NVIDIA nTeresting News: 2 April 2010

In this Issue:

• Gaming goes next-gen, as the much praised GeForce GTX 480 and GTX 470 GPUs debut at PAX.
• Heads up 3D Vision owners, the Masters Golf Tournament will be broadcast in 3D.
• Tegra showed its stuff at CTIA.
• NVIDIA Optimus continues to be the must-have technology for notebooks, and Asus is letting you have it!
• NVIDIA's impact on the motion picture industry is undeniable.
• 3D Vision is more than a product, it is a tight ecosystem....and it just works.
• GTC 2009 was a watershed moment for the industry, so we are doing it again.

GeForce GTX 480 Takes Center Stage At PAX

NVIDIA spent the weekend in Boston at the Penny Arcade Expo. We used the venue, chocked full of gamers, to introduce our new GeForce GTX 480 and GTX 470 DX11 GPUs, our next-generation gaming GPUs. The GeForce GTX 480 emerged as the fastest GPU in the world.

Benchmark Reviews tested the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 480 Fermi Video Card against the ATI Radeon HD 5870 and 5890.

"In the end though, the GeForce GTX 480 is a graphics card that kicks ass, it is without doubt the fastest single GPU based graphics card on the block." - Guru3D

"The GTX 480 is simply the fastest GPU." - Tweakers.net

Reviewers were impressed by GTX 480's architecture that is designed for the future of gaming including DX11 tessellation, PhysX, Ray Tracing, 3D Vision, and CUDA - our performance lead will only grow stronger as more games that take advantage of DirectX 11 and compute hit the market.

"It's real strength however comes in its versatility with features such as 3D Vision, PhysX and CUDA combining to create a very well rounded product." - Hardware Heaven

"The 3 Billion transistors stuffed on the 480 cores really churn out the eye candy and the newly restructured core is more efficient at Tessellation and Ray Tracing than anything we've seen to date. Performance remained high no matter what we threw at the GTX-480." - Bjorn3D

We support standards that allow NVIDIA to innovate in a timely fashion, the way PhysX and CUDA does. Developing new standards allows us to move features to GPUs as fast as possible. But it should never be implied we do not support Open Standards. In fact, taking a closer look at the OpenCL shows that we are the company really supporting OpenCL:

"[In OpenCL performance], the GTX 480 is the clear winner, while even the GTX 285 beats out both Radeon cards. These results are going to be worth keeping in mind as real OpenCL applications eventually start arriving." - Anandtech

The first wave of reviews delivered a pile of awards including: Hot Hardware Approved Award, HardOCP Editor's Choice Silver Award, Hi Tech Legion Editor's Choice Award, BJORN3D Golden Bear Award, Computer Shopper Editors' Choice Award, PC Per Gold Award, Guru 3D Top Pick Award, Hardware Heaven Performance Award, Hardware.no Recommended Award, Hispazone.com Best Graphics Board Existing Award & Editor's Choice Award, and many others.

NVIDIA GeForce 400 Series GPUs support DirectX 11, CUDA, and NVIDIA PhysX technologies and deliver the world's fastest performance and futuristic, visually-stunning graphics. You can even expand your visual real estate across three HD displays in jaw-dropping stereoscopic 3D for the ultimate in immersive gaming.

Masters Golf Tournament in 3D

Want to see Tigers Wood's return to the golf world in the next dimension? If you have NVIDIA 3D Vision you can. Comcast is broadcasting the upcoming Masters Golf Tournament in 3D.

"If the test footage shot recently at the Augusta National Golf Club is an authentic gauge, the Masters in 3-D will look terrific."

If you have NVIDIA 3D Vision you can watch live 3D streaming coverage of the 2010 Masters starting April 7th through April 11th between 4 - 7PM ET on Masters.com.

The Power of Tegra at CTIA Wireless 2010

At CTIA Wireless 2010 in Las Vegas, it seemed like everyone was talking about the super 4G smartphones coming out later this year. Attendees were amazed how these phones could stream HD video over a 4G network.

Déjà vu?

Well, NVIDIA's been there and done that. At CES, we showed off a tablet with Tegra running full 1080p HD Internet on a 4G LTE wireless network before 4G became the next big thing.

We brought out the power of Tegra again at CTIA Wireless, wowing the masses with mobile games, digital magazines and full 1080p HD Internet, with days of battery life.

After seeing how Flash Player 10.1 makes a huge difference on tablet devices, Mashable enthused,

"Drooling over tablets, but worried about lack of Flash support on the iPad? Sit tight, because a slew of tablets running Android will be emerging shortly with full Flash support, thanks to the NVIDIA Tegra platform team's work with Adobe."

The guys at Natural Motion ported their popular iPhone football game BackBreaker to a Tegra-powered tablet in less than a week! After playing a round (or two), LAPTOP said it was game on for Android, enthusing

"If this is a sign of things to come, there's no reason Android tablets won't be able to compete with the iPad."

Engadget came away impressed with this Tegra-powered home theatre PC concept, remarking,

"We're very much in the dark as to supposed capabilities or software, but Tegra 2 gives us a good hint: the chip can decode 1080p and Flash video, runs Android or Windows CE, and is the same thing under the hood of the Boxee Box."

NVIDIA's Neil Trevett revealed Tegra powered tablets and their impact.

Want to hear the latest with Tegra? Stay connected by following us on Twitter.

Optimus Picks Up Steam

Asus has a cavalcade of Optimus systems they are showing off in the March/April issue of the online ASUS World Magazine. ASUS will add NVIDIA's Optimus graphics switching technology to virtually all of its U-series notebooks, as well as the UL30. In addition, the premium U-series notebooks from the Bamboo Collection get the high-speed USB 3.0 interfaces. The UL50VF, meantime, is said to offer more than 12 hours of battery life.

Meanwhile, Optimus reviews from China show more good news:

"Image Optimus may become popular immediately and be considered as the standard configuration of notebooks in mainstream market. Perhaps soon after, before we buy a notebook in the market, we will always ask "whether does it support Optimus?" -MicroComputer, 2nd issue of March, P.33-38

Legit Reviews was kind enough to give the Asus UL50 VF their "Innovation" award.

"For the seamless use of discrete NVIDIA graphics, the integration of NVIDIA Optimus in the ASUS UL50Vf creates a perfect match for a notebook and users by only using discrete graphics performance when they need it."

Optimus technology optimizes the mobile experience by letting the user get the performance of discrete graphics from a notebook while still delivering great battery life. Optimus accomplishes this by automatically and seamlessly selecting the right graphics processor for the job between an NVIDIA discrete GPU or an Intel integrated GPU.

NVIDIA = 3D on Film

Hot off our sweep of the Special Effects category at last months Academy Awards, industry analyst Rob Enderle praised NVIDIA for its effort with the motion picture industry:

"While the event was sponsored by HP and Intel, the vendor not in the room that got a ton of praise was NVIDIA because it was its graphics cards in the machines being highlighted. Given the technology is heavily graphics-oriented, NVIDIA also deserves a ton of credit for helping move us from the engaging movies of today into the virtual worlds of tomorrow."

3D Vision Gets More Stuff

NVIDIA released a new Verde driver for notebooks to add support for 3D Vision on external displays for notebooks, expanding the 3D Vision ecosystem. One of the biggest German mainstream websites, Spiegel Online, gets the benefits of an ecosystem.

"Whether classic games such as Microsoft's Flight Simulator X or current games such as Batman Arkham Asylum: Many games are playable without update or new installation in 3D. This is possible due to the 3D Vision technology of the GPU designer NVIDIA. Unlike in the cinema, where simple polarizing glasses are used to create the dimensional effect, NVIDIA's technology is based on a finely coordinated interaction of software, monitor or projector, graphics card and 3 D shutter glasses."

One game that looks great in 3D is the new Metro 2033 title:

"Looking over the interiors of the "Exhibition of Economic Achievements" and "Riga" metro stations in stereo 3D, you automatically pay attention to a lot of small details. I was lucky to play several levels on a system with two GeForce GTX 480 GPUs, working in tandem using SLI, and I was able not only to assess the effect of 3D, but also to see benefits from the tessellation available in DirectX 11, - perfectly rounded cups, plates, bullets and other belongings looked like the real things. Coup de grace - specks of dust, flying in front of the screen.

NVIDIA 3D Vision is a combination of wireless active shutter glasses and advanced software, which automatically transforms hundreds of PC games into full stereoscopic 3D. In addition, you can view movies and digital photographs in eye-popping 3D.

Another GTC Comin'

NVIDIA announced the return of the much heralded GPU Technology Conference. GPU Technology Conference 2010 (GTC 2010) will take place on Monday, Sept. 20 to Thursday, Sept. 23 at the San Jose Convention Center in San Jose, Calif. The conference will once again encompass three concurrent GPU-focused summits in one location:

• Emerging Companies Summit
A showcase for innovative startups to demonstrate their products and network with venture capitalists, GTC attendees, and other investors.

• GPU Developers Summit
A wide selection of content-rich sessions, tutorials, and presentations for developers, engineers, and scientists.

• NVIDIA Research Summit
A unique opportunity for students, professors, and researchers to present their findings and collaborate.