Archive Home arrow Tech Affiliates: arrow Tech News arrow NVIDIA nTeresting News - August 29, 2011
NVIDIA nTeresting News - August 29, 2011
Tuesday, 30 August 2011

NVIDIA nTeresting News - August 29, 2011

  • GeForce LAN is back. It's on a boat. It's got Battlefield 3. W00t!
  • AMD claimed to have the world's fastest notebook GPU. Testing shows they were a bit...ahhhh...optimistic about the performance numbers.
  • TegraZone has a web site now. Grab your Tegra optimized games there.
  • Pwnapalooza '11 is going to rock. The list a PC titles coming out this fall is staggering.
  • NVIDIA dominates the list of ‘greatest graphics cards of all time.'
  • With cool short films, physics training in schools and big money launches, PC gaming is on roll.

GeForce LAN 6: "I'm on a Boat!!!!!!!!"
Ain't no party like a GeForce party, cause a GeForce party don't stop! To prove it, we are partying for 48 hours straight, on a boat. That's right, GeForce LAN 6 will be held October 14-16, 2011 on the Aircraft Carrier USS Hornet in Alameda, CA.

800 players. Battlefield 3 tourneys. A freakin' warship. Are we serious? Dead serious.

Thanks to Toshiba, MSI, ZOTAC, ASUS, Falcon Northwest, Digital Storm, Plantronics, V3 Gaming PC, Cyberpower PC, and EVGA for sponsoring. Registration for GeForce LAN 6 will start soon at https://www.geforce.com/News/articles/geforce-lan-6.

Not So Fast, AMD
You may recall that back on July 12 AMD made a big deal about their new flagship notebook GPU on Facebook, calling it the ‘world's fastest'. They even told press it was 30% faster than GeForce GTX 580M, before lowering that number to 15% in the 11th hour.

"AMD contacted us to let me know the benchmark results we posted with this news release needed to be changed. The NEW results from the presentation show the difference between the Radeon HD 6970M and the Radeon HD 6990M to be much less AND the difference between the HD 6990 and NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 580M to be MUCH smaller. I have asked AMD for an explanation here and we'll see what we get later today."

They pointed to a FIVE year old game to get that 15% number.

Then July came and went. No reviews. A month past. Still no reviews. Now, with a few days left in August, the first review has hit on notebookcheck.com. What do you know? GeForce GTX 580M SLI beats the 6990M XFire in 7 out of 10 benchmarks. GeForce GTX wins 70% of the time.

"Although the performance differs a lot in some games, there's not much difference between GeForce GTX 580M SLI and Radeon HD 6990M CF. Like in the test of each single graphics board, NVIDIA is the winner, SLI is 5% better on average."

They also found the single GeForce GTX 590M to be about 8% faster than the Radeon 6990M.

It is easy to claim ‘world's fastest' in a press release or on Facebook, it is much harder to actually do it. It is harder still to have the world's fastest notebook GPU for two years running like NVIDIA has.

GeForce GTX means the best gaming. Period.

TegraZone Hits Web
We have already launched the Tegra Zone app for Tegra-powered Android superphones or tablets to make easy to catch up on the Android games optimized for your Tegra device. Now it hits the web, in the form of the TegraZone.com to give you access from your laptop or desktop to the latest game news, reviews and release information for Tegra-optimized games.

"Tegra Zone is an application specifically for Android devices with NVIDIA's blazing fast dual-core processor, the Tegra 2. The application showcases all the games that have been optimized for the Tegra 2, offering up an unrivaled graphics experience. Starting today, Tegra 2 owners now have one more outlet - TegraZone.com."

One such game is Sprinkle, out now for Tegra 2 and coming soon for quad core processors like Project Kal-El.

"This Thursday the developers at Mediocre announced not only the release of their radically awesome Sprinkle puzzle game as right this second, today, on the Android Market, but the fact that they're currently working with NVIDIA to optimize the game for the quad-core Project Kal-El processors of the near future."

People love Sprinkle.

"Overall, Sprinkle is an exceedingly fun, but simple game. You'll get hooked on its seemingly mindless early levels, but like Angry Birds, will have to think before you act if you want to beat the harder puzzles in the later levels. The game's replay value should be about on par with Angry Birds thanks to the various ways each puzzle can be solved, and the gnawing feeling you'll get knowing that you could have beaten that last level with one drop less water."

You can download Sprinkle for your Tegra 2-powered device from the Android Market, TegraZone app or from https://www.tegrazone.com/

Pwnapalooza ‘11 Line-up Announced
Fall 2011 (aka Pwnapalooza '11) is going to be epic for video games (no pun intended)!!! In no time in history have so many kick ass titles hit at the same time.

"Gamescom's all done for another year. While the consoles duked it out for supremacy with price-drops and new products left and right, the PC community was content to just enjoy an incredible lineup of games. The lineup was so huge, in fact, that it was easy to miss much of it. So IGN has gone to the trouble of compiling a list of 11 excellent stories from the show (because 10 is simply not enough)." (with videos)"

Pwnapalooza '11 starring: Call of Duty: MW3, Battlefield3, Elder Scrolls: Skyrim, Batman Arkham City, Diablo 3, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Rage, Assassin's Creed Revelations and NDOTA2.

GeForce GTX is your ticket.

GoaT GPUs
THG did a story on the 22 Greatest Graphics Cards of All Time. NVIDIA technology dominated with 14 selections from NVIDIA and 2 from 3dfx.

Gaming Is Mainstream
Think about this for a minute. Call of Duty: Black Ops made $650 million in week one. Iron Man 2, Harry Potter and the DeadlyHallows and Inception made $315 million combined in their first week.

"Last year's "Call of Duty: Black Ops" didn't just break video-game records. Selling 5.6 million copies in 24 hours and grossing $650 million in its first five days, it was the biggest entertainment opening of all time -- bigger than "Titanic," "Avatar" and every other Hollywood blockbuster."

After using Jimmy Kimmel and Kobe Bryant in their ads, Activision has the headliners for the Call of Duty: MW3 launch party.

"When Activision announced its two-day Call of Duty XP fan convention, the publisher promised the event would be headlined by "AAA live entertainment." The company has now unveiled that talent, today announcing that Boston-based punk act Dropkick Murphys will perform on the event's opening night. Earlier this week, Activision revealed rapper Kanye West as the featured performer for the second and final night of the convention."

Gaming is mainstream. Hollywood turns to them for movie plots. Now we have this great Portal-based short film. "Director Dan Trachtenberg has put together an impressive seven minute Portal film with the help of composer Mike Zarin and actor Danielle Rayne. The short was original shown at San Diego Comic-Con, but has since surfaced online in stunning 1080p." https://www.craveonline.com/gaming/previews/173169-watch-incredible-portal-2-short-film

They even want to use Portal for education.

"Specifically, Valve wants to take a modified version of their Portal 2 physics toolset and share it with schools to make learning physics fun and educational at the same time. Students will be able to craft puzzles and then test them out with these tools, learning something important while essentially playing a video game. Valve, you tricky, yet ingenious bastards."


Related Articles:
 

Comments 

 
# RE: NVIDIA nTeresting News - August 29, 2011Force 2011-09-02 20:13
This sure is some nTeresting NVIDIA advertising.
Report Comment
 
 
# RE: RE: NVIDIA nTeresting News - August 29, 2011Olin Coles 2011-09-02 20:59
It's their newsletter, if you couldn't tell by the author and source. Did you expect them to promote their competition?
Report Comment
 

Comments have been disabled by the administrator.

Search Benchmark Reviews Archive