A detailed article over at ComputerWorld suggests that both LG and Samsung may unveil new Android smartphones next week at CES, what’s unique about these is that they may utilize one of Intel’s latest Atom chips, rather than an ARM-based microprocessor. CW says that ARM currently makes up for 95% of the processors in smartphones, so this is a very bold move. One analyst claims that Intel and Google have spent time together to optimize Android for Atom chips, there are also rumors that Intel-owned McAfee could perhaps be somehow integrated into the operating system to further-enhance security.

We recently suggested that Intel could perhaps be showing off an Android smartphone at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show, which further solidifies rumors of Atom chips being brought to smartphones in 2012 – it will be interesting to see how such chips compare to top-end offerings from Qualcomm and Nvidia. Maybe Intel could undercut its rivals to tempt smartphone manufacturers to move away from established mobile processor suppliers, either that or perhaps Intel feel confident that Atom chips will outperform chips such as the Tegra 3.

It makes sense for Intel to dabble in different markets as these days a lot of people use their smartphones and tablets for tasks which we once had to use desktop computers and laptops for, it looks certain that Windows 8 will run on ARM-based hardware when it arrives, therefore AMD may not be Intel’s biggest rivals in years to come – what do you think?

We can’t wait to see how Intel’s new Atom chips compare to Qualcomm and Nvidia offerings at CES 2012, however we do remain a little skeptical at present. Hopefully we will come across some useful benchmarks next week, when we do we will keep you posted.

More About: ARM, Intel, Intel Atom, NVIDIA, Qualcomm

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The Exynos 5250 SoC features two ARM Cortex A15 processors, both clocked at 2GHz, on a 32nm process. It is said to support display resolutions of up to 2560 x 1600, which matches Tegra 3. In terms of grunt you can expect four times the graphics capabilities of the ARM Cortex A9 chips and twice the number of instructions per second.

Other tech specs include 12.8GB/s memory bandwidth, an embedded Displayport (EDP) interface and PSR (panel self-refresh) technology support. Here’s what Samsung’s VP of system LSI marketing had to say about the the company’s latest SoC:

“The ARM Cortex-A15 brings unparalleled performance to our Exynos processor family and the exploding mobile marketplace” and added “The advanced low-power, high-performance processor technology of the new Exynos 5250 continues to deliver an unprecedented level of performance for users to enjoy a completely new mobile experience.”

You can’t really compare the Exynos 5250 side-by-side with the Tegra 3, however it will be interesting to see benchmark comparisons, whilst the Tegra 3 chips feature 4 x ARM Cortex-A9 cores of up to 1.4GHz, the Exynos 5250 features 2 x ARM Cortex A15 2GHz cores and these A15 Cores are said to seriously outperform A9 cores.

It isn’t all about top-end performance either, as power consumption is paramount to many device manufacturers these days. Samsung has pledged “advanced low-power”, but how will this compare to Tegra 3′s great efficiency thanks to its low clock speed companion core? We have lots of questions, but no answers YET, hopefully we will see benchmark comparisons etc pretty soon.

Do you think these Exynos chips will trump the Tegra 3 chips?

More About: ARM Cortex Processors, NVIDIA, samsung, Samsung Exynos

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The shiny new processor will certainly find its way into many new portable devices in the coming months, and Asus started off earlier today with the announcement of the new Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime. TechRadar are reporting that the processor was formerly known as Kal-El, and is five times more powerful than its predecessor the Tegra 2.

Matt Wuebbling, Nvidia’s Senior Product Manager said “Our next-generation Tegra processor is widely known as the world’s first quad-core mobile chip”. The Tegra 3 is based on the ARM Cortex-A9 MPCore microarchitecture, which consists of four cores that can run at speeds up to 1.3GHz. It also has a stealth fifth core, which can be used for the more basic tasks when the device doesn’t need to power the other four.

Nvidia’s new Tegra 3 improves over the Tegra 2 in all features such as better audio, graphics, bandwidth, memory, processing, and video support. It also has a new 12-core GPU that delivers up to three times more graphics performance, and will also support 2560 x 1600 resolution as well as 3D stereo.

The company also says there are more than 15 Tegra 3 capable games being developed, with over 40 promised on the Android Tegra Zone app by the end of the year.

More About: NVIDIA, nvidia kal-el, Nvidia Tegra 3

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The full results can be seen in this article along with Battlefield 3 beta recommended specs, and an explanation of the test scene for the graphics cards, GPU benchmarks and a detailed picture gallery. These tests were performed following a performance update for the PC version of Battlefield 3 beta, which apparently made a lot of difference. You can also see a preview of the AMD 6990 and GTX 580 running the Battlefield 3 beta in this post.

Following this news AMD has released a new ATi driver, the Catalyst 11.10 preview driver. It’s being reported that the new driver will make a massive difference to Radeon HD 6000 and 5000 graphics cards. AMD did offer warnings with this release, stating that it was a hotfix that is provided to the user “as is”. You can find out more about this new driver here, which also includes a download link.

Earlier today we looked at how the Battlefield 3 test is just a “beta”, so it’s expected that things will be improved with each update and before the final product hits shelves, although PS3, Xbox 360 and PC systems have varied happiness with players.

What do you make of these graphics card tests and what card do you prefer in your gaming PC?

More About: ati, Battlefield 3, NVIDIA

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From what we can gather all Kal-El processors will feature four Cortex A9 high-performance cores which will obviously give compliant smartphones and tablets some serious processing power, however there will be an extra core dubbed the ‘Companion core’ which operates at a maximum clock speed of 500MHz and handles less intensive tasks – which to our knowledge means that when a device is set to standby or s barely being used the four high-performance cores will be in affect turned off. This ensure that battery life is preserved while the optimized Companion core carries out unchallenging processes.

The image below give us an idea as to how Kal-El chips should operate depending on what the tasks the device is carrying out – obviously the lower number of cores the less power is being used.

When you compare project Kal-El power consumption to Tegra 2 consumption it is obvious that Kal-El is the way forward – what is most alarming is the fact that project Kal-El apparently uses 61% less power than Tegra 2 chips when playing HD video, not only this but power consumption whilst gaming and playing MP3 files is significantly lower as well (see below).

With each core running at 1GHz we are told that benchmark scores are much higher than comparable Texas Instruments and Qualcomm mobile processors – not only this but power consumption is lower – what this means is basically the Kal-El chips will deliver a lot more in terms of performance than current offerings whilst not being too demanding on your device’s battery.

We can’t wait to find out more about the NVIDIA Kal-El project, when we do we will keep you posted. Some more details can be found over at Engadget.

More About: NVIDIA, nvidia kal-el, Tegra 2

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According to a recent article over at tweaktown.com, the GE620DX comes with an Intel second-generation quad-core i7-2630QM processor (with core speeds of 2.00GHz) under its hood. The processor also supports Intel’s Turbo Boost Technology 2.0, which boosts core clock speeds and enhances the overall performance of the device.

In terms of graphics, the MSI GE620DX gaming laptop comes with NVIDIA’s high-end GeForce GT 555M discrete graphics card, with 2GB of display memory. The GE620DX also supports NVIDIA’s PhysX technology and DirectX 11, which provides users with more detailed and realistic graphics. It also comes with Quick Sync Video support.

The Quick Sync Video support will boost the laptop’s efficiency when ripping, synchronizing or editing multimedia files. The GE620DX also comes with MSI GPU Boost Technology support, which will automatically switch back and forth between the NVIDIA discrete graphics card and the graphics chip depending on what task it is undertaking at the time.

For example, if your laptop is processing graphics-heavy applications it will automatically switch to the discrete graphics card mode. However, if it is simply performing general word processing tasks or just browsing the Internet, it will kick into the integrated graphics chip mode. This of course gives the ideal balance between battery life and performance.

As for sound, the MSI GE620DX not only comes with MSI’s Premium Sound, it also features THX TruStudio Pro smart surround sound technology. It also comes with Cinema Pro technology. One simple touch of the Cinema Pro hotkey will instantly switch you to film mode for richer colors and a higher resolution.

The MSI GE620DX also boasts a 720p web camera, which will provide users with high definition pictures when video chatting with friends and family. It also comes with an HDMI port, enabling users to connect it to a large screen TV, and USB 3.0 ports. AS some of you will already know, USB 3.0 ports boast transfer speeds of 4.8Gbps (10 times faster than USB 2.0).

You can read more about the specs of the MSI GE620DX over on the tweaktown.com website. Are you thinking about buying a new gaming laptop?

More About: Intel, MSI, NVIDIA, windows 7

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Though PNY tend to only launch stock cards rather than the high-end overclocked versions the new NVIDIA GTX 580 still offers more than most video cards as it is. It features a liquid cooling system powered by Asetek and designed to keep the temperature of the GPU down.

Asetek hardware can be spotted amongst various computers featuring liquid cooling. It also includes a fan adding more cooling to the system and enhancing performance. PNY have also added an extra circuit of liquid cooling which enables the video card to aid the temperature of the CPU at the same time as the GPU.

The new GTX 580 also promises 30% noise and heat reduction than the original video card and comes with the latest technology you would expect from an NVIDIA card including CUDA, PhysX and 3D gaming. If you are interested in buying the card it will set you back $579.99 for the GPU cooling alone and $649.99 for the whole PNY system set up.

Check out the link above for more details about the video card. Will you be getting this card for your computer?

More About: NVIDIA, PNY

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It looks as though no one else will be able to get a look in with the acquisition of 30 percent of what shares are left, as Microsoft has a deal that allows them to match any other offer, as reported by Information Week. If a third-party was to make a better offer, then Microsoft will be allowed to have both first and last rights to refuse the stock.

This has to be a unique position for Microsoft, as they have the chance to block any attempts by other companies to acquire these Nvidia share, which to us does seem a little strange. Some may say that this is unfair, as it is almost like a done-deal. Never before has the Redmond company been in a better position to come up with a tablet, as Nvidia will be able to supply the processors for them.

This could be the chance that Microsoft has been waiting for; it is no secret that they are lacking in the hardware sector when it comes to phones and tablets, and such a deal could put them on the road to recovery. Although there are those who believe that it is too late for Microsoft, as they have been under constant pressure from both Android and iOS devices.

More About: microsoft, NVIDIA

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The demo was shown in the form of Glow Ball, a slick looking tilt mini game using the accelerometer. The game was previewed on a unnamed Android Honeycomb tablet with benchmarking icons in the corner and commentary by Nvidia showing the exact capabilities of the Kal-El processor right in front of you.

And the results are nothing short of breathtaking. Never before have we seen these levels of graphical detail on a mobile device, pay particular attention to the dynamic lighting effects in the video, as that’s one of the main highlights for sure.

The beauty of the processor technology will allow developers to create games which features lighting that moves as you play the game in real time, also lighting that responds to the environment the game is based on. Half-way through the video, we see how Glow Ball fairs when only using two of the four processors, and the results are pretty drastic, resulting in a sudden drop of frame rate – basically it’s unplayable.

We’re not sure about you, but Nvidia look to have set the benchmark here for the best looking games on the market, on a mobile device. If you’re someone who is considering picking up a Sony NGP or even an Apple device such as the iPhone or iPad for gaming purposes, you’d be a fool to not consider Nvidia’s future platform as well.

Watch the video below and let us know your thoughts on it.

More About: NVIDIA, nvidia kal-el

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This beast is also packing some impressive specs. Inside it has two hard drives one a SSD/HDD hybrid model, an Intel 2.0GHz Core i7-2630QM processor, and on the outside a unique colored chassis packing a Full HD 1920 x 1080 17.3” display.

The two hard drives are both 750GB on the regular drive and 500GB, adding up to a colossal 1.25TB of storage. Its other features include a memory card reader, three USB 2.0 ports and a USB 3.0 port, HDMI out, 1.5GB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560M graphics, 8GB of DDR3 1333MHz memory and even a Blu-ray drive.

According to the article at Notebook Italia the Qosmio X770 will run Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit. The standard model will apparently cost around $1,847 or €1,300. You can find out more about the laptop by clicking the link above.

Are you impressed by this gaming laptop? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

More About: NVIDIA, toshiba

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