NVIDIA announces second generation Maximus, now with Kepler power

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/08/07/nvidia-announces-second-generation-maximus/

It's been almost exactly a year since we first heard about NVIDIA's Maximus technology, and today the firm's just announced an update. The second generation of the platform is now supported by Kepler-based GPUs. This time around computational tasks get ferried off to the SMX-streaming K20 GPU, leaving the 3,840 x 2,160 resolution-supporting Quadro K5000 GPU ($3,199) to tackle the graphical functions. Want to know when you can get your hands on the goods? Well, NVIDIA says starting December, with the Quadro K5000 ($2,249 MSRP) available as a standalone in October. Head down to the PR for the full spin and forthcoming workstation / OEM details.

Continue reading NVIDIA announces second generation Maximus, now with Kepler power

Filed under: Desktops

NVIDIA announces second generation Maximus, now with Kepler power originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 07 Aug 2012 09:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

Read More...

Summary only...

OpenGL ES 3.0 and OpenGL 4.3 squeeze textures to the limit, bring OpenVL along for the ride

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/08/07/opengl-es-3-0-and-opengl-4-3-squeeze-textures-to-the-limit/

Mobile graphics are clearly setting the agenda at SIGGRAPH this year -- ARM's Mali T600-series parts have just been chased up by a new Khronos Group standard that will likely keep those future video cores well-fed. OpenGL ES 3.0 represents a big leap in textures, introducing "guaranteed support" for more advanced texture effects as well as a new version of ASTC compression that further shrinks texture footprints without a conspicuous visual hit. OpenVL is also coming to give augmented reality apps their own standard. Don't worry, desktop users still get some love through OpenGL 4.3: it adds the new ASTC tricks, new visual effects (think blur) and support for compute shaders without always needing to use OpenCL. All of the new standards promise a bright future in graphics for those living outside of Microsoft's Direct3D universe, although we'd advise being patient: there won't be a full Open GL ES 3.0 testing suite for as long as six months, and any next-generation phones or tablets will still need the graphics hardware to match.

Continue reading OpenGL ES 3.0 and OpenGL 4.3 squeeze textures to the limit, bring OpenVL along for the ride

Filed under:! Cellphones, Gaming, Tablet PCs

OpenGL ES 3.0 and OpenGL 4.3 squeeze textures to the limit, bring OpenVL along for the ride originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 07 Aug 2012 04:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink TechCrunch  |  Khronos Group (OpenGL ES), (OpenGL)  | Email this | Comments

Read More...

Summary only...

Google experiment lets you visualize the global arms trade in detail

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/08/07/google-experiment-lets-you-visualize-the-global-arms-trade-in-de/

We're all well aware of Google's drive for experimenting with bizarre tidbits from time to time, and the search giant's latest venture is one that gives a rather colorful and very detailed look at the global arms trade. Not surprisingly, the results are quite astonishing thanks to the interactivity and great amount of data Mountain View's been able to add to its visualization -- showing info like the number of imports / exports by each country from as far back as 1992 all the way up until 2010. There's a lot more to it, however, with the ability to also see how much cash was being spent per nation, and whether it was on ammo or civilian / military weapons. For that, you might want to head over to the Arms Trade site, where you'll be able to take Google's experiment for a spin -- literally.

Filed under: Internet

Google experiment lets you visualize the global arms trade in detail originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 07 Aug 2012 06:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Mashable  |  Chrome Experiments (Arms Trade)  | Email this | Comments

Read More...

Summary only...

AMD announces $4k FirePro W9000 GPU, entry-level FirePro A300 APU for CAD and graphics pros

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/08/07/amd-firepro-w9000-gpu-firepro-a300-apu/

After a brief tease earlier this summer, AMD just announced pricing and availability for its new market-leading FirePro W9000 graphics processing unit -- the $3,999 GPU is available now through AMD resellers, and is compatible with Supermicro SuperWorkstations. Joining that "world's most powerful" rig are the W8000, W7000 and W5000, which sell for $1,599, $899 and $599, respectively, and can each power six 30-inch 4K displays. Power-hungry pros will want to opt for the top-of-the-line model in order to take advantage of four TFLOPs single precision or one TFLOP double precision, along with 6 gigs of high-speed GDDR5 RAM. The W8000, on the other hand, offers 3.23 TFLOPs single precision and 806 GFLOPs double precision, followed by the W7000 with 2.4 TFLOPs / 152 GFLOPs, both with 4 gigs of RAM, along with the W5000, which packs 1.27 TFLOPs single and 80 GFLOPs double, with 2 GB of GDDR5 RAM.

Design pros with slightly more modest demands may find the FirePro A300 APU more in line with their budgets -- we don't have precise pricing to share, since third parties will ship their own configs, but terms like "entry-level" and "mainstream" make it clear that you won't be drawing in more than a couple zeros in the checkbook to make your purchase. The integrated solution utilizes AMD's Turbo Core tech, supports Eyefinity and Discrete Compute Offload, and can power horizontal display arrays of up to 10,240 x 1,600 pixels. You'll ! find all the nitty-gritty in the pair of press releases after the break.

Continue reading AMD announces $4k FirePro W9000 GPU, entry-level FirePro A300 APU for CAD and graphics pros

Filed under: Desktops, Gaming, Peripherals

AMD announces $4k FirePro W9000 GPU, entry-level FirePro A300 APU for CAD and graphics pros originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 07 Aug 2012 00:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

Read More...

Summary only...

ARM's eight-core Mali GPUs promise 'dramatic' boost to mobile graphics

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/08/06/arm-second-gen-mali-t600-gpus/

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 c ores 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.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

Read More...

Summary only...