NVIDIA nTeresting Newsletter - 17 September 2012

In this Issue:

· GeForce GTX 660 and GTX 650 means Kepler in every gamer's PC!

· Mac users are crazy about the NVIDIA Quadro K5000 for Mac launch.

· Nabi 2 is a kid's tablet, but it is not just kid stuff.

· CUDA makes a huge difference for Adobe CS6 users.

GeForce GTX 660 and GTX 650: Kepler Keeps Rolling

The Kepler Juggernaut of delivering dramatically improved levels of price-performance and power efficiency continues.

"OK, wow, this is awkward. You know, we really can't keep meeting like this. Every few weeks, it seems like, we're back in this same place, and I'm telling the same story again. You know the one, where NVIDIA has taken its potent Kepler GPU architecture, shaved off a few bits, and raised the performance ceiling for a lower price range. By now, you know how it ends: with me explaining that this new graphics card delivers enough performance for most people and questioning why anyone would spend more."

Last week, NVIDIA launched the latest GTX additions to our Kepler line up of GPUs, the new GeForce GTX 660 and GTX 650 GPUs.

"...it's hard not to rate the GTX 660 2GB as the mid-range card of choice for this generation. Positioned precisely between the HD 7850 2GB and HD 7870 2GB and proving a better choice than both, it looks like it was worth the wait after all."

Our new GeForce GTX 660 and GTX 650 GPUs are the ideal combination of performance, price and power efficiency for gamers who want all of the key new features found in the GTX 680, but in a more affordable package.

"NVIDIA wanted to make Kepler available to every gamer with an affordable option and with the GTX 660 in an incredible combination of performance / power efficiency / affordability and they have hit the nail on the head on every count."

As well as whisper-quiet operation for PC gamers, starting at $229 and $109 USD, respectively.

"Interestingly enough, despite the increase in power consumption and temperatures, overclocking has almost no impact on noise. In the worst case scenario our GTX 660's increased its fan speed by all of 2%, which increases noise by less than 1dB."

In fact, GeForce GTX 660 and 650 are priced perfectly to hit the sweet spot for gamers and provide excellent upgrades for this fall's large number of DirectX 11 and PhysX titles.

"If you've got a GeForce 9800 GT or GTX 460-class graphics card and have been holding off on an upgrade, our testing suggests that you can expect a 2X - 4X performance improvement by moving to a card like the new GeForce GTX 660. In addition to increased performance, however, newer cards also offer other benefits, like lower-power, lower-noise (usually), and additional features like full DX11 support."

These boards have already received awards from HardOCP, The Tech Report, Hot Hardware, Legit Reviews, Hardware Canucks, PC Perspective, MaximumPC and others.

NVIDIA Quadro K5000 for Mac Launch is Sweet News for Apple Professional Users

Press reaction to our launch last Friday at IBC in Amsterdam has been very enthusiastic among key trade press and especially those who cover the Mac, with media recognizing that the Quadro K5000 for Mac is exciting, groundbreaking technology-the most powerful professional-class GPU ever for the Mac Pro:

Maclife comments, "While we wait to see if Apple will revitalize the product line, at least NVIDIA is offering something new."

Studio Daily is impressed, stating, "For those editors, colorists and compositors already committed to Mac-based grading and creative software but who can't wait until 2013, when Apple says it will release newly configured and updated Mac Pros able to handle higher-resolution workflows, the card comes as a serious lifeline."

Graphics industry analyst Jon Peddie adds, "NVIDIA, which seems to leave no stone unturned, is doing what it can to keep the Apple workstation market up to date."

...and Hot Hardware pretty much sums it up, describing the Quadro K5000 for Mac as, "the meanest, baddest, fastest professional-class GPU ever released for the Mac platform...The Quadro K5000 is a beast."

This "beast" for the Mac Pro becomes available later this year.

Nabi 2: The Right Tablet for Kids

The Tegra 3-powered Nabi 2 received a number of rave reviews when the kid-friendly tablet launched earlier this year and the buzz it's generating has yet to settle down. Forbes recently named the Nabi 2 one of "The Nine Hottest Android Tablets For Kids And Education," saying:

"The Tegra 3-based hardware spanks most of the other competitors out there. What the Nabi does come with is the obligatory orange rubber case, parental controls, and a bunch of pre-loaded games and educational apps as well as videos and songs which Wired's reviewer (and his 4-year-old son) loved."

Android Police is on-board as well, calling attention to its incredible value, inclusion of fantastic educational choices for kids and amazing performance.

"Designed just for kids in terms of usability, but still packing the hardware guts to maintain relevance for months/years to come, the Nabi 2 is an unmatched choice when it comes to Android-powered devices for kids."

The Nabi 2 offers incredible value at just $199 and is available at Wal-Mart, Best Buy, and Amazon.

Got CS6? Get Quadro. Part II

BSN* has part two of their review of Adobe Creative Suite 6. It is pretty clear what the correct tool of the trade is CUDA:

"Peter Jackson will finally have a proper tool for editing the Blu-ray extended edition of The Hobbit."

CUDA is the name of NVIDIA's parallel computing hardware architecture. NVIDIA provides a complete toolkit for programming the CUDA architecture that includes the compiler, debugger, profiler, libraries and other information developers like Adobe need to deliver production quality products that use CUDA to take advantage of the massively parallel architecture of the graphics processing unit (GPU) as a computational engine.

Video editing is not the same without it.

"To conclude, making the video editing part of CS6 fully operational requires an NVIDIA CUDA-enabled GPU."