NVIDIA nTeresting Newsletter - 8 October 2012

In this Issue:

· Tegra powers the killer infotainment system in the new VW Golf.

· GeForce GTX 680M is still the king of the notebook hill.

· The Tegra 3-powered HTC One X+ HTC introduced its latest flagship super phone, the Tegra 3-powered HTC One X+.

· Google Play has eclipsed the 25 billion downloads. Find some of the best on TegraZone.

Tegra Gives you Fahrvergnügen

This week at the Paris Auto show, Volkswagen launched its latest Golf (which happens to be the world's third best-selling car). The new model features a more spacious interior, a more efficient engine, and it features a new infotainment system powered by an NVIDIA Tegra mobile processor.

"The new 7th Gen Golf is seen with a number of elegant and contemporary additions, be it in its classy interiors, innovative exterior design or in the variety of infotainment features being offered powered by an NVIDIA Tegra mobile processor."

NVIDIA's products can be found in a wide range of cars.

"Volkswagen Audi Group currently ships NVIDIA Tegra in Lamborghini Aventador, Audi Q5, Q7, A8, A7, A6, A3, Volkswagen Golf and Skoda Octavia."

GeForce Notebook GPUs, Still on Top

This week Anandtech took a deep dive in to the least challenge to the notebook GPU crown, the AMD Radeon HD 7970M and the Enduro platform. It came up short.

"Even worse, the HD 7970M with Enduro enabled clearly has some performance issues-it's really bad when NVIDIA's previous generation GTX 580M/675M is often able to outperform the HD 7970M Enduro!"

Once again, NVIDIA driver program and Optimus technology paid dividends.

"I understand the desire to support the underdogs of computer technology, and right now AMD's mobile GPUs are definitely underdogs to NVIDIA's Optimus enabled GPUs-not because they perform poorly, but without drivers you can pretty much guarantee there will be compatibility issues with future games. NVIDIA has been shipping Optimus GPUs for over 2.5 years now, and since May 2010 they've been delivering simultaneous driver updates for their entire product stack (except for their pre-Optimus switchable graphics solutions)."

GeForce 600M Series GPUs are excellent DirectX 11 gaming GPUs, with up to twice the DirectX11 performance of competing GPUs. And only NVIDIA GPUs can offer NVIDIA Optimus technology, providing great performance and great battery life. In addition only GeForce GPUs offer great technologies such as NVIDIA Optimus technology, Verde notebook drivers, NVIDIA SLI technology, and PhysX. It makes a difference.

"There's more to it than performance of course, and if I were in the market for a top-tier gaming notebook right now I wouldn't hesitate to purchase a GTX 680M-either in the P170EM or in Alienware's M17x R4-over the HD 7970M."

Supercharging Your Mobile Experience with the Tegra 3-powered HTC One X+

HTC introduced its latest flagship super phone, the Tegra 3-powered HTC One X+ , this week. HTC's best Android phone builds on the award-winning One X with more speed, more storage and more battery life - for a supercharged mobile experience.

Running the latest version of HTC Sense 4+ experience on Android Jelly Bean, the One X+ is powered by the 1.7 GHz version of Tegra 3, for faster multitasking, web page load times, gaming, and snappier day-to-day use. The new phone also features a bigger battery for 50% more talk time and doubled internal storage of 64GB.

The One X+ arrives in Europe and Asia soon, and there's a special treat for US consumers. AT&T announced an LTE version of the One X+ with the same Tegra 3 at 1.7 GHz, making it the very first Tegra 3 LTE smartphone in the US.

Needless to say, people are excited. Check out what the press are saying:

"Of the HTC One X+'s various upgrades, the most important one is its fresh 1.7GHz quad-core NVIDIA Tegra 3 processor. It's a big step up from the 1.5GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 CPU that powered the One X."

"The One X+ offers the best of both options (quad-core and LTE), and comes with Android 4.1, also known as Jelly Bean."

"Both [the One X+ and Galaxy SIII] are speedy, no doubt, but the One X+ has an advantage in gaming, with access to the exclusive Tegra Zone game library."

"While the S4 processor in the One X served us well, we're teeming with excitement over the 1.7GHz quad-core Tegra 3 chipset found in the One X+."

"I have to say, I'm really excited about the HTC One X+. American smartphone fans have been waiting for real quad-core processing to finally arrive on U.S. shores."

"What do you do if you've been selling what's arguably the best superphone on the US market and the competition is heating up? Make it better, of course, and that's exactly what HTC's done with the One X+ for AT&T."

Google Play Hits 25 Billion, Celebrates With .25 Cent Games

In a monumental feat, Google Play has eclipsed the 25 billion download mark - with 15 billion of them coming this year alone! To celebrate, apps and games will be on sale for just a quarter, but Google isn't stopping there. They're also reducing the price on 25 preselected movies, 25 banned books, 25 albums that changed the world and Google Play's 25 top selling magazines. The list of games and other apps that are discounted is rotating and already has included Tegra-optimized titles such as Granny Smith.

With nearly 90% of the reviews at a perfect 5 stars, fans have spoken: Granny Smith is a game worth investing in. For those that haven't downloaded it yet, grab what one editor calls, "immediately satisfying and genuinely hard to put down." And keep an eye on the list of games and apps that are just a quarter on Google Play.