IT News HeadLines (Elite Bastards) 10/02/2010

NVIDIA brings Optimus switchable graphics to notebooks

If you're a notebook owner, the potential benefits of being able to switch easily and seamlessly between a small, low-powered integrated graphics solution on the road and a more powerful GPU at home should be pretty obvious to many.آ Along these lines, NVIDIA are now looking to offer just such a solution courtesy of their Optimus technology for notebooks.آ What is it all about and how does it work?آ This article takes a look.

To understand what makes Optimus unique, we have to dig a little deeper into how current switchable graphics implementations work. On the hardware front, such systems are equipped with an integrated graphics processor (or IGP) in the chipset or CPU, along with a discrete GPU. The GPU hooks into the system via PCI Express, and it also must be connected to the display outputs, which are shared with the IGP. Sharing is facilitated by high-performance hardware multiplexers, otherwise known as muxes, that feature inputs for each graphics adapter, a single output, and a control line that tells the multiplexer which input to pass through to the display.

According to Nvidia, a minimum of two muxes are required to connect all the necessary lines for each display output. With the average switchable graphics notebook featuring three video outs—the LVDS LCD interface, an HDMI output, and an old-school VGA port—that's at least six multiplexers, plus all the extra traces required to connect the auxiliary GPU.

The Tech Report has the full analysis, complete with a look at ASUS UL50Vf.

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AMD Radeon HD 5570 reviews

You've doubtless already seen our own analysis and coverage of AMD's newest addition to their DirectX 11 graphics board range, but what is the rest of the Internet saying about the Radeon HD 5570?آ Grab yourself a drink, and check out the comprehensive list of coverage below.

- Elite Bastards
- Anandtech
- Firing Squad
- Guru 3D
- [H]ard|OCP
- Hardware Canucks
- Hardware Heaven
- HEXUS
- Hot Hardware
- Pure Overclock
- Rage 3D
- Tech Gage
- Tweak Town

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Elite Bastards review: Sapphire Radeon HD 5570 1GB video card

Another week marks the launch of yet another DirectX 11 GPU from AMD - After last week's low-end Radeon HD 5450, today we see the introduction of another "Redwood" GPU core derived board which looks to sit in-between that part and the Radeon HD 5670.آ Named the Radeon HD 5570, today's new offering promises a compelling level of performance at an extremely low price, but can it deliver on that potential?آ We take a look at Sapphire's Radeon HD 5570 1GB to find out.

While this card's GPU might have more in common with the Radeon HD 5670, the PCB and board design itself bears a closer resemblance to the Radeon HD 5450, providing us with a low-profile card that will fit in the smallest of chassis. While the Radeon HD 5450 is treated to an entirely passive cooling solution, Sapphire's Radeon HD 5570 comes equipped with a small, single slot active cooler with fan.

As you'd expect, this card requires no additional power, with the PCI Express 16x slot providing all of the juice required. The usual CrossFire inter-GPU connectors are also absent here, although two (or more) Radeon HD 5570 boards can still be run in a CrossFire configuration, with data sent over the PCI Express bus instead.

Sapphire Radeon HD 5570 1GB video card review

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eSATA is faster than USB 3.0 using current devices

I like eSATA, and I like USB 3.0.... but which is better?آ There's only one way to find out.آ FIIIIIGHT!!!

Most hardware manufacturers are finally rolling out USB 3.0 devices. We’ve seen motherboards, hubs, hard drives, and notebooks all rocking the new and improved USB standard. It’s clearly the future of USB with backwards compatibility, dramatically faster speeds and full-duplex data transfers. That’s great, but it’s still not faster than eSATA right now.

Of course USB 3.0 brings a host of other improvements over the 2.0 spec and eSATA. It’s dramatically more power efficient, allowing more power-hungry bus-powered devices and better power management when devices are idle. USB 3.0 also can theoretically hit 600 MB/s. But right now it’s not the ultimate external data transfer protocol. That title belongs to eSATA.

Crunch Gear have the numbers.

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