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TIN BOX FLOGGER Dell has been caught offering misleading advice on the image quality produced by ‘standard’ and ‘high-end’ graphics cards.

As part of Dell’s ‘Help Me Choose” website on graphics cards, the firm shows two seemingly identical monitors displaying the same image. The image on one of the monitors connected to a “standard graphics card” appears to have muted colours and be out of focus, while the second monitor connected to a “high-end graphics card” has a sharper image with higher colour saturation.

While the drastic image difference is woefully misleading, curiously Dell’s textual description of integrated and discrete graphics, albeit simplistic, is on the mark.

Dell’s summary of integrated graphics, which the firm claims is a “basic solution”, says, “While integrated graphics are capable of processing some 3D images, the shared resources can sometimes prevent them from delivering an optimal experience.”

As for Dell’s summary of discrete graphics cards, which the firm labels as a “Mid-range to high-end solution”, it said, “Because this solution does not burden the CPU and system memory, overall system performance is likely to be significantly better with discrete graphics when running applications that use complex images.”

Although many computer enthusiasts might be unhappy at the lack of detail, there’s nothing fundamentally wrong with Dell’s summary of integrated and discrete graphics cards. The problem is with the graphical representation, which the firm knows is what consumers will remember.

Assuming Dell is showing two identical monitors connected by the same interface using the same colour profile, then it is incredibly unlikely that a ‘standard graphics card’ – which Dell does not define – could produce such low image quality compared to a ‘high-end graphics card’ – another term that Dell does not define.

Image qualities from GPU vendors such as AMD, Intel and Nvidia do vary but are usually only discernable in games with high-levels of anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering being applied. Neither would apply in the image of a Windows desktop that is displayed on both monitors in Dell’s images.

Dell was unable to provide us with comment regarding its “Help me choose” graphics card advice by press time. µ

ANDROID BLOG Androidnz has confirmed that a 64GB microSDXC card works in multiple devices including smartphones and tablets.

In general, microSD card slots in today’s devices support up to 32GB of extra storage but despite Sandisk saying otherwise, you can now add up to 64GB. A Sandisk card has been tried in phones such as the Samsung Galaxy S II and tablets like the Asus Eee Pad Transformer.

Androidnx said, “Upon inserting the card in my phone I received an error notification stating that the card was damaged. After a quick trip to Settings to format the card, the phone recognised the SDXC card and showed 59.46GB of storage available.”

“The only issue I’ve found so far is that the camera doesn’t seem to be able to work out how many minutes of video or pictures can be taken with the available storage.”

One issue could have been that the device saw the card but only allowed use of 32GB. This myth was busted by first putting 47GB of data on the card and all the files were accessible.

The card runs across multiple versions of Android, on stock and rooted devices. This will come as good news to those who require large amounts of storage but don’t want to opt for a cloud service. Large files are becoming all the more common, with many devices able to record video in full HD 1080p quality.

Androidnx has confirmed that the microSDXC card works in both the Samsung Galaxy Note and the Motorola Razr, two recently launched devices. Older devices that also support the card include the HTC Sensation and Samsung Galaxy S. µ

GameStop is attempting to make up for the Deus Ex: Human Revolution debacle by offering a gift card and a “Buy 2 Get 1 Free Pre-owned Purchase” to those who bought boxed copies of the PC version in-store.

By first removing free game vouchers from boxed PC copies of Deus Ex and then removing the game from its shelves altogether, GameStop garnered a lot of negative press this week. Today, the retailer apologized – sort of.

GameStop CEO Paul Raines extended an olive branch to disgruntled customers via email:

“We regret the events surrounding this title’s release and that our customers were put in the middle of this issue between GameStop and Square Enix, the publisher of this game. And for this we are truly sorry.

For your inconvenience, we would like to offer you a free GameStop gift card and a Buy 2 Get 1 Free pre-owned purchase. We want to earn back your trust and confidence in the GameStop experience. Please bring in this email and your store receipt or order confirmation from GameStop.com and present it to a Game Advisor.”

By focusing its mea culpa on the customer, GameStop avoids having to address its stance on Square Enix’s promotional deal with OnLive. GameStop's apology is a win for whoever bought Deus Ex on PC from a GameStop. For everyone else (that includes publishers), it’s simply evidence that GameStop’s only sorry it got caught.

Source: Joystiq

GRAPHICS CARD VENDOR HIS launched its 6770 IceQ X and 6770 IceQ X Turbo cards.

These HIS 6770 IceQ cards are based on AMD’s reference Radeon HD6770 with 1GB GDDR5 memory, but they feature the firm’s trademark IceQ heatsink and fan, which has two heatpipes, and the firm claims it is quieter than the heatsink fan on reference boards. The considerable cooling also helps HIS ship its graphics cards factory overclocked.

The HIS 6770 IceQ has the GPU is clocked at 850MHz and the memory at an effective 4.8GHz. On the HIS 6770 IceQ Turbo the GPU runs at 880MHz with the 1GB GDDR5 memory running at 5GHz.

Both HIS 6770 IceQ boards have two dual-link DVI outputs as well as Displayport and HDMI outputs. Like all AMD Radeon HD6770 boards, the HIS 6770 IceQ units support Microsoft’s DirectX 11 and AMD’s Eyefinity multi-display software.

Although HIS didn’t announce pricing for its 6770 IceQ graphics cards, similar cards from other vendors such as Gigabyte, MSI, Sapphire and XFX all retail from £100 and go up to £120, though Gigabyte’s most expensive board in that price range has the AMD Radeon HD6770 GPU running at 900MHz.

It is likely that HIS will price its two boards somewhere in the middle of that pack, at around £105, more or less. µ

In part 2 of our GTX 460 launch coverage, we take a look at a varied selection of launch cards from Zotac, EVGA, and Asus. NVIDIA's partners aren't wasting any time in getting customized cards out, so right away we're seeing everything from factory overclocked cards to fully custom cards and anything in-between. Having seen how well the reference GTX 460 performs, now we can see how the vendors have built on NVIDIA's success.