New PC Platform Delivers Richer Visual Experience

Reduces Noise and Saves Hundreds in Energy Costs

DUBAI, UAE--MAY 06, 2008--PC enthusiasts love the visual realism that high-performance graphics processors give their PCs, but would rather do without the noise and power consumption typical of modern entertainment and gaming PCs.  Starting today, however, they can have the best of both worlds, thanks to the new NVIDIA® platforms based on the company's Hybrid SLI® technology. These new platforms are the foundation for a new breed of PCs that deliver a richer visual experience while reducing energy consumption and costs, fan noise, and even heat. 

"Hybrid SLI will give consumers the extra GPU performance they need for the increasing numbers of visual PC applications such as PicLens and Virtual Earth," said Drew Henry, general manager of platform business at NVIDIA. "And it will give gamers and PC enthusiasts the quiet and power savings they demand. Hybrid SLI components could very well pay for themselves over the life of the PC."

The visual capabilities of typical PCs are driven by either integrated graphics on the motherboard or by higher performance, discrete graphics cards, like NVIDIA GeForce® GPUs. Unfortunately, the most common integrated graphics chips lack the performance and features needed by many popular modern 3D applications, games, and movies. Discrete graphics cards deliver a far superior visual experience, but consume more energy.

The new NVIDIA nForce® 780a SLI motherboard eliminates this problem by putting a GeForce GPU directly on the motherboard. This GeForce GPU has better DirectX compatibility and HD movie playback capability than the most common integrated graphics chips found in today's PCs, but consumes less energy than a discrete graphics card. But that's only the start.

Hybrid SLI technology allows the user to add additional graphics cards for even more graphics horsepower, for use when playing graphics-intensive applications like video games. With a second graphics card, the GeForce Boost feature of Hybrid SLI technology increases overall graphics performance up to 80% on today's visually intensive applications and home entertainment. 

Designed for PC enthusiasts and hard-core gamers, the HybridPower™ feature completely powers down the discrete graphics cards and switches graphics processing to the motherboard GPU in applications where major 3D horsepower is not required, such as e-mail and Web surfing. Users will appreciate the lower energy consumption, quieter PC operation, and less heat. When additional 3D horsepower is needed, HybridPower technology automatically transitions back to the discrete graphics cards, which are then powered up and ready to rock the 3D world. Hybrid SLI technology delivers hundreds of dollars of energy savings over the life of the PC for high-end, enthusiast-class PCs, and additional graphics performance for more mainstream desktops via these two features.i

"NVIDIA continues to deliver outstanding innovation for AMD CPUs. We are especially excited that HybridPower, a feature of NVIDIA Hybrid SLI, will be introduced exclusively on AMD CPU-based platforms," said Leslie Sobon, director, product marketing, AMD. "The AMD Phenom™ X4 quad-core processors, together with this motherboard's HybridPower features, deliver powerful performance and energy efficiency, an important combination for AMD."

The Hybrid SLI-enabled desktop PC motherboards are designed to create a balanced PC with GeForce GPUs and AMD Phenom processors. Eight models, including a newly available nForce 780a SLI motherboard, are available:

  • nForce 780a SLI, nForce 750a SLI, nForce 730a, and nForce 720a

  • GeForce 8300, GeForce 8200, and GeForce 8100

Currently available Hybrid SLI-enabled discrete graphics cards include:

  • NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GX2 and NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GTX (both HybridPower-capable)

  • GeForce 8400 GS and GeForce 8500 GT (both GeForce Boost-capable)

Hybrid SLI-enabled PC motherboards for Intel processors and Hybrid SLI-enabled notebooks will be available in Q3 of 2008. For more information about NVIDIA Hybrid SLI technology please visit www.nvidia.com/Hybrid_SLI.

-Ends-

About NVIDIA
NVIDIA is the world leader in visual computing technologies and the inventor of the GPU, a high-performance processor which generates breathtaking, interactive graphics on workstations, personal computers, game consoles, and mobile devices. NVIDIA serves the entertainment and consumer market with its GeForce graphics products, the professional design and visualization market with its Quadro® graphics products, and the high-performance computing market with its Tesla™ computing solutions products. NVIDIA is headquartered in Santa Clara, Calif. and has offices throughout Asia, Europe, and the Americas. For more information, visit www.nvidia.com.

i Assumes two GeForce 9800 GX2 cards idle at 160 watts for 7200 KWH a year over 5 years at a rate of 0.12 US Dollars at KWH (160 watts x 7200KWH x 5 years x 0.12 dollars = $691.20).

Copyright® 2008 NVIDIA Corporation. All rights reserved. NVIDIA, the NVIDIA logo, GeForce, SLI, NVIDIA nForce, and HybridPower are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of NVIDIA Corporation in the U.S. and other countries. Other company and product names may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated. Features, pricing, availability, and specifications are subject to change without notice.

Note to editors: If you are interested in viewing additional information on NVIDIA, please visit the NVIDIA Press Room at http://www.nvidia.com/page/press_room.html

© Press Release 2008