Insiders tell IT news outlet BSN that a single chip Tegra will supposedly power the new DS; the Tegra was developed for use in mobile devices like Microsoft's Zune HD as well as smart phones.

If true, this could explain why Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang declared that the Tegra account will account for half of Nvidia's revenues in the next couple of years. It would also be the first time Nintendo and Nvidia have partnered.

We are following up with Nintendo and will update if the company comments.

Nvidia Tegra Wins Contract [BSN via Develop]

First off the starting blocks will be ATi's Radeon HD 5800 series of cards (starting with the HD 5850 and 5870), which should be hitting stores as early as next month. Nvidia's first line of DX11 cards - the GT300 range - will follow in December.

Suddenly, my 8800 GT doesn't look so trusty anymore.

Nvidia and AMD readying for DirectX 11 [Digitimes, via Gizmodo]

The verdict? While it certainly doesn't seem to effect the gameplay, little touches like the flowing of his cape, the swirling of debris, and the way those banners flutter when you toss a batarang through them should help make the experience just a bit more immersive. Is it worth a three week delay? I've a feeling that once PC gamers have the game in their hands the delay will be completely forgotten.

I thought the catch was that you had to wait until Sept. 15 to claim your free game, but of course, that is the release date for the PC version of this game (which hits consoles on Tuesday) so, nuts to me.

The cards are the GeForce GTX 260, 275 and 285. The retailers are Amazon, NCIX, Newegg, TigerDirect and ZipZoomfly.

But, the disclaimer: "Valid between Sept. 15 and Dec. 31, 2009 or while supplies last" means someone expects they might run out of (virtual) copies. So maybe there is a catch here after all, who knows.

All of the details are at the link.

Free Batman: Arkham Asylum [NVIDIA]

New costumes, an improved Mercenaries mode, and support for NVIDIA's new GeForce 3D Vision tech will have PC gamers lording their superior versions of Resident Evil 5 over console players come September 15th, as long as their rigs are packing the juice needed to get the job done. To that end, NVIDIA is offering up a benchmark tool at its Resident Evil 5 downloads area, along with a 3D Vision technology demo for those interested in seeing the game's cut scenes in full 3D.

Capcom will be showing off the PC version of the game to the public for the first time at the San Diego Comic-Con next week, so if you're planning on attending, drop by the Capcom booth to check it out in the flesh.

Fed up with all the Xs and numbers and mindless claims on the back of the box, Gizmodo have a handy little guide up showing you how to find what you're looking for in a crowded, confusing market. Where to look for information, who to trust, that sort of thing.

Useful! I mean, I'm an avid PC gamer and even I struggle to stay on top of the graphics card market. Last I checked, the word eXtreme didn't really mean anything.

Giz Explains: How to Choose the Right Graphics Card [Gizmodo]

A report over on VentureBeat says that the debut of this "next gen" tech will be so important to both companies that "it's bound to drive the stock prices of the rivals involved either up or down through the rest of the year".

At the moment, AMD are tipped to have their new hardware on the market first, timed for release alongside Microsoft's new Windows 7. Nvidia, meanwhile, are keeping quiet on the release of their new chips, leading some to speculate that they've fallen behind a little with their design.

Both companies will be making extensive use of 40nm chips on their new cards, and both are expected to have support for DirectX 11 across their range within a year or so.

Graphics chip rivals race to deliver next-generation chips [VentureBeat]

The cleverly-titled ARhrrrr is a concept demonstration for an augmented reality mobile phone game that pits players armed with guns and Skittles bombs against an invading army of zombies, all superimposed over a real-world map. Through the magic of the NVIDIA Tegra GPU, the map springs to full 3D life when viewed through the phone's camera, allowing the player to circle the map in his helicopter, shooting zombies, saving humans, and using different colored Skittles as explosives.

It's yet another intriguing example of augmented reality gaming at work, though we must ask...who wants to play a game associated with Skittles?

ARhrrrr! [Georgia Tech's Augmented Reality Lab - Thanks Tiago!]

At the forefront of their four press release rampage is the announcement that Sega has licensed both the PhysX technology and NVIDIA's APEX technology to serve as a development platform across all Sega studios.

"Sega has been using PhysX technology for several years, but this new agreement enables our studios to take advantage of the full portfolio of cross-platform PhysX engines," said Takashi Shoji, Department Manager, Consumer Software R&D Support Dept., Consumer R&D Division, SEGA Corporation. "APEX was an important factor in our decision because it enables us to create high quality physics content in an easier and more productive manner."

Basically taking away a great deal of the workload so Sega's programmers can concentrate on slowly killing Sonic.

Along with the Sega announcement, NVIDIA also revealed that Capcom's Dark Void uses PhysX to render weapons, smoke, and debris; GRIN used it in Terminator Salvation for weapon effects and destructible environments; and 8monkey Labs has an amazing name.

Oh, and 8monkey used PhysX in Darkest of Days to help create interactive, expressive, and natural environments.

In short, NVIDIA's PhysX technology is slowly taking over the world, and the company's public relations team has far too much time on their hands.

Nvidia, which also happens to be responsible for the PS3's RSX 'Reality Synthesizer' graphics chip, has inked a deal with Sony Computer Entertainment to provide the software development kit to PlayStation developers. That doesn't necessarily mean you're going to see above and beyond physics engine support on par with PhysX hardware acceleration, as in the Games For Windows version of Mirror's Edge, it may mean better things bouncing off other things in your PS3 library.

Or, in Tony Tamasi, senior vice president of content and technology at NVIDIA's words, "offer a more realistic and lifelike interaction between the games characters and other objects within the game."

Speaking with Custom PC, representatives from both graphics card manufacturers say that "they're working on GPGPU-accelerated AI in games", and that we could be seeing the first games and hardware to take advantage of this as early as next year.

Nvidia and ATI say they're working right now with developers of both games and middleware on the initiative, with the ultimate goal of taking all AI routines - which spend around 90% of their time performing visibility and path finding queries - off the hands of the CPU, and sticking them in your graphics card instead.

Only problem we can see - and it's a big one - is whether ATI and Nvidia would bother to actually standardise this, or whether we'd end up with two competing solutions that would split the developer community and make the whole thing a royal pain in the ass.

Nvidia and AMD to accelerate gaming AI on GPUs [Custom PC]

Chip maker Nvidia is attempting to lure in the mid-level manager still wowed by 3D displays, showing off Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock with convincing three-dimensional depth. Nvidia's take requires powered glasses — pretty much like everyone else's solution — and works just as well.

The businessmen ate it up. It's definitely impressive, seeing the Guitar Hero note highways popped out beyond the on-stage antics. Well, it's definitely impressive to look at. It doesn't add anything new to the actual playing experience, as you're so focused on the highways during play that everything else requires tuning out. Still, neat-o, at least according to the glasses-sporting passerby.

Nvidia has more than just Guitar Hero on display in 3D, so we're off to hunt down the company's other 3D offerings.

- CPU: Intel Core Duo e7300 (@2.66GHz)
- GFX: Nvidia 9800GT
- RAM: 2GB

Bear in mind this isn't an official announcement, just some stuff reported by journo Chris Remo, who had a chance to check the machine out last week. The official word will come down later this week, and should be accompanied not only by the rest of the tech specs, but also some shots of the final exterior, since it's unknown whether the one pictured is the full retail model, or is just rocking the same hardware.

Oh, and you should check out the full piece below for some more peripheral stuff regarding the machine. Seems the PC is more than just a marketing gimmick, as it was used extensively in both the development and testing of Warhead.

The Remo Files: The Crysis Warhead PC Explained [GameSetWatch]

The demo showed animation running 30 frames per second at 1,920 x 1,080. Nvidia cranked the demo up to 2,560 x 1,600 but would not reveal the frame rate. This could have huge implications for in-game graphics, although as the system currently requires 4 parallel Quadro GPUs with 1GB memory apiece, costing around $10,000 a pop it may be a couple of years before this hits even the most hardcore PC gamer's desktop.

Quoth Nvidia, "the ray tracer shows linear scaling rendering of a highly complex, two-million polygon, anti-aliased automotive styling application." Which certainly sounds impressive. What this appears to mean is "Look! A shiny car that we can move around real quick!" and, you know, that may well be enough.

Nvidia demos real-time GPU ray tracing at 1,920 x 1,080 [CustomPC]

Included in the first Power Pack is a complete version of Warmonger, one of the original showcases for the PhysX technology, an Unreal Tournament 3 PhysX Mod Pack with three maps, sneak peeks at Unreal Engine 3 powered social networking service Nurien, a couple of tech demos, and the drivers to make the whole thing go. Hit the jump for more info on this rather impressive update.

NVIDIA Makes Physics A Reality For Gamers

NVIDIA PhysX Technology and GeForce GPUs Usher in a New Era of Immersion for PC Games

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SANTA CLARA, CA—August 12, 2008—Gamers would agree that they would love to see the worlds in their favorite games be depicted as realistic as possible. For total immersion, the gaming environment has to “feel” as real as possible, and characters must be able to move and interact with the objects in the environment that have a compelling, dramatic impact on game play. With customized physics effects, developers can design trees that bend in the wind, water that ebbs and flows naturally, and include objects in the environment that dramatically impact the gaming experience. To deliver this level of interactivity, developers are rapidly taking advantage of NVIDIA® PhysX™ technology, interactive entertainment’s most pervasive physics engine, already used in more than 140 shipping titles for Sony Playstation 3, Microsoft Xbox 360, and Nintendo Wii. With today’s release of the GeForce Power Pack, a compilation of games, demos, and mod packs for the PC platform that is available for free at www.nvidia.com/theforcewithin, NVIDIA is now bringing this new depth of gameplay to PC gamers everywhere.

On the PC, PhysX technology harnesses the power of any CUDA-enabled general-purpose parallel computing processor, including any NVIDIA GeForce® 8 Series or higher GPU, to handle 10-20 times more visual complexity than what’s possible on today’s traditional PC platforms. All of the 80 million plus GeForce 8 Series and higher GPUs in the field are CUDA-enabled, the largest installed base of general-purpose, parallel-computing processors ever created.

And, unlike competitive solutions which do not offer hardware scaling capability, only PhysX technology can leverage the best of both CPU and GPU architectures to deliver the ultimate, immersive, end user experience. Upcoming PC titles that incorporate PhysX technology include Cryostasis, Backbreaker, Aliens: Colonial Marines, with close to 20 more PC titles expected before the year-end holiday seasons.

“Game physics is essential in enabling deeper interactivity and real-world effects in any game. Epic is pleased to offer PhysX as a standard feature within Unreal Engine 3 to enable such effects,” said Mark Rein, Vice President of Epic Games. “The introduction of GPU acceleration for PhysX promises both additional potential effects and faster performance. You can get a glimpse of the possibilities of what PhysX is able to do with the special levels for Unreal Tournament 3 where damage effects greatly enhance the gameplay.”

Starting today, any owner of a GeForce 8 Series or higher GPU can immediately discover the immersive playability that NVIDIA PhysX technology brings to PC gaming. This first of many planned “GeForce Power Packs” is a fascinating showcase of how PhysX technology is fundamentally changing video games and interactive entertainment.

Available for free from www.nvidia.com/theforcewithin, the PhysX-enabled content from this first GeForce Power Pack includes:

* Warmonger—Full free game! Destroy walls, floors, and whole buildings to open up new paths or close existing ones. Destructive power is more than eye candy here—it’s a tactical weapon in this ground-breaking action game.
* Unreal Tournament 3 PhysX Mod Pack—includes three maps with amazing effects that fundamentally change the gameplay (requires full version of Unreal Tournament 3)
* A sneak peek at the upcoming Nurien social networking service, based on the Unreal Engine 3 (with built-in benchmark)
* A sneak peek at the upcoming game Metal Knight Zero (with built-in benchmark)
* All new NVIDIA “The Great Kulu” tech demo that showcases the use of PhysX soft bodies in a real game play environment
* All new NVIDIA “Fluid” tech demo—a simulation of realistic fluid effects with a variety of liquids

In conjunction with the release of the GeForce Power Pack, NVIDIA has also released new WHQL-certified drivers that enable PhysX acceleration for all GeForce 8, 9, and GTX 200 Series GPUs. This new driver also adds support for PhysX-accelerated features in the commercially available Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 game.

By installing these drivers, GeForce owners can immediately experience much higher levels of interactivity, special effects, and realism on their PC. In addition, GeForce owners will love being able to run PhysX-accelerated applications faster on their GeForce GPU than on competitive GPUs. For example, in the PhysX-enabled levels of Unreal Tournament 3, the GeForce 9800 GTX+ runs 180% faster than on the AMD Radeon HD 4850.

“The use of physics in games is highly effective in enabling new levels of interactivity and gameplay options. Gearbox is excited about these developments and we are rapidly finding new ways to use NVIDIA PhysX to improve the game’s immersive feel and overall excitement factor,” said Randy Pitchford, CEO of Gearbox Software. “The addition of GPU acceleration allows us to add even more effects whilst maintaining great performance. Gearbox titles, including Borderlands and others, will feature increased use of PhysX and we look forward to developing more with the support of NVIDIA.”

“Seeing really is believing and is the reason why we compiled all of this great PhysX content into a free download for our end users,” said Ujesh Desai, general manager for GeForce GPUs at NVIDIA. “We want GeForce owners to experience for themselves these amazing effects to get an idea how PhysX will make games much more lifelike in the years to come. Physics-accelerated content is already here, and there are a ton more titles on the way. We can’t wait for our customers to jump in, get wet, and tell us what they think!”

Nvidia GeForce GTX 200 Graphics Cards Makes Your Gaming Rig Officially Outdated [Gizmodo, benchmark via Tom's hardware]

"The console is now a baseline. If you look at Gears of War or Assassin's Creed, they came out on console and they were great experiences - but the PC versions had additional aspects to them that also made them attractive, whether you owned the console version or not," continued Taylor. "The PC version was better. That's something that people need to get their heads around - the console is a baseline, the PC is going to be an improved version. That's an exciting future, and that's why I don't see anything threatening about console at all.

Note that the PC versions are also generally later than their console counterparts, often requiring PC owners to upgrade to the latest NVIDIA products. Ah, an exciting future indeed!

"Consoles don't threaten PC gaming" [Eurogamer]

Helfer, a former supermodel and now an actress, is "Number Six" on "Battlestar Galactica" and was also General Kilian Qatar in Command and Conquer 3. So, she's got the chops to talk to gamers and sci-fi fans on their level. But I'm sure they'd listen to her read a phone book, too. Fortunately, she'll be giving a perspective on "how advancements in visual computing are impacting the entertainment industry," according to an NVIDIA release.

Attendees of NVISION, the conference, may also meet Tricia at the NVISION 08 GeForce LAN event — where attendees bringing their own computer can participate in the attempt on a Guinness World Record by playing PC games non-stop for three straight days. There will also be a Girl Gamer Zone "dedicated to all female gamers who wish to play together and support female gaming."

The conference is in San Jose from Aug. 25 to 27. I'll try to infiltrate the Girl Gamer Zone. I'm a former San Josean so, I know every local custom, can speak their language, blend in, just like Marcus Brody. I might also need some phone numbers for fact checking later, you know.

NVISION 2008 [NVIDIA]

The four maps for Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare are the Broadcast, Chinatown, Killhouse and Creek maps. Furthermore, PC players will get a patch that fixes a server crash, fixes some other bugs, adds in some things and, oh yeah, enables support for the new maps.

So, PC gamers, don't say nobody never did nuthin' for ya. Xbox 360 owners had to buy this. Enjoy!

Variety Map Pack Sponsored by NVIDIA hits PC June 5th [IAMfourzerotwo]

BusinessWeek Infotech 100 [BusinessWeek]