| NVIDIA nTeresting News- December 14, 2012 |
| Friday, 14 December 2012 | ||
NVIDIA nTeresting News- December 14, 2012In this Issue
Surface, Surface Everywhere "A new report from AdDuplex says that Microsoft's Surface with Windows RT continues to be the most often used Windows 8 deviceabout a month and a half after launch." Surface with Windows RT is now available in Best Buy and Staples in the US. "Microsoft's Surface will be available for sale at Best Buy's Web site today starting at 2 p.m. PT. The device will then make it way to Best Buy retail outlets and select Best Buy Mobile stores this Sunday, December 16." They are also popping up in various countries worldwide. "Before today, the device was sold only through Microsoft's 31 retail stores and 34 holiday pop-up stores in the U.S. But the locations of those stores make them inaccessible to a large number of consumers. Surface is also sold through Microsoft's online stores in the U.S., the U.K., Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, and Hong Kong." Lenovo has a different take on Windows RT with the Tegra 3-powered Yoga 11 which is also available now. For a day-in-the life-on-the-road with Surface with Windows RT you can check out the NVIDIA blog.
GeForce Gaming Is Smoother "To our surprise, though, the Radeon didn't fare particularly well in our tests. Although it cranked out FPS averages that were competitive with the GeForce, the 7950 produced those frames at an uneven pace-our frame time plots for the Radeon were riddled with latency spikes. As a result, the Radeon's scores were rather poor in our distinctive, latency-oriented performance metrics. Not only that, but our seat-of-the-pants impressions backed that up: play-testing on the GeForce felt noticeably smoother in many cases." It seems frames per second do not tell the whole story. "I think the occasional hitches on the Radeon are pretty easy to see. The big, obvious slowdowns only happen every so often, but the GeForce avoids them-just as the test results told us. Remember, the Radeon HD 7950 turns in an average of 69 FPS in this very test run, a rate that has been considered "good" in FPS terms for years. This is why measuring frame latencies, not just average rates, is so crucial. FPS averages don't capture what's happening from moment to moment." You can see for yourself in this high speed video comparison.
Fuhu Fun Continues With $249 nabi XD Tablet for Tweens The quad-core Tegra 3 processor powers an innovative UI, pad-folio silicone keyboard cover, cutting-edge NFC technology, console-quality TegraZone games and up to 10 hours of battery life between charges. And it's not just tweens that are gleaning to get their hands on the nabi XD: "What I am trying to say here is I am totally getting one of these. I have kids. They'll be tweens in another decade." "The Nabi XD appears to be a unique take on the whole tablet for kids thing. For one, at least going by the specs, it appears to be an actual quality product made with quality parts and the UI customizations sounds pretty cool." "[The Nabi XD] packs the same NVIDIA Tegra 3 quad-core processor that some of the most powerful tablets on the planet work with, bringing a $249 pricetag, making it the least expensive 10.1-inch tablet with a Tegra 3 on the planet." "With this tablet, it seems that Fuhu has managed to do what we've wanted manufacturers to do all along: put out a quality device with top specs at a reasonable price. Not only that, but I think the nabi XD looks pretty awesome, too." Available in 16GB ($249) and 32GB ($349), look for the nabi XD in limited quantities later this month or pick it up when it hits wider distribution early next year as the perfect tool to help tweens through the second half of the school year.
Far Cry 3, More Evolved on GeForce "Right now TXAA is looking like the future of antialiasing." TXAA is just on more benefit gamers receive when choosing GeForce GTX. And just because a game is marketed by a competitor does not mean gaming is better on a competitor's card. "Far Cry 3 bears the mark "Gaming Evolved" which means that the development of the game's graphical part has been done in consultation with AMD. Despite this, it's NVIDIA that draws the longest straw and tops the table." TXAA has made its way in to top titles like Assassin's Creed III, Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, and Secret World. And if a game does not have TXAA reviewers miss it. "For the sake of preserving texture clarity in our captures, we prefer this default setting on PC to the more aggressive very high setting; alas, residual blurring becomes more apparent the higher you go. Treatment of fine 2D detail, such as trees or ropes around ships, is far more thorough if the Kepler-exclusive TXAA option is enabled." Gaming is better on GeForce GTX
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