Gaming

A few days ago I ran across an interesting thread on notebookreview.com, where Alienware customers noted some confusion regarding the graphics memory on the ATI HD 4870 in the Alienware M17x. Some folks were reporting that their invoices listed the memory as GDDR5 instead of GDDR3, and were wondering which memory was actually on the card.

Just to clear up any remaining confusion, the card definitely has GDDR3, *not* GDDR5.  While we’ve taken steps to correct the invoicing error, I hit up some folks from our engineering team to provide more detailed information on the subject.

The Alienware engineering team evaluated both GDDR5 and GDDR3 with the 4870 card.  Because of specific design constraints associated with notebooks and the 4870, they found that the GDDR3 memory provided the better overall user experience for gamers.  There are no current plans to offer GDDR5 in combination with a 4870 in the M17x.

Alienware will honor full refund requests for customers with incorrect invoices. I do recommend testing the cards for yourself before opting to return your M17x, though.  I think you may be pleased with the results

Unless you’ve been living in a cave, you’ve probably heard the hype surrounding the latest Alienware releases, the M15x and the Aurora. But not much has been circulated about their big brother, the Area-51 and the Area-51 ALX.

Gizmodo recently did an Area-51 ALX Alienware Autopsy (read: photo shoot), their intro paragraph summing up the machine fairly nicely:

It takes two people to lift. The Predator fins flare up as soon you mash the silver diamond on its head. Alienware's Area 51 ALX is a monster, and we've dissected it…

CNet UK also did a fairly complete write up on this beautiful machine, albeit without benchmarks, though they did a good job of listing out the specs and features available… save one.

Not only can you order this beast today, you can order it with Windows 7 factory installed… and as I noted in my last blog, Windows 7 is a must-have for gamers who want to squeeze every drop of performance from a high-end gaming system.

If you DO order it today, feel free to drop me a line. I’ll try to come out for a spontaneous LAN party. Heck… I’ll even bring the snacks.

As a gamer, I was initially unmoved when I first heard about Windows 7. Although I'm not a Windows XP hardliner like many of my gaming brothers and sisters, I've had my share of issues with upgrades, updates, and driver tweaks needed to make other operating systems match XP for gaming.  I just wasn't ready to believe I would actually be eager for another change. When I was helping with the Alienware M17x beta earlier this year, I heard something about the Windows 7 beta that piqued my interest: all the engineers working on the Alienware product betas had already switched to Windows 7 on their gaming boxes, and loved it. I didn't quite believe them when they told me Windows 7 outperformed Vista, and even XP, on their favorite games. That couldn't be right. The OS was still in beta!

I tried it for myself recently, and I was dumbfounded.

The OS installation took less than half the time my last Vista installation did, and was even faster than the last installation of Windows XP I had done. From inserting the disk to usable desktop clocked in at just about 20 minutes on my XPS 730X, and the default drivers worked perfectly. Start up and shut downs were noticeably faster than before... and though I didn't pull out my stopwatch to double check, I dare say it was even faster than XP. The user interface was familiar and attractive, very reminiscent of Vista. I quickly noticed an improvement in the Windows Sidebar: the gadgets could now be moved anywhere on the desktop, a change I've felt was long overdue. After I installed a few games the fun and excitement really began.

Games launched noticeably quicker than in Vista or XP, and frame rates on my favorites were notably higher than I had expected... higher even than my streamlined XP gaming installation. Was this just my experience? I found a great comparison on driverheaven that confirmed my suspicions. Windows 7 is a must have for PC gamers. It simply performs better where gamers will notice it most: in-game performance.

It wasn't just me. Even back in January, while Windows 7 was in beta, it was still measuring up to XP in terms of gaming performance according to sites like FiringSquad. Other places like Anandtech have offered a more recent assessment back in May. Doubtless that there will be tons more written on the topic from Anandtech and elsewhere after Windows 7 ships.

If the launch of Windows 7 shows this much promise, one can only think it will only get better as hardware becomes more advanced. I recently wrote a blog about the latest Alienware offerings where I mentioned the future benefits of DirectX 11. While this new technology won't be a Windows 7 exclusive, it certainly won't be supported for Windows XP, and Windows 7 improvements over Windows Vista are just too compelling to ignore.

If you are interested in tweaking Windows 7 for gaming, check out Extremetech's 10 Tips for Turbocharging Windows 7 Gaming. With hot DirectX 11cards like ATI's Radeon 5870 and the 5850 already available, it's clear that gaming on Windows 7 will be solid the day the OS ships on 10-22.

Note from Lionel: For folks that haven't seen Jose's previous State of the LAN Party entries, check out part I, part II and part III.

We saw how the LAN party evolved with new technology and how it inspired Alienware and how Alienware helped change the look of many LAN parties. With faster, more portable systems we saw LAN parties rise. With high-speed internet and MMO’s we watched as membership diminished.  Everyone grew older, but we were still gamers, the question was, what games will be played and how will that affect the LAN party.

When the XBOX360 was introduced, Microsoft realized with the success of XBOX Live on the XBOX that pushing forward with online community gaming was the future of console gaming. If there were a few gamers who still did not utilize the online universe of gamers beforehand, once the 360 hit the shelves even they joined in.

The 360 also brought a new type of LAN to gamers, the Console LAN or Local Play Lan was established where people would bring together multiple XBOX systems and connect them in order to multiplay. This allowed gamers to use separate television screens since for many the split screen was not a viable option.

What made XBOX live so successful was the variety it brought to gamers. You could play the hottest games like Halo 3 or classic favorites such as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.  For better or worse you could chat online with fellow friends and gamers which gave console gamers pretty much all the tools a LAN member would use when gaming at a LAN party.

Software developers also realized the market created by the 360 and the Playstation 3. More computer titles were being ported over to the console. Not only that, but there were much more FPS and RTS games developed for consoles than ever before.

Many in the industry knew that computer gamers also owned a console and wanted the switch from the PC to the console to not be a shock to the system. Both 360 and PS3 were designed with top end processors and video cards. This allowed players to experience games on par and sometimes better than their PC counterparts.

Those looking for a lower cost gaming system turned to consoles to experience high end graphics and gaming without the high end price tag of computer gaming units. With online play complete with patches, demos and downloads, the console gamer had everything they needed.

By the time consoles invaded my LAN party we had reduced in size to just a few friends, but the new presence was noticed. Games like Rock Band and Guitar Hero replaced the twitch action games we played before. It saddened me at first. I believed some of us were getting too old for fast paced FPS games. Honestly I thought it was a fad, but numbers don’t lie. Interactive party games are as hot now as FPS games were ten years ago.

I embraced the change. I enjoyed playing those games (even those on the Wii) and I remembered the point of the LAN was to have fun with friends which we did have. The connectivity we have today can bring us closer together if used correctly. Having access to your friends 24/7 through XBOX Live, IM programs, FaceBook and Ventrilo can be a wonderful thing even if it does lessen the need for LAN parties.

In the end those of us who grew up during the gaming revolution will continue to be gamers for a long time to come. The games may change and the way we play them. Friends come and go and places we play will change, but the main goal stays the same, have fun.

The future of the LAN party may be more virtual, larger groups of gamers playing from their home with others across the world. With gadgets such as the iPhone sporting multiplayer capabilities, we may find ourselves having impromptu LAN parties from our phones while waiting for our oil to be changed or at the doctor’s office.

The great thing about technology is it adapts and changes the landscape. More and more people will have access to the tools to allow them to play the games they want and with that will come a community to join and interact with. The LAN party is ever changing, but will never die. As long as there are gamers there will be games and a means to play them.

Before the unveiling of the new Alienware Aurora and Aurora ALX systems at the Tokyo Game Show, we were told that the upcoming announcements would shake the very foundation of PC gaming. Did the announcements live up to the hype? Folks at Engadget, Joystiq and Crunchgear seem to think the new Alienware systems are as bada$$ as they come, certainly live up to the hype, and I’m here to tell you why.

My reasons rest on one particular piece of hardware only available on the two new Alienware desktop systems: the ATI 5870 graphics card. The card is getting all kinds of praise from sites like Tom's hardware for good reason. The new Alienwares’ bada$$itude centers upon this piece of hardware. Besides offering some of the best gaming  performance ever, the card brings awesome technology forward with EyeFinity and DirectX 11.

EyeFinity is absolutely an astounding advancement. This technology allows a single GPU to support six independent displays simultaneously, and supports them in a variety of different physical configurations. Some examples taken from ATI’s website:

These configurations and others can be supported with the new Alienware desktop systems, and all of them require just a single graphics card. If that doesn’t knock your socks off, I really don’t know what will. For a good overview of what it's all about, I recommend this article at Anandtech.

Note from Lionel: Here's a demo of EyeFinity for those who want to see it in action:

Add to EyeFinity full DirectX 11 support, and you’ve got a showstopper. DirectX 11 is Microsoft’s latest DirectX API that showcases several features, including full tessellation support, support for multithreaded rendering, and compute shaders (read: general purpose processing on your GPU). Simply put, this technology makes your games look better and run faster at the same time. Here’s a video of same developers’ thoughts on the latest API:

Along with the new Alienware desktop announcements (as if they weren’t enough on their own), the most powerful 15 inch gaming laptop in the universe was also unveiled, the Alienware M15x. This little beauty can be configured with the most powerful mobile graphics card available, the NVIDIA GeForce GTC 260M, and like its desktop brethren, also features the latest Intel Core i7 technology.

For those of us that aren't lucky enough to be in Japan for the Tokyo Game Show, Chris Sutphen from the Alienware team gives the Gamespot crew a tour of our booth. It's a good time to be a gamer, indeed.