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Tag: Nvidia

  • Nvidia Kepler Video Cards Rumored To Be In Production

    It’s been a long time waiting, but Nvidia appears to finally be starting production on its line of Kepler GK104 video cards.

    For those unaware, Nvidia has been working on the new 28nm production process for a new video card codenamed Kepler. Fudzilla got word from their sources that Nvidia has been talking to its partners and the new cards are already in production. That pegs the release of the new Kepler cards at sometime in April. The video cards are expected to be a part of the GTX 600 series.

    Fudzilla’s sources told them that the first line of cards are going to look very similar with a few partners using different cooling techniques. This is because Nvidia’s manufacturing partners won’t deviate from their reference design for the first batch of cards. Once they understand the manufacturing process a little better, they will come up with their own unique designs for the cards as we’ve seen with some of the crazy releases in the current GTX 500 series.

    AMD beat Nvidia to market early this year with the release of their HD7000 series of GPUs. AMD’s GPUs were the first to use the 28nm manufacture process. They were also the first to take advantage of PCI Express 3.0.1. If the rumors are true and Nvidia’s cards launch in April, we will soon be able to see how Kepler stacks up.

    Nvidia has been relatively quiet about the Kepler cards in recent months with a no-show at CES. This has led many fans, including myself, to question what’s going on with our favorite video card manufacturer.

    We’ll keep you up to date on any developments as Nvidia draws closer to the release of Kepler. With AMD being more aggressive than ever in their GPU production, you can be expect this to be an interesting year for video card manufacturers.

  • Windows and Intel Stay Stubborn

    Windows and Intel Stay Stubborn

    Apparently the soon to be arriving Windows 8 based Tablets are going to cost an arm and a leg for consumers. The steep cost is reportedly due to an inability for either Intel or Microsoft to flex on prices. A properly equipped tablet (Windows 8 & Intel Clover Trail-W) will cost between six and nine hundred dollars. This is roughly one hundred dollars more than the Apple iPad 3 (due to be released in March).

    Consumers and manufacturers alike will be hurt by the two companies stubbornness. According to a report by DigiTimes, vendors will be likely to choose ARM solutions from Nvidia, Texas Instruments, and Qualcomm to reduce overall costs in their forthcoming tablets. It appears Intel is pricing themselves out of the game.

    Further supporting evidence that Intel is unwilling to compromise comes from makers of the new Ultrabook (a MacBook knockoff). Reports from these manufacturers say they are also unable to persuade a price break from Intel in order to make their products more affordable.

  • NVIDIA Does Not Support SOPA, But Is That Enough?

    While the video game industry sorts its position out concerning SOPA/PIPA — The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) and most of its members are onboard with the anti-piracy acts — some prominent members are going against the SOPA grain.

    One company in particular, NVIDIA, is considered something of a giant in the video game industry, and thanks to a recent blog post, they have let their position, even as members of the ESA, be known. The question is, is lack of support good enough or do potential NVIDIA consumers need a declaration of outright opposition before they trust the company again?

    In some cases, yes. Before that, however, here’s NVIDIA’s statement, in full:

    NVIDIA wasn’t consulted by ESA in formulating their position on SOPA. Our position is this: we oppose piracy, as it hurts our game-developer partners. However, we do not support SOPA. We don’t believe it is the right solution to the problem. We remain committed to working to address this problem in a constructive and fair manner.

    NVIDIA’s position on piracy only makes sense, considering how rampant these acts are in the gaming industry. Nevertheless, the company was clear in its lack of support for SOPA, but according to the post’s comments, not every potential NVIDIA supporter is happy with the way the company denounced SOPA. Some examples:

    Levi Wilcox
    Not supporting is different than opposing. I won’t be ending my boycott until I see Nvidia publicly opposing the SOPA bill. Please like this comment if you agree.

    And:

    Nathan Salapat
    Please, don’t only not support, but oppose SOPA. You said it hurts your game-developer partners, keep the hurt from happening by outright apposing this legislation.

    However, some levelheadedness was provided in the comments as well:

    Matthew Saltzman
    I don’t think there’s any further need to boycott NVIDIA, as they’ve clearly said they don’t agree with SOPA. That’s enough for me to continue to purchase their products and continue to recommend them to others. However, when we say we want to see a public statement against SOPA, we don’t mean a blog post. This is enough for the internet community, but not for the offices of naval contemplation (read: government).

    NVIDIA belongs to the ESA, an active *proponent* for SOPA. Since NVIDIA belongs to this group, their opinions, when not made to the contrary, are assumed to agree with them. The ESA has not rescinded their support for SOPA. What would be ideal is this organization as a whole making a public statement withdrawing their support for the bill. Alternatively, the members who disagree could send a press release opposing the bill. The goal is to show widespread opposition to the bill, which blog posts do not do for anyone who isn’t internet savvy.

    In essence, while the lack of SOPA support is a beginning, people/potential NVIDIA customers want the company to actively oppose the anti-piracy bills, and the thinking is, it takes more than a blog post to do so.

    What about you? Is NVIDIA’s position clear enough or should they take a stronger stand? Let us know what you think.

  • CES 2012: Nvidia Talks Up Tablets, Android As The Future

    Nvidia, makers of fine PC video cards, have found a new future in mobile processing.

    Nvidia used their CES keynote to push the Tegra 3 quad-core processor and Ice Cream Sandwich operating system as the future of tablets and smartphones.

    In Nvidia’s keynote recap on their blog, Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang, talked up Ice Cream Sandwich as a unifying force for tablets and smartphones using Android software.

    “Ice Cream Sandwich unites, unifies and turns all the Android devices into a single platform, with one enormous installed base,” Huang said.

    The company took time out to boast about their new Tegra 3 processor and what it can do. They used popular iPad app Snapseed as a new app for Android devices that can only run on Tegra 3 equipped devices.

    More impressive is the ability for a Tegra 3 tablet to stream sophisticated games from a GeForce GTX-based gaming PC. The company took this opportunity to play Skyrim and Battlefield 3 on the tablet using a gamepad.

    Nvidia made it a point to say that tablets are their new bread and butter. This led to the announcement of the ASUS ME370T, a 7-inch tablet running Ice Cream Sandwich and their Tegra 3 processor. The tablet will sell for $249.

    The Tegra 3 processor has plenty of innovations for tablets besides being five times more powerful than its predecessor. The CPU features what they call a “ninja” core that allows the tablet to switch between the four main CPUs and a fifth lower-power “companion” CPU for less demanding tasks and standby mode.

    It also uses a software called PRISM that reduces backlight power consumption by 40 percent by modulating the backlight per pixel, frame and scene, all in real time. It also features DirectTouch which offloads the touch panel’s processing to one core which enables six times faster touch processing, lower costs and lower power consumption.

    With these new technologies, Nvidia is promising that tablets running on Tegra 3 will get 12 hours of battery life.

    Lastly, Microsoft pledged support for Tegra 3 by saying that their new Windows 8 mobile platform will have to use Tegra 3 due to the operating system’s multi-threading nature.

    Nvidia’s keynote was initially disappointing because there was no information about their next generation of GeForce GTX video cards, but tablets are still a growing market that requies this kind of exposure. There will be plenty of time for graphics cards later. Now it’s time for Nvidia to innovate in the mobile arena just like they have in desktop graphics.

  • CEO Of Nvidia Gives Android Strong Endorsement

    The cofounder, president, and CEO of Nvidia is confident that Android will take over the tablet PC market.  At Computex Tapei, Jen-Hsun Huang lavished praise on the operating system, indicating that competitors just can’t keep up.

    Jen-Hsun HuangAs reported by Sumner Lemon, Huang explained, "Windows is too big and it’s too full featured for smartbooks and tablets."  He also said, "Android has become the fastest growing mobile operating system in the world and, in fact, it has surpassed the iPhone in terms of growth and in terms of users."

    Huang then described Android as "an operating system to unite behind," adding, "Andy Rubin and his team [at Google] know exactly where the industry needs to go.  Android started out as a phone but it’s not lost on them that the tablet is going to be very important and that the Android operating system has to evolve, and be enhanced in certain capabilities, in order to be a good tablet operating system."

    Count on seeing more than a few tablets packing both Nvidia components and an operating system developed by Google, then.

    Count on seeing them rather soon, too, since Huang mentioned this fall as a rough target for having everything mesh.