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Finally, a Netbook with Brawn (and Dual-Core Processor)

Paul Lilly — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 07:41:01 -0600

Asus said it was switching to Nvidia's Ion platform for future netbooks, and making good on that promise, the Eee PC maker on Thursday announced the Eee PC 1201N Multimedia Netbook.

Up until now, a multimedia netbook could be considered an oxymoron, if not a cruel joke, but that certainly isn't the case here. Pushing the boundaries between a netbook and notebook, the 1201N sports a 12.1-inch LED display and comes built around Nvidia's pixel-pushing Ion platform. That's great for graphics, but it doesn't stop there. Instead of the ubiquitous Atom N270 processor found in most netbooks, Asus equipped the 1201N with Intel's Atom 330 dual-core processor.

On the storage front, the new netbook comes with a 250GB hard drive and 500GB of online Asus WebStorage. The online storage space is provided for free for the first year, and after that, you'll have to pony up for a subscription plan.

Other specs include 2GB of DDR2 memory, Wi-Fi, three USB2.0 ports, a 6-cell battery good for up to 5 hours of run time, and Windows 7.

No word yet on price or availability.

Image Credit: Asus

Nvidia: We're Still Committed to Gaming Hardware

Paul Lilly — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:30:54 -0600

Now is not the time to abandon the PC as a gaming platform, not with all the money at stake. According to Jon Peddie Research, gamers will spend over $32 billion next year upgrading their PCs, and that's the kind of number that draws the attention of hardware vendors. Enter Nvidia, who suddenly felt the urge to reiterate its commitment to the gaming industry.

"Gaming remains our bread and butter focus area. However, there are other opportunities for us to explore as the company grows, such as the HPC sector," explained Bryan Del Rizzo, a spokesman for Nvidia.

Del Rizzo was responding to rumors that Nvidia was no longer interested in gaming for the HPC (high performance computing) market, calling the notion "completely unfounded" and "ludicrous," TGDaily reports.

"Look, I understand that some people might be feeling anxious because we haven't published detailed information about Fermi-based GeForce cards," said Del Rizzo. "But, I can assure you that data is forthcoming. The wait will be worth it, especially when people understand what products based on Fermi are capable of."

So there you have it: PC gaming is alive and well, and so is Nvidia's interest in catering to computer gamers.

Image Credit: computerbazar.files.wordpress.com

Multitouch Wind Top AE2220 All-in-One from MSI Now Shipping

Paul Lilly — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 08:00:21 -0600

MSI on Wednesday announced it has begun shipping its new Wind Top AE2220 all-in-one desktop PC. The AE2220 takes its place as MSI's flagship all-in-one and expands the company's fast growing Wind Top series.

"The MSI Wind Top is an awesome all-purpose family PC. Share photos, edit videos, play games, watch HD video -- our Ion graphics processor means you can have it all," said Drew Henry, general manger for Ion and GeForce products at Nvidia.

In addition to the Ion platform, the AE2220 boasts an Intel Core 2 Duo T6600 processor clocked at 2.2GHz (Pentium dual-core T4300 also available), a 21.5-inch multitouch display, 4GB of DDR2-800 memory, a 500GB hard drive, optional Blu-ray player, 1.3MP webcam, built-in 6-in-1 card reader, 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, two mini-PCI-E expansion slots, IR receiver, and Windows 7 Home Premium.

The new all-in-one is still a no-show at most retailers, though Amazon still has it listed for pre-order for $700.

Image Credit: MSI

ASUS Announces All Eee PCs Will Switch to ION Platform

Ryan Whitwam — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 20:17:16 -0600

Asus is about to make a big change to their Eee PC line of products. The netbook pioneer has announced that all their future Eee PCs will come equipped with Nvidia ION instead of the slower Intel solution most netbooks and nettops use now. Nvidia claims that ION is ten times faster than Intel’s integrated solution.

ION is famous for being capable of outputting 1080p video without using much power. The ION platform is also able to run Aero cleanly on Windows 7. “These PCs will run circles around most Atom-based systems, so they are an excellent solution,” said Industry analyst Jon Peddie. With the upcoming Flash 10.1 supporting video acceleration, you can expect smooth flash video at long last.

Nvidia Posts Photo of Working Fermi Card

Paul Lilly — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 14:50:40 -0600

Perhaps looking to steal a bit of thunder from AMD's awesome HD 5970 videocard, Nvidia PR guy Brian Burke today posted a picture of the green team's upcoming Fermi-based graphics card. Isn't marketing fun?

On his Twitter account, Burke referred to the Fermi card as a GeForce 100, which he said is the first GeForce GPU based on the new architecture. A screenshot in the background shows the videocard running the Unigine Heaven DirectX 11 benchmark.

That's all that was said (and shown), but the bigger message is the unspoken one that says, "Hey, we're still here, and we're poised to kick AMD's tail." No one from Nvidia actually said that, mind you, but they might as well have if they're going to post a pic of their upcoming graphics card when the talk of the town is centered around AMD's flagship GPU.

Image Credit: Brian Burke, Nvidia

Winner of Ion Case Mod Contest is Glowing Green Cube

Paul Lilly — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 07:30:34 -0600

Bill "Overkill Bill" Owen from Mnpctech walked away a winner in Nvidia's Ion case mod contest announced a few months back. The contest tasked 5 professional case modders with building a "revolutionary Ion-based PC" out of an Zotac Ion ITX 330 motherboard containing an Nvidia Ion GPU and an Intel Atom dual-core CPU, along with $500 for any additional PC parts.

Owen's winning entry came in the form of a wild looking green cube consisting of hundreds of hours of labor and a whole lot of CNC milled sheets of aluminum and laser-cut acrylic.

Full system specs can be found here, but it's the worklog and plethora of pictures that are the real treat, and you can view it all right here.

Image Credit: Mnpctech

Gigabyte 260 GTX Super OC

Loyd Case — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 11:09:43 -0600

The 260 GTX chip pushed to its limit

It’s easy to be seduced by the latest and greatest graphics cards, but you can sometimes find excellent deals in older-generation cards that can still keep up with today’s shader-heavy PC games. Gigabyte’s 260 GTX SuperOC is a good example.

To make the cards, Gigabyte starts with cherry-picked 260 GTX chips from the factory. Then it clocks the GPUs at 680MHz, more than 100MHz faster than the standard 576MHz. Similarly, the SuperOC pushes the shader clock to 1,466MHz, instead of the stock 1,350MHz. Rounding off the performance push is 896MB of GDDR3 running at 1.25GHz instead of 1GHz. Gigabyte delivers these rarefied clock rates at slightly less than $200.

It’s true that the SuperOC won’t deliver Radeon HD 5850 levels of performance—but it also costs $60–$80 less. You should get good performance from the card if you’re willing to run without antialiasing in current games. Note, however, that pushing the card this hard takes power; our system idle power was 160W (compared to 141–142W for the Radeon HD 5000 series cards), and power at full bore was 316W—the same as the much more powerful Radeon HD 5870.

The Gigabyte 260 SuperOC supports Nvidia’s PhysX hardware physics acceleration in games that can take advantage of it, as well as 3DVision, Nvidia’s take on 3D stereoscopic gaming (a 120Hz display is required). The card is currently bundled with Far Cry 2.

Review Roundup:

XFX Radeon HD 5870 HID Radeon HD 5870

Sapphire Radeon HD 5870 Asus EAHH5850

Diamond Radeon HD 5850 Sapphire Radeon HD 5850

Gigabyte 260 GTX Super OC HIS Radeon HD 5770

(Back to the main feature)

Following $1.25 Settlement, Nvidia CEO Wants "Further Action" against Intel

Paul Lilly — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 08:30:32 -0600

With the $1.25 billion settlement between Intel and AMD the talk ot the tech industry, Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang used the situation as an opportunity to take more potshots at Intel and call out its business practices in the mobile sector.

"Intel's tactics with Ion have been the most aggressive we've seen from a competitor. They have offered the Atom [a total of three chips] for $25, but when the one-chip Atom is used with Ion, it sells for $45," Huang said in a statement to CNet. "A customer can't even choose to resell the chipset and use Ion instead. What's the point of Nvidia getting an Intel bus license if it's impossible to overcome Intel's pricing bundles?"

Huang went on to say that "further action needs to be taken to protect consumers," but Intel spokesman Chuck Mulloy says Nvidia's CEO is only telling part of the story.

"He's playing a trick of numbers," said Mulloy. "He's giving you a $45 list price -- that nobody pays -- for a part and then a negotiated price (which is more realistic). He's mixing apples and oranges. We have scrubbed and continue to scrub our pricing practices as it relates to chipsets and processors. It's all above cost. And that meets the legal standard worldwide."

Intel and Nvidia have publicly criticized the other on numerous occasions, most often relating to chipset licensing issues. Huang at one point went so far as to declare the CPU a decaying business, while Intel released a document bashing Nvidia's Ion platform.

Image Credit: TGDaily