graphics-card – Tech Today w/ Ken May

Netflix now streams HDR video on Windows 10

You no longer have to turn to your phone or TV to watch Netflix’s more vibrant HDR video selection. The streaming behemoth has added support for playing HDR on Windows 10, both in the native Netflix app and in the Edge browser (sorry, no Chrome here). You’re already set software-wise if you’re running the Fall Creators Update . However, it’s the hardware requirements that might leave you hanging — and we don’t just mean the need for an HDR10-compatible display . Netflix noted that you’ll need one of Intel’s 7th-generation or later Core processors, and you’ll have to use either the integrated graphics or a recent NVIDIA graphics card like the GTX 1050 or higher. For now, at least, anyone in the AMD camp is out of luck. The service said that this is the result of years-long partnerships, although AMD’s Vega graphics are technically capable of the 10 bits per channel color you need for HDR. Technically, there shouldn’t be much getting in the way. The limited hardware options aren’t entirely shocking. HDR is relatively well-established in the living room, but it’s still undercooked in the PC space with not just few devices, but few apps that can actually display it. Netflix’s Windows 10 release is a big help in that sense — it might spur PC makers and software developers to add HDR support knowing that more people can use it. Source: Netflix Tech Blog (Medium) , Netflix Help

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Netflix now streams HDR video on Windows 10

The external graphics dream is real: Sonnet eGFX Breakaway Box reviewed

Enlarge / The Sonnet eGFX Breakaway Box and Sapphire RX 580. (credit: Mark Walton) Specs at a glance: Sonnet eGFX Breakaway Box Power 350W Asaka AK-PS035AF01 SFX Ports 1x PCIe 3.0 X16, 1x Thunderbolt 3.0 Size 18.5cm x 34.0cm x 20.2cm Other perks 120mm Asaka Fan Price $300 (~£300, but TBC) The external graphics card (or eGFX), long the pipe dream of laptop-touting gamers the world over, has finally come of age. Thanks to Thunderbolt 3 —which offers up to 40Gbps of bandwidth, the equivalent of four PCIe 3.0 lanes—consumers finally have access to enough bandwidth in a universal standard to make eGFX a viable option. So the theory goes, you can now take most laptops with a Thunderbolt 3 port, plug in a box containing a power supply and your GPU of choice, and enjoy better visuals and higher frame rates in games, and faster rendering in production tasks. You can even whack a PCIe video capture card or a production-ready audio interface in that external box, if you so wish. Thus far the limiting factor, aside from some potential performance bottlenecks and driver support, has been price. The Razer Core , as beautifully designed as it is, costs a whopping £500/$500 without a graphics card—and that’s if it’s even in stock. Meanwhile, the Asus ROG XG Station 2—which is most certainly not beautifully designed—costs £400/$400. When paired with a decent graphics card like an Nvidia GTX 1070 or an AMD RX 580, a full eGFX setup runs just shy of £900/$900, not including the price of a laptop to pair it with. Read 34 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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The external graphics dream is real: Sonnet eGFX Breakaway Box reviewed

Nvidia GTX 1080 Ti review: The fastest graphics card, again

Enlarge (credit: Mark Walton) Specs at a glance: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti CUDA CORES 3584 TEXTURE UNITS 224 ROPS 88 CORE CLOCK 1,480MHz BOOST CLOCK 1,1582MHz MEMORY BUS WIDTH 352 bits MEMORY BANDWIDTH 484GB/s MEMORY SIZE 11GB GDDR5X Outputs 3x DisplayPort 1.4, 1x HDMI 2.0b with support for 4K60 10/12b HEVC Decode Release date March 9, 2017 PRICE Founders Edition (as reviewed): £700/$700. Partner cards priced at: £700/$700. I find it odd that a room full of otherwise seemingly normal human beings (press excluded) would cheer at being charged £700/$700 for the GTX 1080 Ti, even if it does claim to be the fastest gaming graphics card money can buy. After all, that £700 could otherwise be spent on an entire gaming PC, the latest iPhone, a return flight from London to Los Angeles, or 139 bottles of the finest Scottish craft beer . Besides, surely those Americans in attendance at Nvidia’s grand GTX 1080 Ti reveal in San Francisco had more pressing things to worry about? After all, life isn’t all graphics cards and iPhones when your health is on the line . Still, Nvidia was true to its word: the GTX 1080 Ti is indeed the fastest gaming graphics card money can buy—even faster than the £1,100/$1,200 e-peen extension that is the Titan X Pascal . It’s a hell of a lot faster than the GTX 1080 too—which now sits in a “cheaper” price bracket of £500/$500—by as much as 30 percent. It’s the first graphics card since the Titan XP that can play many games in 4K at 60FPS without having to fiddle with settings—you just whack everything on ultra and start playing. Plus it’s a quiet graphics card, in its Founders Edition form at least, thanks to the improvements Nvidia has made to its iconic all-metal shroud. Read 28 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Nvidia GTX 1080 Ti review: The fastest graphics card, again

NVIDIA reveals its $700 top of the line GTX 1080 Ti

Last year we called NVIDIA’s GeForce GTX 1080 “the upgrade you’ve been waiting for, ” and now PC gamers have another high-end graphics card to drool over. Now, at GDC 2017 CEO Jen-Hsun Huang presented its successor, the GTX 1080 Ti, which promises “35 percent more performance, ” packs 11GB of GDDR5X memory and will go on sale March 10th for $700. In fact, NVIDIA even claims this new card is faster than its $1, 200 Titan X that launched late last year. At the same time, the company announced the 1080 is getting a price cut and will now start at $500. Developing… Watch live video from NVIDIA on www.twitch.tv The GeForce GTX 1080 Ti – faster than TITAN X – will be $699 and available next week. #UltimateGeForce pic.twitter.com/aW6XIv0Cyv — NVIDIA GeForce (@NVIDIAGeForce) March 1, 2017 Click here to catch up on the latest news from GDC 2017! Source: NVIDIA (Twitter)