Nvidia shows Tegra 4 tech (pictures)

BARCELONA, Spain--Nvidia showed off its hot new Tegra 4 and Tegra 4i mobile processors here at Mobile World Congress, where we went hands-on with some of its reference devices. The glossy graphics of Real Boxing were rendered well with smooth frame rates. It'll certainly keep the casual gamer happy, if nothing else.

This power meter showed the Tegra 4 processor was using around 900 milliwatts of power during high-definition video playback -- around 25 percent less than most smartphones would achieve.

Zombie Driver has been optimized for the Tegra 4 processor. Even on this 1080p display, the gameplay and dynamic, real-time shadows were extremely smooth.

If you take gaming seriously, you'll want to hook up an external controller.

In general use, Nvidia's reference tablets were pleasingly swift.

We booted up various benchmarking tools, including Geekbench 2, where we saw a score of 4,066 -- around three times what the Google Nexus 7 achieved.

It handled 3D graphics tests extremely well, too.

There aren't any finished products using the Tegra 4 chips just yet -- here are some reference tablets.

The Tegra 4i is smaller than the previous generation and has a built-in LTE modem.

Power consumption seemed generally impressive, but we'll have to see what real-world battery tests are like when we get devices in our hands later in the year.