The Inquirer reports that a drunk Nintendo representative was spewing at the mouth about the Wii GPU’s hi-def capability, even though the full potential is yet to be seen. So why DON’T we see the Wii slinging out high definition resolution? Apparently, for two reasons.

The console can’t handle a reasonable frame rate for true HD quality and because the cost would be even higher then it already is for the gaming unit. So this comes down to the Wii being able to handle HD, but just not at par with the competition. Keeping its capability secret is seeming to be part of the business plan. Although this is just a rumor, hackers are sure to go to work on the GPU unit now that the supposed “word” is out. Seems sort of unlikely, but a Wii HD is worth the experimentation. — Andrew Dobrow

Nintendo hides Wii’s HD [The Inquirer, via GWN News]

Asus has announced its Aquatank graphics card. A new option for cooling an overclocked GeForce 8800GTX card with a water cooling method. The new Aquatank is said to run 12 degrees cooler then a reference thermal module.

The Aquatank clears out warm water from an overclocking 8800GTX, enabling the GeForce graphics to be up to 11 percent faster then when its running hot. Testing showed an increase in performance from 575 MHz to 630 MHz. Quite a jump for a GPU clock.

No pricing or release date have been announced, but the release should please some GeForce hardware fan boys who love working their cards to their maximum power. — Andrew Dobrow

Asus ‘Aquatank’ Cools GeForce 8800GTX [ExtremeTech]