Tag Archives: NVIDIA

NVIDIA Pulled the Plug on GeForce Partner Program

Gaming

NVIDIA announced that they are canceling their GeForce Partner Program. The program began on March 1, 2018, and was ended on May 4, 2018.

NVIDIA announced that they had decided to cancel the GeForce Partner Program. In their blog post, they state: “The rumors, conjecture and mistruths go far beyond its intent. Rather than battling misinformation, we have decided to cancel the program.”

With GPP, we asked our partners to brand their products in a way that would be crystal clear. The choice of GPU greatly defines a gaming platform. So, the GPU brand should be clearly transparent – no substitute GPUs hidden behind a pile of techno-jargon.

Most partners agreed. They own their brands and GPP didn’t change that. They decide how they want to convey their product promise to gamers. Still, we are pulling the plug on GPP to avoid any distraction from the super exciting work we’re doing to bring amazing advances to PC gaming.

When the GeForce Partner Program was first launched, NVIDIA described it as their latest effort to better serve gamers. In short, the GeForce Partner Program was designed “to ensure that gamers have full transparency in into the GPU platform and software they’re being sold, and can confidently select products that carry the NVIDIA GeForce promise.”

There appears to be a lot of speculation about the exact reasons why NVIDIA chose to end their GeForce Partner Program. Personally, I’m not a fan of speculation because I feel it is difficult to verify. However, if you enjoy speculation, it seems you won’t have to search too far for it. The NVIDIA blog post about the end of the GPP has gotten several comments with a variety of ideas.

Plex Comes to NVIDIA SHIELD

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Plex logoGaining complete mastery over your home entertainment domain has always been a bit of a challenge. You’ve got video files on a NAS, a large music library on a USB drive, photos scattered across a number of devices, and access to multiple audio/video streaming services. One of the best (and most popular) software solutions for taming the home entertainment beast is called Plex. Plex is a free downloadable server that runs on your local network. Once it’s set up, a Plex server can deliver media to other devices using native Plex apps. Plex has apps on most major platforms, including Android, iOS, and Apple TV.

While Plex takes care of the software side of media management, you’ll still need a connected piece of hardware that’s capable of running Plex if you want to access all of that content on the family big screen. There are many options out there when it comes to compatible players. But Plex may have truly met its match with the new NVIDIA SHIELD. SHIELD is a home media and gaming center that’s powered by Android TV. And now Plex is available as a SHIELD app:

With support for 4K video, streamed games, and a powerful processor, NVIDIA SHIELD is perfect for Plex. It runs your Plex Media Server and our elegant Android TV interface, making SHIELD the perfect all-in-one Plex device. In addition to powering Plex, SHIELD itself transcodes your content, so you can stream all your content to any of your other devices.

NVIDA SHIELD starts at $199. Plex is a free download with optional premium features that unlock the full potential of the media-streaming software.

NVIDIA is Accelerating the Race to Driverless Cars

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nvidia logoFor more than two decades, NVIDIA has pioneered visual computing, the art and science of computer graphics. Their work is at the center of the most consequential mega-trends in technology – virtual reality, artificial intelligence, and self-driving cars.

Aylee spoke with Senior Manager of Automotive Integration at NVIDIA, Dave Anderson, at CES 2016. They talked about the brand new NVIDIA DRIVE PX 2 platform. It is essentially a supercomputer for your car. DRIVE PX2 becomes the brain that will effectively allow our cars to become self driving. The platform has the power of 150 MacBook Pros onboard in a single computing platform.

NVIDIA has partnered with Volvo who will be doing an autonomous vehicle trial in 2017.

Aylee Nielsen is a video host who specializes in covering live events for Plughitz Live.

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HP Goes Large with the Z1 at CES

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HP logoHP has announced the second generation of its Z1 high performance all-in-one workstation, with a 27″ ten-point touchscreen running Windows 8. The Z1 G2 is aimed squarely at power users, featuring 4th Generation Intel Xeon and Core processors, and RAID storage options paired with the latest NVIDIA Mobile Quadro GPUs for the best graphics performance. It also comes with Intel Thunderbolt 2 ports.

“Since its launch in 2012, the highly acclaimed HP Z1 has opened the eyes and ears of customers hoping to solve business problems no longer being met by current vendors,” said Jim Zafarana, vice president and general manager, Commercial Solutions Business Unit, HP. “Today’s professionals demand high-performance products that are serviceable and easy-to-use, all wrapped in a sleek and elegant design.”

HP Z1 G2

The Z1 G2 comes equipped with Thunderbolt 2 connectivity, for data transfer speeds four times that of USB 3.0. That’s nippy. To round out the high spec, the Z1’s audio capabilities aren’t too shabby either with dual-tone, front-facing speakers and DTS Studio Sound Audio. Overall, this is a beast of a machine.

The new HP Z1 G2 workstation is expected to be available in late January, with prices starting at US$1,999.

nVidia and Windows 8 Tablets

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nvidia logoAs you have almost certainly already heard, one of the big things coming in Windows 8 will be it’s support of ARM processors.  The main feature of the new operating system, though, is the radical new Metro interface.  The Metro Start screen displays a series of “live tiles”.  These are the apps, some of which come with Windows 8, and some which will be installed by the user from the new Windows Store, which are constantly updating with new information.  You could display such things as current weather, Twitter, news, and a lot more on your personalized start screen.

nVidia was at the Consumer Electronics Show last month to show off their Tegra 3 quad-core processor running Windows 8 tablets.  The new chipset allows these tablets to be extremely thin, have longer battery life, and high-resolution graphics.  In the video below you can get a look at a little bit of what they are capable of, such as HD video playback, and full Windows multi-tasking.

The exact specifications and pricing aren’t yet available, but you can learn more by visiting the nVidia site.

Interview by Jeffrey Powers of Geekazine.

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Lamborghini Partners with NVIDIA for Android Super Car

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It’s not a place you expect to see a Lamborghini Murcielago, but the one of the world’s hottest super cars made an appearance at the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show.  The Italian car maker has partnered with NVIDIA, who have strong ties to Android.

The Lamborghini Murcielago, which was recently replaced by the newer and faster Aventador, has quite a cockpit inside, with center console video display, powered by NVIDIA, that is expected to eventually run Android, and touch screen dashboard interface.  NVIDIA powers many of the Android smartphones today and is also entered into many automotive technology partnerships, but those partnerships involve proprietary Linux-based operating systems.  However many of those car makers reportedly have an interest in moving to Android in the future.

We may still be a little ways away from a full Android operating system for cars, but reports seem to indicate that we are heading in that direction and perhaps Lamborghini will be the first to run it.  It may not get to a lot of drivers, given the price of these cars, but it would make quite a splash in the tech and automotive news.

The video below is courtesy of Phandroid.

HP Released Two Z210 Desktop Workstations Today!

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Today HP released two new desktop workstations designed specifically with professionals in mind. The new Z210 desktop comes in two form-factors; convertible mini-tower (CMT) and highly-compact small form-factor (SFF) for those of us who simply need a more space-saving solution.

As far as specs go, it looks like both models will be able to provide customers with the same hardware. Each can be configured with the Intel Xeon E3 and second gen. Intel Core i3, i5 and i7 processors. We’ll also have a range of choices from AMD and NVIDIA for graphics capabilities. 2D and 3D options are both on the table with a 2D dual graphics card setup able to support up to 4 monitors at once for some serious screen space.

“Built for professionals, HP Z210 workstations with the new Intel Xeon processor E3 1200 family are changing the definition of the entry-level workstation,” said Anthony C. Neal-Graves, general manager, Workstation Unit, Intel Corporation. “This processor’s greatest innovation is how it integrates the CPU and graphics engines on the same die. That means visual and 3-D graphics capabilities that were once only available to entry workstation users with discrete graphics cards will now be accessible to anyone with an entry workstation powered by the Intel Xeon E3 family with Intel HD Graphics P3000.”

These new workstations are not only faster and more efficient; HP has gone to great lengths to reduce the workstations carbon footprint. In fact, users will have access to the HP Carbon Footprint Calculator which will help us reduce environmental impact and computing costs. They have also given each form-factor a tool free chassis for quick and easy maintenance.

The HP Z210’s are available right now with the CMT starting at $659 and the SFF coming in at $569 USD. If you’re interested in a more mobile solution you should check out HP’s new EliteBooks, landing next month.