NVIDIA nTeresting Newsletter – 29 July 2013

By NVIDIA

In This Issue:

· Kepler graphics power is coming to mobile devices. It is completely changing the game.
· NVIDIA’s jaw-dropping car customization demo impresses at SIGGRAPH.
· We have close to 99% of the new gaming notebooks this year; therefore, we swept MSN Tech UK’s round-up of the best gaming notebooks available.
· E-Sports are big and the best in the world are athletes. NVIDIA has been on board for years. Now others are starting to recognize.
· NVIDIA’s Quadro K6000 is the fastest and most capable GPU ever built.
· Riptide GP has a sequel and it is awesome on SHIELD.

Kepler Is Going Mobile

This week at the SIGGRAPH visual computing conference, NVIDIA stopped people in their tracks with a demo that showed our Ira Human Head demo running on a mobile platform.

“You may remember Ira, the facial rendering demo NVIDIA used to show off the power of the latest desktop graphics technology. He’s even more impressive when he’s running on Project Logan, NVIDIA’s Kepler-powered next-generation mobile processor. These are mobile graphics. Damn.”

It was revealed that our next-generation mobile technology, Project Logan, uses the same Kepler graphics architecture found in the GeForce GTX Titan GPUs we used to generate our original Ira demo.

“Logan should mark a huge jump in performance for this class system and make the related games optimized for the technology almost jump off the screen. This could be pretty amazing because it should approach what you get on a big screen on a small one – allowing users to blow up the image onto their TV, creating a vastly more impressive and dramatic result.”

Logan’s Kepler-based architecture has support for graphics technologies typically available only on high-powered PCs. Features such as support for full tone mapping, bloom, FXAA 3.0, and full HDR are tools that have previously only been available on PCs.

“This is a very exciting development, and when we look back one year from now, we will realize that this is when mobile graphics, PC graphics and console graphics were unified for the first time with nearly the same feature set.”

Read more on our blog and see the video of Ira in action.

This Is How You Will Buy Cars In the Future

Since NVIDIA is a graphics company we typically have some very impressive demos. After 12 years here I am getting used to seeing demos that blow people away. That is why I had so much trouble with the demo we used to introduce NVIDIA Optimus a few years ago. It was a simple box that would say “GPU On” or “GPU Off” depending on the case.

Not so with the latest demo for real time car customization. Listen closely as the video plays and you can hear the editor say:

“Oh My Lord, that is too awesome. Holy 5#!7! Wow!

That is a good demo.

NVIDIA is changing how the car industry works. NVIDIA processors can be found in the high-end infotainment displays and customizable instrument panels in today’s Audi, Volkswagen, BMW, and Tesla vehicles. And we are now changing the way cars are designed and purchased.

NVIDIA has shipped about 4.5 million processors to the auto industry since 2008.

Gaming Notebooks Have GeForce

NVIDIA’s new GeForce GTX 700M GPUs are being paired with the new Haswell processors from Intel to create some stunning new enthusiast and gaming GPUs. Both are not just fast, they are super-efficient.

“Not so long ago computers designed for the hardship of running the latest video games were gigantic stacks filled with fans, hard drives and, more often than not, garish neon lights.

Despite the continued presence of neon lights in more cases than not, the shrinking and improved cooling of computer components has carved the way for ridiculously powerful computers that no longer have their own postcodes and laptops that allow you to play games on high graphics settings wherever you are.”

GeForce 700M Series GPUs have unparalleled performance per watt, enabling the thinnest chassis ever seen in the gaming segment, have been released. Cool new platforms like the Razor Blade notebook, the thinnest chassis ever seen in the gaming segment. The MSI Dragon Series sports the GeForce GTX 780M, the world’s fastest notebook GPU. The Asus G750 gaming notebook is easily the best this series has ever seen and Acer is also now offering a gaming-class GeForce GTX in their notebooks for the first time in recent memory.

“Acer isn’t really a name that you’d associate with gaming laptops although the Taiwanese company is renowned for making good PCs. But, chuck in an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760M GPU to a solid Acer hardware setup and, you guessed it, you’re looking at a pretty impressive gaming machine from a reliable brand.”

We said earlier that we would have close to 99% of the discreet GPU design wins for gaming notebooks this year. Well, proof is in the pudding. Take a look at MSN Tech UK’s latest round-up of the best gaming notebooks available. All the notebooks mentioned above are present. In fact, the round-up is a sweep by NVIDIA.

“Graphics duty is taken care of by the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M GPU. Oh, and expect a Haswell processor. Rapid is an understatement.”

NVIDIA’s new line-up of GeForce GTX enthusiast notebook GPUs is the best around. The new GPUs include the world’s fastest notebook GPU, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M, as well as GeForce GT 770M, GeForce GTX 765M, and GeForce GTX 760M GPUs.

Gamers = Athletes

Red Bull has long been associated with the emergence and recognition of the new breed of athlete. Whether it is any of the X-game type competitions, jumping from outer space, or jumping to the top of a Las Vegas hotel, Red Bull is among the first to recognize and popularize the activities.

Now Red Bull is getting into e-sports and working with NVIDIA on their new endeavor.

“On June 21-23 during the Red Bull Training Grounds, we’ll be putting the world’s best StarCraft II gaming athletes on the ultimate gaming machines. This summer, the new GeForce GTX TITAN GPU courtesy of NVIDIA will turn heads and revolutionize the performance of competitive StarCraft II gameplay.”

And now, in the eyes of the US government, pro gamers are now considered athletes. This should ease the pain of international travel for tournament players.

“The development means that pro players will now be able to come into the United States on working visas, making it much easier for international players to attend tournaments and other events.”

New Flagship GPUs for Visual Computing

Also at SIGGRAPH 2013 in Anaheim, Calif. this week we took the wraps off the new addition to the Quadro GPU product family. Built to tackle the most complex visual computing problems, the Quadro K6000 is quite simply the fastest and most capable GPU ever built.

Built on the Kepler architecture, the Quadro K6000 provides five-times higher compute performance and nearly double the graphics capability of its predecessor, the NVIDIA Quadro 6000 GPU. It also has the world’s largest and fastest graphics memory, which allows artists, product designers, and other creative experts to run visualization and analysis workloads of unprecedented size and scope.

World-leading organizations like Nissan and Pixar praised this new addition to the Quadro family. Industry press was also very impressed with the off-the-charts performance of the new GPU:

Gizmodo wrote: “Just as an example of the power of this thing, Nissan can apparently load almost-complete vehicle models using it. And that’s incredibly impressive.”

While top design pub, CG Architect, noted: “…[it] is the ultimate expression of NVIDIA’s expertise in professional graphics, empowering artists, designers, and engineers to realize their biggest visions.”

As if that wasn’t enough Quadro goodness, we also announced a new flagship mobile workstation GPU, the Quadro K5100M, which provides unprecedented level of performance and graphics memory for notebook platforms. The Quadro K5100 anchors a new line of GPUs that includes the Quadro K4100M, K3100M, K2100M, K1100M, K610M, and K510M GPUs.

Expect the Quadro K6000 and the new mobile GPUs to start appearing in high-powered notebooks beginning this fall. Dell already provided a sneak peak of a forthcoming system at SIGGRAPH, the Dell Precision M3800 workstation, the world’s thinnest and lightest workstation and powered by the Quadro K1100M.

SHIELD Gets Wet-n-Wild With Riptide GP2

Gamers looking to take their experience to the next level are just days away from getting their hands on the ultimate gaming and entertainment portable, NVIDIA SHIELD. But a great gaming device is nothing without amazing content; and developers have been pushing mobile graphics to the limits with SHIELD-optimized games. Riptide GP2 is no exception.

Fans of Vector Unit’s action-packed jet-ski racing game, Riptide GP, were in for a treat this week as the acclaimed developer launched Riptide GP2 on Google Play. The game is featured in TegraZone with a bevy of Tegra exclusive enhancements, including higher resolution textures, complex shaders, dynamic lights and real-time shadows.

The action-packed, high speed racing of Riptide GP2 combined with the beautifully enhanced graphics made for Tegra 4 and the seamless experience of SHIELD will make the game nearly impossible to put down.

The game launched with overwhelmingly positive reviews, and the Tegra 4-enhancements didn’t go unnoticed:

“Riptide GP 2 will play well on any high-end Android device, but playing on a Tegra-powered system really shines.”

“I’m happy to report that the graphics are absolutely stunning…”

“The Tegra 4 edition will give you the best graphics and experience…”

“[Riptide GP2 has] been optimized for the Tegra 4, giving the user ultra-rich textures, dynamic lighting, and much more. “

“You’ll find real-time shadows following your ski wherever you go, and the water splashes your view remain intact – just as oddly enticing as they were when we first saw them with the Tegra-enhanced version of the first game.”

You can grab Riptide GP2 from Google Play today, for $2.99. And when you back off the throttle, be sure to swing by TegraZone to stay up-to-date with all the hottest Tegra-optimized Android games!