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NVIDIA announces GeForce GTX 580M and 570M, availability in the Alienware M18x and MSI GT780R

PC News Zone — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 11:46:16 +0000

We know you're going to be shocked -- shocked! -- to hear this, but NVIDIA's gone and refreshed its high-end line of GeForce GTX cards. The GTX 580M takes the place of the GTX 485M, and NVIDIA's bragging that it's the "fastest notebook GPU ever," capable, we're told, of besting the Radeon HD 6970M's tesselation performance by a factor of six. The new GTX 570M, meanwhile, promises a 20 percent speed boost over the last-generation 470M. Both 40-nanometer cards support DirectX11, OpenCL, PhysX, CUDA, 3D Vision, Verde drivers, Optimus, SLI, and 3DTV Play. As for battery life, NVIDIA's saying that when coupled with its Optimus graphics switching technology, the 580M can last through five hours of Facebook, but last we checked, that's not why y'all are shelling out thousands for beastly gaming rigs. You can find the 580M in the Alienware M17X and M18X (pictured) starting today, though you might have to wait a week or so for them to ship. Meanwhile, the 570M is shipping in the MSI GT780R as you read this, and you'll also find the 580M in a pair of 3D-capable Clevo laptops: the P170HM3 and the SLI-equipped P270WN. Handy chart full 'o technical details after the break.

	GeForce GTX 570M	GeForce GTX 580M

Processor cores	Up to 336	Up to 384
Support for	PhysX, Verde drivers, CUDA, 3D Vision, 3DTV Play, Optimus, SLI, DirectX11	PhysX, Verde drivers, CUDA, 3D Vision, 3DTV Play, Optimus, SLI, DirectX11
Processor clock speed	Up to 1150MHz	Up to 1240MHz
Memory clock speed	Up to 1500MHz	Up to 1500MHz
Memory	Up to 1.5GB or 3GB	Up to 2GB GDDR5
Memory width	Up to 192-bit	Up to 256-bit
Memory type	GDDR5	GDDR5

Show full PR text

Fastest. Notebook GPU. Ever.
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580M GPU Launches in Alienware M18x and M17x Notebooks with Record-Breaking Gaming Performance

SANTA CLARA, Calif.-June 28, 2011- NVIDIA today announced the world's fastest notebook graphics processing unit (GPU), the NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 580M. Available now in the Alienware M18x, the new GPU sets new standards in industry leading benchmarks and games. It will also be available soon in the Alienware M17x notebook along with NVIDIA Optimus™ technology.

"The best game support. The best gaming features. The best gaming performance available anywhere. That's the essence of the GeForce GTX 580M," said Rene Haas general manager of notebook products at NVIDIA. "With power like this, you can turn all the knobs to 11."

The first notebook PC to feature the GeForce GTX 580M, the Alienware M18x offers the option of two GeForce GTX 580M GPUs in one system for up to double the gaming performance, using NVIDIA SLI® technology. Not to be outdone, the Alienware M17x will offer the GeForce GTX 580M along with NVIDIA Optimus™ technology and will deliver 5 hours of battery life in Facebook, and 100 frames per second performance in Call of Duty: Black Ops.

"Gamers aspire to experience games at their highest settings," says Eddy Goyanes, product marketing manager for Alienware. "Alienware activates the technology designed to enable those aspirations. With the launch of the GeForce GTX 580M on the Alienware M17x, and a dual card option on the M18x, that synergy continues - Alienware delivers the ultimate gaming experience."

GeForce GTX 580M GPUs are the fastest Microsoft DirectX 11 notebook GPUs on the market, offering up to six times the tessellation performance of any other notebook GPU. They are also more efficient, with up to 20 percent better performance per watt than the previous generation.

NVIDIA also introduced the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570M GPU, which offers 20 percent faster performance than the previous generation product it replaces.

The power of GeForce GTX GPUs means gamers can play at full 1080p high-definition resolutions with the advanced technology features that set GeForce GPUs apart from the competition. These include:
· Support for NVIDIA 3D Vision™ technology, the #1 3D experience for notebooks, which automatically converts over 525 titles into immersive 3D.
· Support for NVIDIA 3DTV Play™ software, for connecting 3D Vision-based notebooks to 3D TVs.
· NVIDIA SLI® technology, which links two GTX GPU's for up to double your gaming performance.
· NVIDIA Optimus technology, which enables extra-long battery life by automatically switching on and off the GPU so that it runs only when needed.
· NVIDIA PhysX® engine support, which brings games to life with realistic physics.
· NVIDIA CUDA® architecture support, for GPU computing applications.
· NVIDIA Verde™ notebook drivers, for frequent performance improvements and rock-solid stability.

For more information on any GeForce 500M Series GPUs, visit www.nvidia.com.

AVS Gear Zippy BT-637

Mark — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 08:34:47 +0000

The AVS Gear Zippy BT-637 ($54.99 street) is a keyboard equipped with an embedded touchpad. Its target audience is the home entertainment enthusiast looking for a “universal remote,” if you will, to control all their devices. It can pair with up to six Bluetooth-enabled devices, including PlayStation 3, and switch between them easily with a press of a button. But a few glitches with the touch buttons and oddities relating to key layout hold it back from gaining higher praise.

Design
The Zippy BT-637 measures 1.04 by 7.28 by 14.35 inches (HWD). For most, the keyboard’s design will be hit or miss. Its brushed aluminum palm rest and frame adds a bit of class, but the keys look rather cheapâ€”much like the ones found on the AZiO Wireless RF Keyboard ($69.99 list, 3 stars), which looked like the letters had been stuck on with adhesive. Located directly in the center of the keyboard along the palm rest is a multi-touchpad with the right- and left-click buttons located on either side rather than underneath the touchpad. This orientation is a little awkward when navigating, but is easily remedied by utilizing the touchpad’s one-finger touch to “left click” or three-finger touch to “right click” on items. Other multi-touch features include two-finger scrolling.

The touchpad was spacious enough to browse through Web pages and scroll through documents, but for anything long term you may want to supplement your couch surfing with Logitech’s appropriately named Couch Mouse M515. The Zippy BT-637 typing experience is good; I’m a personal fan of traditional layouts, as opposed to the chiclet-style like on the Apple Wireless Keyboard ($79 direct, 4 stars). Unfortunately, the Enter key is oversized, taking out the \ and | key completely, and the right Shift key has been undersized for the sake of making the arrow keys normal-sized rather than thinning them down.

On the right side of the keyboard are a series of touch buttons that consist of the Touch Lock (turns the touchpad on and off), Home (brings up a browser window or brings you to your designated homepage), Email, Back, Forward, Search, Mute, Refresh. These were a nice addition, but I found they weren’t very responsive and often took multiple presses for my finger to register.

Along the top of the keyboard are the F1-12 keys that also double as Fn keys that do everything from open your “My Pictures” folder to adjusting volume and control your media (i.e. play/pause and skip).

The keyboard has an on/off switch on its underside, which may help conserve battery life. According to AVS Gear the BT-637 can last up to 2 months on two AA batteries (included in packaging).

Features
The BT-637 connects to devices via Bluetooth, a wireless technology. I was easily able to pair it with two PCs, a PlayStation 3, and my iPad 2. Each of these devices was set to a button, so I could switch to typing on my iPad 2, press a button, and switch to browsing on my PC. You can pair and assign up to 6 devices, which is more than enough.

The AVS Gear Zippy BT-637 offers a great feature set and solid performance, but its glitchy touch buttons, cheap-looking keys, and odd key layout keep it from taking the lead among our home entertainment keyboards. The Logitech diNovo Mini (4.5 stars), the Editors’ Choice in this category, is small and sports an innovative design. That and the fact that it has both wireless USB dongle and Bluetooth connectivity options (increasing its compatibility among older PCs) makes it a valuable asset in the living room. But its $149.99 (direct) price may scare most users away. So for those looking for a solid feature set that won’t break the bank, the Iogear 2.4GHz Wireless On-Lap Keyboard ($74.95 direct, 3.5 stars) is a good choice.

Sony VAIO Z21 Series mentioned on various European sites, isn’t actually for sale yet

pcnz_admin — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 06:45:13 +0000

Here in the states, Sony’s 13-inch VAIO Z series has been missing from the company’s online store for months, but in Europe, at least, it lives on — a quartet of Z21 series laptops have surfaced on various e-tailers as the possible successor to last year’s Z11. So far, we’re seeing a pair of configurations with a Core i5-2410M processor and 128GB of solid-state storage and two more with a Core i7-2620M CPU and 256GB in storage. Judging by this sample, at least, 1600 x 900 resolution is standard, as is a backlit keyboard, 3G SIM card slot, fingerprint reader, 3D output, and an HD webcam with Sony’s Exmor imaging technology. Alas, the available specs suggest Thunderbolt’s a no-show, though rumor has it Sony’s implementation of Intel’s Light Peak technology will use USB connectors, of which this has three. Here’s to wishful thinking, right?

The peculiar thing is, you can’t actually buy it yet. F2F lists staggering prices ranging from â‚¬1,809 ($2,642) to â‚¬2,839 ($4,146), though it’s not, in fact, available. Meanwhile, search results turn up mentions on staticICE UK and Belgium’s Execute, but they’ve been scrubbed from the actual pages. So, it looks like it’s up to Sony to announce this already — and dish up some pictures while it’s at it.