Intel: GeForce GTX 280 is only 14x faster than Core i7-960

In a peculiar attempt to dismiss claims made by Nvidia, Intel yesterday argued that its CPU technology is only 14 times slower than the graphics company's GPUs. The unusual admission comes as the Santa Clara-based chipmaker looks to downplay Nvidia's claims that its GPUs outperform the conventional Intel processor by a factor of 100.

In a paper titled "Debunking the 100x GPU vs CPU Myth," Intel suggests that application kernels run up to 14 times faster in certain circumstances on an Nvidia GeForce GTX 280 than an Intel Core i7-960. On average, Intel says that number is more along the lines of 2.5 times faster. Naturally, Nvidia quickly published a rebuttal of its own.

In a blog post, spokesman Andy Keane pointed out that Intel used Nvidia's last-generation GPU, as opposed to Fermi. Keane also notes that Intel presumably ran unoptimized codes on the GTX 280, and it's not even clear how they were compared between the GPU and CPU.

The Nvidia staffer went on to acknowledge that not all applications run 100 times quicker on GPUs, but he cited many developers who have achieved that kind of performance, and more. At least seven organizations cite speed-ups of over 100x, and one claims 300x.

GeForce GTX 460 on its way, overclocking friendly Fermi?

Earlier rumors had indicated that Nvidia was preparing a mid-range addition to its GeForce GTX 400 lineup that would arrive in time for Computex, but as we now know that didn't happen. We do know the GTX 460 is on its way though, and unlike the GTX 465 that is more of the same power hungry Fermi that we have come to love and hate at the same time, the GTX 460 will be based on a cut-down revision of that chip "GF104" that should address our concerns about power consumption and heat generation, particularly relevant for a mainstream priced product that is meant to reach the masses.

The latest tidbits of information come from german publication Heise Online who have disclosed some impressive overclocking results. They claim they were able to overclock a GTX 460 from its stock speed of 675MHz to 830MHz without much effort. Then further tweaking the card's voltage had them hitting speeds in the 900MHz range at which point they were matching the performance of the much more expensive GeForce GTX 470.

According to Heise, there will be two versions of the GTX 460, one that comes with 768MB RAM and a 192-bit memory bus that will sell for $230, and a slightly more expensive version that will carry 1GB of RAM and a 256-bit memory interface.

Notion Ink Adam on track, non-Tegra models on the table

Notion Ink is cooking up one of the more promising tablets we've seen thus far, and although the so-called Adam has been subject of delay rumors lately, the company says its highly-anticipated slate is right on track for a Q3 2010 launch. Furthermore, according to Notion Ink founder Rohan Shravan, Notion Ink has just secured its final round of funding. The investors remained unnamed, but their cash could supposedly fuel the production of around 100,000 Adams per month.

Shravan also dropped word of the potential launch of cheaper slate models. Until now, we've known about two versions of the Adam: one with an outdoor-readable Pixel Qi display, and another with a regular LCD screen – both iterations are based on Nvidia's Tegra 2 SoC. Apparently, Notion Ink is considering the use of a second, cheaper platform, but there's no information about what chips are on the table.

Pricing is still a bit ambiguous, but earlier reports said the Adam would start at around $330 and soar up to $800 for a completely maxed out model. However, Shravan recently stated that Notion Ink has worked to get the products out at a more aggressive price than originally intended. Precisely how much more aggressive remains to be seen.

Nvidia Tegra 2 tablet prototype shown, seems promising

Nvidia let folks get up close and personal with a Foxconn-manufactured tablet prototype this evening, and based on early impressions, it's a keeper. The unnamed Android slate measures 8.9-inches and is powered by an Nvidia Tegra 2 system-on-a-chip -- which boasts eight independent processors, including a 1GHz dual-core ARM Cortex A9 CPU. There's also a gig of system memory, a front-mounted camera, two USB ports and the multi-touch WSVGA display.

When the Tegra 2 was first unveiled, Nvidia claimed the chip was four times faster than its predecessor. The SoC can make quick work of 3D games and HD video, all while consuming less power than Intel's Atom and Qualcomm's Snapdragon. Engadget had a brief hands-on with the slate and shot a 24-second video of it running a 3D football title, and Gizmodo has photos of it running another game.

There's no information on when the tablet will be finished, but we'd expect it to debut before the year is up.

Nvidia's mainstream Fermi cards coming in July and August

If ongoing rumors are to be believed, more affordable variants of Nvidia's Fermi-based GeForce GTX 480 and 470 should arrive next month at Computex. Dubbed GeForce GTX 460, this card is expected to go against AMD's Radeon HD 5850 in terms of price and performance. It'll still be about $300, though, so if you are holding out for something a little friendlier on your wallet then cards based on the GF106 and GF108 cores might be right up your alley.

According to DigiTimes, mainstream GF106 and entry-level GF108-based graphics cards will hit around July and August, respectively, for $180 and $100. That's quite a bit higher than early predictions suggested. Unfortunately, no other details are available regarding specific models or what to expect compared to their more expensive counterparts.

Meanwhile, the GeForce GTX 460 purportedly debuting in June will use the new GF104 Fermi architecture and should feature 256 shader cores, 64 TMUs, 32 ROPs, and a 256-bit memory bus. Other cards expected to use the GF104 core include the GeForce GTS 450, 440 and 430 which should cover the $180 to $300 price range. Of course, none of this has been confirmed by Nvidia for now, so plenty could change by the time these cards are actually out.

NVIDIA unleashes GeForce GTX 480 and GTX 470 'tessellation monsters'

Let's get the hard data out of the way first: 480 CUDA cores, 700 MHz graphics and 1,401MHz processor clock speeds, plus 1.5GB of onboard GDDR5 memory running at 1,848MHz (for a 3.7GHz effective data rate). Those are the specs upon which Fermi is built, and those are the numbers that will seek to justify a $499 price tag and a spectacular 250W TDP. We attended a presentation by NVIDIA this afternoon, where the above GTX 480 and its lite version, the GTX 470, were detailed. The latter card will come with a humbler 1.2GB of memory plus 607MHz, 1,215MHz and 1,674MHz clocks, while dinging your wallet for $349 and straining your case's cooling with 215W of hotness.

NVIDIA's first DirectX 11 parts are betting big on tessellation becoming the way games are rendered in the future, with the entire architecture being geared toward taking duties off the CPU and freeing up its cycles to deliver performance improvements elsewhere. This is perhaps no better evidenced than by the fact that both GTX models scored fewer 3DMarks than the Radeon HD 5870 and HD 5850 that they're competing against, but managed to deliver higher frame rates than their respective competitors in in-game benchmarks from NVIDIA. The final bit of major news here relates to SLI scaling, which is frankly remarkable. NVIDIA claims a consistent 90 percent performance improvement (over a single card) when running GTX 480s in tandem, which is as efficient as any multi-GPU setup we've yet seen.