Razer to announce something on the 26th...

According to Razer, PC Gaming is not Dead. They are announcing something "big" on the 26th of this month... maybe the switchblade?


PC GAMING IS NOT DEAD - pcgamingisnotdead.com

 

since when was pc gaming considered dead.

 

A mouse will change the way people see PC gaming?

 

we're about to get the "good" version of BF3. I don't see why anyone would think PC gaming is dead. AAA titles are still coming out for PC and many times the PC is getting the definitive version.

 

I think is the switchblade as well because BF3 stuff has been already announced and shown at gamescom.
Other than that I can't think of anything that big..not a mouse or keyboard can be that big, I mean, c'mon..they're awesome and well built but hell, anyone can live without them.

 

what's the switchblade supposed to be?

 

PC gamings answer to a PSP. From what I've seen of it I can't see it hitting it big time but I might be wrong.

For example it is supposed to have an LED screen for each key meaning that in theory devs can make custom keysets for each game, but I doubt they'll really be bothered which leaves it all down to community work. There's also the fact that the keyboard is layed out on a grid, meaning the keys wouldn't be exactly where you expect to find them.

Other than that it's a neat concept though I'm a little worried it won't have enough power to play more modern games well.

 

Any speculation as far as specs? I couldn't find anything. I'm thinking AMD Llano type setup. Their IGP is pretty powerful and CPU runs cool too.

 

Ask Razer. I feel as though it's very much alive and well.

you're probably right. it shows it running WoW, So I would assume at least something equivalent to the system requirements, which is this:
Intel Pentium 4 1.3 GHz or AMD Athlon XP 1500+
- 1 GB or more of RAM
- NVIDIA® GeForce® FX or ATI Radeon™ 9500 video card or better

I'm assuming 2gb ram, and a 100 gb ssd as far as memory.

 

I wouldn't be surprised if it had Llano. It seems to be pretty much the best option for ultra small systems at the moment and it's pretty cheap.

 

Well, the prototype was running Atom, but that was before Llano was released. Still, I have my doubts that they would switch suppliers like that.

 

Maybe in the next generation they might use Llano. It just seems to logical platform to use if you're trying to make a low budget ultra portable.

I'm not sure how the atom sizes up to the Llano in terms of CPU performance though. The llano CPU is comparable to a C2D from what I've seen so far.

Are they using a touch screen or something? I can't see any form of motion input anywhere.

 

Razer took out a full page ad out in the Wall Street Journal today.



More interesting to listen it to it here:

PC GAMING IS NOT DEAD - pcgamingisnotdead.com

No idea what they will be announcing, however, very cleaver marketing and expensive too. "Together we will remind you - that PC gaming is not dead."

 

Will it only play games, or can I use it like a laptop?

 

If I had to guess, it'd be some easy to use/affordable PC gaming platform. Wasn't Razer developing some kind of gaming dedicated netbook?

Edit: Concept design of aforementioned netbook: http://www.razerzone.com/switchblade

 

Atom is pretty weak. It's built to be a low-power, low-heat system-on-a-chip for netbooks. I'm baffled as to how one might game on it.

 

I am guessing it is that one device they demonstrated that uses cloud computing to play PC Games back at CES.

 

Strong message. Brought me to tears and gave me goosebumps and all that.

 

Sorry to bother, but who is Razer (oh dang, google lol) bloke and what does he want from us. Also PC gaming was never dead. It's like Lenin (he he). PC gaming lived, PC gaming lives, PC gaming will live on forever

 

I love that story.

 

Of course Razer would say PC gaming is not dead, they sell a lot of PC accessories and are rumored to be coming out with something on the 26th... they have a lot at stake in PC gaming.

 

Just because they used Atom as a prototype was probably because it was available and cheap. I don't doubt that they considered it, but may have waited for Llano to come along because it would be a perfect fit.

Intel probably had nothing to do with it, I'm sure they hadn't sourced suppliers at the time they showed it. All they ever said was it was proof of concept, nothing more.

Sounds like you can because it's a "Win 7" machine. I'm sure the keyboard can be set to regular keyboard layout. Not sure how comfortable it would be to type though.

 

http://press.razerzone.com/press/de...oncept-powered-by-latest-intel-atom-processor

 

I think that is a grave mistake imho. The atom and its IGP can't even come close to competing with the Llano. The A8 is nearly equivalent to an i5, and A6 about an i3. The GPU is at least twice as powerful as the crap HD 3000. Not to mention cost. I'd rather see a low power quad core AMD than a crappy low power Intel dual core.

Based on the Z670 which I believe is the 1.5GHz version of the 1.7GHz Z690, it looks pretty anemic:
http://ark.intel.com/products/55663/Intel-Atom-Processor-Z670-(512K-Cache-1_50-GHz)?wapkw=z670

Looks like it only supports 32-bit and DDR2-800. That's confusing. Who makes a new chip supporting only DDR2?

 

I seriously have no idea what this thing is even going to do, besides choke on games like LoL and WoW.

 

He was talking about the Llano, not the Atom. And agree with others, companies switch and change specs from prototype to final product all the time...

 

He said he didn't know how the Atom stacked up to the Llano, and I JUST linked a press release from the end of July reiterating that the Switchblade concept and ostensibly any products developed from it would be using Atom. Thanks though.

 

Whoa, even worse, Z690 is single core, dual threaded, 32-bit, DDR2 chip. Nice. Welcome to 2005.

 

While true, it is still good to see this form of media outlet for the PC community -- considering the last 5 years or so we have had craptastic console ports and really no voice.

Make no mistake when Razer make an announcement, the PC community is not the only ones listening.

 

I'll laugh if they cheap out and use the Nvidia Tegra Quad instead of the Llano.

 

PC gaming FTW..

 

It'll should be running an A6 or A8. Can't see how they wouldn't.

 

See earlier post by hockeymass. They have confirmed use of the Atom.

My guess is it will be using a 1024x600 screen to minimize performance issues, and will only work with older or select games like WoW. I can't see Starcraft 2 or Battlefield 3 or MW3 working on it.

 

Indeed. I think I will go do some of that now.

 

I second the notion of the switchblade Hopefully its better spec'd than what they showed at CES

 

I saw a gameplay video on youtube. Not certain if it's real or representative of what they are coming out with, but this comment on the video sums it up:

"Looks like it can run at a steady 10 FPS on Minecraft. Impressive."

 

Considering the Asus K53TA is $450 and can run pretty much damn any game out there, they will be hard pressed to find buyers for this machine. However there are lots of buyers of the M11x that costs over $1200 and isn't any better than this Asus. So who knows?

 

SC2 has really low system reqs... something that matches a 2.0 ghz core 2 duo with integrated nvidia graphics will be plenty.

Modern warfare 3 and BF3 require quite a bit more even on the low end.

 

Have you ever tried Starcraft 2 on a low end machine? The M11x R1 would struggle beyond 2v2 matches, and even then would dip down to 20fps during intense action.

If it's truly the Atom Z690, it's a SINGLE CORE with hyperthreading, and it's an Atom, probably a third the performance of the SU4100/SU7300 in the M11x R1. Unless they squeeze a dedicated GPU in there, which by the size of it I doubt it, it will use the Atom integrated GPU which is worse than the HD 3000, it's the HD 600 graphics, which is on par with the GMA 950.

 

The two threads on this topic have now been merged together.

 

Waste of money then. Atom is a joke.

 

Atom is fine in a netbook but for something dedicated to gaming it just won't cut it.

It would be a little much to expect this little thing to be able to max out modern games but it should still be able to run recent titles on low. I know for a fact that the atom cries when it sees TF2 so I really don't think it would be a good idea.

Llano with a 6400 series or something along the lines would probably be possible. Also, maybe they might include a long desired PCI bridge meaning you can plug in an external. Given that it's a portable I doubt they'd actually rely on you doing it but having the option would be nice.

 

So this is an atom netbook, running windows 7, with a different keyboard. Bahahahahaha. If PC gaming isn't dead, it will be with this.

 

I guess 'switchblade' is a fitting name for something that'll end up stabbing us in the back.

 

:laugh:

"The game stops here". :laugh:

 

The Switchblade concept design looks like a terrible idea. Exactly what sort of customer need does this thing fulfill? If I wanted to play games somewhere other than my house, I'd get a laptop of some sort with an actual keyboard, so that I could do things other than just play games on it. And if I wanted something small enough to play while on a train or something, then I would pick something up that I wouldn't need 4 hands to use while standing.

Who, precisely, is going to derive value from such a product?

 

My Intel Atom 330 runs fine with regular usage and even hosts my Minecraft and Terraria server with no problems at all.
But if i where to play games then it dies.
I could press out around 20fps in WoW TBC with my 9400m but even that game needs more speed now.

 

If they're going to go through the trouble of making that keyboard, then why not pack it with some performance? I like the keyboard idea, and not a bad idea there. But it needs more than that.

We will see I guess, maybe they have something up their sleeve.

 

I've seen pictures with the keyboard looking different. I believe they advertised LCD keyboard, so each key is customizable. It can also have a standard keyboard on it.

 

Using the Atom CPU is like trying to power a nuclear submarine using a pair of AA batteries, great idea guys!