PurevideoHd
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NVIDIA reveals GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB
Not even two months after NVIDIA tempted gamers on a budget with the GeForce 8800 GT, the outfit has loosed a new beast just in time for those eleventh hour holiday shoppers. Based on 65-nanometer fabrication, the 8800 GTS 512MB boasts 128 stream processors, twin dual-link DVI ports, PureVideo HD technology, DirectX 10 support, a 650MHz core clock / 970MHz memory clock and hardware decode acceleration for smooth playback of "H.264, VC-1, WMV and MPEG-2 HD and SD movies." According to the company, this card provides some 25-percent more processing power than NVIDIA products previously offered at the same price point, which, if you're wondering, is around $299 to $349.[Via HotHardware]
NVIDIA's DX10-capable 8M laptop GPUs get official
NVIDIA's been parading its DirectX 10 desktop GPUs around for some time now, and while we've seen lappies in the pipeline that tout the DX10 niceties, the firm is getting all formal on us with the release of the 8M series of laptop graphics cards. Hailed as the "world's first mobile GPU to support DirectX 10 and fully accelerate decoding of H.264 full HD movies," the 8M series will initially consist of the GeForce 8600M and 8400M. NVIDIA claims that these chips will provide "up to twice the performance of previous generation GPUs," and also boasts about the PureVideo HD processing engine and PowerMizer technology that purportedly conserves battery life when you're not engaged in a ruthless deathmatch. Unsurprisingly, the chips have already been made available to laptop manufacturers, so watch for these suckas in forthcoming "HP, Toshiba, Acer, Samsung, and Asus offerings."
NVIDIA releases new drivers featuring PureVideo HD
NVIDIA, like Intervideo, wants to help you build that next Blu-ray or HD DVD drive-equipped media PC, and has released new ForceWare drivers for GeForce 7-series graphics cards to enable PureVideo HD acceleration. It'll take plenty of processing power to move that HD video, with a recommended minimum of a dual core processor and 1GB of RAM. FiringSquad got an early look at a PureVideo HD-powered setup, and confirmed that on PCs, unless ICT is enabled, you will be able to play back AACS-protected discs at full resolution over VGA. DVI connections without HDCP support on the graphics card and monitor get nothing, but HDCP support on both ends enables full resolution playback in any situation. NVIDIA has also launched an nZone store with links to all the graphics cards, monitors and software one could ever need -- how nice of them. Since FiringSquad's tests showed even on a Core 2 Duo system high bitrate h.264-encoded files were chugging without assistance, we see a system upgrade in your future.[Via DV Guru]Read - NVIDIA PureVideo HD with HD-DVD Quick ShotRead - NVIDIA Enables an Outstanding HD DVD and Blu-Ray Movie Experience with Newly Released NVIDIA PureVideo HD Technology
NVIDIA answers questions about PureVideo HD, Blu-ray & HD DVD playback on PC
Amidst the rumors and quickly reversed statements, there has been very little clear information about what media PC owners can expect in terms of Blu-ray and HD DVD playback. HardOCP sat down with NVIDIA exec Scott Vouri recently with ten questions on what will and won't work when plugging in that Blu-ray or HD DVD drive. Just like the Xbox 360's HD DVD player, that analog VGA connector will support any resolution you choose -- or that your hardware can run without chugging -- as long as the ICT digital-only flag is not enabled (which it has not been for any content released so far). For digital video connections, with or without ICT, AACS makes HDCP a must. Older DVI monitors without content protection will get nothing but a blank screen when playing protected content (read: any commercial Blu-ray or HD DVD disc released). All that high tech digital circuitry doesn't mean problem-free though as they experienced issues trying to hook up to a Pioneer plasma via HDMI (they're not the only ones), but no problems on an older CRT monitor connected via VGA.[Thanks, Tyler]
MSI's NX7600GT Diamond Plus brings NVIDIA & HDMI to retail
For future-proofing PC builders looking ahead to HDCP, you now have an NVIDIA-based graphics option for your HDMI-compatible Media Center box. While Sapphire was the first to release an ATI AMD ATI-based HDMI graphics card, the MSI NX7600GT Diamond Plus brings its copy protected digital audio/video output to the masses, unlike previous NVIDIA HDMI cards which were only available in Sony OEM boxes. Beyond the 560Mhz 7600GT GPU and 256MB of GDDR3 RAM this card utilizes an Silicon Image SiI 1930 HDCP PanelLink Transmitter for both encryption and audio mixing, with support for 7.1 audio sources. If for some reason you don't want your A and your V in one cable, there are DVI-I and S/PDIF outputs available, but why? 1080p output, PureVideo HD support and a pricetage between $200 and $250 make this an ideal card if you're looking to build your own Blu-ray or HD DVD player, shipping later this month.
