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Nvidia Launches High Powered Mobile Graphics Chip

elbazo writes "Nvidia today launched their new mobile chip the GoForce 5500, which provides a massive jump in graphics technology for handheld and mobile devices. Capable of 'easily' rendering Quake 3, support for 1024x768 graphics output and real time playback of H.264, WMV9 and MPEG4 movies at high resolution the chip looks set to rock the mobile world."

17 of 152 comments (clear)

  1. Applications for Desktop PC's? by Spy+der+Mann · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I just wonder, if this chip has really low energy consumption, is it possible to make a videocard out of it (i.e. one that doesn't require extra large heatsinks to work)?

  2. Chip looks set to rock the mobile world by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    nVidia has been saying they were going to rock the mobile world for years. I'll believe it when I see more. nVidia may have been spanking ATI on the desktop (x1900 not withstanding), but ATI has been proven in mobile and handheld. nVidia's efforts have been too power hungry for anything but desktop replacement laptops. Lets hope things change, but I don't believe nVidia pronouncements of "rocking."

  3. beefy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    because headshots with railguns aren't yet frequent enough on subways.

  4. 1024x768 is nice, but... by lanc · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...do you really want to play Q3 on your handheld?


    ...okok, I do :)

    --
    "First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they attack you, then you win." -- Mahatma Gandhi
  5. RAZR V3X has Nvidia 3d accelerator disabled by edxwelch · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Slightly offtopic, but you might find it interesting nevertheless.
    The Motorola RAZR V3X sports a nVidia Goforce 3D 4800 WMP, but for some strange reason it's not used by the KVM. In other words games using the Java 3D API will have the same sucky performance as phones with no hardware acceleration. Some guy even started a petition to get Motorola to change it (http://www.petitiononline.com/v3xpet/petition.htm l)

  6. gee, great textures on that 2-mm splotch! by spacefiddle · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Um... okay. So?
    I mean i guess it's cool they could do it and all, but... the PSP's screen size, frex, is acceptible. Barely. But my cellphone...? (I like how the articles cites "...the original Quake 3 for the Playstation," btw. Uh...)

    I just don't get how it's desireable or even not-painful to be looking at smaller and smaller screens and cramming higher resolutions on them. So WHAT? You REALLY want to watch a full length movie on a moving train/bus/backseat on a screen the size of your hand? Ow. Ugh. Oh what an experience. Nah. ...I'll just go back to waiting for the optic nervesplice HUD overlay, thanks :D

  7. Runs games from 1999 with ease? by appleprophet · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Quake 3 was released in '99 - 7 years ago. I remember playing that on a 400 MHz G4 with an ATI 128 and being pretty impressed.

  8. Super for Camera resolutions by RiotXIX · · Score: 3, Insightful

    That is off the hook for using the phone as a (video) camera - I'm not much of a gamer, but if anything got me interested about upcoming phones it was the ability to always be carrying a high-def camera with you at all times.

    --
    "You know you don't act like a scientist, you're more like a game show host." Dana Barret
    1. Re:Super for Camera resolutions by mythosaz · · Score: 3, Informative

      The problem with cameras in phones is the size and quality of the CCD sensor - not the size of the rest of the electronics necessary. I already cary a 1.3MP camera, and it's a vast improvement over the .3MP cameras on most "old" phones -- but they're nothing near a good 5+MP camera with a good (read: "large") CCD. You also need space and battery for a flash. Those blinking white LEDs don't cut it.

      The larger combo-everything phones made by HTC (top end Audiovoxes, iPaq's, iMate) all have this small sensor, no-flash 1.3MP camera. It's useless.

      You could easily put my 68 gram Panasonic phone into a Sony Cybershot and have a device smaller than my PDA-style phone -- but it's honestly not available yet.

  9. Re:not so hot resolution by nizo · · Score: 3, Funny

    Luckily most new cellphones will come with an optional 17" monitor (and handy carrying straps, allowing you to wear it like a backpack). The only problem is looking at something strapped to your back, but I suppose you could wear it in the front (upside down).

  10. But how much power does it use? by Vellmont · · Score: 4, Insightful

    That's really the key question here, and the answer will determine how usefull it is. No one wants a mobile device, be it a PDA or whatever that kills the battery in an hour. I see no technical specs on power consumption, which is a bit worrying since I can only assume that nVidia isn't terribly proud of it.

    --
    AccountKiller
  11. WHOA! NOT ALL IS AT IT SEEMS by SmallFurryCreature · · Score: 3, Insightful
    gamers can experience Quake 3 equal to that of the original PlayStation

    Now of course this is a statement in a press story so it probably has all the accuracy of well a press story (0) but what exactly does this mean?

    Quake 3 was a PC game. It was the game I got a matrox G400 (bumpmapping) for, well that and dualhead, and I think was typically played at 1024x768 resolution.

    So when was it released on the playstation. Oh right, never. A version was released for the playstation 2. Big difference right there but even with its improved hardware the PS2 is still not exactly up to snuff. The resolution is TV, wich is far far lower then you would ever accept on a pc.

    So what exactly is this new chip capable off? Can it play at 1024x768 OR can it play at playstation (2) resolutions? Why does it compare a pc game with a lesser console version?

    I smell a load of marketing. Reminds me of the days on the farm.

    It may be powerfull but comparing it to a poor console version of an old console game is not exactly inspiring.

    --

    MMO Quests are like orgasms:

    You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.

  12. Q3 on a mobile phone by teslar · · Score: 4, Funny

    At first I was going to crack a joke on how hard it would be to circle-strafe-jump on a mobile phone.

    Then I realised that kids who can text at 40 characters per second probably won't even blink at the difficulty.

    You know you're getting old when you still need a mouse and a keyboard for FPS games...

  13. Re:Can it run Quake 4? BF2? FEAR? by justins · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You were playing Quake 3 on a handheld 5 years ago?

    --
    Now before I get modded down, I be to remind whoever might read this that what I am saying is FACT. - bogaboga
  14. Re:Riddle me this.. by MS_Word · · Score: 3, Informative
    Firewire 400 mb/s

    PCI express 4000 mb/s

    Also you would prob need an external power supply.

    Even Sata would need to double its bandwitdh

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_device_bandwi dths#Computer_interfaces

  15. Re:Use your brain for a minute by pboulang · · Score: 4, Funny

    But your clearly and idiot. [Image of a defanged viper gumming its prey] That was a pretty effective insult...

    --

    This comment is guaranteed*

    *not guaranteed

  16. Aqua? by nojayuk · · Score: 3, Interesting
    I was chewing the fat with a Linuxhead-turned-MacAddict a few days ago, tossing up ideas about where Apple might go in the future. Friend dragged the stinking corpse of the Newton out of its uneasy grave (he has a thing about PDAs, forgive him). I pointed out that the Newt was buried for a good reason or six, then inspiration struck.

    Apples' range of portables has been, to be kind, lacking in features the past couple of years mainly because of their boat-anchor PPC fetish. Apple's Teh Shiny! has been the iPlod range of jewelry and fashion statements, their premier bottom-line enhancement mechanism. Video, hard disks, flash but no sign of an Apple PDA in the mix.

    But... imagine an Apple PDA with Aqua, enough smarts to do the look-and-feel kabuki of its bigger brothers, a coat-pocket tablet-gesture device with a 1024x768 display and a Centrino, a shitload of Flash and no battery-sucking hard drive, able to run those new-fangled PPC/x86 fat binaries native. Of course it would be slow and not exactly the device most people whould run PhotoShop on, but as a workalike sibling to the iBooks with all the wireless connectivity Teh Shiny! comes with as standard today I figure it would fly out the door sales-wise.

    The killer for this pipe-dream was fitting enough GPU power under the hood, affordable in power consumption terms, to make Aqua usable in less than geological time -- in independent tests, ten out of ten Apple owners never want to see a spinning beachball ever again. I speculated about Cell as a dedicated Aqua graphics engine but from what I've seen about its power consumption that doesn't fly. This device might just do the job though. Hmmm.