Nvidia moves to take on Intel
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| Inside PCs, components like Nvidia's graphics chips are becoming more important. Photo: HP |
For Nvidia, it's showtime.
Intel (INTC) and Microsoft (MSFT) have long been the most influential companies in the PC world, but lately something is shifting: The latest Intel chip or Microsoft operating system is no longer guaranteed to send technology buyers rushing into stores.
Instead in this visual age, glitzy entertainment features are just as likely to excite shoppers as anything else – and that's why the spotlight is on graphics chipmaker Nvidia (NVDA) as it holds its first-ever conference – dubbed NVISION – in Silicon Valley this week. With many of the digital effects industry's A-listers on hand, it's shaping up to be a flashy affair.
Think of the conference as a coming out party of sorts. Over the past several months, co-founder and CEO Jen-Hsun Huang has been making the case that Nvidia deserves a place beside Intel as one of the most influential players in the tech hardware business. While Huang and his company are well known among video game fanatics and creative professionals who rely on his chips to bring 3D landscapes and other visual effects to life, he feels now is the time to make a play for a more mainstream audience.
"A lot of people think that what Nvidia does is make graphics chips for video games," Huang said to a huddle of journalists. "We love doing that, and nothing geeks us up more than to do that – but it really is only the tip of the iceberg."
So the show so far is orchestrated to suggest that Nvidia's technology is at the center of some of the most interesting digital trends. During a rambling two-hour keynote address, Huang demonstrated how Nvidia chips allow Lamborghini to use digital models to solicit pre-orders of a limited-edition car that will sell for 1.5 million euros. He also invited presenters to show how graphics processors enable virtual worlds, TV effects, touch-sensitive interfaces and immersive 3D games.
The atmosphere was markedly more casual (and the crowd more sparse) than at the Intel Developer Forum last week in San Francisco, where the chip giant tried to rally the tech industry behind its vision of how Intel chips will eventually power all sorts of digital devices. As things got going Monday in downtown San Jose, the 7,100 attendees included gamers in rumpled t-shirts mingled with engineers in button-downs. Underscoring the rebellious vibe, the fountain outside the San Jose Convention Center was dyed green, in tribute to Nvidia's signature color.
It's a convenient time for a graphics specialist like Nvidia to assert itself. The latest operating systems from Microsoft and Apple (AAPL) make heavy use of visual effects to make the computing experience more engaging, with icons that jump when clicked, and windows that slide in and out of view. Video recording and playback are gaining prominence as higher-quality webcams arrive, and high-definition videos take hold in Blu-ray drives and on YouTube (GOOG).
All of those tasks go more smoothly on a PC with a decent graphics processor. Mark Randall, chief strategist for Adobe Systems' (ADBE) Dynamic Media group, said that his company's software writers are increasingly trying to tap the power of graphics chips as they develop new tools for video editing and web design.
But Huang has even bigger things in mind than traditional graphics fare. With its new Tegra family of mobile chips, the company is seeking a foothold in the emerging market for pocket computers like the iPhone. On the high end, Huang plans to make supercomputing-style power more affordable to businesses through its Cuda environment, which uses a method called parallel computing to take on big jobs for industries including financial services and oil and gas exploration.
Both of these moves position Nvidia for a showdown with Intel, whose Atom chip for mobile devices and upcoming Larrabee chip for graphics appeal to the same markets. Each company is arguing that its approach will provide the most thrilling features to tomorrow's devices. At stake are billions of dollars in potential profits. "The world is converging, and who has the better mousetrap, Nvidia or Intel?" said David Wu, analyst with Global Crown Capital. "That's what I'm going to NVISION to find out."
As a long time gamer / IT professional, I was a long time ATI fan. When it came to AGP GPU's, ATI was king. I recently built a Quad Core computer for myself, but this time I opted to go with Nvidia. Why? Since the GPU technology went to PCI-e, Nvidia has been the top dog. But I will say this Nvidia better watch out, ATI is slowly starting to gain on them. There latest GPU cards on just as good as there Nvidia. As far as Intel is concerned, better stick to what you do best, chipsets. Intel in no where closed to ATI or Nvidia, when it comes to GPUs.
On a side note about Apple PC, thats where you went wrong in the first place, buying one.
to s ann arbor
Apple does make a pc
pc means personal computer and that is
precisely what mac is, a personal computer. Also I use a Nvidia 8600GT,
and am happy with it. I use it with a
gigabyte S series mother board.
I can play tetris on my intel IGP at 1080p, the graphic is excellent. But I can only play Crysis on my geforce 7800 GO at 800×600.
Its laughable that somebody commented about "Nvidia stopped supporting AGP users, where AMD reigns in superior performance for a long time now." AGP is a standard that has been long superceeded (in performance) by the PCI express standard. Also, how is Nvidia "stopped supporting" AGP cards unless their drivers for AGP cards have stopped working suddenly? BTW, as to AMD/ATI cards of current generation, they are totally handicapped since they don't have support for industry-leading features like PhysX and CUDA. Only time will tell if AMD will catch up in that department but right now, things do look bleak for them. And Intel does not and will not have a product until 2010 so that its all hot air from them.
nVidia 8400 and 8600 mobile cards are failing in Dell, Apple and HP systems with Dell and HP extending warranties a year on the problem. HP is only offering ATI cards on their Balanced Business line now. nVidia should fix their current problems before touting on their future.
Mr. "r" said…
Nvida despite making decent video chips has NEVER make a perfect or even great chip. Almost all their video chips in Apple PCs have been somewhat deficient and somewhat buggy.
I think they make some good products but comparatively they don’y come close to comparing with Intel.
———–
Before you attack someone else for the bugs you claim make NVDA a lesser choice than ATI or Intel, please try to correct your own mistakes (i.e. spelling and grammar)
obvious mistakes:
has NEVER make
don’y
poor wording:
but comparatively they don’y come
close to comparing with Intel.
I'll stick to my NVDA cards as every Intel onboard graphics is worthless for serious business or entertainment. ATI is crap and never supports their products. I've got a pile of crappy ATI cards if you want to buy them. I'll even give you the defective ATI drivers at a discount. LOL
What kind of advertisement are you feeding us Ann fron San Fran? Youre just spouting stuff Nvidia told you, like Intels stuff being equivalent to a 2006 GPU. Thats just speculation on Nvidia's part too. I don't think Intel fairs well in the graphics business and I think dreamworks made a terrible mistake positioning themselves with Intel for their supposed superior roadmap for graphics compared to AMD. And why would you say AMD is not about gaming? Are you kidding, AMD is all about gaming, whether its their GPUs or CPUs.
If you hadn't noticed AMD's video cards stack up right up there with Nvidias in performance. Nvidia has used technology developed by ATI to give consumers better products. And it has been AMD/ATI pushing Microsoft and software developers to continue to expand graphics capabilities in Direct X while maintaining great backwards compatability and performance with OpenGL. And Nvidia stopped supporting AGP users, where AMD reigns in superior performance for a long time now.
Most of NVIDIA's products are graphic/video chips, are you saying they are decent by not perfect? Nothing is perfect, try using Intel integrated graphics to play any decent games.
Also, Apple doesn't make PCs, ever see the ad of "Get a Mac" making fun of PCs?
whatever the sinister motivation of the previous commentator, nvidia's products are choosen for their reliability, customer focus, unmatched performance and new capabilities they open.
They are lightyears ahead of Intel whose Larrabee processor will not even perform better than nvidia's products of 2 year ago at a cost multitude higher than nvidia's gpu's. The fact that intel is trying to promote a product they not even have shows how worried Intel is for their market share in dollars spend on processors.
Their commitment for non gaming is most visible in the added capabilities in their latest gpu generation, something AMD choose not to do with their latest gpu's who are limited to gaming application
Nvida despite making decent video chips has NEVER make a perfect or even great chip. Almost all their video chips in Apple PCs have been somewhat deficient and somewhat buggy.
I think they make some good products but comparatively they don'y come close to comparing with Intel.
Good lord.. did someone just compare Crysis to Tetris?