There’s a reason why the Zune HD’s interface moves so smoothly. Powering the device is the Nvidia Tegra, which Nvidia recently described as an “an entire computer-on-a-chip,” and one with “eight separate processors, including: a GPU, two video processors, and audio processor, two ARM core processor and more.” (That “and more” bit is a bit ambiguous for my liking, but what are you gonna do?) In any event, the Zune HD looks to have some serious computational power going for it. WILL IT BE AN IPOD KILLER? → Read More
Nvidia is shopping around a design prototype running their Tegra ARM processor, a chip powerful enough to run Wind CE and power a wee keyboard and screen.
Tegra was supposed to change the way we thought about smartphones a few months ago but the chipset never took off. Sadly, this doesn’t seem like it will make any headway either. → Read More
Just when we thought the two companies had found true love, it turns out there’s some turmoil beneath the surface. After NVIDIA’s acknowledgment of mobile GPU breakdown (and denial that the faulty GPUs were in Apple products), Apple determined that many video failures in MacBooks were in fact NVIDIA’s fault.
Okay, they worked through that. But it seems NVIDIA has been taking Apple for granted, and displaying “arrogance” in its proposals for continuing a partnership. NVIDIA arrogant? Well blow me down! → Read More
Nvidia’s Tegra chip hasn’t even hit the market, but we know for fact that Tegra 2 is on its way next year. There’s no set timeframe, but we believe it will hit the market sometime during the summer or so its been hinted at. The first Tegra device to be released stateside will be the Zune HD in the fall. I’ve already seen what it can do with Windows CE on a handful of netbooks that were showcased at Computex last month and I walked away very impressed. So what can we expect from Tegra 2? → Read More
Good news for you Adobe Photoshop (and other Creative Suite applications) CS4 users who just so happen to have a high-end Nvidia GPU. Nvidia released today a bunch of plug-ins for Adobe CS4 (both PC and Mac) that leverage the power of your GPU. For example, one such plug-in, Elemental Accelerator 2.0 for Windows, taps into your Quadro GPU to help encode video faster. Encoding H.264 video with Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 while using the plugin improves encoding time by 11 times. (Mac users will have to settle with Elemental Accelerator 1.2.) → Read More
We’ve been talking about Nvidia’s Tegra on CG here and there, but not very many people know exactly what it is. Sure, it’s a tiny mobile computer, but how does it work and where did it come from? Where can we find it and why is it better than Intel’s Atom? We asked Nvidia this and more. → Read More
I thought we already knew this, since it was included in all those other details that were confirmed shortly after, but everybody else seems surprised so we should probably at least act like we didn’t know (we’re very polite here at CG). Yes, the ZuneHD does officially use Nvidia’s Tegra chipset — its hardware decoder and low power draw made it a natural choice. I still would have liked to see a slightly bigger screen, the better to show off that beautiful UI, but I guess you can’t have everyzing. → Read More
It seems that a lot of people are moving to a laptop as their primary machine, but that poses a problem for power users who need both mobility and horsepower. Add battery concerns to the pile and you’ve got kind of a conundrum. Fortunately, each new generation of graphics cards provides more power, less battery draw, or both. That’s going on right now with Nvidia, which is adding a bunch of confusingly-named but functional mobile GPUs to their lineup.
Deets inside. If you like cards with G’s in front of them, this is definitely a post for you. → Read More
Have you been following this Nvidia-Intel spat? Long story short: Nvidia suspects that Intel has been giving laptop manufacturers a sweet deal vis-à-vis Atom processors and Intel’s whole chipset+integrated graphics chip. This upsets Nvidia because its own laptop graphics platform, called Ion, hasn’t been able to find a way onto a laptop… until now! Yes, the Lenovo IdeaPad S12 will be the first laptop to use Nvidia’s Ion platform. It’ll be $449 when it launches next month. → Read More
Oh, man, I cannot wait to punch a boulder in 3D. (Actually, I can wait, but that’s immaterial for the purpose of this post.) In addition to the earlier Street Fighter IVannouncement, Capcom also let it be known that Resident Evil 5 will be released sometime this year. In and of itself, sorta blah. But! → Read More
The eternal quandary for system builders has been much less quandarious (to coin a term) for the last year or so. Intel processor, AMD video card — anything else would be uncivilized. AMD’s 48xx series has been the only choice for a while, but the latest products from AMD and NVIDIA are a little less starkly separated.
For around $250 (the mid-high sweet spot), the 4890 and GTX 275 are remarkably well-matched — more so than any two equivalently priced cards from the companies have been for some time. So which do you buy? → Read More
I’ve asked for some clarification from ArcSoft, or at the very least some larger screenshots, to settle this business, but haven’t gotten any word back yet. In the meantime, I’m going to call BS on this. Fine detail is a one-way street, and even the best upscaling software can’t make something out of nothing. The best you can do (which is fine with me) is to make the scaling process as clean as possible. But when you start trying to create detail where there isn’t any in the source, things get a bit pear-shaped. [Update: Got a hi-res shot. Still waiting to see it in action.] → Read More
According to Thomas Ricker, things are hotting up at NVIDIA thanks to their ION platform, a netbook and nettop motherboard that will serve 1080p video in a package that fits on the palm of your hand. The first new model should be the Acer Hornet, a Wii-like gaming machine with an odd 3D remote. → Read More
Things are getting out of control in the 3D modeling business. Models for movies and games have gone from thousands to hundreds of thousands of triangles, and the lighting and shading necessary for them is getting so complicated as to require a whole separate video card. Imagine you’re an animator at Pixar — do you think they made WALL-E on netbooks? No, son. They probably used things we haven’t even heard of on this planet, and they probably had Quadro graphics cards in them. Nvidia’s new line of unbelievably expensive cards will block out the sun, and ray-trace its own shadow in real time. → Read More
NVIDIA is known primarily for their PC graphics cards, but they’ve been in the news recently both for the expansion of their CUDA and PhysX initiatives as well as (allegedly) developing a CPU to challenge Intel and AMD. They’ve been proponents of parallel processing for quite a while, naturally, and have made some investments in companies like MotionDSP and Elemental Technologies, both of which are developing software that really leverages the GPU.
The success of these investments is difficult to measure (NVIDIA’s been hit as hard as the other semiconductor-related companies, losing 50% of its revenue), but it’s hard to argue with the fact that parallel computing is where practically the entire industry is heading. In light of this, NVIDIA has started what they’re calling the GPU Ventures Program, by which they hope to “identify, support and invest” in companies that are working on GPU-based computing applications. → Read More
So, Nvidia’s GeForce 9600M GPU may not be causing the screen glitches that have been creeping up on some of the new 17-inch MacBook Pros after all. I know we like to tar and feather Nvidia, but this may just very well be an Apple issue or that’s what Nvidia want us to think.
“Our understanding is that Apple is investigating this, and if they need our help we will certainly support them. But right now it’s unclear what the issue is, so jumping to conclusions at this point is premature” NVIDIA spokesperson.
You just know that Steve Jobs is pretty upset with Nvidia right now. Reports are popping up detailing video problems currently being suffered by the new 17-inch MacBook Pro. It seems that, for some people, whenever the 9600M is turned on the screen displays all sorts of nasty tearing and color deformities. That picture up there shows the extent to the damage. → Read More
MacRumors has some info pointing to a 20- and 24-inch iMacs with NVIDIA graphics. While anyone with a printer could make these exciting marketing materials you see before you, another Swedish reseller had a weird page describing an unusual configuration as well, so there’s some hope that the update will come sooner or later. → Read More
Nvidia, not known for being forthcoming (but perhaps no more than any other tech company), is apparently doing a few sites pretty dirty in relation to its upcoming line of graphics cards. Evidence has been published that shows Nvidia is rebranding some seriously old cards for new sales, which is pretty disingenuous. Unfortunately, sites who have made a stink about it are finding themselves SOL for getting review units. → Read More
That firecracker CEO of Nvidia, Jen-Hsun Huang, has revealed that Nvidia will be putting out an “Ion 2″ platform using VIA Nano processors instead of Intel’s Atoms. The pairing isn’t surprising, considering that the Nano processors are supposed to be quite as capable as Atoms, and Nvidia’s relationship with Intel right now isn’t exactly all fun and games. → Read More
