Hardware

GDDR6 is available—or is it?

Three fabs are producing , expect to see in AIBs later this year Although a lot of people thought the highly parallel high bandwidth 3D memory (HBM) would be the logical heir to GDDR for graphics AIBs, its price and manufacturing costs outweigh its benefits in some cases. Therefore, to be as flexible as possible, the AIB builders need the … Read more

Acer and Nvidia BFGD

That’s Big-format gaming display if you were wondering Acer, Asus, and HP have taken AU optronics panels and made 65-inch large format 4k HDR gaming monitors, with 120Hz refresh rates 1,000-nit peak luminance and DCI-P3 color gamut. and Nvidia’s G-Sync technology. Acer showed its 65-inch Predator Big Format Gaming Display with Nvidia G-SYNC at CES, introducing big screens to PC … Read more

LG coolest of cool displays

Giant 8k, a big rollable 4k, and calibrated HDR When it comes to displays, too much is not enough with regard to pixels and color depth. However, physical size may have a practical limit, maybe . . .  As many of you know, for the Winter Olympics, and the country in general, Japan has skipped the 4k node and gone … Read more

LG and Portrait demonstrate calibration tool for HDR

Like a good audio system, an HDR monitor needs tuning. LG OLED UHD TVs will have automatic calibration capability with Portrait Displays' CalMAN software.  At CES, LG gave private showings to demonstrate a new capability they will be offering with their UHD displays—a photometer calibration system. If you’ve bought a medium to high-end AV system you know they come with … Read more

Those Ks – what is 5K, 8K and 3K?

Alternate facts or hidden value? Remember, the more you can see, the more you can do? Well when HD monitors rolled on the scene that axiom started to catch the imagination of users, and their managers (“gee, do MORE, for just the cost of a monitor, hell yeah”).  The higher the K to dollar ration, the better the deal, monitor … Read more

Processor companies scramble for berths in the car

At CES the major processor companies all claimed partnerships with car makers – the same car makers. Our friends at Intel, Nvidia, Qualcomm, and a few others are in the automotive market, and they have one thing in common—the same partners. If you can’t show at least a dozen car companies as your partners, then just go home, you’re not … Read more

Intel’s amazing presentations

Intel had the best visualizations and presentations in its history at CES 2018 CES is like Las Vegas in that it is an assault on the senses. The creative geniuses of the computer industry as well as the entertainment industry bring forth staggering visual experiences that seem other worldly, leave your ears ringing, your eyes saturated with negative afterglow, and … Read more

The future of GPUs in crypto mining

ROI and the yellow-brick road Add-in boards for driving displays have been a major part of the PC since its introduction in 1981. Up until the advent of the integrated graphics chipset (IGP), introduced by SiS in 1997, every PC shipped had at least one graphics board. Even after the introduction of the IGP, PCs were shipped with graphics boards … Read more

Qualcomm rides the 7nm wave all the way to TSMC

Through relationships with Samsung and TSMC, Qualcomm keeps its naming conventions consistent.   The Snapdragon SoC from Qualcomm made its debut in 2007, the first being apply named, S1. Incrementing to S4 by 2012, the company added some zeros and introduced the Snapdragon 200 in 2013. The expansive and extensible flagship 800 series was also introduced in 2013. Smaller versions … Read more

When it comes to GPUs, who’s your daddy?

Qualcomm ships more GPU than almost everyone else combined In our annual quest to count every GPU in the world, and document developments, we reviewed the year’s shipment numbers, and we found Qualcomm is the big dog in the park. We estimate Qualcomm will ship over 815 million GPUs in 2017 (we’ll get the final count from everyone by mid-February … Read more

Bye-bye 32, says Nvidia

32-bit is so Windows 95 In a no frills, no hoopla, in an a very un-Nvidia like fashion, the company announced that after Release 390, Nvidia will no longer release drivers for 32-bit operating systems for any GPU architecture. The company is currently shipping WHQL driver version 388.71 which suggests there will be a few more 32-bit drivers before the … Read more