gpu

Why your next Android tablet will be more powerful

Your Android tablet sucks. At least compared with what's coming. Later this year we'll see the release of three new Systems on Chip (SoC). SoC is simply the name used for the collection of silicon that makes up the brains of the tablet and includes the CPU, GPU (graphics processing unit), onboard memory, and other processors.

The new chips will no doubt be used to power many high-end Android tablets and are expected to deliver better-looking games, faster Web surfing, increased battery life, and in at least one case, could allow you to take better-looking photos.

Of course, … Read more

Nvidia shows off GeForce 700M GPUs for notebooks

Nvidia yesterday announced five new notebook GPUs designed to deliver the enhanced performance in the devices they're running on.

Collectively known as the GeForce 700M line of GPUs, the chips -- the GT 750M, GT 745M, GT 740M, GT 735M, and GT 720M -- are designed to enhance performance without requiring user input. The GPUs include Nvidia's Boost 2.0 technology, which adjusts clock speed to maximize graphics performance when it's needed. The chips can also enhance battery life, and software that comes with the chips lets users modify visual settings for PC games.

Nvidia's three … Read more

3Dmark for Android separates performance champs from chumps

As a lifelong gamer, 3D performance (and by "3D" I mean polygonal, not stereoscopic) in tablets is something of particular interest to me. Over the last couple of years, I've watched mobile devices increase in performance, getting closer and closer to the capabilities of PCs and consoles. Judging by their performance histories, tablet and smartphone 3D performance is likely to exponentially increase over the next few years and we may soon be carrying around devices that are as powerful as an Xbox 360 (or more powerful) right in our pockets.

Futuremark's latest version of its long-running … Read more

OS X 10.8.3 forces discrete GPU use in 2010 MacBook Pros

A number of owners of Apple's mid-2010 MacBook Pro who have upgraded to OS X 10.8.3 are noticing that systems with dual graphics cards will automatically switch to using the more powerful discrete graphics chip regularly, even when using non-graphics intensive applications like Google Chrome, Dropbox, and Growl. This does not result in crashes or other interruptions in workflow, but it does increase the drain on the systems' battery and result in a shorter working time when not connected to AC power.

The 2010 MacBook Pro has had its fair share of graphics-related issues, including black-screen output … Read more

Nvidia CEO unveils next two gens of Tegra, dubbed Logan, Parker

Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang today talked up the chipmaker's next two generations of mobile chip, saying the Tegra chip line will show a 100-times improvement in strength from the first chip to the fifth.

The current Tegra chip, Tegra 4, hit the market earlier this year. The next generation, coming later this year, is code-named Logan, while the fifth generation of Tegra is code-named Parker, Huang said at the company's GPU developers' conference.

Logan will incorporate Nvidia's Kepler GPU, which currently is dominating the discrete graphics market. It also will include CUDA, Nvidia's programming model for … Read more

ATI 7000 series graphics coming to the Mac?

Yesterday Apple released a developer preview build of OS X 10.8.3 to its testing community, and upon investigating the build a few people have found it includes new drivers for AMD's high-end Radeon 7000 series graphics cards. People who have tested the build with PC versions of the Radeon 7970 have found that the card is recognized and works, and suggests that possibilities for new hardware offerings from Apple are in the works.

In the past, Apple has switched back and forth between graphics processors from AMD and Nvidia with iterations of its hardware, with its latest … Read more

Use your Mac's internal graphics to save battery life

If you have a MacBook system that contains dual graphics cards, then you have the option of enabling either the internal graphics or the discrete graphics card, depending on the hardware demands of the tasks you are running.

Integrated or "internal" graphics functions are included on the Intel processor in your Mac (though some prior Mac systems used Nvidia chipsets with Nvidia-branded internal graphics). This graphics option is relatively slow but also draws far less power than a dedicated graphics processor. The integrated graphics are powered fully when the system is turned on.

If your system includes a … Read more

Nvidia CEO: People buying tablets instead of cheap PCs

Tablets really are replacing PCs now that the latest version of Windows has launched, graphics- and mobile-chip maker Nvidia said.

But at least right now, Nvidia's mobile business isn't big enough to offset the less-than-merry computer market this holiday season.

It's not exactly shocking that tablets have been eating into sales of PCs. Computer makers have noted the trend, and so have Nvidia chip rivals Intel and Advanced Micro Devices.

But what's interesting is that Nvidia says consumers now realize that a "great tablet is better than a cheap PC." That could signal a … Read more

Imagination, supplier of Apple chip tech, to buy MIPS

Imagination, a key supplier of Apple chip technology, will buy MIPS, one of the oldest names in the silicon business.

U.K.-based Imagination Technologies, a major supplier of graphics chips, will buy the operating business of MIPS Technologies, a vendor of power-efficient chips used in routers, set-top boxes, and game machines.

With the deal, valued at $60 million, Imagination will get 82 "key" patents that are "directly relevant to the MIPS architecture" and comprehensive license rights to all of the remaining 498 MIPS' patents, for a total of 580 patents.

Imagination, known primarily as a … Read more