Tag: NVIDIA

Article

This to be part of affordable increasingly-powerful laptops

Intel aims high and Nvidia aims low with laptop chip updates | bit-tech.net

From the horse’s mouth

Intel

Intel Launches New 11th Gen Core for Mobile

NVIDIA

New GeForce RTX Gaming and Studio Laptop Models Now Available – Over 140 In All, Including New RTX 3050 and 3050 Ti Models | GeForce News | NVIDIA

My Comments

Intel and NVIDIA had just released new processing silicon for laptops and similar use cases that is about high-performance computing. This is although there is a processor-chip shortage that is affecting the computing, automotive and allied industries.

Intel is offering the newer performance-focused 11th-generation Tiger Lake H-Series Core CPUs. This is in addition to business-focused H-Series Core CPUs that come with vPro security / management facilities. All of these will at least support Thunderbolt 4 connectivity for increased expansion.

But NVIDIA have released the RTX 30 series of discrete graphics processors optimised for mobile and low-profile use cases. These GPUs, especially the RTX-3050 and RTX-3050Ti variants are pitched as affordable capable mobile units to court the gaming and creator market segments.

They are optimised to offer screen refresh rates of more than 60fps for a Full HD 1080p display. That understands the preference for laptops being equipped with Full HD 1080p screens for their built-in displays due to that offering battery efficiency for this use case.

Lets not forget that these GPUs will offer ray-tracing abilities at affordable prices and in the mobile context. This will benefit computer games and similar graphics applications where realism is important.

Intel and NVIDIA are pitching this silicon combination to budget gamers, creators especially the “prosumer” type and high-performance thin-and-light laptops. I would see this more as laptop manufacturers offer performance variants of their mainstream product lines that can appeal to university students. budget gamers and similar users where cost and performance matter.

But I would see NVIDIDA’s new graphics silicon also appealing to external graphics modules especially in the form of highly-compact types that use soldered-in GPUs. As well, this mobile-focused silicon could also appeal to ultra-compact NUC-type desktop computers where a performance variant  is important.

Here, most of the computer manufacturers refreshed their lineup of performance-focused Windows laptops with this new silicon. This included creator/prosumer 15” and 17” thin-and-light laptops intended to compete with Apple’s MacBook Pro.

All this new silicon is about bringing desktop-class graphics performance to mobile use cases especially where you don’t have to pay a lot for this kind of performance. NVIDIA was even putting forward the idea of increased graphics power at a price students can afford, but I see this as an all-round GPU that doesn’t depend on their continued interest in engineering, architecture or statistics for example. It is also about being suited to rest-and-recreation gaming as well.

It is another example of the increased investment in regular computers that run desktop operating systems that has taken place over the last six months. This is underscored by the increased use of these computers during the COVID-19 pandemic and associated lockdowns to work, learn, play and communicate at home. As well, an increased and continued interest in working away from the office on a part-time or full-time basis is driving more interest in this class of computer.

Here, the laptop form factor is being preferred due to its combination of portability and power and the investment in more power mobile silicon is showing this reality for most computer users.

Articles

NVIDIA allows you to turn a high-performance Ultrabook like the Razer Blade in to a mobile workstation when you plant a Quadro graphics card in an external graphics module like the Razer Core

Nvidia rolls out external GPU support for Nvidia Quadro | CNet

NVIDIA External GPUs Bring New Creative Power to Millions of Artists and Designers | MarketWired

From the horse’s mouth

NVIDIA

Press Release

My Comments

Over the last year, there has been a slow trickle of external graphics modules that “soup up” the graphics capabilities of computers like laptops, all-in-ones and highly-compact desktops by using outboard graphics processors. Typically these devices connect to the host computer using a Thunderbolt 3 connection which provides a bandwidth equivalent to the PCI Express expansion-card standard used for desktop computers.

At the moment, this approach for improving a computer system’s graphics abilities has been focused towards gaming-grade graphics cards and chipsets, which has left people who want workstation-grade graphics performance in the lurch.

But NVIDIA has answered this problem by providing a driver update for their TITAN X and Quadro workstation graphics cards. This allows Windows to work with these cards even if they are installed in a “card-cage” external graphics module rather than on the host computer’s motherboard.

Not just that, NVIDIA are to start allowing external-graphics-module manufacturers to tender their products for certification so that they are proven by NVIDIA to allow these cards to work reliably to optimum performance. This may be different to the context of a certified workstation where all the components in that particular computer are certified by Autodesk and similar software vendors to work reliably and perform at their best with their CAD or similar software.

What is being pitched in this context is a “thin-and-light” laptop of the Dell XPS 13 kind (including the 2-in-1 variant);  an “all-in-one” desktop computer like the HP Envy 34 Curved All-In-One or an ultra-compact “next unit of computing” unit like the Intel Skull Canyon being able to do workstation-class tasks with the kind of graphics card that best suits this computing requirement.

The question that some workstation users will then raise is whether the computer’s main processor and RAM are up to these tasks even though a workstation-grade graphics card is added on; and then consider this approach unsatisfactory even though the host computer has a lot of RAM and / or runs with a Core i7 CPU. But something like a gaming laptop that uses a gaming-calibre graphics chipset may benefit from the Quadro in an external graphics “card cage” module when this system is destined to do a lot of video editing, CAD or animation work.

Personally, I see the concept of the Quadro workstation graphics chipset in an external graphics module as a way to allow hobbyists and small-time professionals to slowly put their foot in the door of high-performance workstation computing.

Articles

 NVIDIA’s Optimus Technology Brings New Level of Switchable Graphics – Windows Experience Blog – The Windows Blog

From the horse’s mouth

NVIDIA’s article about the Optimus graphics system

My comments and explanation

The common graphics setup

The “IBM PC”-based computing platform started off with a “discrete” graphics setup where the system used a separate display card to put up data on the screen for the user to see. This allowed users to buy the graphics capability that they needed at the time of the system’s purchase yet upgrade this capability when their needs changed.

Then motherboard manufacturers and graphics-chip vendors moved towards placing the display circuitry on the motherboard, a practice that most other computer manufacturers engaged in for their platforms. This was preferred for computers that had an integrated display; as well as computers that were based on smaller stylish chassis designs. It also became a cost-saving measure for computer resellers whenever they designed their budget-priced models.

This method required that some of the system’s RAM (primary memory) was to be used for the graphics functionality and, in some cases, made use of the system’s CPU “brain” for some of the graphics work. This typically limited the performance of computer setups and those of us who valued graphics performance, such as gamers, designers or people involved in video production preferred to use the original “discrete” graphics arrangements.

Most systems, especially desktop systems, that had the integrated graphics chipsets also had an expansion slot for use with graphics cards and these setups typically had the graphics card that was in the expansion slot override the integrated graphics functionality. As well, a user who was upgrading a computer to discrete graphics also had to disconnect the monitor from the motherboard’s display output and reconnect it to the discrete graphics card’s display output.

As for laptop computers, there was a limitation in using discrete graphics there because it would lead to the computer running for a short time on its batteries, whereas a computer with low-end integrated graphics could run for a long time on its batteries. This also affected other applications where it was desirable to conserve power.

What does “Switchable Graphics” provide for the Intel-based computer platform.

The NVIDIA Optimus technology has brought around the concept of “switchable” graphics where a computer can have both integrated and discrete graphics. This practice is similar to a car that is equipped with an overdrive or “performance/economy” control.  Here, the driver runs the car in the “economy” mode or disengages the overdrive when they do their regular driving so they can conserve fuel. On the other hand, they engage the overdrive or set the transmission to “performance” mode if they want that bit of “pep” in the driving, such as for highway runs.

These computers will have a graphics chipset that can perform in a “discrete” manner for performance and use dedicated memory or in an “integrated” manner for power economy and use “spare” system memory. This will be accomplished with NVIDIA software that comes with computers that have this technology and run Windows 7. There is a special program in the software that works like the overdrive or “performance/economy” switch in the car. The program can be set up so the user switches modes manually or can be set to change modes dependent on whether the computer is running on external power or whether certain programs like games or video-editing software are being run.

Further comments

At the moment, the technology has just had its first public airing. This will usually mean that certain reliability issues will surface as the bugs get ironed out. It is also just optimised for laptop use but could be implemented in a “dual-chipset” manner for desktop and similar applications. In the desktop environment, the integrated graphics subsystem could work alongside an discrete aftermarket graphics subsystem and share outputs. This could allow, for example, a “gaming rig” to be less noisy and power-demanding while it is not being used for games and other graphics-intense tasks because the integrated graphics chipset could come in handy for the Windows shell or office applications.

Once this concept is worked out, this would allow users to avoid power and system heat tradeoffs if they want high-end graphics in their computing environment.