Hasta La Gadget!

You might have hoped that NVIDIA’s introduction of the 400M series of mobile GPUs would bring about a slew of hot new laptops to drop into our gaming boudoirs, but we are in fact left facing more of the same. Externally, anyhow. The chipmaker rolled out the green carpet for a set of upcoming machines in London today, but they were refreshes, rather than overhauls, of current hardware. The big news is to be found within, as the new GTX 460M has made a home inside the updated ASUS G53, Toshiba Qosmio X505, and MSI GT663. The common thread among these three is that they’re all big and hefty, and all emit a subtle vroom sound every time you touch them. What we learned from NVIDIA today is that the GTX 480M will remain an exotic (you might even call it quixotic) GPU reserved for large-screen gaming stations, the GTX 470M will similarly be an enthusiast part, and the GTX 460M will be the company’s big play for the mainstream performance market. It also became clear that even the third GPU in the company’s mobile hierarchy will need quite a bulky cooling setup (and a proportionately huge charger) to do its job, but NVIDIA’s promises of much-improved performance might just make it worthwhile.

As to the more sane among us, there was a selection of pleasingly thinner machines, like the ASUS N53 and Acer Aspire 5745, which make do with the lower-specced GT 420M and GT 425M graphics chips. Those are expected to be NVIDIA’s biggest sellers, and the video demo after the break of the 425M churning through StarCraft II is certainly appealing. We should note, however, that the latest (though definitely not greatest) Prince of Persia game was also on tap on one of these machines and its frame rate gave us a delightful old-timey feeling any time we entered combat with its emulation of stop-motion animation. So, as ever, it’s looking like great graphics will require great rigs, but we can probably expect a decent — not game-changing (get it?) — leap in performance among the lighter options as well.

Continue reading NVIDIA trots out GeForce 400M series laptops, shows off StarCraft II gameplay (video)

NVIDIA trots out GeForce 400M series laptops, shows off StarCraft II gameplay (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 10 Sep 2010 16:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If your current WindBox is growing a bit long in the tooth, MSI has a newcomer with somewhat more respectable internals. Since it’s a fanless machine designed to live on the rear of your LCD, you won’t be ordering one with a Core i7, but the included Core 2 Duo chip is certainly a step above what’s been offered in the past. It’s designed primarily to be used as an ultra-low power solution for folks needing to handle the simplest of simple tasks, though the integrated graphics are purportedly capable of HD playback (on a good day). It’s packing DVI, VGA and HDMI outputs, six USB 2.0 sockets, a pair of mini-PCIe slots, inbuilt 802.11b/g/n WiFi and a Bluetooth module, but your guess is as good as ours when it comes to price or availability.

MSI WindBox III gets a bit more oomph, still lives on your LCD originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 02 Sep 2010 17:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The wait for a legitimate mass market Windows 7 tablet continues, but at least MSI is showing signs of progress. The WindPad 100, which we saw at Computex in prototype form, has now reached design maturity and the concordant gallery of pictures has been distributed to the world. There’s no word of any spec changes, meaning we’re still looking at a 1.66GHz Atom Z530 CPU, 32GB SSD, 2GB RAM, Wind Touch UI overlay, and HDMI plus 2x USB ports on the stat sheet. The 100 has been joined by a new dock in these latest images, which will throw in the typical expanded connectivity options. We can probably expect to see both reappearing at IFA in Berlin in about a month’s time.

MSI’s 10-inch WindPad 100 advances past prototype stage, gets pictured with a dock originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 16 Aug 2010 06:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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MSI’s GT660 has been kicking around in various forms for a few months now, but the latest edition (dubbed GT660R) is just now splashing down on a few e-tailer websites. Boasting a 1.73GHz Core i7-740QM processor, 6GB of RAM, a 1TB hard drive (7,200RPM), Blu-ray combo drive and NVIDIA’s GeForce GTX 285M, this 16-inch beast is more than capable of handling whatever HD media and first-person shooters you’ve got sitting around. ‘Course, you’ll need to be fully prepared to lug around 7.7 pounds of heft, and the 1,366 x 768 resolution is far from ideal, but at least you’re given a 64-bit copy of Windows 7 Home Premium. It’s up for order now at $1,699.99, but unless you’ve got a thing for atypically large pixels, we’d suggest springing for an alternative that’ll display 1080p natively.

MSI’s Core i7-equipped GT660R makes itself available to US consumers originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 25 Jul 2010 08:06:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Are MSI’s 12.1-inch netbooks a hair too large for you? Wonder of wonders, there’s a smaller version that’s practically exactly the same inside. Though the new MSI Wind12 U230 Light confusingly weighs just the same as its predecessor (3.3 pounds) and is still 1.22 inches thick, it’s got a smaller 11.6-inch matte LCD screen that makes it two inches shorter in either direction on a horizontal plane. You’re still getting the same 1,366 x 768 display, 1.6GHz Athlon Neo MV-40 processor, 2GB of RAM, Radeon HD 3200 graphics, 250GB hard drive and sub-par four hours of battery life, but MSI did think to trim the fat in one last direction, and knocked $30 off the price. That makes the now-shipping U230 Light a somewhat reasonable deal at $400 from Amazon. PR after the break.

Continue reading MSI launches Wind12 U230 ‘Light,’ shaves two inches and 30 clamshells from predecessor’s hide

MSI launches Wind12 U230 ‘Light,’ shaves two inches and 30 clamshells from predecessor’s hide originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 21 Jul 2010 07:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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