NVIDIA nTerresting News: 06 August 2010

In this Issue:

• StarCraft II is shattering sales records. GeForce plays it best.
• NVIDIA has a full line-up of DirectX 11 cards, and they are proving to be ‘done right'.
• All 3D is not created equal, 3D Vision is a cut above. Wall-sized 3D gaming is killer with a 3D Vision set-up.
• The GPU Technology conference has speakers and an agenda. Sign -up already.
• Next-generation ION with Optimus technology makes for a great netbook.

StarCraft II, Very Big. Best on GeForce.

StarCraft II is setting sales records and well on its way to being one of the greatest games of the decade. StarCraft II sold over 1.5 million copies in the first 48 hours, making it the best selling PC game of the year and the fastest selling strategy game ever. In the UK, StarCraft II has already sold more copies in 5 days than the first StarCraft game managed in its entire lifetime in the country. With over 46 game reviews posted, StarCraft II is now scoring a 94 metacritic rating, which is the highest rating for any PC game since 2007!

After failing to support AA at time of game launch, AMD released a hotfix to add support for AA in StarCraft II. However, enabling AA has not helped AMD's competitive performance, as GeForce GTX 400 GPUs maintain a substantial lead both with and without AA enabled.

"Overall the new Catalyst 10.7 beta driver did exactly what we asked but no more: allow the gamer the CHOICE to enable AA in StarCraft II to find their best overall gaming experience. Non-AA-enabled performance hasn't changed for the Radeon cards and they are still notably slower than their similarly priced NVIDIA counterparts ...."

GeForce is the clear choice for StarCraft II.

"If you are looking to upgrade your graphics or buy a new PC to play StarCraft II, GeForce GTX460 1GB is undoubtedly the premier choice."

This video explains why.

GeForce: DX 11 Done Right

While we were not first with DirectX 11 GPUs, we sure made up for it by being best. GeForce 400 Series GPUs are continuously proving they are best for DirectX 11. Tech Report recently did a buyer's guide where they preformed a full price/performance analysis of DirectX 11 cards, up and down the product stack.

"One thing looks clear: AMD really needs to cut the prices of its 5800-series Radeon"

GeForce GTX 460 continues to prove the ‘best buy' on the market.

"On a more personal note, I think the GTX 460 is the most exciting card released in the last year even though it isn't a bleeding-edge performer. It hits every single mark NVIDIA needed it to, making it an undisputed champion in the $200 to $250 category."

GeForce 400 Series GPUs are designed from the ground up for tessellation, the most important feature of DX11. This allows gamers to experience next gen DirectX 11 games with all the tessellation maxed out without sacrificing frame rates. But GeForce means more than frame rates, you also get ‘graphics plus' features such as CUDA, PhysX, SLI, and 3D Vision Surround technologies, which combine to take PC gaming to the next level.

3D, Still Hot

Unless you live under a rock, you know that 3D is the new, sexy thing. It's 3D Movies, 3D photos, 3D TV and 3D games. 3D gaming is getting bigger...literally.

"Conclusion: Wall-Sized 3D Vision Rocks!"

Just because it is the best, does not make it the most expensive solution, either.

"After considering all of the pros and cons (cost, game compatibility, image quality, and Blu-ray 3D compatibility) a projector-driven 3D Vision solution offers gamers and movie buffs something wonderful to aspire to for less than a $1000 investment. In a world pushing 3D enthusiasts to spend over $2000 on 3D televisions, that's something special indeed. Because of this, we're awarding the 3D Vision/Acer H5360 projector combo our Tom's Hardware 2010 Recommended Buy award."

AMD has stated that they are going to let partners like iZ3D and DDD do all the work for them. How is that working out?

"Unfortunately, this is another game for which the (DDD) TriDef driver fails to work on a dual-projector system. As it always seems to, the iZ3D driver works, but produces some shadow glitches, so the low setting is necessary."

NVIDIA looked at all 3D technologies 5 years ago. Our engineers came to the conclusion that active shutter glasses are the best solution. Advantages are full resolution 3D, wide viewing angle and no compromise to the 2D viewing experience. Also active shutter glasses are part of the new 3D Blu-ray spec.

3D Vision Surround even let's you span games across three monitors in full 3D Stereo for an incredibly immersive gaming experience. 3D Vision Surround is available for both GTX 400 Series and GTX 200 Series GPUs. It is great for racing simulators like this one and this one from MainGear.

The Brightest, the Coolest and the Best - GPU Technology Conference Agenda Now Live

The final agenda for GTC 2010 was just announced, with over 240 sessions of technical content targeted for researchers, developers, and technologists.

"NVIDIA has published the agenda for the upcoming GPU Technology Conference online, and it looks like an amazing collection of talks."

You won't want to miss:

• Pre-conference tutorials on CUDA C, DirectCompute, Stereoscopic 3D, OpenCL, OpenGL, Ray Tracing, and more
• Research briefing from the CUDA Centers of Excellence
• Dozens of sessions exploring HPC issues of "scaling out" GPU computing applications

Speakers at GTC 2010 include experts from Adobe, Agilent Systems, Barcelona Supercomputing Center, Beckman Coulter, Brown University, Chevron, CSIRO, Dolby Laboratories, Georgia Tech, Google, HP Labs, John Hopkins University, Lockheed Martin, Microsoft, MIT, National Taiwan University, Northwestern University, Philips, Siemens Medical, Rice University, Stanford University, University of Illinois, and University of Tennessee.

To find out more hot topics, check out the entire GTC agenda by day or by session.

Now's the time to register for the GPU Technology Conference (GTC) in San Jose, from September 20-23. GTC is the place to learn about the amazing work made possible by the GPU, and it's only six weeks away.

Next-Generation NVIDIA ION, Best for Netbooks

Next-Generation NVIDIA ION is a discrete GPU with dedicated memory that attaches to "Pine Trail" via PCI Express. New ION GPUs are appearing in netbooks, nettops, all-in-ones, and motherboards. Computerbild in Germany put it to the test inside an Asus 1215 PN netbook.

"The 1215N has two GPUs on board and automatically switches between them, depending on the type of usage. If you work with office software or surf the Internet, the Intel graphics chip that sits in the main processor is sufficient . If a game or a movie in 1080p high definition is started the NVIDIA ION 2 graphics processor is automatically used."

Next-generation ION GPUs deliver amazing media experiences for small Atom-based PCs like netbooks, nettops, and all-in-ones. It delivers 10x faster graphics performance than Pine Trail netbooks with integrated graphics and up to 10 hours of battery life with NVIDIA Optimus technology.

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