Hasta La Gadget!

Let’s get the hard data out of the way first: 480 CUDA cores, 700 MHz graphics and 1,401MHz processor clock speeds, plus 1.5GB of onboard GDDR5 memory running at 1,848MHz (for a 3.7GHz effective data rate). Those are the specs upon which Fermi is built, and those are the numbers that will seek to justify a $499 price tag and a spectacular 250W TDP. We attended a presentation by NVIDIA this afternoon, where the above GTX 480 and its lite version, the GTX 470, were detailed. The latter card will come with a humbler 1.2GB of memory plus 607MHz, 1,215MHz and 1,674MHz clocks, while dinging your wallet for $349 and straining your case’s cooling with 215W of hotness.

NVIDIA’s first DirectX 11 parts are betting big on tessellation becoming the way games are rendered in the future, with the entire architecture being geared toward taking duties off the CPU and freeing up its cycles to deliver performance improvements elsewhere. This is perhaps no better evidenced than by the fact that both GTX models scored fewer 3DMarks than the Radeon HD 5870 and HD 5850 that they’re competing against, but managed to deliver higher frame rates than their respective competitors in in-game benchmarks from NVIDIA. The final bit of major news here relates to SLI scaling, which is frankly remarkable. NVIDIA claims a consistent 90 percent performance improvement (over a single card) when running GTX 480s in tandem, which is as efficient as any multi-GPU setup we’ve yet seen. After the break you’ll find a pair of tech demos and a roundup of the most cogent reviews.

Continue reading NVIDIA unleashes GeForce GTX 480 and GTX 470 ‘tessellation monsters’

NVIDIA unleashes GeForce GTX 480 and GTX 470 ‘tessellation monsters’ originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 26 Mar 2010 19:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Whether you wanna call it the affordable high end or the really supercharged midrange, ATI has decided that there is a space to be filled between its scorching 5850/70 cards and the only somewhat slower 5770 SKU. So let’s all meet the $239 HD 5830, shall we? As is par for the Evergreen course, it’s a 40nm DirectX 11 card, and while it matches the 2.15 billion transistor count of the 5850, the new contender makes do with only 16 ROPs and 1,120 stream processors. To compensate for that processing loss, the core clock is raised to 800MHz while maintaining the 1GHz memory speed of the elder 5850. If this sounds like the 5830 will basically be composed of 5850 chips that didn’t quite make the high grade, good, because that’s exactly what’s happening. Internet reviewers have already had some time to play around with ATI’s latest card, and if we can draw a consensus, it would be that while the performance is pretty much spot on between its nearest siblings, the price is that little bit too steep to make the HD 5830 an easy recommendation.

Read – AnandTech
Read – HotHardware
Read – HardOCP
Read – PC Perspective
Read – Legit Reviews
Read – ExtremeTech

ATI busts out Radeon HD 5830, covers all bases originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 25 Feb 2010 03:56:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Amazingly, these waves of Crapgadgets tend to showcase some sort of mini-trend. Oftentimes it’s a certain fondness for USB overkill, while other times it just feels like gaudy is the new black. This go ’round, however, we’re looking at a veritable cornucopia of lameness. Eager to drop a Jackson to enjoy one of the most non-ergonomic wooden mice to ever see the light of day? Now you can. There’s also the common issue of not being able to see text in a book while in pure darkness, but rather than just flipping a light switch or changing time zones to locate the sun, there’s a wearable necklace to do the trick. Believe it or not, the list just keeps on getting better, with a machine gun-styled USB drive, heart-shaped telephone and a USB scent flower rounding things out. Dive into dumpster below if you dare, and drop your vote for the worst of the worst in the poll below.

Read – USB bamboo mouse
Read – Wearable hands-free light
Read – Machine gun USB drive
Read – USB guitar speaker
Read – Heart-shaped telephone
Read – USB scent flower
Read – Steering wheel Bluetooth mount

Crapgadget: ‘no rhyme or reason’ edition originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 24 Jan 2010 12:48:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Now that Apple’s officially announced an event to show off its “latest creation” on the 27th, the rumors and gossip are about to get even more out of hand — eventually we expect them to take flight and start raiding small towns for soda water and appetizers. In the meantime, however, we’ve got the latest batch of somewhat-sober whispers to tide us over, so let’s run through ’em, shall we?

The rumor: The iPhone Blog points us to a China Times piece setting the tablet’s screen size at 9.7 inches. (We covered the 22-inch touchscreen iMac rumor separately.)
Our take: At this point we’ve heard pretty much every screen size from eight inches to 11, so we’re not making a call either way on this one. We will say that the only other product with a 9.7-inch screen we can think of off-hand is the Kindle DX — a relatively simple device that’s still so large and heavy we generally hold it with two hands. Just something to think about.

The rumor: Ars Technica talks to the director of the OLED Association, who rules out a 10.1-inch AMOLED screen by saying “there’s no real production of 10.1-inch panels.” Oh, and the only place to buy those would be Samsung, really, and Sammy doesn’t have the capacity.
Our take: We never thought a 10.1 OLED screen was likely: not only are prices insane, but OLED still has terrible daylight viewing issues. The Ars piece is well worth a read, though — it’s a nice look at the state of OLED.

Continue reading Apple rumor roundup: future of media edition

Apple rumor roundup: future of media edition originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 19 Jan 2010 12:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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No words can stress how much we’re sick of Apple ‘iSlate‘ rumors right now, but when someone with powerful links speaks up, we gotta take note. Kai-fu Lee — former Google China president — has joined the Apple rumor mill by leaking what he claims to be insider knowledge of the device. Now, we’ve heard a lot of this same noise before: sub-$1000 price, an iPhone-like appearance, 10.1-inch multitouch screen, video conferencing, cellular connectivity, 3D graphics and virtual keyboard. What really got our attention is Lee’s link with Foxconn — the Apple OEM is one of the main contributors to Lee’s post-Google investment venture, Innovation Works, so there’s a good chance that Lee’s spoken to someone overlooking the manufacturing of a certain Apple device. Of course, we can’t abide Lee’s final proclamation that “Apple expects to produce near ten million units in the first year!” This is pretty bold considering Apple’s only sold five million portable computers so far this year (and ten million was the number of iPods sold in Q3 2009 alone), but hey, who knows if Steve Jobs has already worked out a subsidizing plan with some carriers to lure us all?

Continue reading Apple tablet rumor party: Fox News, former Google China president, and the ‘iGuide’

Apple tablet rumor party: Fox News, former Google China president, and the ‘iGuide’ originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 30 Dec 2009 20:53:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink The iPhone Blog, CNET  |  Kai-fu Lee’s microblog, Fox News, Mac Rumors  | Email this | Comments