Posted 11/18/09 at 02:50:40 PM by Paul Lilly

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.

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Posted 11/09/09 at 10:25:05 AM by Paul Lilly

Like everyone else, we're chomping at the bit to see what Nvidia's next-gen Fermi graphics chipset (GT300) brings to the table, so we're a little bummed it's been pushed back until Q1 2010. The delayed launch, however, isn't expected to negatively impact Nvidia's sales for the remainder of 2009, DigiTimes reports.

When Fermi does ship, Nvidia will position the GPU into three different product lines, including the GeForce brand, Quadro, and Tesla, according to company CEO Jen-Husn Huang.

While the delay is unlikely to hurt Nvidia's bottom line, that could change if Fermi gets pushed back a second time, some analysts warn. They say Nvidia could start to lose some of its market share should Fermi arrive in April 2010, as AMD will in all likelihood have already started shipping its entry-level Radeon HD 5600 and 5300 GPUs.

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Posted 10/06/09 at 12:00:00 PM by Loyd Case

As a developer of graphics technology, Nvidia has been incredibly successful. Despite severe competitive pressure from AMD, Nvidia’s desktop GPUs still hold the number one market share, though AMD recently upped the ante with the release of the Radeon HD 5870, which is hands down the fastest single GPU card today.

It’s clear, though, after Nvidia’s recent GPU Technology Conference, that the company’s aspirations lie well beyond building graphics chips. That’s not a revelation – Nvidia’s been saying this for several years now. For an industry observer, though, the GPU Tech Conference lays out Nvidia’s model for moving beyond just graphics.

That model, ironically, is Intel.

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Posted 10/02/09 at 02:45:34 PM by The Maximum PC Staff

In this week's episode, Will gives a recap of the keynote from Nvidia's GPU Technology Conference, where CEO Jen-Hsun Huang announced their new Fermi GPU. The gang discusses the latest Google Wave beta, Nathan chimes in to talk about his hands-on with Thermaltake's wild Level 10 PC case, and we also tackle a bunch of listener questions. Gordon finishes off the podcast with another furious rant of the week. 

Do you have a tech question? A comment? A tale of technological triumph? Just need to get something off your chest? A secret to share? Email us at maximumpcpodcast@gmail.com or call our 24-hour No BS Podcast hotline at 877.404.1337 x1337--operators are standing by.

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Posted 10/01/09 at 11:30:39 AM by Paul Lilly

During Nvidia's GPU Technology conference in San Jose, California on Wednesday, Jen-Hsun Huang, the company's outspoken chief executive, announced a next-generation graphics chip code-named "Fermi."

According to Huang, Fermi comes packed with 3 billion transistors and 512 parallel processors, which is twice as many as last year's chip. And while it will do wonders for gaming graphics, Fermi is also being aimed at scientists performing complex simulations, such as global warming, weather prediction, and other tasks typically associated with supercomputers.

Acknowledging that his company is behind AMD in releasing next-gen parts, Huang promised that we'll see Fermi-based products within a few short months.

"Nobody likes it when the competitor has a product and we don't," Huang said. "We have a different vision. I don't like to keep our enthusiasts waiting for our next-generation processor. But if we are behind a couple of months, it's not going to matter."

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