Why would you breathe easier with a new laptop? Well, in the case of the new line up of Dell Inspirons, it’s cause the line up comes with a smaller carbon footprint than ever. The new line up uses more recycled materials than before and is one of the culminations of Dell’s commitment to creating a circular economy when it comes to their products. Every Inspiron is painted using paints with low volatile organic compound content. Also, the packaging of the Inspirons is comprised of 90% recycled materials with the packaging tray being completely made of recycled materials.
With their carbon footprint in check, Dell took the next step to completely redesign the new line up of Inspiron laptops. The new laptops come with a near-borderless display and a new design language that builds on Dell’s prowess in creating compact, slim, stylish laptops. The new line up comes with larger keycaps which allow you to type faster and more accurately and a larger touchpad. The new line up also comes with an HD webcam equipped with Temporal Noise Reduction (TNR) which reduces pixelation and reduces visual artefacting in low lit conditions.
Dell Inspiron 14 & 15
The Dell Inspiron line up is being spearheaded by the Dell Inspiron 14 & 15. As the name suggests, these Inspirons have pretty much the outlook but come in two form factors – 14-inch and 15-inch. Keeping the ethos of previous Inspirons, the new 14 and 15 keep things minimalistic, simple and functional.
That said, the new design also comes with improved thermals for better cool. The new adaptive thermals also help manage power consumption to ensure your PC is running at maximum performance. The laptops also come with a sensor that detects when the lid is opened and immediately boots the PC. Paired with the optional Windows Hello enabled fingerprint sensor, you’ll be logging into your PC faster than ever. Working on the go shouldn’t be an issue with the Inspiron 14 and 15 with ExpressCharge which gives you 80% of battery life in just 60 minutes of charge.
If adaptability and flexibility is more for you, the Inspiron 14 also comes in a 2-in-1 configuration which brings added versatility. You’ll be able to flip into tablet mode, present in tent mode or even work on the touch enabled screen exclusively in stand mode.
Dell Inspiron 16 Plus
This year, the Inspiron line up gets a creator-focused entry with the Inspiron 16 Plus. The larger, more power-packed edition of the Inspiron brings a larger, 16-inch display for added workspace and visual real estate. It also comes in a cinematic 16:10 aspect ratio. That said, it’s not much larger than its smaller siblings; coming in at only 5% larger. However, it has an active screen area that’s 11% larger.
The Inspiron 16 Plus comes with the latest Intel Core H-series processors for better performance and can be paired with NVIDIA GTX or RTX discreet graphics processors for added umph. It also comes equipped with a more robust thermal solution for better cooling of the power packed specifications. The display on the Inspiron 16 Plus is a 3K display with true to life colours and low blue light emissions.
The latest line up of Inspiron laptops come with the latest, 11th Generation Intel Core processors or AMD’s Ryzen 5000 U series processors. These can be paired with a variety of graphics options to suit any need.
Pricing & Availability
The Inspiron line will be available starting mid-April 2021. The Inspiron 14 and 15 models will be available first. However, the H-series equipped Inspiron 15 and the Inspiron 16 Plus will only be available in early June.
PC gaming is not cheap. That is pretty much know though. Consider this, the latest gaming console like the Sony PlayStation 5 and the Microsoft Xbox Series X will set you back between MYR 2,500 to MYR 3,000. The latest entry level gaming PC with the latest hardware will set you back about the same amount of money to be fair if you get a desktop. The caveat is that you will not get the same 4K 120fps experience on the desktop compared to the console. If you want to talk about portable gaming, the prices are even higher.
Of course, there is more to a PC than just gaming though. When you get a gaming PC, your PC doubles as your productivity machine. It will be something that accompanies you into your work and your life. It browses the internet, it edits word documents, and it checks your emails. In the case of notebook PCs, there is more than productivity. Notebook PCs are about productivity on-the-go. Of course, gaming notebooks are about gaming and productivity on-the-go.
While gaming is not cheap, it does not have to be bank breaking though. You can get an entry level gaming notebook now from as low as MYR 3,699. Yes, we are talking about the AMD powered Acer Nitro 5 gaming notebook. Well, it is in the title.
The Nitro 5 for 2021 was technically announced in CES 2021 and is just making its way to Malaysia. The new gaming notebook comes with its own sets of cosmetic updates, as usual, and a few internal upgrades too from its previous iteration, as expected. Most of the upgrades are not really what we expected from an “entry-level” perspective though.
The base model is still pretty “entry-level” at MYR 3,699 (AN515-4S-R9RJ). You get an AMD Ryzen 5 5600H 7nm processor with Zen 3 architecture which should unlock a lot more performance from its previous generation. You also get a respectable NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 GPU for all kinds of gaming needs. If you have a 4K display, this could work too. Just do not expect Ultra graphic settings with super high refresh rates at that kind of resolution.
Still, if you just work with the 15.6-inch display on the notebook, you still get a nice Full HD resolution with 144Hz of refresh rate. With the kind of internals you get, you should hit 144fps easily. You also get 8GB of dual channel RAM too. If you want, you can up that to up to 32GB (16GB x 2). You are not trading off too much storage space either with 512GB of SSD storage. Of course, that is expandable as well.
Thing is, the Acer Nitro 5 is not just an “entry-level” gaming notebook anymore. While you do get the entry-level spec with entry-level pricing, you can spec it up to turn it into a beast too.
You can spec your Acer Nitro 5 (AN515-4S-R49W) with an all-powerful AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX processor. With that processor, you can also get a high-end NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 GPU with 8GB of DDR6 memory on board to run games at QHD (2K) resolution at a native 165Hz in refresh rate on the 15.6-inch display. With 16GB of DDR 4 RAM included, the Acer Nitro 5 turns into a beast of a gaming PC. You also get 1TB of storage to ensure that you can keep all your favourite games and still have space to spare for other things as well. All of that for MYR 8,999.
Alongside the Acer Nitro 5 gaming notebook, Acer also launches the Nitro QG1241Y P gaming monitor. The Nitro QG1 is a 24-inch display boasting Full HD resolution at 165Hz refresh rate. The VA panel support up to 1ms of response time as well alongside HDR10 support. Of course, like any modern display, there is a BlueLightShield blue light filter and flicker reduction technology to ensure the display does not strain your eyes.
The Acer Nitro 5 (AN515-4S-R9RJ) is now available for pre-order to 16th April 2021 at Acer’s Official Store on Shopee at MYR 3,699. The other variants of the Acer Nitro 5 will be available for pre-order on a later date from 27th to the 29th April 2021 (AN515-4S-R7QR) and 10th-12th May 2021 (AN515-4S-R4KB, AN515-4S-R5C7, AN515-4SR8XM, AN515-4S-R49W). The Acer Nitro QG1 (QG141Y P) 24-inch Full HD display is now available on pre-order until 16th of April 2021 on Acer’s official store on Shopee and Lazada for MYR 699. It will retail at MYR 749 after the pre-order date. For more information on the Acer Nitro 5 and Nitro QG1 gaming notebook and peripheral, do visit Acer’s website.
NVIDIA’s GTC 2021 just happened last night. If you remembered 2020, you would remember that GTC 2020 was also the time where NVIDIA introduced their new A100 GPU chips for super computers. 2020 was also the yea NVIDIA launched their highly anticipated, and highly capable RTX 3000 series consumer grade GPUs.
GTC’s keynote is always a highly anticipated event. Not because the conference always brings a new GPU. Recent years of GTC has always been exciting because somehow GPU is able to push the limits of what is possible with computing and cloud. NVIDIA has made itself relevant not just in the graphics world, but also in the super computing world, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and even cybersecurity. NVIDIA’s own AI even composed its own song, and it is a good song mind you.
With GTC 2021, NVIDIA shows that they are not done innovating just yet. Now, they also want to give the likes of Intel a new sort of headache. NVIDIA has introduced Project Grace.
Source: NVIDIA
NVIDIA’s CEO, Jensen Huang mentions that the name Grace refers to a particular pioneer in the computer science field, Grace Hopper. The project is NVIDIA’s first dip into the datacentre CPU industry. Fitting to the Grace Hopper namesake, project Grace is supposed to be 10x more powerful than the current NVIDIA GDX x86 supercomputer platform.
Why is this a problem for Intel? The world’s fastest supercomputer today is all powered by Intel’s x86 CPU platform. The x86 platform has also existed for about a decade now and the platform has approached its technological limits in 2021. Of course, NVIDIA took matters into their own hands and the Grace CPU is an ARM based chip for the fastest ever datacentre and servers in the world.
Just saying that the CPU will be the fastest ever server-based CPU though means nothing. What you want to know is numbers, and these are big numbers. The new Grace architecture allows the CPU and GPU to communicate at up to 900GB/s speed thanks to NVLink technology. According to NVIDIA, that is 30x faster than most servers today. Of course, paired to LPDDR5x memory modules, you get up to 10x the speed of today’s machines.
Before anyone can say that NVIDIA’s Grace dreams is just that; dreams, NVIDIA also announced that they will be installing their Grace based datacentre in the United States Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Labrotory and the Swiss National Supercomputing Centre (CSCS). The two clients will feature their very own NVIDIA powered supercomputer soon.
Source: NVIDIA
In those two places though, the servers and supercomputers are not built just to push cloud storage to corporations. They are purpose built for AI training and implementations. They are built for neural and language programming and training. They are built to progress humanity and probably cure cancer one day.
Of course, because Grace is a giant processor made for datacentres and supercomputers, we will not be expecting to see NVIDIA dive into consumer level ARM-based processors for PCs anytime soon. NVIDIA is working with MediaTek to bring their GPU technology into the mobile space and even ARM based PCs though. In that case, us regular consumers can expect a Qualcomm Snapdragon notebook PC with NVIDIA GeForce graphics power soon, probably. Catch NVIDIA’s GTC 2021 keynote on their website.
It’s been over a decade since Alienware has released an AMD powered gaming laptop. Over a decade since the original Alienware Aurora mALX. In that time, gaming has taken a quantum leap with new experiences being more immersive than ever. That changes today with both Dell and Alienware announcing new AMD powered laptops.
The new laptops marry AMD’s revolutionary, performance and efficiency centered Zen 3 microarchitecture with NVIDIA’s graphics prowess to bring their best gaming experience yet. The Dell G15 Ryzen Edition and the redesigned Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition bring together some of Dell and Alienware’s best design with top of the line performance for gaming.
Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition
Alienware super charges their m15 line up with their signature technological features such as voltage gated cooling with the performance combo of AMD’s Ryzen 5000-H processors and NVIDIA’s RTX30 series graphics. All this power is packed into a slim 15-inch body with options to fit any gamers’ needs. On the display front, users get to choose from options including a QHD with 240Hz refresh rate and an FHD display wiht 360Hz refresh rate.
Smooth visuals and power packed performance is just the tip of the iceberg. The new Alienware m15 is also the first to come with Alienware’s new Legend 2.0 design language which features a sleeker silhouette and a new design feature called Dark Core. This darkens the interior shade of the laptop helping you focus on the game; while the new Silky-smooth High-Endurance paint formula will keep things clean and sleek. It is also the first 15-inch Alienware laptop to come with user upgradable 3200MHz DDR4 RAM. Of course, it will also feature the option for the new mechanical keyboard co-developed with Cherry MX with per key RGB lighting.
Dell G15 Ryzen Edition
Dell’s foray into AMD powered gaming laptops comes in the form of the Dell G15 Ryzen Edition. The new gaming laptop comes with Alienware inspired thermals which maximise airflow and improve cooling. Of course, the laptop comes with Dell Gaming’s signature “Game Shift” button which kicks the laptop into high gear. Similar to the Alienware m15, the Dell G15 Ryzen Edition comes with performance centric combination of AMD Ryzen 5000 series processors, NVIDIA’s RTX 30 Series graphics and user upgradable 3200MHz RAM. On the display front it will be coming with low blue light emitting displays with options for 120Hz or 165Hz refresh rates. Additional options for 360Hz displays will be coming later this spring according to Dell.
Pricing & Availability
Dell and Alienware haven’t announced the pricing for the laptops just yet. However, the Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition will be available in early May 2021. The Dell G15 Ryzen edition is expected to be available at the same time.
Just as the Asia Pacific Predator League kicks off, Acer has taken the opportunity to refresh two of their most popular gaming laptops: the Nitro 5 and the Helios 300. The two gaming laptops come with refreshed graphics and processors for better gaming prowess.
The Predator Helios 300 gains the honour of being the first Predator laptop to come with NVIDIA’s RTX3060 graphics processor. The new setup comes with either the 10th generation Intel Core i5-10500H or the 10th generation Intel Core i7-10870H processors. The processor is paired with 8GB of DDR4 RAM. If you need more power, the laptop supports up to 32GB of RAM. In addition, it comes with 512GB of SSD with an addition NVMe and HDD slot for expansion. The Helios 300 comes with a 15.6-inch IPS display with Full HD resolution and 144Hz refresh rate. It’s complemented with DTS:X Ultra audio and 3D simulated surround sound. Acer has also packed its signature dual AeroBlade 3D fans for more efficient cooling to ensure your gaming sessions aren’t perturbed by overheating.
Acer’s Nitro 5, on the other hand, comes with the 11th Generation Intel Core series processors with 8GB of DDR RAM clocked at 3200MHz. It’s complemented by the NVIDIA GeForce GTX1650 and 512GB of NVMe SSD memory. It also supports up to 32GB of RAM if you need to up the ante and also has an extra M.2 slot for more storage. It also comes with a 15.6-inch IPS display with a 144Hz refresh rate and Full HD resolution.
Pricing & Availability
The Acer Nitro 5 gaming laptop is available at Acer authorised resellers nationwide and the Acer Online Stores. The Nitro 5 with the Core i7-11370H processor retails at MYR4,399 (USD$1,064.75) while the Core i5-11300H version will set you back MYR3,799 (USD$919.52).
The Predator Helios 500 is also available at the same channels for MYR5,299 (USD$1282.59) for the Core i5 version and MYR5,999 (USD$1452.02) for the Core i7 version.
If you purchase either one of these laptops during the Asia Pacific Predator League which happens between 6th to 11th April 2020, Acer is offering up to MYR638 (USD$154.42) worth of freebies including 3 Years McAfee Live Safe license worth RM299 and Acer Supercare 2 worth RM339.
Hot off the heels of AMD’s announcement of their new EPYC processors, Dell Technologies has revealed a series of new offerings that put the AMD EPYC front and centre. The new Dell EMC servers come optimised for multiple workloads to help businesses better cater to their needs. They up the ante with up to 64 cores with EPYC’s new Zen 3 architecture.
The new additions add to Dell Technologies’ already robust portfolio of Dell EMC PowerEdge offerings. They bring updated technologies with improved compute capabilities. The expanded portfolio allows for better handling of critical workloads and applications augmented by fast data performance thanks to the integration of PCIe Gen 4 technology. In addition, the new offerings in the Dell EMC PowerEdge portfolio come with up to six accelerators to help with large, challenging, data-intensive workloads. They continue to put data security and redundancy at the core with a well-established Root of Trust and what Dell Technologies refers to as a Cyber resilient architecture.
Of course, running on the Zen 3 augmented EPYC processors, the new PowerEdge servers are more power-efficient than before. Dell Technologies claims that the new racks offer up to 60% power efficiency compared to the previous generation. Adding to its power efficiency, Dell has equipped the new generation PowerEdge with multi-vector cooling. This technology helps direct airflow to the hottest portions of the server; helping maintain lower temperatures and better performance.
The new line up consists of six offerings catered for different workloads and computing environments. From powerful, performance-oriented racks to AI optimised racks to deceivingly powerful, slim racks, Dell’s new offerings have you covered. Their Dell EMC PowerEdge XE8545 marries the performance of AMD’s new EPYC cores with NVIDIA’s A100 GPUs for powerful, AI and machine learning optimised workloads. The PowerEdge R6515 packs a configurable, dual-socket setup in a 1U rack server for compact performance while the R7515 brings a scalable single-socket 2U rack with performance and affordability in mind. They’ve got the C6525 for high performance, dense computing environments while the R7525 and R6525 bring extended flexibility.
Dell’s XPS sereis has always represented the top of the line when it comes to their offerings. This stays the same with their XPS desktop. The XPS desktop offerings bring Dell’s signature XPS design queues to their desktop offerings and keeps the focus on content creation and performance.
The new XPS Desktop is coming in a more compact form factor – 19L case compared to the previous 23.7L. However, it keeps most of the XPS desktop’s compelling features including easy expandability. If you need more storage or want to swap out your graphics card, you have easy, toolless access via the backplate. The desktop supports up to four hard disk drives (HDDs), graphics cards up to 10.5-inches long and up to 500W power supplies.
Dell brings its voltage regulated cooling to the new generation of XPS desktops which helps better maintain processor performance even under high loads including VR. This paired with the design to maximise airflow allows better cooling of the components. The chassis of the XPS Desktop is designed to direct cool air from the front to the back allowing it to flow into the nooks and crevices of the components for better cooling. Dell claims that the high RPM fans in the desktop allow them to stay silent while maintaining high workloads.
Dell is taking a keen interest in content creation with the new XPS desktops. They’ve equipped the desktops with top of the line graphics offerings. Users can select from a range which includes the RTX3070 with 8GB GDDR6 RAM or the AMD Radeon RX5700XT. This paired with capable processors from Intel’s 11th generation Core i line up ensures that you’ll have ample performance to meet your needs. Users are able to select configurations with up to an Intel Core i9 to cater to their creative needs. The XPS desktop is also available in Dell’s Creator Editions which certify that the machines are built for creation. This paired with their recognition under NVIDIA’s RTX Studio programme should give you ample peace of mind when it comes to content creation.
Pricing & Availability
The Dell XPS Desktop will be available starting end of March 2021 with prices starting at USD$649.99 (MYR2,673.91). It will also be available in a special edition which comes in white with prices starting at USD$1129.99 (MYR4,648.41).
In Malaysia, the XPS Desktop will be available in a single configuration starting at the end of March 2021 with prices starting from MYR3,699. Specifications start with the 11th Generation Intel Core i5 with 8GB of RAM and 512GB of onboard memory and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX1650 Super.
The Legion Slim 7i is now in Malaysia. The new laptop has a slimmer and lighter design. Who doesn’t want a portable gaming laptop that doesn’t skimp on performance? The Legion Slim 7i comes with a large, 15.6 inches display compacted in a slim body in Slate Grey. It is made from aircraft-grade aluminum for better durability without having the added heft.
The new lightweight gaming laptop comes with the latest 10th Gen Intel Core i7 mobile processor which is touted to be able to support Triple-A Games with 5.3GHz clock speeds and provide impressive refresh rates on Window 10. This is paired with the in NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 graphics processor with Max-Q Design to facilitate its slim form factor. Equipped with raytracing technology and DLSS, the RTX2060 enables more realistic and immersive graphics. Paired with the integrated Intel UHD Graphics, the laptop can dynamically optimise for better performance or power based on the task at hand.
The Legion Slim 7i is 17.9mm slim and weighs only 1.86kg. It comes equipped with a 71Whr battery which Lenovo claims will last for up to 7.75 hours. It is also capable of Rapid Charge Pro function which allows it to get up to 50% of charge in just 30 minutes. At the same time, Lenovo’s redesigned Legion Coldfront 2.0 air intake system is 31% larger which ensures up to 115% more airflow going to the CPU and GPU. Also, the new machine-drilled holes applied above the keyboard combined with an increased number of exhaust fan blades provide better heat management during heavy gameplay.
Together with cooling and its sleek form factor, the Legion Slim 7i comes with a Full HD display with rich color contrast and saturation. This is paired with built-in dual speakers boosted by smart amplifiers and the Dolby® Atmos Speaker System for more immersive gameplay.
Pricing & Availability
The Lenovo Legion Slim 7i is now available for preorder at Lenovo Malaysia’s Official Website with prices starting at MYR7599 (1896.78USD$). You can even customize your Lenovo Legion Slim 7i starting January 2021.
Acer’s ConceptD laptops have carved out a unique niche for the company in addressing the unique needs of creators. In fact, Acer was one of the pioneers of the “made for creators” moniker when they announced their first ConceptD line up a little over a year ago. In their line up, they introduced the ConceptD 3, 5, 7 and 9 laptop lines, 300, 500 and 700 desktops and professionally calibrated displays. The line up was center stage at next@acer as the company announced updates and a new addition.
ConceptD 7 & 7 Pro Get Cool Updates
First up, the Acer ConceptD 7 and 7 Pro got a small bump in performance with an upgrade to the 10th Generation Intel Core i processors. The laptops were previously sporting the 9th generation Intel processors. Aside from that, the ConceptD 7 and 7 Pro retain the options for the NVIDIA RTX 20 series graphics or RTX QUADRO graphics.
In addition to the updated internals, the ConceptD 7 and 7 Pro are the first laptops to come to market with Acer’s new Vortex Flow cooling technology. The company has created its own fan design which is able to move 26% more air through the laptop allowing it to cool more efficiently. It is also quieter which sound levels reaching less than 40dBA.
ConceptD 300 Brings Big Performance in a Small Form
Acer also introduced their compact, 18L ConceptD 300 desktop. The small desktop packs a punch in a mid-tier form factor for those looking for a more compact solution. It continues to have ConceptD’s now signature design language which marries eye catching wood accents with a sleek white body. It’s small enough to fit on the table.
It comes with a 10th generation Intel Core i processors and is paired with up to 64GB of DDR4 266MHz RAM. This is complemented with up to quick 1TB M.2 SSD memory and up to 4TB of HDD memory. The ConceptD 300 will also be equipped with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX3070 Graphics card.
Pricing & Availability
The ConceptD 7 and 7 Pro will be available starting October 2020 in Europe, the Middle East and Asia with prices starting at EUR2,899 (MYR14,265.44) for the ConceptD 7 and EUR3,699 (MYR18,202.09) for the Pro.
North America will be getting it in December 2020 with retail prices starting at USD$3,299.99 (MYR13,673.92) for the ConceptD 7 and USD$3,499.99 (MYR14,502.65) for the Pro.
The ConceptD 300 will be available in Europe, the Middle East and Asia in November 2020 with prices starting at EUR1,299 (MYR6,392.42). China will be getting the desktop slightly earlier in October with prices starting at RMB12,999 (MYR8,099.68).
Last night, NVIDIA launched their new GPU platform they nickname the Ampere. They also tout that this is their greatest generational leap in performance ever. Welcome to the NVIDIA’s second-generation Ray Tracing GPUs.
For now, they have announced the availability and launch of three new GPUs that is meant to blow even the fastest GeForce RTX 20 series GPU, the GeForce RTX 2080Ti away. We are only talking about the GeForce RTX 3070 mind you. There is still the high-end GeForce 3080 and mind-bending GeForce RTX 3090.
Supposedly the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30 series are supposed to be about twice as good in performance than the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 20 series while offering nearly twice the power efficiency. That puts the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 about on par with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 that was launched two years ago. Which also means that the GeForce RTX 3080 is miles away from the GeForce RTX 2080Ti.
What’s New with Ampere?
Source: NVIDIA
Just saying that it is faster though, may not mean that much to you. In this case, bear with us a little bit as we go a little more technical than usual in identifying what is new with the new GeForce RTX 30 series cards. NVIDIA’s Jensen Huang also did say in the launch that it might be time for you to upgrade your GPUs if you are still on the GTX platform with this second generation Ray Tracing GPU.
New Multiprocessors
If you think of a GPU, it is actually a mini computer on its own that you dedicate on graphics processing. It sort of works on a piggybacking system on top of your main logic board for your PC. By principle, it is just its own processing unit separate to what the CPU and regular RAM does. In layman terms, the GPU is an additional calculator lodged in your PC.
The multiprocessor that is on the GPU is technically its heart, its cores. The new processor on the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30 Series is technically the same size as the older NVIDIA GeForce RTX 20 Series cores. That is to say that Ampere did not gain in size for more performance over Turing.
They simply unlocked more power from the chip itself with new technologies and architecture. We will talk about that a little bit more later though. For now, you just have to know that it is now twice as powerful as before, it is twice faster in calculations.
New Generation Ray Tracing Cores
NVIDIA says that new generation consumer graphics standards is their new Ray Tracing technology that is introduced two years ago. The technology, technically, is not new. It has been a technology used in plenty of 3D rendering applications and even machine learning applications.
With the first-generation Ray Tracing cards, that is the GeForce RTX 20 Series GPUs, ray tracing is used to make graphics even more stunning and realistic by correctly predicting reflection and shading models based on virtual lighting positions. That means that graphic artists do not need to predict where the light is coming from or how it interacts with an object, it just simply does. That is why you do not get great mirror reflections, glass reflections, or water textures in older video games up until the late 2018s.
The said technology requires a separate core to the regular GPU cores that we are used to on older GeForce GTX cards though.
The second-generation Ray Tracing core is technically not that much different from the first-generation. In terms of size and build at least, it is about the same. They managed to extract even more performance out of it, they claim twice more performance out of it too. That allows the GPU to render reflections and shades correctly even faster.
In the previous generation Ray Tracing core, they could render shades, reflections, and even physics correctly at about 720p at 60fps. The new generation that was just introduced is supposed to be able to render smoothly at 1440p at 60fps. That is a large leap, about twice according to NVIDIA.
Even Newer Tensor Cores
Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) and machine learning has been a part of NVIDIA’s repertoire for a long time now. They started looking into implementing A.I. cores in their GeForce GTX 10 Series GPUs. They were successful and the cores worked to a certain degree in GTX GPUs.
In the new GeForce RTX architecture though, A.I. took a bigger stage and Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) was born. The first generation DLSS allowed calculations and processing to be offloaded from the GPU and pushed to a different server. That allows graphics to look even better than what the GPU is actually capable of physically. Of course, that takes a lot of processing power.
At the same time the DLSS technology is used as a prediction model as well, to anticipate calculations and render them beforehand. In terms of gaming, the cores allow your games to render at 720p on your own GPU but deliver 1080p or 1440p graphics to your eyes via the display. This is all part of the NVIDIA RTX IO experience as well though.
NVIDIA RTX IO
So, you have watched the demo of the upcoming Sony PlayStation 5. You saw the next generation console load open world maps and transition between places in no time, with no load screens. That technology is achievable through the clever use of SSD and processing power.
That is what NVIDIA RTX IO is going to replicate though. It allows plenty of the processing loads on the CPU and on board RAM from modern SSDs to be offloaded to the GPU itself. Since the GPU, in some cases, have spare processing capacity anyway, you get an improved processing performance for your games anyway and even improved data transfer and read speeds.
That means that game designers can try to build games with huge amount of detail in their maps while not thinking too much about load times. Of course, for lesser CPs, load screens are always going to be an issue in games. NVIDIA’s RTX IO is built to solve that.
There is another benefit to this though. Every other PC builder will tell you that if you want a great performing gaming machine, it has to be a combination of great GPU and CPU. The GPU will handle the 3D stuff, while the CPU will handle the frame generation. That is because most of the frame generation is done by the CPU, and therefore your framerate greatly depends on how much your CPU can handle itself. With RTX IO offloading that load to the GPU, you technically can have a slightly cheaper CPU and still achieve high frame rate in games.
New Faster, Nay, Fastest Memory Module in the World
As we mentioned earlier, a GPU is a little bit like a mini computer that piggybacks on top of the main board. It is a calculator that hops on another calculator to make that calculator faster and more powerful. In that sense, the GPU also needs its own memory module, its own RAM unit.
In that, they have worked with Micron to build the world’s fastest discrete graphics memory unit, the GDDR6X. You get up to 1TB/s in bandwidth for any graphics applications. This is where that minimised load times come into play too.
Samsung 8nm Transistors and NVIDIA
Every other tech familiar person knows that there are only a few manufacturers that really know what their doing when it comes to semiconductors and chip making. Samsung is one of those manufacturers in the circle of ‘the best of the best’. The new GeForce RTX 30 Series GPU benefits from Samsung’s know how in chip making.
The new GPU multiprocessing chips are built with 8nm standards and technology by Samsung. Smaller transistors also mean that you can fit more in a certain surface area. More transistors mean more power naturally.
This is technically how NVIDIA managed to achieve double the power from the previous generation GeForce RTX 20 GPUs while still retaining the sizes, just about. Less space and size also means that there is less power requirements from the transistors themselves, which leads to a much higher power efficiency. Hence, double the power, double the efficiency.
Better Technology, Better Experience
With more power, comes more enhancements from NVIDIA. They have done audio before already with RTX noise cancelling, which never cease to amaze us. This time though, they are turning their focus toward competitive gaming and other parts of content creation.
Source: NVIDIA
NVIDIA Reflex
It is exactly what it sounds like. It measures reflex. It does not measure your reflexes though.
Instead, NVIDIA Reflex measures latency between your input and the display’s output. From that measurement, NVIDIA’s Reflex algorithm will then optimise the game’s latency. In some sense, it is meant to reduce the latency between your input and the PC’s output.
This impacts eSports titles mostly. In video games with built in NVIDIA Low-Latency Mode, the technology reduces latency by about 50 percent. Every millisecond counts in eSports environment. That is also why NVIDIA’s Reflex Analyser also can calculate and tabulate the time it takes for you input to be translated into output. The Reflex Analyser is coming to most of the new 360Hz NVIDIA G-Sync eSports displays from its partners later this year.
NVIDIA Broadcast
Streaming is a huge business. It is gaining in popularity as well. As such, it would not be right for NVIDIA to ignore the market completely. In the sense of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30 Series, the extra power can also help with a single PC stream set up with NVIDIA Broadcast. The A.I. noise cancelling is already clever enough. NVIDIA Broadcast though is much cleverer than that with webcam auto framing and even virtual background effects for your stream.
NVIDIA Omniverse Machinima
Forget trying to create new stories with game engines. Forget spending hours on character creations and animations codes. Now, you could do all that for storytelling via NVIDIA Omniverse Machinima. You can use existing models or assets and even create your own via a webcam, amazingly. This is the power of NVIDIA’s new GeForce RTX 30 Series, and NVIDIA’s new storytelling tool.
Well, then again, this is still an early access tool. You might want to check back on this. If not, you can be a part of it by signing up for early access.
The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070, GeForce RTX 3080, and GeForce RTX 3090 is Here!
Source: NVIDIA
The first GPUs that comes out from the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30 Series is the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070, a technical replacement of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070. Thanks to the technological advancements, the GeForce RTX 3070 is way more powerful than the GPU it replaces. In certain benchmarks it is more powerful than the GeForce RTX 2080. With up to 8GB of GDDR6X RAM, 4K and 1440p resolution should be comfortable enough.
Then there is the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 which is way more powerful than the current generation GeForce RTX 2080Ti. It just blows the older GPU away. All that, while costing less than the GeForce RTX 2080Ti. It has up to 10GB of GDDR6X RAM to deliver 4K resolution at 60fps.
The daddy of the lot is what NVIDIA refers to as the “BFGPU” – Big Ferocious GPU. We would expand it to a different thing, but that is just us. This is the spiritual successor to the NVIDIA GeForce TITAN RTX, technically. This is supposed to be 10x quieter, and up to 30°C cooler. Of course, it is a big one, occupying three PCIe slots. Within the large body is an enormous 24GB of GDDR6X RAM and performs up to 50% faster than the TITAN RTX. It can easily support 8K resolution up to 60 fps in Control.
The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 is priced at US$ 499 (MYR 2,399*) and will be available in October 2020 onward. The GeForce RTX 3080 is priced at US$ 699 (MYR 3,360*) and will be available 17th September 2020 onward. The GeForce RTX 3090 is priced at US$ 1,499 (MYR 7,208*) and is available 24th September 2020 onward. Keep in mind that these are release dates for the Founders Edition cards. Of course, partner manufacturers will have their custom boards and own clocks later on or the same date.
