Tuesday 30 September 2014

Sony launches the new Xperia Z3 and Xperia Z3 Compact flagships in India

Sony Xperia Z3 and Xperia Z3 Compact flagships were launched on 25 Sep across India

25th September 2014, Mumbai – Sony India today announced the launch of its most powerful flagship smartphones to date, Sony Xperia Z3 and Z3 Compact

Both smartphones are powered by the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor with 2.5 GHz quad-core CPU, supported by 3GB RAM and 4G LTE modem for lightning fast browsing, immersive multimedia browsing and stunning visuals. The new smartphones offer a 20.7MP CMOS sensor camera with a 25mm wide angle lens and ISO 12,800 light sensitivity, offering an unparalleled experience of smartphone low light photography. The 5.2 inch Xperia Z3 comes with a 7.3 mm super slim rounded aluminium frame and weighs just 152 grams. The 4.6 inch Z3 Compact packs all the path-breaking features and uncompromised performance of Xperia Z3 in an 8.6 mm compact frame that weighs only 129 grams.

The Sony Xperia Z3 and Xperia Z3 Compact can capture video in 4K resolution with SteadyShot technology for stable videos and offer an ultra-bright triluminos display, unsurpassed audio with DSEE HX audio upscaling. For audio enthusiasts, the Xperia Z3 and Z3 Compact offer unmatched audio playback with options of hi-res audio, digital noise cancellation, DSEE HX audio upscaling, and front facing stereo speakers with S-Force Front Surround play. These are also the only smartphones to offer PS4 remote play that enables using them as a remote screen to connect to and control games on PS4. Both models also offer the highest levels of waterproofing in compliance with IP 65/68, and up to two days battery life.


My views about these phones

Build and Design - Sony has gone for completely curved design and it feels great in hand. Both phones exude elegance apart from being dust proof & water-proof.

Hardware and Software - Both phones come with Kitkat 4.4.4 out of the box along with 3GB RAM, Snapdragon 801 SoC, full HD display etc

According to me, these are flagship devices and hence both are simply brilliant. There is no compromise anywhere and that's how things should be. Generally compact versions of flagships are under-powered but Sony has proved all critics wrong by giving same powerful hardware & software package to Z3 compact.

So, I will conclude my post now. I think the launch of second flagship in same year by Sony reinforces the fact that Sony is keen to deliver latest technology to its fans and followers. Also, Z2 owners will not feel left out because the Z3 is not a major shift from its predecessor but the improvements are noteworthy.

Tuesday 23 September 2014

Nvidia GeForce GTX 980 and 970 based on Maxwell GPU launched

The Maxwell GPU based graphic cards - Nvidia GeForce GTX 980 and 970 were unveiled recently in India.


These are high end products based on Maxwell chip architecture which deliver unmatched graphics, game play and performance. These cards are energy efficient too. These Maxwell GPUs takes game lighting to the next level with VXGI (Voxel Global Illumination) technology.



Multi-frame anti-aliasing (MFAA), Dynamic Super Resolution (DSR) and VR Direct are the special highlights of these cards.


GeForce GTX 980 specifications

GTX 980 Engine Specs:
2048CUDA Cores
1126Base Clock (MHz)
1216Boost Clock (MHz)
144Texture Fill Rate (GigaTexels/sec)
GTX 980 Memory Specs:
7.0 GbpsMemory Clock
4 GBStandard Memory Config
GDDR5Memory Interface
256-bitMemory Interface Width
224Memory Bandwidth (GB/sec)
GTX 980 Technology Support:
Yes (4-way)NVIDIA SLI® Ready
YesNVIDIA G-Sync™-Ready
YesNVIDIA GameStream™-Ready
YesGeForce ShadowPlay™
2.0NVIDIA GPU Boost™
YesDynamic Super Resolution
YesMFAA
YesNVIDIA GameWorks™
12 APIMicrosoft DirectX
4.4OpenGL
YesCUDA
PCI Express 3.0Bus Support
Windows 8 & 8.1, Windows 7, Windows Vista, Linux, FreeBSD x86OS Certification
Display Support:
4096x2160Maximum Digital Resolution*
2048x1536Maximum VGA Resolution
Dual Link DVI-I, HDMI, 3x DisplayPort 1.2Standard Display Connectors
4 displaysMulti Monitor
YesHDCP
YesHDMI
InternalAudio Input for HDMI
GTX 980 Graphics Card Dimensions:
4.376 inchesHeight
10.5 inchesLength
Dual-widthWidth
Thermal and Power Specs:
98 CMaximum GPU Tempurature (in C)
165 WGraphics Card Power (W)
500 WMinimum System Power Requirement (W)
2x 6-pinsSupplementary Power Connectors
* 3840x2160 at 30Hz or 4096x2160 at 24Hz supported over HDMI.

GeForce GTX 970 specifications

GTX 970 Engine Specs:
1664CUDA Cores
1050Base Clock (MHz)
1178Boost Clock (MHz)
109Texture Fill Rate (GigaTexels/sec)
GTX 970 Memory Specs:
7.0 GbpsMemory Clock
4 GBStandard Memory Config
GDDR5Memory Interface
256-bitMemory Interface Width
224Memory Bandwidth (GB/sec)
GTX 970 Technology Support:
Yes (3-way)NVIDIA SLI® Ready
YesNVIDIA G-Sync™-Ready
YesNVIDIA GameStream™-Ready
YesGeForce ShadowPlay™
2.0NVIDIA GPU Boost™
YesDynamic Super Resolution
YesMFAA
YesNVIDIA GameWorks™
12 APIMicrosoft DirectX
4.4OpenGL
YesCUDA
PCI Express 3.0Bus Support
Windows 8 & 8.1, Windows 7, Windows Vista, Linux, FreeBSD x86OS Certification
Display Support:
4096x2160Maximum Digital Resolution*
2048x1536Maximum VGA Resolution
Dual Link DVI-I, HDMI, 3x DisplayPort 1.2Standard Display Connectors
4 displaysMulti Monitor
YesHDCP
YesHDMI
InternalAudio Input for HDMI
GTX 970 Graphics Card Dimensions:
4.376 inchesHeight
10.5 inchesLength
Dual-widthWidth
Thermal and Power Specs:
98 CMaximum GPU Tempurature (in C)
145 WGraphics Card Power (W)
500 WMinimum System Power Requirement (W)
2x 6-pinsSupplementary Power Connectors
* 3840x2160 at 30Hz or 4096x2160 at 24Hz supported over HDMI.
The GTX 980 will retail for around 46,000 INR and GTX 970 will sell for around 28,000 INR.

Thanks for reading.

If you have any queries, please use the comments section.



NVIDIA Unveils Full Power of Maxwell GPU Architecture With Breakthroughs in Performance, Graphics, Efficiency



NVIDIA Unveils Full Power of Maxwell GPU Architecture With Breakthroughs in Performance, Graphics, Efficiency

GeForce GTX 980, 970 Set New Standards as World’s Most Advanced GPUs


India, September 19, 2014—In a major leap forward for gaming, NVIDIA today introduced the first high-end products based on its Maxwell™ chip architecture—the new GeForce® GTX™ 980 and 970 GPUs—delivering unmatched performance, major new graphics capabilities and twice the energy efficiency of the previous generation.

Maxwell is the company’s 10th-generation GPU architecture, following Kepler™. The engine of next-generation gaming, it solves some of the most complex lighting and graphics challenges in visual computing.

Its new Voxel Global Illumination (VXGI) technology enables gaming GPUs for the first time to deliver real-time dynamic global illumination. Scenes are significantly more lifelike as light interacts realistically in the game environment—resulting in deeper levels of immersion for gamers.

And a range of new technologies—including multi-frame sampled anti-aliasing (MFAA), dynamic super resolution (DSR), VR Direct and extremely energy-efficient design—enable Maxwell-based GTX 980 and 970 GPUs to render frames with the highest fidelity at higher clock speeds and lower power consumption than any other GPU in their class.

“Maxwell has been years in the making, inspired by our gamers, and created by the best minds in 3D graphics,” said Jen-Hsun Huang, NVIDIA’s co-founder and chief executive officer. “Its extraordinary performance, efficiency and technologies will empower developers to do their finest work and delight gamers worldwide.”

VXGI – Voxel Global Illumination
Realistic lighting is among the most challenging problems faced in real-time graphics. Simulating both direct and indirect lighting, such as reflections for dynamic scenes, has to date been too computationally demanding for GPUs beyond those available to professionals. Game developers have been forced to use lighting tricks that compromise scene realism.

Maxwell overcomes these limitations, combining the performance and programmability required to model both direct and indirect light sources. It does so by deploying VXGI, a new NVIDIA technique to accurately depict indirect lighting, including diffuse lighting, specular lighting and reflections.

VXGI is being added to NVIDIA GameWorks™, the world’s most advanced game graphics library, so developers can build future games with dynamic environments filled with rich, natural lighting and breathtaking realism. It is being integrated into popular games engines like Unreal Engine 4, and will be available to developers later this year.

“We’ve been on a journey for more dynamic and realistic lighting in the game industry, and VXGI is the next big step in that journey,” said Halldor Fannar, chief technology officer of CCP Games. “By offering real-time, dynamic indirect lighting, VXGI is a generational leap forward.”

MFAA – Multi-Frame Sampled Anti-Aliasing
NVIDIA engineers have given the GTX 980 and 970 a further performance boost with a new technique called multi-frame sampled anti-aliasing, which leverages new capabilities in Maxwell GPUs.

MFAA varies the anti-aliasing sample patterns across pixels both within an individual frame and between multiple frames. It then uses a newly developed synthesis filter to produce the best image quality and does so faster than conventional anti-aliasing. For gamers, MFAA yields image quality approaching that of 4xMSAA at the cost of 2xMSAA—enabling titles to run faster while maintaining high levels of image quality.

DSR – Dynamic Super Resolution
The GeForce GTX 980 and GTX 970 GPUs can deliver a higher fidelity gaming experience even for those playing on standard 1080p displays. With Maxwell’s Dynamic Super Resolution technology, games can be rendered at 4K or other high-end resolutions and then scaled down to the native resolution on the user’s display using a 13-tap Gaussian filter. The resulting image is much higher quality than simply rendering directly to 1080p.

DSR is automatically enabled through GeForce Experience™, an NVIDIA application that automatically optimizes game settings for peak performance, downloads the latest drivers, and enables game streaming and in-game action capture. Gamers can turn on DSR and enjoy high-fidelity gaming with a single click of a button—without having to upgrade their monitor.

VR Direct            
To deliver on the immersive potential of virtual reality, games require high frame rates and low latency. VR Direct technology incorporates a number of new features to increase performance, lower latency and increase compatibility for VR headsets. These features include:

·        VR SLI—provides heightened performance on virtual reality devices where multiple GPUs can be assigned a specific eye to render the stereo images faster.
·        Asynchronous Warp—cuts latency in half and quickly adjusts images as gamers move their heads, without the need to re-render new frames.
·        Auto Stereo—improves game compatibility for VR devices, such as Oculus Rift, and allows users to play games on select headsets that weren’t originally designed for VR.

“We built Unreal Engine 4 using NVIDIA’s Kepler architecture but the GTX 980 and 970 GPUs, based on the new Maxwell architecture, are the most powerful, efficient GPUs for creating scenes of unprecedented detail across PC and VR experiences right now,” said Tim Sweeney, founder and CEO at Epic Games. “Our developers are pushing the graphical high end with Maxwell GPUs.”
Availability and Pricing
The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980and GTX 970 GPUs are now available in India from the world’s leading add-in card suppliers like ASUS, Galaxy and Zotac. MSRP in India is ₹ 46,000 for GTX980 and ₹28,000 for GTX970.

For more information on the GeForce GTX 980 and 970 GPUs, visit www.geforce.com. The NVIDIA Flickr page hosts the entire lineup of GeForce product photos.

To Keep Current on NVIDIA:
·        Keep up with the NVIDIA Blog, and follow them on FacebookGoogle+Twitter,LinkedIn and Instagram.
·        View NVIDIA videos on YouTube and images on Flickr.
·        Use the Pulse news reader to subscribe to the NVIDIA Daily News feed.

About NVIDIA
Since 1993, NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA) has pioneered the art and science of visual computing. The company’s technologies are transforming a world of displays into a world of interactive discovery — for everyone from gamers to scientists, and consumers to enterprise customers. More information at http://nvidianews.nvidia.com/ and http://blogs.nvidia.com/.

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