3D Graphics Cards and Video

Flash In The Pan: New Adobe Beta Enables GPU Offloading

News — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 11:30:30 GMT

Whether you hate Flash or, well, hate it less, there's no denying that the multimedia platform has a near-total lock on the development and distribution of rich multimedia content. The rise of Web 2.0 (and its cohort of equally vague cutesy phrases) has resulted in a huge increase in the amount of video published online, whether one considers CNN or YouTube. The fact that Flash is ubiquitous to the point that it's impossible to swing a dead cat more than six inches without smacking into a video of someone swinging a dead cat is what makes recent news from Adobe all the more intriguing. The latest Flash beta (10.1.51) is capable of offloading the task of H.264 decoding to the GPU, provided you've got a solution from ATI, NVIDIA, or Intel new enough to support it.

We've spent some time with the 10.1 beta and evaluated its performance and decode quality using Zotac's new Ion-powered Atom 330 nettop. A full review of that system is in the works, but the basic platform (2GB of RAM, 1.6GHz dual-core Atom, and NVIDIA's ION chipset) is typical for a device in this class. We tested in 32-bit Windows 7, using Internet Explorer 8. We're actually going to hit performance straight off the bat, then circle around and talk about the surrounding context. We tested several clips from YouTube and Hulu at 480P, 720P, and 1080P. We actually tested 1080P content from Vimeo as well, but that site wasn't willing to play nice with the new 10.1.51 Flash beta.

We actually tested Zotac's MAG in two configurations. In addition to the defaults listed above, we shut Hyper-Threading off and lowered the CPU clock to 1.2GHz. While this isn't the same as having an N270 to play with, the Mag's BIOS doesn't allow the user to simply shut off one of the two CPU cores. Even though the 1.2GHz/dual-core configuration doesn't exactly correspond to any currently shipping product, it's a useful point of comparison. The percentages given were recorded using Windows 7 performance monitoring tool. The video clips in question were all watched in-browser, not full-screen or in a separate window. Given the fact that even the full-strength Atom 330 struggled using Flash 10.0.32, and since we're assuming one's goal is to watch the content in question. All clips were allowed to load/buffer fully before playback began; all clips were looped repeatedly to ensure average CPU utilization wasn't impacted by outliers.

The Atom 330 performed reasonably well using Flash 10.0.32. Of our four test cases, both the Titans trailer and the 720P Star Trek trailer played reasonably smoothly, and both were watchable. The 1080P Star Trek trailer (marked with an asterisk because I had to use a different clip) actually dropped fewer frames than Hulu's Legend of the Seeker, despite the higher CPU utilization. As for Legend, it was just smooth enough to watch, while stuttering and dropping just enough frames at random intervals to drive one insane. Once we updated to Flash 10.1.51, it's smooth sailing for the Atom 330. Crystal-clear playback, no stuttering, no dropped frames. So what happens when we slash the system's available CPU power?

Ironically, the CPU utilization graph for our 1.2GHz dual-core Atom doesn't begin to tell the whole story. The 720P Star Trek trailer and Hulu's Titans trailer were the most-watchable (the high CPU utilization on Titan's was a bit surprising, considering the clip's 480P resolution). Dropped frames abounded in both cases, but the audio and video still synched. The 1080P Star Trek was bad, and the 720P Legend broadcast can't even be called a slideshow. At best, Legend resembled a weird art project, in which completely random photographs were displayed for 4-5s each.

Updating to Flash 10.1.51 completely transformed the experience. While we still saw the occasional dropped frame or tiny stutter, all of our test videos were eminently watchable. Our down-clocked Atom may not correspond to a specific product, but it does the best job of demonstrating the significance of the Flash update. Without GPU-assisted decoding, the 1.2GHz chip was unable to maintain an acceptable framerate in any of the clips we tested. The updated Flash beta didn't just improve a previously existing capability, it fundamentally enabled a level of performance that wasn't possible before.

Given that this is a beta version, there are plenty of kinks and issues yet to be ironed out. The final 10.1 update will enable hardware-level offloading for both AMD and Intel hardware (driver-level incompatibilities are currently causing issues here.) Expect to see NVIDIA talking up this type of ION-delivered capability big time in the months ahead. Intel may theoretically have a competitive design in its GMA4500HD, but the overwhelming majority of netbooks based on an Intel graphics processor are built around the GMA950. We'll have to wait for finalized drivers and the actual 10.1 update before we make a call on which graphics vendor comes out on top, but NVIDIA appears to have an early lead. With the Christmas buying season almost upon us and a market that remains heavily consumer-driven, expect to see Team Green talking up ION as the "real" netbook/nettop platform for all they're worth.

ATI Radeon HD 5970 Dual-GPU Powerhouse Review

News — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 04:48:31 GMT

AMD's "Sweet Spot" GPU strategy over the last few years has been fairly predictable. Instead of producing the biggest, most powerful GPU possible--yields be damned--the company sets out to produce a relatively high-end GPU, using a cutting edge fabrication process, that hits a proverbial sweet spot between cost and performance. Then derivatives, and even multiples, of that GPU are used to flesh out a top-to-bottom line-up of graphics cards, that hit a broad range of price points.

It began with the RV670, which powered the single-GPU based Radeon HD 3870 and dual-GPU Radeon HD 3870 X2--hence the X2. Then came the RV770, which powered the Radeon HD 4870 and eventually the Radeon HD 4870 X2. The strategy has obviously paid off, as AMD is once again a price/performance leader in the GPU space, after some not-so-great performances like the R600, better known as the Radeon HD 2900 XT. Knowing their strategy, it should almost come as no surprise that the graphics card we'll be showing you today, the Radeon HD 5970, has come to fruition. Although it doesn't follow the same naming convention as AMD's previous dual-GPU powered cards, the Radeon HD 5970 is nonetheless powered by a pair of ATI "Cypress" Radeon HD 5800 series GPUs, linked together on a single PCB by a PCI Express bridge, very much like previous X2 iterations. Come on by and check it out...

ATI Radeon HD 5970 Dual-GPU Powerhouse Review

AMD Radeon HD 5970 Dual-GPU DirectX 11 Graphics Card

Zotac GeForce GT 240 AMP! Edition Review

News — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 15:00:31 GMT

NVIDIA is launching a new mainstream graphics card today, aimed squarely at consumers in the market for a relatively low-cost upgrade from an integrated graphics solution or older entry-level GPU. The new GeForce GT 240, features a GPU outfitted with 96 processor cores, 8 ROP units, and 32 texture filtering units. In addition, the GT 240 GPU is manufactured using a 40nm process, it features a GDDR5 memory controller (that's also compatible with GDDR3), and unlike NVIDIA's current high-end GPUs, the GT 240 is DirectX 10.1 compatible.

Although its specifications aren't terribly high-end in light of NVIDIA's more powerful GeForces, the GT 240 is actually more advanced than its counterparts in a number of respects. Click the link below and check it out...

Zotac GeForce GT 240 AMP! Edition Review

Zotac's GeForce GT 240 AMP! Edition

Matrox Announces World’s First Single-Slot Octal Graphics Card

News — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 19:09:23 GMT

Matrox Announces World’s First Single-Slot PCIe x16 Octal Graphics Card for Mission-Critical Environments

Matrox M9188 supports up to eight DisplayPort or DVI Single-Link outputs and can be combined with a second M9188 to drive up to 16 displays, all from a single workstation

Montreal, Canada, November 10, 2009 - Matrox Graphics, the leading manufacturer of specialized graphics solutions, today announced the launch of the Matrox M9188 PCIe x16 Octal graphics card, capable of supporting eight DisplayPort or DVI Single-Link outputs from a single workstation. The Matrox M9188 PCIe x16 offers 2GB of memory, resolutions up to 2560x1600 per output, and advanced desktop management features—such as independent or stretched desktop modes—to drive energy, transportation, process control, financial trading, and other mission-critical environments with exceptional performance.

“The M9188 is designed specifically for professional monitoring environments that require visualization of large amounts of data at once to enhance mission-critical decision making," says Ron Berty, Business Development Manager, Matrox Graphics. "The expansive multi-monitor configuration allows system operators to accurately manage energy grids or train dispatch applications, while ensuring maximum performance across all displays.”

The Matrox M9188 offers robust support for Microsoft Windows XP, as well as for Linux, which is critical for energy and transportation applications that commonly use display configurations of more than eight monitors.

Matrox also announced a second addition to the M-Series product line with the Matrox M9128 LP PCIe x16, DualHead DisplayPort graphics card. This dual-monitor add-in board is the economical choice to drive business, industrial, and government applications across two displays at resolutions up to 2560x1600.

Matrox M9128 and M9188 Key Features

Native PCIe x16 performance
Single-slot graphics cards
1 GB (M9128) and 2 GB (M9188) of memory
Drive two (M9128) or eight (M9188) DisplayPort monitors at 2560x1600 per display or DVI Single-Link monitors at 1920x1200 per display
Can be combined with other M-Series products (multi-card support)
Support for stretched or independent desktop modes across all monitors
Easy deployment and wide enterprise flexibility with unified driver package
Support for Microsoft Windows 7 (32/64bit), Windows Vista (32/64bit), Windows XP (32/64bit), Windows Server 2003/2008 (32/64 bit) and Linux

Matrox M9128 and M9188 Availability and Pricing
The Matrox M9128 and M9188 graphics cards will be available in Q4/2009.

Matrox M9128 LP PCIe x16
Part number: M9128-E1024LAF
$259.00 USD
Matrox M9188 PCIe x16
Part number: M9188-E2048F
$1995.00 USD

Geek Nirvana exists...

Hi-def straight from the Web to your TV

News — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:59:38 GMT

Yet another reason to cancel that cable or satellite TV subscription: the Myka ION.

Claimedas the "first consumer Web-to-TV product that can easily run Boxee,Hulu and other leading Internet video services" - as well as jokinglybeing called a "magic box" — the Ion allows you to play web-streamed high-definition videos without mucking about with a computer hookup. It might be likened to a cable box, but for streaming video.

Thedevice actually is a mini-computer, with the Intel Atom Processor 330and NVIDIA ION Graphics Processor. and allows you to accessweb-streamed videos without booting up your computer. It ships with afull install of Ubuntu 9.10 and has a Windows 7 dual boot option aswell, allowing users to run NetFlix, CinemaNow and other services.

"Technologyhas finally caught up with what consumers want out of Internet videoservices," Myka President Dan Lovy said in a press release. "They wantto be freed from their computers and watch the growing variety of Webvideo content on their large-screen, high-definition living room TVs."

It'll ship in four weeks and cost $379. Its expansion options include Blu-Ray and a larger hard disk.

The full specs:

Processor	1.6 GHz Intel Atom 330 Dual Core 533 MHz FSB
Chipset	NVIDIA MCP7A-ION
System Memory	2 Dual channel DDR2 667 DIMM slots Up to 4 GB of memory
VGA	Integrated NVIDIA GeForce 9400M Graphics
Supported Resolution	1920 x 1440 (VGA)
Expansion Slots	PCI Express Mini Card
Onboard IDE	None
Onboard Serial ATA	3 SATA (3 Gb/sec.) connectors (RAID 0, 1, 0+1)
Onboard USB	10 USB 2.0
Onboard LAN	Realtek RTL8211C GbE 10/100/1000
Onboard Audio	Realtek ALC662 5.1 channel HD codec
Back Panel I/O	6 USB 2.0 ports 1 VGA port 1 DVI-I port 1 HDMI port 1 eSATA port 1 LAN port 1 PS2 keyboard port 2 S/PDIF-out ports (coaxial/optical) 3 Audio jacks: line-out, line-in, mic-in 1 DC jack
Onboard I/O Connectors	3 SATA connectors 4 USB 2.0 via 2 pin headers 1 RS-232 COM pin header 1 Front panel audio pin header 1 Front panel pin header 2 Fan pin headers 4-pin Molex connector (for peripheral power)
BIOS	AMI BIOS 8 Mb flash memory
System Monitoring & Management	System power management, RTC timer
Operating Temperature	0ºC ~ 50ºC
Power	DC 19 V @ 4.74 A
Form Factor	Mini-ITX (17 x 17 cm)
Includes	Driver CD 90 W AC adapter & cord 3 SATA cables 1 SATA power cable User manual

Lucid Hydra 200 Multi GPU Performance Revealed

News — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 22:00:42 GMT

About a year ago, semiconductor startup Lucid Logix began making waves in the graphics space with claims of being able to revolutionize multi-GPU computing, promising consumers the ability to pair any graphics card, unrestricted by model or vendor, to another card and achieve highly efficient load balancing with near linear performance increases. This option presumably provides consumers the flexibility to buy an ATI graphics card, install it next to an NVIDIA model on the same motherboard, and see a boost in graphics rendering performance close to the sum of both individual components. We recently got the chance to test a Hydra-enabled system with a number of graphics card, and have our results posted right here...

Lucid Hydra 200 Multi-GPU Performance Revealed

Lucid Hydra 200 Multi-GPU Performance Revealed

News — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 14:31:19 GMT

Installing my ATI Radeon 9200 SE BIOS PROBLEMS!!!

a02227 — Sat, 02 Jul 2005 01:28:01 GMT

system spec

PC Chips K7 M863G M/B
AMD 3100+
128MB DDR RAM
60 GB Maxtor HDD
CD-RW Memorex
Terminator TV card
onboard sound / graphics / ethernet / USB
American Trends BIOS

I bought a new graphics card becasue i am sick of the on board one and purchased an ATI Radeon 9200SE 128MB DDR(AGP) but when i put it into the AGP slot and turn on my computer the screen remains black and the BIOS doesn't beep at all and nothing appears. I've tried disabling the onboard graphics in the BIOS reducing its shared memory size to 0 and various other settings as well as install the need card and resetting the BIOS from the jumper but still same result. I have tested it in another computer and it works fine!!

Any ideas on a solution? Its driving me nuts!

Asus Express TV USB Stick Includes 4GB Memory

News — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 18:26:56 GMT

Love TV? Love being on the road? Regardless of whether or not your answer to that second inquiry is "yes" or "no," Asus is looking to help avid travelers stay connected to their favorite over-the-air dramas with its all new Express TV Stick. This minuscule USB TV tuner enables notebooks and desktops alike to tune into any local OTA station (usually the ABCs, CBS, FOXs and CBSs of the world) and use their computer's hard drive as a PVR.

The USB 2.0 device installs itself automatically on PCs when inserted, and the "hybrid" nature enables it to tune into both NTSC (analog) and ATSC (digital) broadcasts -- though, all of the analog transmissions should be extinct in the US by mid-June. At any rate, the stick also packs an unusual treat: 4GB of inbuilt memory. Unlike most USB TV tuners, this one can double as a USB flash drive when in a pinch, which is definitely a nice touch. Asus has built this one to be fully compatible with Microsoft Vista Home Premium, Vista Home Basic, Vista Ultimate, and Windows XP platforms, and it also integrated nicely with the Vista Gadget tool that enables users to watch and record live TV directly onto their Vista sidebar. No mention of a price or release date just yet, sadly.

Specifications

Product Name	ASUS Express TV Stick
Model Name	US2-400/PT/FM/AV/RC/FL
Specifications	TV system	Digital TV (DVB-T free to air) and Analog TV
	Interface standard	USB2.0
	Flash drive	4GB
	OS supported	Microsoft Vista Home Premium / Vista Home Basic / Vista Ultimate / Windows XP
Accessories	- Remote Controller - Audio/video breakout cable - DVB-T Antenna - Quick start guide - Support CD

Speaking of the ATi Radeon 5800 series...

ClemSnide — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 06:56:41 GMT

... has anyone outside of the HH review crew actually touched one? It's listed in several online stores, but is always out of stock or "typically ships in 1-2 months."

The only stores that have them charge outrageous prices: one wants $450 for a HD 5870, a 10% premium. Even MicroCenter, usually one of the best retailers, has prices all across the board, and most catalog entries have stern warnings about how they may not have it in stock when you order, etc.

I guess we're still in the "early adopter" phase, but I was hoping to plug one of these babies in by mid-November.

The NVIDIA Setup program could not locate any drivers that are compatible with your current hardware. Setup will now exit.

virtualjaspal — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 11:50:05 GMT

I have a Sony VAIO VGN-SZ430N notebook which has an onboard nVidia GEForce 7400 GO graphics card.

I used to get the "NVIDIA Control Panel" menu option in the "Right Click" context menu but the same has vanished ... and I am seeing Graphics options of "Intel" instead ... Intel Graphics are really very poor and will not allow me to play games which require 3D graphics acceleration ...

I tried installing "nVidia Display Drivers" but in vain. All I am getting is an error: "The NVIDIA Setup program could not locate any drivers that are compatible with your current hardware. Setup will now exit."

If I am installing the original display the installation completes in less than a minute and the display driver does not show up in the "Device Manager" and not even in Control Panel.

I tried getting help from Sony eSupport but nothing and noone proved helpful.

Can someone pls. help me with this?

Thanks,

~Jaspal

PowerColor Intros Liquid-Cooled Radeon HD 5870

News — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 18:45:47 GMT

POWERCOLOR INTRODUCES THE COOLEST GAMING CARD: LCS HD5870

The world’s fastest single GPU comes with PowerColor’s Liquid Cooling Solution

Taipei, Taiwan – October 29, 2009 – TUL Corporation, a leading manufacturer of AMD graphics cards, is excited to add liquid cooling to the world’s fastest single GPU: the PowerColor Liquid Cooling Solution (LCS) HD5870 1GB GDDR5. Equipped with the award-winning EK cooling solution, the LCS HD5870 offers outstanding thermal performance in a single slot design, enhancing overclocking and allowing optimum stability.

The PowerColor LCS HD5870 has a full water block mounted on the card, fully covering the memory and power regulator chip. With a copper base design, it is able to reduce temperatures in the most efficient way possible. PowerColor packages a high-flow 3/8" and 1/2" fittings (barbs) to maximize water flow with captured o-rings to prevent leakage. Gamers can easily customize their own liquid cooling system using these two fittings.

"The most efficient cooling solution should pack with the most powerful GPU,” said Ted Chen, CEO of TUL Corporation. “With the partnership with EK, the LCS HD5870 can work impressively in a cool and stable operating environment—it’s the card which designed to fulfill the true gamers!”

Compatible with all the latest features, the PowerColor LCS HD5870 clocks at 875 MHz core and 1250 MHz memory, pushing the overclocking ability to the maximum in an ultra stable gaming environment and delivering am incredible gaming experience you’ve never felt before.

DiRT2 Game Bundle: Unleash DirectX 11 gaming power
To deliver the latest DirectX 11 gaming power, PowerColor includes DiRT2 into LCS HD5870. DiRT2 is a world tour of adrenaline-fuelled extreme off-road events in stunning real-world locations. With the support of DirectX 11 technology, this latest game delivers the most realistic, immersive and exhilarating racing experience to gamers.

The PowerColor LCS HD5870 will be available on November 6.

About EK Water Blocks
Started in year 1999, when the founder Edvard König bought his first computer. The goal for EK is to excel in a niche market of performance upgrades for computers. With continuous research and development, we have established a portfolio of products for water cooling. Quality and breathtaking design on the technological edge is our philosophy. For further information, visit: www.ekwaterblocks.com

Graphics Processors Boomed in Q3; Q4 Sales Expected To Be Strong

News — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 19:25:36 GMT

Market analysis firm Jon Peddie Research has released its report on graphic processor sales in the third quarter. According to the data, the strong Q2 rebound was no one-time event; GPU sales continued to climb into Q3 and are expected to rise further in Q4. Intel, AMD, SiS, and VIA all saw their market share increase, with AMD leading the pack. Matrox was the sole exception; its share of the GPU market has dropped to 0.0 percent according to JPR.

AMD picked up 1.4 percentage points of market share; Intel grew its share by 1.6 percentage points, and NVIDIA managed to lose 4.3 percent market share (down to 24.9 percent from 29.2 percent). Nevertheless, Team Green still shipped slightly more GPUs this quarter than last; the company's number of units shipped rose by 3.3 percent. Both SiS and VIA snatched significant pieces of the market for themselves (relatively speaking); SiS improved from 0.4 percent market share to 1.1 percent; VIA jumped from 0.8 percent to 1.5 percent.

The above graph details growth in total number of units shipped as opposed to percentage of market share. Strong growth in all corners, save for NVIDIA's—the company's fortunes may improve thanks to increased availability of ION-based products, but AMD's Radeon HD 5000 series has its rival in a tough spot. NVIDIA has options—it could slash prices on the existing GeForce 200 series—for example and undercut its competition just in time for the Christmas holidays. It's even possible that the company intends to introduce 40nm flavors of its current GTX 275 and 285 series, at correspondingly higher clockrates. Such a move would essentially be a stop-gap, which is why it seems unlikely, but if NVIDIA wanted to keep its Fermi architecture at higher price points initially, it could make sense to introduce a new, faster GeForce 2xx card to hold the lower market tiers.

Back in the here-and-now, notebook/mobile GPU's led the industry. Shipments of notebooks with discrete graphics rose by 36 percent quarterly, while notebooks/netbooks with integrated graphics grew 27 percent. Looking ahead to Q4, Peddie expects a strong finish, but without the sales jumps we saw in Q2 and Q3. "The channel is full and the products in it will have to be sold off before the OEMs and their resellers take a chance of seeing the channel becoming overstuffed. That suggests that while Q4 is typically a good quarter for PCs, the quarter-to-quarter growth in Q4 may not be as robust as Q3. Graphics are a great leading indicator," Peddie said, "The graphics go in before the PC is built or shipped."

1st DX11 benchmark

recoveringknowitall — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 22:45:13 GMT

"Unigine has released the first DirectX 11 benchmark Heaven. The benchmark provides native support for OpenGL, DirectX 9, 10 and 11, and is available for free download."

info courtesy of Tweakguides.com

NVIDIA's Reality Server Aims to Deliver Real-Time Rendering On Your Next Netbook—or iPhone

News — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 22:28:18 GMT

It's hard to pin down exactly what cloud computing is—the term is as vaporous as its proverbial namesake—but to date, the majority of cloud computing applications have emphasized storage, group collaboration, or the ability to share significant amounts of information with specific groups of people. In business IT, the concept of renting server power from IBM or Sun could be seen as a type of cloud computing. To date, there's been no push to make GPU power available in a cloud computing environment—but that's something NVIDIA hopes to change. The company announced version 3.0 of its RealityServer today, the new revision sports hardware-level 3D acceleration, a new rendering engine (iray), and can create "images of photorealistic scenes at rates approaching an interactive gaming experience," according to the company.

Here's the eye-opener: NVIDIA claims that the combination of RealityServer and its Tesla hardware can deliver those photorealistic scenes on your workstation or your cell phone, with no difference in speed or quality. Instead of relying on a client PC to handle the task of 3D rendering, NVIDIA wants to move the capability into the cloud, where the task of rendering an image or scene is handed off to a specialized Tesla server. Said server performs the necessary calculations and fires back the finished product, which theoretically allows for the aforementioned frame rates that approach an "interactive gaming experience."

NVIDIA has designed a series of rackable Tesla servers, as shown above. The categories above are meant to represent various size possibilities—based on NVIDIA's comments, one could host a RealityServer 3.0 project on a single GPU, and could possibly scale up past 100 GPUs. A key part of the new software architecture is Mental Image's new iray rendering engine, which has been designed to take advantage of GPU acceleration. Iray was built to take advantage of the tremendous parallel processing capabilities of a modern GPU—according to the FAQ (PDF), iray is an "interactive, consistent, high-performance global illumination rendering technology that generates photorealistic imagery by simulating the physical behavior of light...iray does not depend on complex renderer-specific shaders and settings to approximate global illumination. iray generates photorealistic imagery without introducing rendering algorithm-specific artifacts."

If the system works as advertised, businesses and companies of all sorts could create interactive, 3D web applications that updated in real-time and offered far more detail than a netbook or smartphone could possibly render at all, much less render in real time. Since only the final product is being transferred to the client, there's no need for the user to worry about battery life, heat generation, or turning their system into a tortoise in exchange for using one particular application.

Cloudy, With a Chance of ~~Meatballs~~ Adoption

NVIDIA demonstrated RealityServer 3 at their web event, with relatively mixed results. There's no doubt that the Tesla server off in the atmosphere shot back gorgeous visuals, at speeds that would take weeks to render on the small netbook the company used for its demonstration, but the speed of the updates didn't remotely come close to "approaching an interactive gaming experience," unless said experience involved attempting to run Doom on your 16MHz 386 with the screen size set at maximum. Update times varied from 10-20 seconds, and that's a significant lag when discussing online usage patterns.

To be fair, NVIDIA's backend Tesla server was built with just 16 GPUs, but said server presumably had just one client. Photorealism levels of detail were a fine way to display the capabilities of the iray rendering engine, but probably had a negative impact on the actual service demo—a bit less detail and a lot more speed would've made the rendering demonstration more impressive. Ideally, visitors to a company's website would be able to select a level of detail between the speed and quality of a given program—NVIDIA didn't address if this is the case, or if the device-agnostic nature of the platform means it would default to a one-size fits all.

Bandwidth Burn
Setting aside questions of commercial viability and corporate/consumer interest, there's a question as to whether or not the United States' broadband providers can handle the load without service degradation. This is most obvious when considering the current state of cellular data networks—AT&T's is already buckling under the iPhone's strain—but the hypothetical widespread use of RealityServer could raise questions over the real-world capabilities of ADSL and cable connections.

We bet AT&T just loves this demo.

In theory, wired broadband connections are more than capable of handling the additional load of such services, but service quality and reliability in the real world is dependant on an enormous number of variables including what geographical area you live in, which side of town you're on, the condition of the local phone lines, and whether or not the ISP has adequately provisioned its network for peak usage times, just to name a few. What works on a whiteboard, in this case, may have no relation to what works in real life depending on the variables mentioned above.

NVIDIA fielded a question on this topic during the Q&A session, and insists that RealityServer applications will have a bandwidth footprint equal to or less than that of a YouTube video stream, and it erred on the side of "less." Assuming this is true, the new services should have little to no effect on current-generation networks.

There's no doubt that RealityServer could be the sort of technological innovation that describes future generations of multimedia-rich devices—a so-called Web 3.0, although I loathe the term. There's a definite appeal to the idea of moving 3D rendering off the client, particularly in mobile devices where this feature would extend battery life. Extend the concept a bit, and we might one day see high-quality games take advantage of offsite 3D rendering capabilities while simultaneously utilizing the system or phone's GPU for immediate visual updates. Again, this could be used to extend rich multimedia capabilities to devices that either might not be able to otherwise handle them, or might have a negative impact on battery life.

Whether or not any of this happens, of course, depends on whether or not NVIDIA's RealityServer 3 grabs the eyes of potential customers. The capabilities are interesting, but RS3 is aiming at a market that doesn't exist yet. Whether or not NVIDIA can create that market and remain a dominant player within it remains to be seen.

Custom Cooled Video Card Shootout: ASUS & MSI

News — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 16:50:13 GMT

One of the sub-categories cropping up amongst OEMs are videos cards which feature highly customized cooling along with special controller chips or other functionality that help facilitate tweaking the card's performance. These cards all have a few things in common. First, they all mount beefy and often very radical cooling designs which are a distinct departure from the ATI / NVIDIA approved reference cooler designs. They also offer some form of advanced tweaking features either in software, firmware or hardware (or perhaps all 3), that a stock reference design wouldn't possess, such as fan and voltage control.

The tweaker-friendly video card segment seems to be getting more popular as more OEMs are producing custom cards that fit the mold. We're going to give you a peak into what makes these cards special by giving you the run-down on three available options which are excellent representatives of what the segment currently has to offer.

Custom Cooled Video Card Shootout: ASUS & MSI

MSI R4890 Cyclone SOC, ASUS ROG ENGTX260 Matrix, ASUS ROG Matrix GTX285

AMD Introduces ATI Radeon HD 5700 Series

News — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 19:48:06 GMT

AMD is rolling out two more graphics cards—the HD 5770 and 5750—that are designed to put the company's ATI Radeon technology in lower cost devices. Both cards support Microsoft's DirectX 11 technology which will arrive with the upcoming release of Windows 7 on October 22.

The AMD GPUs offer more than 1 TeraFLOPS of compute power, support AMD's Eyefinity multiple display technology, and target lower-cost devices. The GPUs are built on 40nm technology. The HD 5770 has 800 stream processors and GDDR5 RAM clocked at 1.2GHz. The GPU core is clocked at 850MHz. The HD 5750 has 720 stream processors and is clocked at 700MHz on the core and 1.15GHz on the memory. Both of the cards will be priced well below $200.

AMD Expands Award-Winning Line of Graphics Products with Introduction of ATI Radeon HD 5700 Series, Delivers Best-in-Class Windows 7 Performance, DirectX® 11 Gaming and ATI Eyefinity Multi-Monitor Technology

ATI Radeon™ HD 5700 Series Adds Further Momentum to AMD Visual Computing Leadership

SUNNYVALE, Calif.--AMD (NYSE: AMD) recently unveiled the ATI Radeon™ HD 5770 and ATI Radeon™ HD 5750 graphics cards, adding two more models to the world’s first and only suite of graphics cards to fully support Microsoft Direct X® 11 technology and ATI Eyefinity multi-monitor support. With the addition of the ATI Radeon HD 5700 series, AMD is providing PC gamers and multimedia enthusiasts with four great choices to fully enjoy the Microsoft Windows 7 experience.

“The ATI Radeon HD 5800 series reaffirmed AMD as the undisputed leader in visual computing technology,” said Rick Bergman, senior vice president and general manager, AMD Products Group. “Now, the ATI Radeon HD 5700 series takes the same great features like ATI Eyefinity and ATI Stream technology as well as full hardware support for all DirectX 11 features, and bundles them into products priced well below $200.”

ATI Radeon HD 5700 graphics cards deliver more than 1 TeraFLOPS of compute power, ensuring superior performance in the latest DirectX® 11 games, as well as in DirectX® 9, DirectX® 10, DirectX® 10.1 and OpenGL titles. With a powerful graphics core built on 40nm process technology and up to 800 stream processors, gamers can enjoy DirectX 11 games now, such as EA Phenomic’s Battleforge and many more titles on the way, including:

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.:Call of Pripyat from GSC Game World,
Dirt™ 2 from Codemasters,
Aliens vs. Predator™ from Rebellion,
Update to The Lord of the Rings Online™ from Turbine,
Update to Dungeons and Dragons Online® Eberron Unlimited™ from Turbine.

With over 20 DirectX 11 titles currently in development, gamers can be ready with DirectX® 11 hardware this holiday season.

Today’s ATI Eyefinity technology enables up to three monitors to be used with a single ATI Radeon™ HD 5770 or ATI Radeon™ HD 5750 graphics card, delivering the most immersive gaming experience with a graphics card priced below $200.
New features and functionality of ATI Stream technology allow users to harness both AMD CPUs and the ATI Radeon™ HD 5700 series graphics cards to maximize their computing experience, helping to improve the performance of enabled media, entertainment and productivity applications. ATI Stream technology and the HD 5700 series support both DirectX 11 Direct Compute and OpenCL industry standards.
For those who want to enjoy a home theatre experience, the ATI Radeon™ HD 5700 series supports the latest HD audio technologies such as Dolby® TrueHD, DTS-HD Master Audio and HDMI 3.1. This high level audio support allows users to fully utilize the multiple audio channels embedded in today’s Blu-ray discs for the ultimate in HD home entertainment.
In addition to delivering tremendous DirectX 11 performance, the ATI Radeon™ HD 5700 series also leads in power efficiency consuming as little as 16 watts at idle, less than a third the amount of power required by the average household 60 watt light bulb.

Ecosystem support

The ATI Radeon™ HD 5700 series and ATI Radeon HD 5800 series of graphics cards are supported by a dozen add-in-board companies, including ASK, Asus, Diamond, Gigabyte, High Tech, MSI, Sapphire, Tul/Power Color, Visiontek and XFX.

Memorex MyVideo HD Pocket Camcorder Shoots On The Cheap

News — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 03:28:15 GMT

What comes to mind at the mention of "Memorex?" Blank optical media? Aflash card maybe? A pocket camcorder? Unless you've somehow alreadyheard of the all-new MyVideo, we're guessing the last option isn't theone you chose. Joining the likes of HP, Sony, Flip Video and a host ofother companies out there looking to make a splash in the blossominghandheld camcorder market is none other than Memorex, a rather unlikelycandidate if we're being completely candid.

The MyVideo HD camcorder range includes the stylish MCC225 in bothblack and white, with an integrated USB port, one-touch recording,editing software, and easy uploading and sharing to websites likeFacebook and YouTube. The device also offers offer instant playback toTV—no PC uploading required—and the ability to capture photos andvideo; better still, there's a full-size HDMI port and cable included,so getting the footage from your palm to your HDTV should be incrediblysimple.

Oddly, Memorex hasn't bothered to dish out other details such as memorysize, resolution and still shot capabilities. We're guessing that the$99.99 to $129.99 MSRPs mean that just 4GB or 8GB of inbuilt storage isavailable, but who knows if an expansion slot is also provided. Anyonebrave enough to find out can find these laying around in select Toys RUs and OfficeMax retail locations.

PNY Launches GeForce GT 220 & GeForce 210

News — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 23:51:26 GMT

PNY announced the NVIDIA GeForce GT 220 1GB and GeForce 210512MB graphics cards today. For the first time in PNY's history, the cards nowcome with a native HDMI port, giving users the flexibility to connect bothaudio and video using a single cable. The GeForce GT 220 will cost about $120while the GeForce 210 runs approximately $70. Additional details and specificationsare available below.

PNY Launches GeForce GT 220 and GeForce 210

Parsippany, NJ – October 12, 2009 – PNY Technologies®, Inc.(“PNY”), a global leader in flash memory, USB flash drives, solid state drives,computer memory upgrade modules, as well as consumer and professional graphicscards, announced today two new graphics cards: the NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 220 1GBand GeForce 210 512MB.

PNY’s new GeForce GT 220 and GeForce 210 graphics cardsoffer enhanced graphics performance, video processing power, and a premiumWindows 7 experience, all at an incredible value. Whether you’re gaming,watching or editing HD video, or enhancing photos, both of these latestgraphics cards provide a solution for your every graphics need. TheseGeForce GT 220 and GeForce 210 graphics cards bring the latest technology tocomputers at a reasonable cost.

For the first time in consumer graphics from PNY, both cardscome equipped with a native HDMI port. With this new addition, consumersnow have the flexibility to connect both audio and video, via one cable, to anyHDMI enabled computer monitor or television, making the GeForce GT 220 andGeForce 210 ideal for desktop or living room use.

“These mainstream graphics cards hit a wide variety ofconsumers looking to take their PC’s to the next level at an affordable cost,”said Nicholas Mauro, senior marketing manager, PC components for PNY. “Both the GeForce GT 220 and GeForce 210 bring more versatility to Windows 7users and enhance the overall computer visualization experience.”

GeForce GT 220

1024MB of DDR2 frame buffer memory
625 MHz core clock and 1360 MHz shader clock
12.8 GB/second memory bandwidth
A texture fill rate of 15 billion/second
An effective memory data rate of 800 MHz
MSRP: $119.99

GeForce 210

512 MB of DDR2 frame buffer memory
589 MHz core clock and 1402 MHz shader clock
6.4 GB/second memory bandwidth
A texture fill rate of 4.712 billion/second
An effective memory data rate of 800 MHz
MSRP: $69.99

Both of PNY’s newest graphics cards come equipped with thefollowing features:

NVIDIA® Unified Architecture
Full Microsoft DirectX 10.1 support
NVIDIA PhysX™ technology
NVIDIA CUDA™ technology
Microsoft Windows 7 Support
NVIDIA PureVideo® HD technology
HDMI On-Board support
PCI Express 2.0 support
Dual-link HDCPCapable
OpenGL 3.1 Optimization and Support

Additionally, the PNY GeForce GT 220 and GeForce 210graphics cards will be available with a value-added 30-day trial version ofvReveal®, from MotionDSP, Inc. This video enhancement softwaredramatically enhances the quality of home videos to stabilize, clean, improvedetail, and brighten for improved viewing. Consumers will also receive a20% discount off the purchase of the full version of the vRevealsoftware.

PNY offers free 24-hour technical support and a 3-yearwarranty: 1 year standard with a 2 year upgrade upon completion of registrationon PNY.com.

The PNY GeForce GT 220 and GeForce 210, along with other PNYgraphics cards, are available at the following locations:

Best Buy
NewEgg
TigerDirect
Amazon
Buy
Fry’s
Microcenter

Visit www.PNY.com toexperience the latest graphics cards and to learn about PNY’s entire spectrumof products. For the gaming enthusiast, visit PNY’s on-line gaming portalat www.XLR8Gaming.net to participate inforums, special offers, contests and tournaments taking place now!

ATI Radeon HD 5770 and 5750 Mainstream DX11 GPUs

News — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 04:06:24 GMT

A little less than a month ago, AMD unveiled the ATI Radeon HD 5800 series of graphics cards to much fanfare. And for good reason. Not only is the Radeon HD 5800 series the first to offer full DirectX 11 support, among other unique features like Eyefinity, but the flagship ATI Radeon HD 5870 signifies the first time since AMD acquired ATI that the company has had the single, fastest GPU on the market in their repertoire. Not only that, but Radeon HD 5800 series cards also offer top-notch image quality, great power consumption characteristics considering their performance, and they're competitively price too.

As is typically the case with the major GPU players, new products based on their latest architectures trickle down into lower and lower price points over time, until their entire product stack is comprised of cards with similar feature sets, with their main differentiators being performance and price. What is not typical of today's launch, however, is the speed at which AMD is ready with their latest round of products.

Today marks the introduction of the Radeon HD 5700 series. As you can probably surmise, the 5700 series has virtually all of the features of the 5800 series, but is targeted at a more mainstream market segment. Head on over and check them out...

ATI Radeon HD 5770 and 5750 Mainstream DX11 GPUs

Intel "cheating" in 3DMark?

3vi1 — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 12:14:03 GMT

I thought this was interesting. Reminds me of the old days when ATi and nVidia would "optimize" for the benchmarks.

5870s in Crossfire

awtull — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 02:34:57 GMT

I just finished building new rig with dual 5870's on a WS Supercomputer board. Am using a Cooler Master 1250 PS. 8GB of Corsair Dominator memory and Intel I7 870 stock no oc. Booted it up with 5870s connected via both Crossfire interconnects and no display. Decided to get it up and running first so took out one card and loaded Windows 7 Enterprise 64bit and got all drivers and updates done. Reinstalled second card and reconnected the two crossfire connectors, and still no display on boot.
Am I doing something wrong with the interconnects? Is there some setting in the bios that enables crossfire? Is there a specific DVI connector that has to be used? I have never used Crossfire have always used SLI cards. Any help appreciated.

UPDATE:

Got it fixed. Downloaded latest drivers from ATi. Loaded them and Crossfire works. Guess the native Windows 7 driver won't support it. Pulled a 7.5 Windows Performance Index. Was disappointed it was not higher. The i7 870 and memory with no OC pulled a 7.8. Appreciate the help.

AMD ATI FirePro V8750 Workstation Graphics Card

News — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 04:04:41 GMT

When doing research for a new graphics card, mainstream users might come across a professional workstation-class video card and wonder what all the fuss is about. On the surface, one must look at the enormous price differences and question the justification when technically the hardware used to build the cards is very similar. But those that use workstation GPUs know that these products carry the driver support for specific 3D rendering programs that mainstream video cards do not. While they both accomplish the same basic tasks of processing commands and rendering images on a display, workstation cards are for engineering, digital content creation, and scientific modeling applications--not gaming. And as such, their target audiences are very different.

Late last year, we reviewed AMD's flagship FirePro workstation graphics card, the V8700. It was the first professional video card based on the RV770 graphics processor and it impressed us with its performance and relative affordability. Half a year later, AMD has released a new ultra high end product that promises to pick up where the V8700 left off. The FirePro V8750 sports the same RV770 GPU and 800 shader processors, but offers improved memory performance by way of 2GB of GDDR5 memory clocked at 900MHz, which offers 115GB/s of peak bandwidth...

AMD ATI FirePro V8750 Workstation Graphics Card

FLO TV Personal Television Brings Mobile TV To Dedicated Screen

News — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 02:27:50 GMT

We got a glimpse at FLO TV's future plans at a CES pre-show event inJune, and now everything's really coming into focus. FLO TV providesmobile television services for US carriers--you may have heard of it ifyou have an AT&T smartphone or Sprint TV. But generally speaking,adoption on mobile TV on cellphones has lagged behind in the US, whileit's more openly accepted in international destinations.

In order to bolster interest in its programming services, the companyhas now launched a dedicated FLO TV Personal Television that doesexactly what you'd think it would. It's a portable TV that tunes intoFLO TV programming regardless of where you are in America. Having TV onyour person at all times still seems a bit different here in America,but we think it has a fighting chance to take off.

The device itself is small and light--just 5oz. and 4.4" x 3" x 0.5" insize. It has a 3.5" touch-screen and a built-in battery good forwatching 5 hours of television or standing by for over 300 hours. Ifyou want to change the channel, you simply swipe your finger on thescreen. It also includes an integrated stand for sitting it on yourdesk and watching some TV on company time, built-in stereo speakers andeven a reminder service to catch your favorite shows.

It'll be available soon for $249.99, but you'll have to pay at least $8.99 per month for the TV service. Speaking of which, the service is detailed below.

About FLO TV Personal Television
FLO TV Personal Television subscription service starts as low as theequivalent of $8.99 per month* and the device will be offered at amanufacturer’s suggested retail price of $249.99. The device has a3.5-inch diagonal screen and measures 4.4 inches by 3 inches by .5inches and weighs just over 5 ounces. Its battery supports more than 5hours of active FLO TV viewing or 300 hours standby. The FLO TVPersonal Television utilizes a capacitive touch-screen for easy andcomfortable navigation – users can channel surf with just a swipe oftheir finger. It also includes several features meant to enhance theTV experience, including a built-in stand allowing the device to bepositioned upright on any flat surface, built-in stereo speakers makingit easy to watch TV with others, and the ability for users to setreminders for their favorite programming.

About the FLO TV Service
Market research firm TeleAnalytics projects that the broadcast mobileTV market will reach $2.8 billion and serve 50 million users in NorthAmerican by 2013. FLO TV is poised for this market opportunity withits high-quality mobile TV service that allows subscribers to watch TVon-the-go. Whether you’re commuting, waiting for your child to finishpractice, or you are just an on-the-go active person, as a FLO TVsubscriber you’ll have immediate access to news, sports andentertainment content at your fingertips wherever you go.

From live sports and news to full-length dramas, comedies, children’sprogramming and original FLO TV programming, the FLO TV service hassomething everyone can enjoy. It carries full–length simulcast andtime–shifted programming from America’s top entertainment brands.

The FLO TV service programming line-up may differ depending ondistribution platform. Service not available everywhere. Allprogramming subject to change and blackout restrictions.

*Taxes not included. Additional fees and charges may apply. Pricingand service subject to change at any time. Prepaid subscriptionrequired for 1 year / 3 year plans. 3-year prepaid subscriptionrequired for $8.99 / mo. package. After the expiration of the originalprepaid subscription, your subscription will automatically renew andyour credit card will be charged at the then-current rate. Specialintroductory offers and waived activation fee expire 12/31/09. Allprepaid annual and monthly subscription payments are non-refundable.

Adobe and NVIDIA Deliver GPU-Accelerated Flash Player

News — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 14:03:45 GMT

Adobe And NVIDIA Deliver Rich Web Experiences On Netbooks And Mobile Devices

GPU-Accelerated Netbooks from HP, Lenovo and Samsung Support full Flash Player

LOS ANGELES - Oct. 5, 2009 - At Adobe MAX, Adobe’s worldwide developer conference, Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) and NVIDIA Corporation (Nasdaq:NVDA) today announced that both companies are bringing uncompromised browsing of rich Web content to netbooks, smartphones and smartbooks built with NVIDIA GPUs. The companies have been working closely together as part of the Open Screen Project to optimize and dramatically improve performance of Flash Player 10.1 by taking advantage of GPU video and graphics acceleration on a wide range of mobile Internet devices. NVIDIA customers embracing Flash Player 10.1 for their new devices include HP, Lenovo, Samsung, Acer, Asus and more. Users are expected to be able to download a beta of Flash Player 10.1 before the end of the year.

The combination of NVIDIA GPUs and Adobe Flash Player 10.1 enables device manufacturers to deliver uncompromised Web browsing of rich applications, interactive content and HD video with substantially decreased power consumption. With the support of the NVIDIA GeForce®, NVIDIA ION™ and Tegra™ products users will be able to enjoy a much smoother viewing experience when accessing rich content built with the Flash Platform including HD and SD video from popular sites like Hulu.com or YouTube. For more information on Flash Player 10.1, please see the separate press release issued today.

“Consumers want the best Internet experience – whether it’s a mobile device in their pocket or a netbook at the coffee shop,” said Dan Vivoli, senior vice president of NVIDIA. “Our engineers have worked closely with Adobe to make this a reality.”

“The most innovative and expressive Web sites use Adobe Flash technology,” said David Wadhwani, general manager and vice president, Platform Business Unit at Adobe. “By working together to further leverage the power of graphics processors, Adobe and NVIDIA are able to provide breakthrough Web experiences on a wide range of devices. This new development brings us a step closer to putting the power of a PC in your pocket.”

NVIDIA ION-based netbooks and nettops like the HP Mini 311, Lenovo IdeaPad S12, Samsung N510, Acer AspireRevo, and Asus eeeBox EB1012 and others are shipping today and once Flash Player 10.1 is available, they can take advantage of GPU-accelerated video decoding to deliver the kind of smooth Flash technology based video previously found only on higher-end PCs. Tegra processor-based smartphones and smartbooks that start shipping later this year will accelerate vector graphics and video to enable feature-rich, full-screen Internet video and animation.

“HP is pleased to work with NVIDIA and Adobe to give customers a compelling high definition video experience,” said Kevin Frost, vice president and general manager, Consumer Notebooks, Personal Systems Group, HP. “The recently introduced HP Mini 311 supports stunning HD video using Flash Player 10.1.”

"As the biggest online video Web site in China, Youku.com believes in providing superior user experiences because fast video play-back is essential, said Allen Zhu, vice president of Youku.com. “Now, with the new Adobe Flash Player 10.1, video decoding for the first time is enabled through NVIDIA GPUs, we can greatly enhance the speed of video playback for the great quantity of HD videos hosted on our Web site. This would enable our users to enjoy a smooth and stutter-free HD video playback experience.”

“The new version of Flash Player 10.1 will help deliver smooth, full-screen HD and SD video on the Lenovo IdeaCentre Q110 nettop and IdeaPad S12 netbook with NVIDIA ION graphics,” said Stephen DiFranco, vice president, North America Channel Partners Organization, Lenovo. “As more and more consumers connect online for their entertainment, GPU acceleration with NVIDIA will enhance this experience, whether it’s on the go with a Lenovo netbook or at home with a tiny desktop PC.”

To view a video of Jen-Hsun Huang, co-founder, president and CEO of nVidia, discussing the collaboration with Adobe, see here.