Right now, ARM graphics aren’t exactly bad. The Samsung’s Galaxy SIII with its quad-core Mali 400 GPU leads the pack in mobile prettiness, but the upcoming ARM GPUs, scalable to eight-cores, could blow it out of the water. More »
The international versions of the Galaxy S II, Galaxy Note, and Galaxy S III all make use of an Exynos processor paired with a Mali-400 GPU, which has proven to be quite a champ in the performance department. Now ARM has unveiled its second-generation of graphics, the Mali-T600 GPU. ARM says that the T600 series has been fine tuned for smartphones, tablet, and smart TVs, with variants ranging from quad- to octo-core.
The Mali-T624 starts with a single core but scale up to four cores, while the more powerful T-628 can go all the way up to eight cores for twice the graphics performance. Both chips are aimed at smart TVs and smartphones, while the T678 is designed for tablets. That chip is four times more powerful than the T624 thanks to increased ALU support, and is meant to be used for computational photography as well as augmented reality.
On top of the boost in performance, ARM is keen to point out the investments it has made in the GPU compute department too. By tapping into the GPU, a wider range of smartphones will be able to leverage real-time photo editing, plus others functions like improved video stabilization. That ties in with partnerships with MediaTek and Rockchip, with both companies working with ARM in order to utilize the new T600 GPUs across a large range of devices.
Naturally, Samsung is along for the ride as well, saying that it will be working closely with ARM in order to bring the improved GPUs to future Exynos chipsets. Currently the Galaxy S III uses an improved Mali-400 GPU, but it’s not hard to imagine that future smartphones and tablets from the company will make use of the new T600 series.
ARM Mali-T600 GPU series promises up to eight cores is written by Ben Kersey & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
The current flagship for ARM’s mobile graphics technology is undoubtedly the Galaxy S III, which contains a quad-core Mali 400 GPU and delivers some wild benchmark scores. By the end of this year though, we should see a whole new generation of Malis — not just a Mali 450 for mid-range handsets, but also the quad-core T604 and the eight-core T658, which are based on ARM’s Midgard architecture and are taking forever to come to market. Now, to whet our appetites even further, ARM has just added three more variants of the chip to its roster, which can almost be considered the next-next-generation: the quad-core T624, and the T628 and T678, which are both scalable up to eight cores.
The trio’s headline feature is that they promise to deliver at least 50 percent more performance with the same silicon area and power draw, with the explicit aim of delivering “console-class gaming,” 4K and even 8K video workloads, as well as buttery 60fps user interfaces in phones, tablets and smart TVs. The premium T678 is aimed at tablets specifically, and in addition to allowing up to eight cores also doubles the number of math-crunching ALUs per core, which means that its compute performance (measured in gigaflops) is actually quadrupled compared to the T624. However, there’s one other, subtler change which could turn out to be equally important — read on for more.
Continue reading ARM’s eight-core Mali GPUs promise ‘dramatic’ boost to mobile graphics
Filed under: Cellphones, Home Entertainment, Tablet PCs
ARM’s eight-core Mali GPUs promise ‘dramatic’ boost to mobile graphics originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 06 Aug 2012 11:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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It’s been a while since ARM announced its next generation of Mali GPUs, the T604 and T658, but in the semiconductor business silence should never be confused with inactivity. Behind the scenes, the chip designers have been working with Khronos — that great keeper of open standards — to ensure the new graphics processors are fully compliant with OpenCL and are therefore able to use their silicon for general compute tasks (AR, photo manipulation, video rendering etc.) as well as for producing pretty visuals.
Importantly, ARM isn’t settling for the Embedded Profile version of OpenCL that has been “relaxed” for mobile devices, but is instead aiming for the same Full Profile OpenCL 1.1 found in compliant laptop and desktop GPUs. A tall order for a low-power processor, perhaps, but we have a strong feeling that Khronos’s certification is just a formality at this point, and that today’s news is a harbinger of real, commercial T6xx-powered devices coming before the end of the year. Even the souped-up Mali 400 in the European Galaxy S III can only reign for so long.
Filed under: Cellphones, Tablet PCs
ARM claims new GPU has desktop-class brains, requests OpenCL certificate to prove it originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 02 Aug 2012 14:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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The GHz Edition was supposed to deliver a significant mid-cycle performance bump to AMD’s flagship 7970, without any attendant rise in cost. Instead, according to AnandTech, it looks like third-party vendors are looking to exploit the GE has a chance to max out every other spec in addition to the updated silicon and then charge a premium. Sapphire’s new Toxic card is a case in point — a 6GB double-helping of VRAM and a “Lethal” BIOS mode that takes base clock up to 1150MHz and memory clock to 6.4GHz (compared to 6GHz on the stock card). Those who can splutter up $699 will surely love it, but it’s no substitute for the $499 upgrade that AMD originally intended.
First GHz Edition Radeon HD 7970 hits shelves, throws $699 wrench into AMD’s pricing strategy originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 31 Jul 2012 05:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Keeping everything nice and smooth on operating systems can be a bit of a challenge thanks to the differing hardware used across systems, but Microsoft has pledged to keep everything speedy in Windows 8. Taking to the MSDN blog, a lengthy post details how the company is taking advantage of hardware acceleration to ensure a steady frame rate of 60fps while keeping any graphical glitches and anomalies low.
Microsoft has focused in on a few key areas to help make that fluid experience happen. Text rendering has been dramatically improved thanks to DirectWrite, with performance increases ranging from 131% to 336%. 2D geometry rendering also sees a boost, so any bars or charts rendered in Excel or PowerPoint shouldn’t cause any unnecessary slowdown. That’s also important for HTML5 rendering in Internet Explorer 10, and for any elements used in Metro apps.
On top of improved image and video rendering, DirectX 11.1 will also be the foundation for all hardware acceleration, so both 2D and 3D elements can take advantage of the technologies on offer. One API will now handle all graphics rendering, which reduces memory usage, and makes things a lot easier for apps trying to get access to the GPU whether it be tablet or traditional PC hardware.
Microsoft extols virtues of Windows 8 graphics performance is written by Ben Kersey & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
While Microsoft has been exploring the sensory experiences that will go into Windows 8, like sight and touch, there’s only one thing that many enthusiasts care about: speed. To their delight, Redmond has just devoted one of its pre-release blog posts to showing just how much faster its hardware graphics acceleration will be in a Metro-focused universe. The goal is a hiccup-free 60Hz frame rate, and virtually everything in Windows 8 centers on that ambition. Baked-in transition effects, optimized geometry and even improved font rendering give modern computers a huge jump in performance versus Windows 7. Microsoft is just as keen to expose that power, as well: Direct3D 11.1 is now the root of all video acceleration in the pipeline, making it both easier and faster to mix 2D and 3D. All told, Windows 8 promises to get responsiveness freaks and benchmark lovers all hot and bothered. If either label describes you, the source link might satiate your lust until October 26th.
Filed under: Software
Microsoft digs deep into Windows 8’s hardware graphics boost, says fast just isn’t slick enough originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 23 Jul 2012 23:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
The recent release of the Radeon HD 7970 Ghz Edition is having knock-on benefits further down the stack. $20 has now been shaved off the regular 7970 rrp in addition to the last discount we reported, while the 7950 is down $50 to $349 and the 7870 has also been nudged $50 deeper into the mid-range sweet spot at $249. Other cards in the line-up may also drop by some degree, although there’s no official word on those just yet. These summer prices should start having an impact in stores from today — just in time to benefit from the latest Catalyst 12.7 drivers, which promise to bring significant performance gains and hence even more tension to your NVIDIA product comparisons.
Continue reading AMD chops up to $50 off Radeon HD 7970, 7950 and 7870 graphics cards
AMD chops up to $50 off Radeon HD 7970, 7950 and 7870 graphics cards originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 16 Jul 2012 11:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Happy first-quarter birthday, Kepler. Your reference design is old enough for companies like EVGA, MSI, ASUS, Zotac to push your various clock speeds to the limit, while using custom coolers to avoid meltdown. Arguably the time to upgrade is now and that’s why Hot Hardware has done a full-on round-up review, comparing some of the best GTX 680 and GTX 670 packages against each other and against the Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition. If you prefer your morning news fresh and unspoilered, jump straight to the source link below. Or, if you just want the gist of it, click Read More.
Continue reading NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 and 670 round-up: which overclocked card is the one for you?
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 and 670 round-up: which overclocked card is the one for you? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 13 Jul 2012 07:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Oh, to sit in a darkened room all day and get paid to do art. No phone calls, no stress, and no technology except for a PC and a brand new $1,999 Wacom Cintiq 22HD tablet display (and maybe also a pair of equally well-engineered Beyerdynamics). Alas, only our Distro magazine crew get to live like that — the rest of the Engadget team must make do with spec sheets and quick hands-on impressions, which are precisely what you’ll find after the break.
Gallery: Wacom Cintiq 22HD hands-on
Gallery: Wacom Cintiq 22HD publicity photos
Continue reading Wacom announces Cintiq 22HD pen display, we go hands-on (video)
Filed under: Displays, Peripherals
Wacom announces Cintiq 22HD pen display, we go hands-on (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 10 Jul 2012 00:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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