Microsoft maintained its lead over the competition in August, outpacing both Nintendo and Sony in the console war. NPD's latest round of statistics show that Redmond shipped 356,700 Xbox 360s in the US last month, leaving the Wii and PlayStation behind with 244,300 and 226,000 units sold - and with Halo: Reach due this month, Microsoft shouldn't have any trouble holding its position.
The Wii continued its steady decline in August, marking the console's lowest point since its November 2006 debut. Likewise, the DS fell 14% to 342,700 shipments from July's 398,000 units (which was a 26% drop). Although Sony's consoles ranked last, it's worth noting that the PS3 saw its thirteenth consecutive month of sales growth and it could soon surpass the Wii.
Madden NFL 11 dominated game sales, with just under a million copies sold for both the 360 and PS3. Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Wii), Mafia II (360), and New Super Mario Bros. (DS) filled out the five most purchased titles, all of which had between 110,000 and 125,000 units sold. As noted above, with Halo: Reach on the horizon, you can expect that to top NPD's next report.
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September Patch Tuesday to address 13 bugs
Microsoft is preparing to issue nine bulletins that address 13 vulnerabilities in its various software products on this month's Patch Tuesday, which falls on 2010 September 14. Although there are fewer bug fixes than last month's 34 flaws, it's reportedly the largest Patch Tuesday this year to fall on an odd-numbered month, which are typically smaller than even months.
Four of the bulletins are critical, two are important and seven could lead to remote code execution, according to the notification posted yesterday. Affected operating systems range from Windows XP and Server 2003 through Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2. Another reminder to XP SP2 users, you'll have to update to SP3 for coverage, as SP2 is no longer supported. Microsoft Office XP, 2003, and 2007 are also included in the cycle, with one critical hole to be plugged in eldest application.
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AMD unveils $3,500 ATI FirePro V9800 workstation card
Apparently in no rush to shed the ATI brand, AMD has launched a new workstation graphics card. The ATI FirePro V9800 is designed for professionals who "require extreme performance" and sports 1,600 stream processors
running at 850MHz and 4GB of GDDR5 VRAM effectively clocked at 4,800Mhz. It's based on the same Cyprus GPU used in the V8800 released earlier this year, except the V9800 can pump out 2.72 terraflops instead of 2.64 whilst consuming less power (199W versus 208W).
The new flagship can feed graphics to half a dozen displays simultaneously via six Mini DisplayPort outputs, up from the V8800's four. It supports DirectX 11, OpenGL 4.0, Shader Model 5, and stereoscopic 3D. To make multi-display setup a little easier, AMD throws in one dual-link and five single-link active Mini DisplayPort-to-DVI adapters - then again, for $3,500 you'd expect such accessories. That's over double the V8800's $1,500 price tag. The V9800 should be available very soon.
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