I went, I saw, I loved, and I was often in over my head. This was my experience at the GTC, or GPU Technology Conference. The GPU Technology Conference is Nvidia’s annual “HEY LOOK WHAT WE DO” show, generally held in San Jose, CA. This year’s expo certainly had no shortage of “Look at us!” or “Holy crap, this is amazing!” or “How the *&#@ does this work?!”.
When one thinks GPU they will generally go straight to gaming. I know theres where my mind goes. But! GPUs power a great many things, and GTC 2014 highlighted as many as it could possibly cram into it’s weeklong show. Sure there was plenty of gaming news from either the announcement of Nvidia’s Titan Z, an ultra (too) powerful “Gaming” graphics card that boasts specs straight out of sci-fi, to big reveals of exclusive games from Valve for Nvidia’s own SHIELD hardware. But the bulk of the show focused on where else GPU’s are used. Cloud Technology, Vehicles, and Pixar are 3 that come to mind. Nvidia GPUs being front and center in all 3 of these fronts. I found the GPU’s in vehicles to be the most interesting. Using Nvidia’s K1 chip GPU’s in vehicles are able to recognize objects on streets to the extent of being able to auto-pilot, and this was actually demonstrated when a card drove itself up on stage. Nvidia loves “wow” moments!
As stated though. I was there for gaming. I didn’t leave unhappy either. The Titan Z was announced and it was absurdly powerful. Needlessly powerful, one could argue. Rocking 2 GPUs on one board, the Titan Z is essentially 2 Titan Blacks crammed together with a whopping 12gb DDR5 onnboard. Equally staggering is the $2999 price tag. I’m not sure what the target audience for these cards is… but I am sure they will sell. And probably sell like hotcakes!
On the Tegra and Nvidia SHIELD side of things, Valve announced a natively running port of Portal was being brought to SHIELD. This felt big because there hasnt been much in the realm of exclusive mobille ports for the handheld. Usually when valve makes a move, other developers take note and follow suit so hopefully this will mean more support for SHIELD. Beyond that a new Update is hitting Nvidia SHIELD that allows for remote gamestreaming. A much clamored for feature that, I believe, will sell units like crazy. Remote streaming will allow people with Nvidia GPU based gaming PCs to stream games while AWAY FROM HOME. An Nvidia based CyberPower PC such as the Zeus EVO would be the perfect fit for any new or veteran PC gamer to scoop up to Remote Stream games. Ive had a chance to get my hands on the update early and Ill be the first to say that if playing Titanfall at Starbucks is the future… it is a future I’m on board with!
All in all I had a great time at GTC 2014. Nvidia’s Keynote was Dazzling. The show floor was packed with interesting booths and the news just gets me excited for next year and the year after!
Post written by King Gothalion. Be sure to check out his pages on YouTube, Twitter, and Twitch below:
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