DirectX 11 - the one sure thing you'll want as soon as Windows Seven ships to shelves a few years from now. Revealed back in Gamefest 2008, DirectX 11 turned heads with its venture into multithreaded computing territory and support for using shader processors as additional processing power. Today, however, Microsoft's Kevin Gee detailed what the software engineers at Redmond had planned for the API, and we've compiled a summary at the full story.

And the technology wars begin. Just when you thought NVIDIA had the last say in the verbal bout of "who's processing power gargles nuts now?" Intel decided that it was time to take the graphics game to a higher level. Today, we're introduced to Intel's "Larrabee" - a much rumored CPU concept prototype designed to carry some form of graphics processing as well. Suddenly itching for more? Full story now, pardner.

Yes, we all might've browsed through reviews of the once hinted first 9 series model to roll out of NVIDIA, and now the GeForce 9600 GT has hit the market in all its mini-GT glory. The single slot, cooler encased 8600 GTS successor is being offered at prices that could make enthusiasts itch. Heck, you might do well to head on over to the full story and find out why you might want to scratch that itch.

And just when you thought that nothing could beat your sleek and shiny 21-inch LCD monitor, here comes yet something else to put our gear to shame... So everyone, we'd like you to meet TripleHead2Go who pretty much likes to do just that.

This lovely thing uses three screens at the same time, which then gives you a total resolution of 3840 x 1024, and a total diagonal size of 45 inches. With this set-up, you can almost never be blindsided again, what with the 135-degree view of the world that you got (unless an arrow comes flying in or a boss spawns from behind, I suppose...).

You also wouldn't have to worry about compatibility issues too much either since these babies will be using your system's graphics, including SLI, as well as DirectX and OpenGL. Perfect for most RTS games, FPS, RPGs, and MMORPGs, of which almost 150 titles have Field of View support.

So... Killer monitors. Check. Video card... erm... now that's another story altogether.

ATI is a leader in the graphics processing unit market. Current generation games are largely designed to be used with either ATI graphics cards or NVidia cards. With the advent of dedicated physics processors and games that require more and more power from hardware, ATI has decided to step their game up.

Code named R600, ATI's upcoming GPU will support advanced new features including: unified shader architecture, unprecedented support for DirectX 9 applications and more "horsepower" than current chips, generally speaking. According to Richard Huddy, the head of ATI's software developers relations department, the new GPU will be the "fastest DirectX 9 chip that we have ever built."

The unified shader architecture used by ATI will provide world class performance even in existing applications, according to Mr. Huddy. the Xbox 360 utilizes an ATI chip (xenos graphics core) with unified shader architecture that has 48 shader processors. It loses 20 to 25% of its performance in pixel-shader limited games when the chip is configured as non-unified (16 processors work strictly on vertex shaders while 32 are assigned for pixel shaders).

It will be up to game developers to craft games that will best utilize the hardware they are being developed for. Games can be designed to work better with the 360's hardware setup, but when dealing with multiple platforms and a market that supports a variety of hardware designs, game developers are sometimes forced to chose between widespread compatibility and optimization for a specific system. Too much optimization can drive up prices and add an inordinate amount of time to the development process. This can cause problems, but the flexibility the configuration provides is a trade-off that ATI is aggressively pursuing.

NVidia, on the other hand, believes that the implementation of a unified shader architecture should be gradually and cautiously approached. ATI's R600 will certainly provide users with a GPU that will handle today's applications with ease and also give them a leg up on future releases as well. However, as game developers and GPU manufacturers move into the future, only time will tell which view of processor architecture will provide the best results for users in the long run.