With Vista adoption still falling short of
Microsoft’s expectations, the company is hop-
ing price cuts will spur better sales of the OS. In
the United States, the price of the full version of
Windows Vista Ultimate will drop from $399 to
$319, while the “upgrade” version of Ultimate will
drop from $259 to $219; the price for the upgrade
version of Vista Home Premium will be reduced
to $129 from $159.Microsoft Cuts Vista
Pricing
Nvidia has offi cially boarded the DDR
train with the release of its nForce 790i
chipset. An update to the recently
released nForce 780i, the 790i includes a
wealth of new features.
Among the new features is native sup-
port for PCI-Express 2.0. While the 780i
used a secondary nForce 200 controller
chip to add PCI-E 2.0 support to what
was essentially the nForce 680i’s north
bridge, the 790i will go straight to the
GPU at PCI-E 2.0 speeds.
Although performance benefi ts aren’t
known, the elimination of the additional
chip should help streamline motherboarddesigns. The 790i will also work with
Intel’s upcoming 1,600MHz front-side bus
processor—the 780i does not.
Another big change the 790i offers is
the inclusion of a DDR3 memory control-
ler. DDR3 RAM prices remain high, but
clock speeds are almost double that of
DDR2. Motherboards using the new chip-
set should be available by the time you
read this.Nvidia Goes DDR3 with
New nForce 790i
Native PCI-E 2.0 and official 1,600MHz
FSB support among new featuresquick start THE BEGINNING OF THE MAGAZINE, WHERE ARTICLES ARE SMALL
D
oes the industry really need another trade
organization? Apparently so, judging by the
splashy, almost 100-percent content-free launch
of the PC Gaming Alliance. Its initial press release
promised that the “PCGA and its member compa-
nies will work to accelerate innovation, improve
the gaming experience for consumers, serve as
a collective source of market information and
expertise, and get those unsightly rings out of
your bathtub.”
OK, so I added the last part, and, yes, I’m
being grotesquely unfair. The PCGA is a new entity
attempting to do good for the world of PC gam-
ing and includes the participation of most of the
major hardware and software developers. So far
it’s produced only airy generalities, but that’s to
be expected this early in the life of any group.
The question remains, however: What, spe-
cifically, does the PCGA hope to accomplish? The
website boldly proclaims that the organization
is “the Authoritative Voice of PC Gaming World
Wide” and promises to “make data that high-
lights and promotes the PC platform to analysts,
press, and the public.”
That makes it sound like its purpose is to
issue press releases and keep someone on
staff to write snippy letters to editors whenever
someone suggests that the PC gaming market
ain’t quite what it used to be. If I see that an
organization’s goal is to “raise awareness”
about a subject, my mind mentally translates
the words into “wank off.” We’re a pretty info-
intense society. We’re about as aware as we
need (or choose) to be.
It’s always nice to have a single, one-stop
shop for market and demographic info, but most
of the PCGA’s other goals seem either dubious or
redundant. It’s nice to talk about creating forums
for developers, but don’t we already have both
the GDC and the IGF? It sounds very concrete to
say the organization can help “simplify hardware
specifications and speed the introduction of new
technologies,” but both of these goals are beyond
the control of any trade group, not to mention its
claims about tackling piracy, cheating, and secu-
rity. If the PCGA has some supersecret solutions
to these problems which have thus far eluded the
industry, maybe it can share them.
Specifics, please.10 MAMAMAXIMXIMXIMXIMUUUUMMPPPCC | MAYMAYMAY 08 08 | http://www.maximumpc.comwww.maximumpc.com
Thomas L. McDonald has been covering games for 17 years.
He is Editor-at-Large of Games Magazine.The Alliance
of PC Gaming
Buzzwords
GAME THEORY
THOMAS
MCDONALDWhen the College Opportunity and Affordability Act (COAA) fi rst made its way
through the House Education and Labor Committee back in November 2007, its
inclusion of anti-piracy measures raised eyebrows. The bill, meant to improve
access to higher education, required universities to fi ght P2P activity on cam-
pus in order to receive fi nancial aid. Of course, MPAA and RIAA lobbyists were
behind that provision, brandishing a since-debunked study that found fi le-sharing
among college students responsible for 44 percent of movie studio “losses.”
Despite news of that study’s grossly infl ated numbers, the fi nal bill, which was
overwhelmingly passed by Congress in February, still tasks universities with fi l-
tering P2P networks and providing a legal alternative to fi le-swapping, although
there are no stated consequences for not obliging.Colleges to Police P2P?
Congress passes a controversial education bill