| NVIDIA nTeresting News - September 23, 2011 |
| Saturday, 24 September 2011 | ||
NVIDIA nTeresting News - September 23, 2011In this Issue:
Ninja Core? Quad Core Project Kal-El Saves Power with a "Stealth" Fifth Core Earlier this week, we released two new whitepapers detailing the architecture and power-saving benefits of our next-gen, quad-core Tegra chip, Project Kal-El, and mobile enthusiasts went into a frenzy. Project Kal-El, the world's first quad-core mobile processor, includes some very cool architectural technology - Variable SMP - that enables great performance and low power operation. There's a patented fifth companion core within Project Kal-El that runs at a lower frequency - for low power operation tasks such as Web reading, music playback, and video playback - while the 4 performance cores are completely turned off. For higher performance tasks, the companion core is disabled, and the performance cores turn on, one by one as the work load increases. The result? As Slashgear mentions, "Believe it or not, the quad core processor consumes less power and provides higher performance per watt than dual core processors AND single core processors." After checking out the details in the Project Kal-El white papers, others were pretty excited as well. "After reading through the documentation, I am left with but one thought: this processor is going to slaughter everything currently on the market." "The Kal-El is going to chew through benchmarks as well as Android apps like butter." "In short, this thing will be flat-out awesome and we can't wait to see what it can do inside tablets and (hopefully) phones." "Which mobile CPU do you want in your next Android tablet? I'm going with Kal-El." Check out the white papers here and find out how Project Kal-El performs better and consumes less power for web, games, apps, and multitasking on your mobile device. Optimus is Way Better Leading tech site Anandtech recently did a review comparing NVIDIA Optimus technology to AMD dynamic switchable graphics. They loved NVIDIA Optimus technology. "In short, you can get any laptop equipped with NVIDIA's Optimus Technology and get the improved battery life that running off the IGP affords while still having readily available driver updates, frequently at a lower price. Unless you absolutely don't care about driver updates-or a UI with lack of "expert" features like a list of game and application profiles and global settings-NVIDIA is definitely the way to go for dynamic switchable graphics technologies right now." They were not so crazy about the AMD solution. "This has been the first laptop with AMD switchable graphics that I've had a chance to actually review, and it hasn't impressed me as much as I would like." AMD's solution is flakey. "AMD's dynamic switching is fine when it works, but in our testing it fails to work on a regular basis. Optimus offers great compatibility. "On an NVIDIA Optimus laptop, every single game worked without any tweaking necessary." You are going to have an issue trying to get driver updates if you have an AMD solution. "We do have one major concern with AMD's Dynamic Switchable Graphics that we haven't really addressed so far: drivers. Why are drivers a problem? Just like AMD's non-dynamic switchable graphics, you're stuck waiting for your laptop OEM to release new drivers, as AMD's mobile reference drivers are only for discrete GPUs (and even then, not all OEMs participate, Sony and Toshiba being two prime examples).:" NVIDIA Verde drivers offer great support. "Simply put, NVIDIA has the better approach: provide reference drivers for nearly all laptops that use NVIDIA GPUs, and include support for laptops with Optimus graphics switching technology." They disliked the AMD offering so much that they would rather have a laptop without it! "Ironically, I'd rather have something like the HP Envy 14 or the Sony VAIO C without AMD's switchable graphics and just give me a discrete GPU instead...." You can save yourself some headaches and see the AMD solution on this video before you choose. Pwnapalooza '11 Is Underway With the BF3 BETA Fall 2011 (aka Pwnapalooza '11) is a great time to be a PC gamer. At no time in history have so many kick ass titles hit at the same time. Deus Exis out already. 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 are on the way. Big news this week was that Battlefield 3 will be doing a BETA next week. "Battlefield 3's open beta will start Thursday, September 29th for anyone with a PC, PlayStation 3, or Xbox 360" Better make sure you're geared up for Battlefield 3. "Most gaming rigs out there should meet the minimum system requirements without much of a problem, however if you're looking to meet the recommended system requirements and your rig is 9-12 months or older you may want to double check your graphics card." For the best Battlefield 3 experience you need more graphics. You need GeForce GTX. "So will a top of the range NVIDIA GTX580 do the trick? Apparently not. Matros revealed that we'll need two 580s in SLI to make the most of the Frostbite 2 engine. The minimum system specifications may not be too punishing, but for those who want to see Battlefield 3 at its very best, a hefty upgrade may needed." You better pick GeForce as your gaming platform, so you get great graphics, plusPhysX, NVIDIA Surround, 3D Vision, and DirectX 11 tessellation in these killer new titles. You can also grab the BF3 BETA fromGeForce.com. MNF in 3D When the first NFL game was broadcast in 3D few years ago, feedback showed that football fans wanted. "Some scenes clearly captured the benefits of 3-D broadcasts, however, such as an interception by Chargers linebacker Stephen Cooper as players crisscrossed the field, and a long touchdown catch by San Diego's Vincent Jackson with the arc of the ball caught on camera all the way. Viewers were encouraged to text in their reaction to the viewing. One of the first comments, according to the commentators: "More cheerleaders." ESPN has delivered, with a full season of Monday Night Football action to be broadcast in 3D in 2014. "Just hours before the 2011 NFL season kicks off, the ESPN and the NFL announced a new eight year extension for Monday Night Football that runs from 2014 to 2021 and most notably to us, includes a provision for 3D broadcast rights." Maybe 3D would help my fantasy team, which is off to an 0-2 start. AND STILL the Notebook GPU Benchmark Champion of the Wooooooorld The bare-knuckle brawl for the title of ‘fastest notebook GPU in the world' may be over. Back on July 12 AMD made a big deal about their new flagship notebook GPU, calling it the ‘world's fastest' on Facebook. 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." After a couple of months dodging GeForce GTX 580M in a fair fight, a couple of reviewers have final gotten a hold of AMD's new notebook GPU. Too bad for AMD. "It'd be easy for NVIDIA to claim the superiority of its cards in SLI, given the results of the games we tested. Both its GeForce GTX 580M and 485M dual-GPU configurations beat AMD's Radeon HD 6990M in CrossFire." Wait, what? The Radeon 6990M is slower than our top GPU from LAST generation? If AMD buys a notebook with GeForce GTX 580M and Optimus to update their status they will have plenty of time to fix their misinformation, as it delivers over 5 hours of battery life on Facebook, too. GeForce GTX means the best gaming. Period. GTC Worldwide Call for Submissions is Now Open We're looking for talented minds in academia and industry to demonstrate the dynamic impact GPUs are having on the science of computing, as well as mission critical practical applications. Current opportunities include https://www.nvidia.com/object/sc11.html, GTC Asia 2011 and GTC U.S. 2012. By presenting to your peers you make an important contribution to the advancement of this exciting field! StarCraft II Champs to Be Crowned The GeForce StarCraft II Pro/Am Tournament has been underway since mid-July, with over 9,300 amateur players and 70 e-sport professionals competing in thousands of matches for a chance to win more than $22,000 in cash and hardware prizes. The championships are approaching and NVIDIA is bringing together the e-sports community to watch the GeForce StarCraft II professional championship matches with live premier streaming video and BarCraft events scheduled for Thursday, September 29th from 6pm to 9pm PDT. There are three exciting ways for StarCraft fans to enjoy the championship videos all on the same time and date:
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