NVIDIA nTeresting Newsletter - 24 May 2013

In this Issue:

· GeForce GTX 780 is insanely fast and whisper quiet, and is now our second fastest desktop GPU.
· GeForce Experience gets released, and adds a cool new feature for capturing your gaming exploits.
· NVIDIA makes virtual desktops a lot more appealing to enterprises with NVIDIA GRID vGPU, the industry's first virtual GPU.
· NVIDIA goes to Maker Faire to show that PC modding is fun and easy.
· SHIELD kicks off preorders with a guest appearance on TV's Modern Family.

GeForce GTX 780, 1337 Class GPU

This week NVIDIA introduced the GeForce GTX 780 GPU, the latest evolution in elite-class GPUs, which delivers jaw-dropping performance and silky smooth visuals for the next generation of PC gaming titles - including Call of Duty: Ghosts, Watch Dogs and Battlefield 4. GeForce GTX 780 is taking the place as our second highest, elite GPU right next to the almighty TITAN.

"All in all, the GTX 780 is exactly the card NVIDIA needed to release at this juncture. They have effectively bridged the gap between the GTX 680 and TITAN with a card that thoroughly outperforms the former and retails for significantly less than the latter."

It is an elite class GPU that delivers a Pure Performance experience - insanely fast, smooth and whisper quiet.

"From that perspective the GTX 780 is nothing short of an amazing deal for the level of performance offered, especially since it maintains the high build quality and impressive acoustics that helped to define Titan."

GeForce GTX 780 GPU delivers the goods for gaming at max detail!

"When it came to 1080p, the GeForce GTX 780 allows a maximized gameplay experience. In every game we were able to run at higher settings compared to the GeForce GTX 680. We were even able to turn on SSAA in Metro: Last Light and Tomb Raider with the highest in-game settings, which is impressive."

More GeForce Goodness Coming: ShadowPlay with GFE

A double whammy of gaming goodness, GeForce Experience exited BETA on the same day of GeForce GTX780 launch. With millions of users enjoying Game Ready Drivers and Optimal Playable Settings (OPS), GeForce Experience will add a new feature named ShadowPlay planned for this summer. ShadowPlay is the best way to record your gaming session and share with friends - either your greatest victories for bragging rights or the soul crushing defeats for sympathy votes.

"To assist gamers who want to plug in a GTX 780 card, sit down, and begin playing, NVIDIA has brought its GeForce Experience out of beta, providing an automated configurations experience and managing the downloads and updates of NVIDIA's driver software."

As part of the GeForce GTX 780 launch we also teased ShadowPlay, an upcoming game capture utility for our GeForce Experience software.

NVIDIA wants to make your life easier, whether you're a hardcore PC gamer or someone who doesn't understand the inner workings of graphics technology. PC gamers have been capturing gameplay footage for years, but today NVIDIA announced a new tool that it says will simplify and enhance the process: ShadowPlay, video capture software that the company plans to release this summer.

NVIDIA is the leader in game computing across all platforms, from super phones to high-end PCs. We are tying the whole gaming ecosystem together.

"After seeing the performance of their newest desktop card, the GTX 780, and witnessing the potential of SHIELD as a way to merge ecosystems and gaming behaviors, it's becoming apparent that NVIDIA isn't just a component manufacturer anymore. They're making the PC their console, pushing the envelope further and faster than the traditional "Big Three" can. It took 8 years for Microsoft to evolve the Xbox. In less than 8 months, NVIDIA has launched GeForce Experience and is poised to offer effortless gameplay capture as a default - and free - experience available to all PC gamers."

Imagine...a Desktop Without Graphics?!

Even phones and cars today have dedicated graphics hardware, while virtual desktops remained the lone "have nots." Without decent graphics support, it's no surprise the VM user experience was far less than stellar and VDI didn't take off the way cloud providers had hoped.

"...because performance issues are the Achilles heel of VDI,' [Forrester Analyst David] Johnson said."

Enter NVIDIA, with the virtualized GPU.

"The virtualization market has been looking for a solution like this to connect the dots so you get a true performance PC experience through a service,' [Market Analyst Rob] Enderle said. ‘It's kind of a back to the future' solution, revisiting the mainframe concept where ‘the aggravation and complexity is kept centrally.'"

Even better, enter NVIDIA with GRID vGPU and its "one-to-many" GPU sharing capabilities. With vGPU technology, each GPU on the K1 and K2 boards supports up to eight users. Do the math. A K1 board has four GPUs, that means 32 XenDesktop users can get killer graphics support with just that one board.

"This opens up [using the GPU] to a wider variety of use cases,' [Forrester's David] Johnson said. ‘We may end up seeing this approach being used by default in VDI infrastructures.'

Meaning NVIDIA GPUs will be used in new ways and by a whole new class of users. If all goes well (and we're betting it will), NVIDIA vGPUs will be powering knowledge worker virtual machines across hospitals, universities, architecture and construction companies, and corporate enterprises, to name a few.

You Can Build It at Maker Faire

NVIDIA dropped in to Maker Faire, the one of a kind event that is part science fair, part county fair, and part something entirely new. Maker Faire is an all-ages gathering of tech enthusiasts, crafters, educators, tinkerers, hobbyists, engineers, science clubs, authors, artists, students, and commercial exhibitors. All of these "makers" come to Maker Faire to show what they have made and to share what they have learned. We showed them how to build and mod PCs.

"We want to show people that building your own GeForce gaming PC is fun and cost efficient," said GeForce Social Media Content Specialist Jeff Wycoff. "Through our workshops, we hope that everyone, from beginner adult modders to potential kid modders, can see that it's actually really simple to put together your own PC."

The engineers definitely made it look easy, as well as fun - with a quick snap here and a turn of a screwdriver there, people were creating their own PCs in the middle of the Maker Faire like it was nothing.

SHIELD is a Star

NVIDIA's SHIELD portable gaming console made a surprise appearance on ABC's highly rated TV sitcom, Modern Family.

"NVIDIA just reached out to tell us that it didn't have to pay to put the Shield in Modern Family at all - the producers saw it at CES and asked them for one! "They ended up approaching us," a NVIDIA rep said. "Phil and Luke are big gadget geeks... the folks we met are always looking for cool new things to feature." According to NVIDIA, no money changed hands. "They wanted it on the show, and we just needed to get them a unit," our contact said."

Preorders for SHIELD are underway at Newegg, GameStop, and Canada Computer. Preorders are also available on NVIDIA's SHIELD site.

"In the end, when it comes to NVIDIA SHIELD, this could be a revolution we could love."