer word-processing, adding autoformatting and spell-checking, and now one can even write on a handheld touch screen by swiping their finger in the general path of words.

We live in a magnificently amazing era of technology that will probably be remembered many years from now. I just hope we’ve succeeded in including you into it.

By Trey Gonsoulin

Prepared by MagCloud for LASA EZINE. Get more at lasaezine.magcloud.com.