NVIDIA nTeresting News: 23 April 2010

In this issue:

Optimized PCs with a good balance of GPU and CPU is where it is at. Apple gets it.
68,000 packed ‘The Gadget Show' in the UK, and NVIDIA 3D Vision was a hit.
EVGA has an art gallery of ray traced cars created with NVIDA Design Garage.
Hardware Canucks have a great video explaining NVIDIA Optimus technology.
NVIDA GPUs and vReveal make real time HD video enhancement possible.

Apple has the Correct Balance

Why does Apple make what many consider to be the coolest PCs around? They get that software applications are becoming more visually compelling and the GPU is far more flexible and much better at manipulating visual data than the x86 architecture.

"That message is more reliance on the GPU, or graphics processing unit and, hence, equal standing with Intel's CPU, or central processing unit. An idea that dovetails nicely with Apple's focus on providing a premium multimedia experience centered on "photos, movies, music"--as Apple describes it."

An optimized PC is one that has the correct balance of CPU and GPU horsepower.

"Another indication of Apple's emphasis on graphics processing over the CPU is the recently updated 13-inch MacBook Pro. Apple chose to not upgrade from the older Intel Core 2 processor design, but rather to upgrade the NVIDIA graphics chip. "The combination of a GPU and a lower-performance Intel CPU actually yields better benchmarks and performance and is priced more favorably," Bajarin said.

Apple chose GeForce 320M instead of a faster CPU for its new 13" MacBook Pro.

"Graphics performance would have taken a significant step backwards if Apple opted to rely solely on the Intel HD IGP that comes with Core i3 or i5..."

If they had selected a Ci3 Arrandale CPU, the MacBook Pro would have had worse graphics than before due to Intel's integrated graphics. Instead, Apple chose to get a faster GPU with GeForce 320M and use Intel's last-gen CPU.

"As Steve Jobs recently explained in one of his increasingly frequent, succinct e-mails to customers: ‘We chose killer graphics plus 10 hour battery life over a very small CPU speed increase. Users will see far more performance boost from the speedy graphics.'"

PC manufacturers around the world are now building optimized PC. To get the best experience with today's visual computing applications you need to make sure your PC has the right mix of CPU/GPU horsepower. Whether you're using the latest operating systems, viewing or editing photos, finding directions, playing a game, or watching a Blu-ray movie, a balanced PC with an NVIDIA GeForce GPU yields the best experience.

68,000 get the NVIDIA 3D Vision Experience in the UK

The 2nd Annual ‘Gadget Show Live' ran from April 7th - 11th in Birmingham, UK. A spin-off from the immensely popular UK TV Show, ‘The Gadget Show'. NVIDIA were on hand powering the ‘3D Experience Zone' giving lucky UK gadgeteers a taste of just how awesome their 3D experience could be at home.

With 68,000 attendees, the Gadget Show Live was a complete sell out and a lucky 13,000 got to see our 3D Vision Showreel in our custom made NVIDIA 3D Theatre. The queue was non-stop as nvidians from the UK made sure we squeezed in 170 presentations over 5 days. People not quite lucky enough to get into the theatre had a chance to try the latest games, movies and go for glory on Need For Speed: Shift in NVIDIA 3D Vision Surround to win their very own NVIDIA 3D Vision kit to take home with them.

For those that couldn't make it or were just too slow booking tickets, The Gadget Show broadcast out to 1.8million viewers - the NVIDIA cinema and 3D Vision surround were featured extensively and 3D was awarded the ‘No. 1 Tech of Gadget Show Live'.

You can watch the whole episode here, or check out Hexus' coverage and a quick short video from The Gadget Show themselves here.

Tessellation Monster Garage

The boys at EVGA have their own version of Monster Garage going. They are using the tessellation monster known at the GeForce GTX 400 Series to pump out some rides. You can use NVIDIA Design Garage to customize your own rides with interactive ray tracing. There are also a lot of videos on You Tube.

No word on if any tattooed groupies have stopped by the Monster Garage...

Optimus, Explained and Tested

Our friends to the north have done a killer video on Optimus technology. They break it down with tech details, a demo and some good side-by-side videos. Then they break it down like this:

"It (NVIDIA Optimus) is quite possibly the best technology to come to portable computers in recent in years."

Then we walked away with a couple of awards. Optimus won the Hardware Canucks Dam Innovative Award, while the Asus UL50VF won the Hardware Canucks Dam Good Award.

Not to be outdone, some friends from across the pond stepped in with some tests of their own.

"Optimus changes everything and brings the possibility of automatic switching from one GPU to the other GPU, completely transparently and unnoticeably to the user. Now it's possible to have the best of both worlds with no negative side effects."

Add InsideHW Editor's Choice Award to the trophy case.

vReveal Goes HD

MotionDSP and NVIDIA have made the new vReveal 2.0 video enhancement software available for FREE via the NVIDIA driver download page! This is not a trial. It's a completely free app.

"Real-time enhancements to HD video were previously unheard of, but NVIDIA GPUs and vReveal make it possible."

Mainstream consumers can now use NVIDIA GPUs to speed up video enhancement by over 5 times faster than CPU. And the only way to do real-time enhancement of HD video (720p) is with an NVIDIA GPU. Users can upgrade to the "Premium" version of vReveal, which will unlock "Clean" functions, HD saving and additional video effects.

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