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Eurocom has carved out a strange but soft spot in our hearts for its desktop replacement-level laptops — the insistence on overkill hardware leaves even the vaguely ultraportable Monster packing the kind of power reserved for larger-screened (if also much thinner) counterparts. Nowhere is that too-much-is-never-enough attitude truer than in the just-launched, 17.3-inch Scorpius. While supporting up to 32GB of RAM isn’t unique anymore, the Scorpius can optionally carry two of NVIDIA’s GeForce GTX 680M graphics chips with the full 4GB of video RAM per piece. That’s more graphics memory than the total system memory of some entire PCs, folks. Eurocom can optionally slot in two of AMD’s Radeon HD 7970M or step down to a single graphics core, and the usual bevy of processor and storage choices culminates in as much as a quad 2.9GHz Core i7 and four drives. The lowest price that will net a fully functioning Scorpius is $1,793, although we’ll admit that it’s very tempting to pick that dual 680M option and come out with a $2,857 bill — not to mention some serious bragging rights with the gamer crowd.

Continue reading Eurocom intros powerhouse Scorpius laptop, touts more video memory than most desktops

Filed under: Gaming, Laptops

Eurocom intros powerhouse Scorpius laptop, touts more video memory than most desktops originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 10 Aug 2012 21:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Top of the line gaming GPUs from the likes of AMD and NVIDIA may cost a pretty penny, but the price of the professional solutions that the companies offer will really make your eyes water. AMD has introduced the new $3,999 FirePro W9000 graphics card, with the company calling it the “world’s most powerful.” The GPU comes with 6GB of GDDR5 memory, can take advantage of 4 TFLOPS of single precision and a single TFLOP of double precision, and can shift a whopping 1.95 billion triangles per second.

The card is aimed at professionals working with complex models and graphics across multiple monitors, with AMD extending its Eyefinity support to allow the card to drive six 30-inch monitors, each with a 4K resolution. AMD has other models in the series as well, the W8000, W7000, and W5000. AMD claims that the W8000 is 2.2 times faster than the nearest competitor, the W7000 is five times faster in single precision compute mode, and that the W5000 “is the most powerful mid-range workstation graphics card ever created.”

The W8000 is capable of 3.23 TFLOPS of single precision and 806 GFLOPS of double precision, powered by 4GB of GDDR5 RAM and commanding a price of $1,599. The W7000 is a mid-range solution capable of 2.4 TFLOPS of single precision and 152 GFLOPS of double precision with 4GB of RAM, costing $899, while the W5000 is the cheapest and least powerful of the four, capable of 1.27 TFLOPS of single precision and 80 GFLOPS of double precision, paired with 2GB of RAM and costing just $599.

AMD say that the four cards should be available via AMD resellers now. The cards are also compatible with Supermicro SuperWorkstations, utilizing PCI Express 3.0 along with AMD’s ZeroCore power management.

[via Engadget]

AMD FirePro W9000 GPU churns out 4 TFLOPS for $4k is written by Ben Kersey & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

The godfather of Linux, Linus Torvalds, may think that NVIDIA is “the worst,” but Valve respectfully disagrees. The company has been working closely with the manufacturer, as well as AMD and Intel, to boost performance of its hardware under the open source OS. The developer clearly has an interest in getting the best from those companies as it works to port Left 4 Dead 2 and Steam to Linux. That close partnership is already bearing impressive fruit as Valve claims its co-op zombie shooter now performs better on Ubuntu than it does under Windows 7 using a GeForce GTX 680. The first Open GL Linux version managed a measly six frames per second, while the Direct X powered Microsoft one was topping 270. Only a few months later, and Left 4 Dead 2 is hitting 315fps on the 32-bit version of Precise Pangolin, outperforming even the Open GL Windows port which sits at 305fps. Of course, it’s relatively well established that Ubuntu has lower overhead and running Direct X only compounds the issue, though, its unparalleled driver support can’t be denied. While it’s not completely fair to compare performance on a 32-bit OS to a 64-bit one, Valve is proving that gaming on Linux need not be some proof-of-concept exercise. Linus can flip NVIDIA the bird all he wants but, through its work with Valve, it may be doing more to bring Linux to the mainstream than anyone previously has.

Filed under: Gaming

Valve says NVIDIA’s the best, Steam and Left 4 Dead for Linux coming along nicely originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 02 Aug 2012 15:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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AMD has snapped up ex-Apple mobile processor expert Jim Keller, hoping the engineer can bring some Cupertino-style magic to its future performance and low-power processors. Keller worked at Apple-acquired P.A. Semi as VP of design, moving to take up the reins as Apple’s director of platform architecture, where he was responsible for the Apple Ax series of chips powering the iPad, iPhone and Apple TV.

“Keller will lead AMD’s microprocessor core design efforts aligned with AMD’s ambidextrous strategy” the chip manufacturer said today, “with a focus on developing both high-performance and low-power processor cores that will be the foundation of AMD’s future products.” The engineer’s “innovative spirit, low-power design expertise, creativity and drive for success” will be integral in developing AMD’s next-gen chips, his new boss Mark Papermaster said in a statement.

Interestingly, it’s not the only AMD/Apple staff swap in recent weeks. Back in July, ex-AMD engineer John Bruno joined Apple, the man responsible for leading the development of the AMD Trinity APU which the company has staked its current range on. Bruno was originally at ATI prior to the AMD takeover, and specializes in multicore, low-power chipsets.

That area – individually low-power but collectively numerous ARM cores – has become a major threat in the processor business of late, with companies like Qualcomm, Texas Instruments and NVIDIA all looking to challenge Intel and AMD in mainstream computing such as notebooks and servers. Apple in particular has been surrounded by long-standing speculation that it plans ARM-based MacBooks in future.

AMD’s interest in Keller, therefore, is likely to be tied into the chip maker’s defense against that, having already admitted that it effectively ceded the smartphone processor space to rivals in instead prioritizing PCs and tablets.

AMD snatches Apple processor expert is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Lenovo must have struck a chord with schools looking for some rough-and-tumble ThinkPads, as it’s bringing out the ThinkPad X131e even while teachers are still drafting their course plans for the fall semester. The new model keeps that better-than-military ruggedness in an 11.6-inch laptop while freshening the choices of AMD E-series chips or their Intel-made Celeron and Core i3 challengers. Dolby Advanced Audio even gives the speakers boost when it’s not a matter of all work and no play. Educators, in turn, get the usual options for extended support or customizing the laptops with a little school pride. There’s a premium to pay for putting classrooms on the cutting edge, however: at $499, the new systems are $70 more costly than the launch price of the X130e portables they replace, which leaves quite a bit less money for notebooks of the paper variety.

Continue reading Lenovo unveils toughened ThinkPad X131e for education, hikes price to $499

Filed under: Laptops

Lenovo unveils toughened ThinkPad X131e for education, hikes price to $499 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 31 Jul 2012 15:50:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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