Computer processing solutions company Advanced Micro Devices is working with three leading developer to bring AMD graphics and DirectX 10.1 support to their titles: Electronic Arts Phenomic Studio and its upcoming real-time online fantasy RTS Battleforge, SEGA and its real-time futuristic military strategy title Stormrise, and NHN Games and its 3D RPG Cloud 9. Says Microsoft Games for Windows Global Director Kevin Unangst:

We welcome AMD's broad support for DirectX 10.1 compliant hardware and we're pleased to see our newest technology brought to market so soon. One of the great advantages of PC gaming is the rapid pace at which the experiences evolve and improve.

Hit the jump for the full AMD press release.

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We're a great deal savvier than we used to be about PC hardware. No longer are the insides of a computer scary - merely dark and, depending on how neat you are, dusty. Sure, you might scratch yourself on a sharp piece of metal, or procure a burn from a toasty heatsink, but any gamer who's owned a system longer than five years has earned his licence to fly solo in the bowels of his silicon beast.

Titles such as Crysis have raised awareness of Direct3D 10, while Supreme Commander proved that dual and quad core processors have a place in the motherboard of the average gamer.

It's a shame then that it's become progressively harder to identify which graphics cards or processors are better, thanks to the irrelevancy of megahertz and esoteric product names packed with hyperbole. Is an Intel E6600 better than a Q6600, because E comes first in the alphabet? Shouldn't a GeForce 9600GT be faster than an 8800GT by the difference of 800 "whatevers" in its name? The answer would be "no" in both cases.

I recently made a few purchases for my brother, whose AMD-based system finally decided that being a working PC wasn't hip any more. As part of the process, I had to put together a few parts that would serve him for the next few years, but wouldn't leave him scrounging his pocket lint for food money.

Anyway, hit the jump for my recommendations.

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Chip maker AMD has invested heavily into hyperbole research, proudly proclaiming that its new graphics chip, the RV770, is "more powerful than every generation of video game console ever brought to market combined". The RV770, demoed Monday, is capable of processing one trillion floating operations per second on a single chip, a feat that AMD says "punches a sizeable hole in the sensory barrier".

In short, that means things will look prettier and more realistic, giving game creators nearly limitless depths of brown to explore with space marine armour achieving nearly unimaginable levels of detail.

AMD has a brief tech demo that show off the RV770 at its official site, featuring a DOG from Half-Life 2 clone chasing graphics card mascot Ruby. You'll probably find it as rewarding as the corporate promise of "Cinema 2.0". That's definitely gonna catch on.

Cinema 2.0: The Next Chapter in the Ultimate Visual Experience Story [AMD - thanks, Fred!]

Chip maker AMD's philanthropic foundation is getting behind games for social change. At the 2008 Games for Change event in New York, chip maker AMD announced its "Changing the Game" program, which aims to teach kids to develop games with social content.

AMD also sponsored the Games For Change event, where it announced that its AMD Foundation will offer grants to non-profits that teach social game development to kids, including Girlstart, GlobalKids, Institute for Urban Game Design and Science Buddies. AMD also told us at the event that beyond donations, its employees will do volunteer work supporting these efforts.

Part of AMD's support for Games For Change includes "Let the Games Begin," a workshop co-sponsored with the MacArthur Foundation that aims to teach nonprofits how to build games around social issues, and the company will also create a how-to toolkit for Games For Change that includes information and guidance on building these projects.

Full details follow the jump:

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When the PC industry's big guns high-fived as they broke from a warm, gushy group hug, they high-fived with a pledge: that they'd do what they could to help give traditional PC gaming a kick in the pants. We've seen what Nvidia are doing, so what about AMD? They're...well, they're going to start putting little badges on their PCs. If a computer's got a badge that says "AMD Game", it'll play more than just Freespace. If it says "AMD Game Ultra", it'll even manage something like Crysis. You can see an example of the badges to your left. I don't know. It's not that its necessarily a bad idea, just...we were kinda hoping for a little more than just (likely ineffectual) badges, you know?

AMD launches "Good Housekeeping" stamp of approval for gaming computers [VentureBeat]

German site PC Games Hardware got in touch with Charles Beauchemin, the technical lead on the upcoming PC version of Assassin's Creed. In the interview, the developer confirms that the game's Direct3D 10 rendering pipeline will have better performance than its D3D 9 counterpart, while running under Vista. The thing is, in theory, Direct3D 10 should almost always be faster than Direct3D 9, but reality has shown this not to be the case.

Beauchemin goes on to say that AMD and NVIDIA's D3D 10 drivers still need work, and even once the engine code is finalised, driver updates could provide noticeable performance gains.He also mentions that the PC port of Assassin's Creed will focus on performance rather than visuals. When asked if there will be any new content thanks to D3D 10:

No. Most of the porting to DX10 involves optimisations of the existing calls, without any new content.

So, will Assassin's Creed on PC be the first game to warrant the installation of Vista? At the very least, it might take the edge off its hefty system requirements.

News: Assassin's Creed: DX10 confirmed, faster than DX9 [PCGH, via Blue's News]

The PC Gaming Alliance is real. It was just announced at GDC, and comprises not only the rumoured Intel, NVIDIA, AMD/ATI and Microsoft (along with Alienware, Dell, ACER and Gateway), but publishing giants Epic and Activision as well. Intel's Randy Stude will be heading up the group, which rather than making things like official stickers, box labels and slogans will instead be working to provide the platform with a unified "voice":

One of our main major objectives is to provide one voice on PC gaming market. There's no one source that says 'hey this is where the PC market is going'. Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft are always calling their market share - we're going to call our market through this group.

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Just because AMD's busy with its Phenom processors doesn't mean the company's gone slack with driver releases for its Radeon brand of graphics cards. Hence, AMD's just brought out version 8.2 of its Catalyst software/driver bundle.

Hardware-wise, there are a bunch of fixes for CrossFire and HDMI. On the software side, AMD's improved the functionality and usability of the OverDrive overclocking feature.

Under known issues, Lost Planet, Quake Wars, and STALKER all received attention, with a particularly nasty one for Unreal Tournament 3 and maximum texture settings. You can learn more about this particular revision by reading the rest of the release notes.

I've included links to the Vista 32-bit and Windows XP versions of the drivers below. If you need anything else, best to visit AMD's ATI site.

ATI Catalyst 8.2 for Vista 32-bit
ATI Catalyst 8.2 for Windows XP
[via Blue's News]

According to the San Jose Mercury News, heavyweights Intel, Microsoft, AMD and NVIDIA will join forces to help fight the decline in PC game sales.

The alliance will be officially announced at this year's Game Developers Conference in San Francisco.

Being a hardcore PC gamer, I'm pleased to hear about this. However, the team will need more than just hardware vendors if it wants to stand a chance. After all, it's the publishers that decide what goes on which platforms these days, and with the popularity of the Xbox 360, Wii and Playstation 3, combined with the large outlay for a decent gaming PC (some video cards cost more than an entire console!), the battle is going to be an uphill one. Sure, Microsoft has its fair share of releases, but a bit of support from EA or Activision Blizzard would go down a treat.

It will be interesting to hear the group's strategies to invigorate the platform.

Takahashi: Gaming Alliance stumps for PC [San Jose Mercury News, via Blue's News]

Remember AMD's new graphics card from CES? The one that processed, sliced and diced? It's ready for purchase. Called the Radeon HD 3870 X2, they're claiming it's nearly twice as powerful as the HD 3870, which was released late last year. Mainly because it is, literally, two HD 3870s strapped to a single board. It will also support DirectX 10.1, has an rrp of around $US 450 and is, according to AMD, the "first graphics processor to break the Teraflop (one trillion floating point operations per second) barrier". Surely an overabundance of flops?

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