Graphics chip firm Nvidia has launched a high-end graphics processing unit (GPU) for notebooks that it has claimed raises the bar for DirectX 10 graphics and video performance.
Microsoft DirectX is a collection of application programming interfaces for handling tasks related to multimedia, particularly game programming and video, on Microsoft platforms. The latest versions of DirectX – DirectX 10 and DirectX 9Ex – are exclusive to Windows Vista.
As with the entire GeForce 8M Series notebook GPU lineup, the new GeForce 8700M GT delivers ‘great’ DirectX 10 gaming performance, ‘stunning’ Vista graphics, and ‘stellar’ high-definition (HD) DVD and Blu-ray video playback, the vendor claimed.
A new unified architecture will deliver up to a 70 per cent performance improvement compared with previous generation GPUs for Windows Vista and other GPU-enabled applications.
Nvidia’s PureVideo HD video-processing engine, meanwhile, enables quality playback of HD DVD, Blu-ray and HD movie downloads.
The GeForce 8700M GT GPU will be available in notebooks from leading partners in North America, Europe and Asia, including Toshiba, Sager, Maingear, Prostar, Eurocom, Biohazard, Connoiseur, Cybersystem, Hypersonic, Multirama, Rock and Evesham.
Shimpei Kunii, general manager of PC Product Planning department at Toshiba, said: “For our new top-end Toshiba Satellite notebook PC we are proud to be the first company to use the Nvidia GeForce 8700M GT GPU to deliver greatly enhanced graphics and video. We believe that these new notebooks will provide the ultimate high-resolution DirectX 10 gaming experience for our mobile customer base.”
Meanwhile, Diamond Multimedia has released its new Diamond Viper Radeon HD 2600 and Stealth Radeon HD 2400 series graphic cards, which, it claimed, deliver a ‘remarkable’ combination of DirectX 10 gaming performance and hardware-processed 1080p video.
Bruce Zaman, chief executive of Diamond Multimedia, said: “For the lack of a better technological term, this card really brings the ‘wow’ to graphics. These are great products for gaming, digital photography or any other application where graphics plays a role.”
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