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Resolution Overkill: Why QHD and 4K are Too Much for Smartphones

Sam Reynolds — Fri, 27 Mar 2015 10:01:09 +0000

In late November Qualcomm (NASDAQ: QCOM) announced that the next-generation of its SoCs would have the processing power to push out a 4K resolution on a smartphone. This would be a jump from the existing QHD (quad HD, 2560×1440) resolution that’s found on the displays of high-end smartphones currently on the market.

While 4K certainly has its uses and benefits on larger displays, the potential use cases on such a small smartphone screen are negligible at best. On an average smartphone screen, which is usually around 5.5-6 inches, the resolution of QHD — let alone 4K — is too great for the eye to appreciate. Apple’s Retina display has a pixel-per inch density of 326. A QHD display on a smartphone would equal something in the range of 538.

A PPI of 538 is far beyond the maximum resolution that the human eye can recognize. There is a bit of controversy as to what the highest practical PPI is for a 5.5 inch screen held 12-18 inches away from the eye, but the consensus holds that it’s 477 PPI at 12 inches and 318 PPI at 18 inches. Of course, holding it closer than 12 inches away from your face would make it difficult to properly focus.

So this means that the iPhone’s Retina resolution introduced in 2010 is the highest practical resolution for a smartphone sized screen. Of course with bigger screens found on phablets and full-on tablets this figure jumps.

QHD and 4K smartphones are impractical

The other issue with QHD and 4K displays on smartphones is the substantial battery drain that comes as a result. Battery technology has reached a ceiling, yet the demands keep on increasing. A QHD or 4K screen requires substantially more push from the SoC to drive a screen of that resolution, which means the SoC will require more battery power for all tasks.

Before the 2015 Mobile World Congress kicked off, Huawei (SHE:002502) announced that it would not be producing 4K smartphones because it simply is not worth the battery drain.

“4K needs a lot of power, so if you use it you have to make compromises. A 4K display on a smartphone may give you half a day of battery life but a 2K display can give you maybe one day or more,” President of the Handset Product Line Kevin Ho is quoted as saying. “4K has four times the pixels of Full HD so the power consumption is maybe 4 or 8 times as much as Full HD so the smartphone has to have compromises with battery life.”

All about competition

Pushing up the resolution of smartphone displays is not the only way to improve the quality of the screen. There’s much to be done to improve color depth, backlight quality, and the ability for the screen to display in bright conditions.

But the resolution race is a way for vendors to compete with each other. The screen resolution of a device is an easy and digestible metric to understand. But for consumers this resolution race isn’t, in the end, a value add as it does little to increase productivity or performance.

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Forget 4K. This is 10K

Sam Reynolds — Thu, 12 Feb 2015 05:52:00 +0000

The jump from full-HD to 4K opened up a whole new world of detail and visual fidelity with the increase in resolution. The promised jump from 4K to 8K increases both these once again, as well as opening up doors for other industrial uses with its increased resolution.

But these are nothing compared to 10K. 10K, meaning ten times the resolution of full-HD, has a staggering resolution of 10328×7760. Of course recording video at such a resolution can only be done with experimental equipment, and a display required to show the video in its full glory is no where near ready for the market.

10328×7760 – A 10K Timelapse Demo from SCIENTIFANTASTIC on Vimeo.

To demonstrate the potential this resolution holds, the folks from Scientifantastic did a shoot in what looks like a Brazilian Favela with the PhaseOne IQ180 camera. Of course given the constraints of video (and the lack of availability of 10K monitors) hosting service Vimeo, the resolution maxes out at 1080P meaning the video has been scaled down substantially. However, when the video zooms in you can really see the potential of 10K.

Check it out:

10K might not be practical for entertainment applications like 4K or 8K is. However for industrial applications where the ability to scale is important, this opens a world of opportunity.

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Embedded DisplayPort Standard 1.4a Supports 8K, AMD FreeSync

Harish Jonnalagadda — Wed, 11 Feb 2015 10:34:48 +0000

The Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) has announced an update to the Embedded DisplayPort (eDP) standard, bringing it to 1.4a. The major additions in this version include the introduction of the Display Stream Compression (DSC) standard (1.1) and a new segmented panel architecture that facilitates an increase in the amount of bandwidth available.

With eDP 1.4a, the focus is to enable higher bandwidth in systems with integrated graphics solutions such as smartphones, tablets and notebooks. With Quad HD mobile devices already available and 4K touted to be the next big thing in the world of smartphones, bandwidth required to drive a screen is continually growing. As such, eDP 1.4a has four lanes, each with a bandwidth of 8.1Gbps. The lanes can be used individually or combined to provide a theoretical bandwidth of 32.4Gbps. The amount of available bandwidth can easily drive a 4K screen (3840×2160) at 120Hz with 10-bit color and an 8K display at 60Hz.

Display Stream Compression is a compression technology that VESA claims does not result in any noticeable difference in quality, leading to “visually lossless” content. The technology allows data reduction by as much as three times the original size. There’s also enhancements to Panel Self-Refresh, which further adds to the overall data reduction by only changing the updated pixels frame to frame. We can only gauge the veracity of these claims once we see the standard in consumer-level hardware, which will occur next year.

Also available in eDP 1.4a is optional support for Adaptive Sync, or AMD’s FreeSync. The technology works in conjunction with an AMD-enabled video card and serves to minimize frame-tearing and stutter. As the feature is an optional one in the standard, it is likely we won’t see it in all eDP 1.4a monitors.

While eDP 1.4a is a move to enable 4K and beyond resolutions, there are other significant factors in bringing 4K or even 8K to a mobile, including GPU and display technology.

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Rumor: 4K Ready PS4 and Xbox One Models Incoming

Derek Strickland — Tue, 03 Feb 2015 14:19:27 +0000

It appears that both the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One might be getting new models that support 4K video streaming, Forbes reports.

As more and more consumers make the push towards 4K-ready Ultra High Definition (UHD) TV’s, the lack of UHD support on PS4 and Xbox One becomes much more obvious.

Juggernaut streaming service Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) anticipates that Sony (NYSE: SNE) and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) will include 4K video playback in the next wave of PS4’s and Xbox Ones.

Netflix is one of the leading 4K content providers out there, but there’s not very much to choose from–a trend that will reverse as the platform is embraced by consumers.

At this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES 2015) Netflix’s Chief Product Officer Neil Hunt told Huffington Post that Sony had “promised” to make an updated 4K-ready PS4 model.

Despite assurances that the PlayStation 4 would support 4K video playback upon release, the console, like its competitor, doesn’t afford the feature.

Both systems have had to play catch-up with the growing technology sector since their release 18 months ago, featuring outdated hardware and limited capabilities across the board.

Although the PS4 has strong console hardware, it’ll need a few buffs to support 4K video playback.

Even armed with beefier RAM and heavily customized APU’s, the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 have had to rely on a slew of firmware updates to improve functionality and content–and for a while it’s worked.

But they’re still playing catch-up when it comes to 4K UHD. This is a problem that can’t be solved by software updates, and Microsoft and Sony will have to roll out new revised hardware solutions to meet the requirements of 4K video playback

A “leaked” image for a Slim PS4 model was spotted on the net, but has since been proven as a fake.

Netflix‘s CTO believes that Sony will make the necessary hardware adjustments when the company kicks off the PS4’s next revision model, which is projected to release sometime this fall (October or November).

Past trends indicate that most console makers launch an updated wave of systems two years after the initial release, and November 2015 will mark the second year for both the Xbox One and PS4 systems.

The assumption is that if Sony goes 4K with the PS4, then Microsoft will follow suit, as they’ve had to catch up with the Japanese console maker in many respects, including price. Plus it’s a bit odd that the system, touted as an “all-in-one” entertainment solution, is missing a key modern playback format.

Evidence also suggests that the systems will get the “slim” treatment for their next wave. In October of last year, an AMD employee let slip that the chipmaker had fabricated a smaller 20nm APU for the Xbox One, which paves the way for a smaller console variant.

And since AMD makes chips for both systems, the PS4 could get the same “slim” transformation as well.

The Xbox One has a definitive all-in-one presence, but it still doesn’t have 4K video, which actually goes against its entire status.

If both console-makers are indeed planning on compact revisions for their respective systems, it’d only make sense to embrace 4K playback, considering the market is starting to gravitate towards UHD.

Not everyone is ready for the bandwidth-punishing resolution, but those who have adopted the technology have few very choices. Right now 4K isn’t widely utilized but its presence continues to grow, and Sony and Microsoft could benefit from the catch-up.

The only frustrating aspect would be that current console owners would be left out, as they already are, despite promises and assurances from Sony’s own Shuhei Yoshida that the PS4 would play 4K video.

To mitigate this disappointment they could perhaps launch an accessory for UHD support on current systems, but it probably would depend on how popular the new resolution turns out to be in order to merit the effort.

Remember that 4K gaming most assuredly won’t be coming to this generation of consoles, seeing as only high-grade PC’s are capable of sustaining UHD clarity.

4K video playback is a start, but 4K gaming is currently out of the reach of consoles, and judging from the ever-widening rift between PC and consoles in terms of power, 4K gaming probably won’t be coming to the platform any time soon.

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CES 2015: HP Rolls Out 5K Monitor Along With 4K And 3D Offerings

Harish Jonnalagadda — Mon, 05 Jan 2015 10:48:32 +0000

HP (NYSE:HPQ) is the latest manufacturer to target the 5K segment. Dubbed the Z27q,HP’s offering features a resolution of 5,120 x 2,880 pixels and a 300-nit display. The monitor will be available from March for $1,299, which is far lower than the $2,000 list price of Dell’s 5K monitor.

The 27-inch IPS panel has 10-bit color and 99% Adobe RGB color gamut. Two DisplayPort 1.2 ports are needed to drive the monitor as the medium is not yet able to handle 5K resolutions just yet. That functionality is coming with DisplayPort 1.3. Other connectivity options include three USB 3.0 ports, DVI, HDMI, Mini-DisplayPort and MHL.

For users looking to get a 4K monitor, HP has the Z27s, which offers a resolution of 3840 x 2160 for $749. Main features of the monitor include an IPS panel, 60 Hz refresh rate and wide sRGB color gamut. If you do not need a 27-inch monitor, HP is also selling a 23.4-inch variant dubbed the Z24s, which will set you back $549. Both monitors come with a four-way stand that allows you to swivel the screens and change orientation to portrait.

Curved and VR monitors

HP is also getting into the curved monitor segment with the Z34c and Envy 34c, which come with a resolution of 3440 x 1440 and 21:9 ratio. The wide ratio allows you to fit several windows within a single monitor, thereby negating the need for dual displays. Both monitors are set to retail for $999, and will be available later this year. For more conventional users, HP also has a 27-inch curved monitors called the EliteDisplay S270c and Pavilion 27c with full-HD resolution and 300-nit brightness (versus 350 nits for the 34-inch versions) for $400.

Curved monitors aren’t all HP is dabbling in, as the manufacturer has also rolled out the Zvr Virtual Reality Display, a 3D monitor with a 120 Hz refresh rate and integration passive 3D glasses that allow you to create and interact with “virtual holographic 3D images.” The monitor comes with a stylus through which you can interact with the 3D images, while four cameras mounted on the display constantly track your head and eye movements. HP is aiming for engineering design and automotive use-cases with the Zvr Virtual Reality Display, which will be available later this year.

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PC Enthusiats: What Can We Expect to See at CES 2015?

VR World Staff — Sat, 03 Jan 2015 00:08:07 +0000

With the annual Consumer Electronics Show right around the corner and the industry’s marketing efforts going into overdrive, what is it that we will likely see next week?

It’s a safe bet that if will be a week of opposites.

From hardware going to both larger and smaller designs, Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) G-Sync versus AMD (NYSE: AMD) FreeSync, small displays with massive resolution, and gaming notebooks of both massive and diminutive sizes.

Small form factor hardware as is one of the fastest growing areas in the hardware segment, and no doubt there will be a lot of it on display at CES. With hardware becoming so powerful and small we are seeing a lot of really powerful builds that can be done. With even MATX X99 boards we are seeing that there is a move toward making things small and potent. On the other side there is a lot of huge pieces of hardware showing up on the market, namely 4K and ultra wide monitors. They are becoming even more prolific and the ultra wide monitors are drawing a lot of interest from gamers and power users who were once planning on going for a 4K monitor or two. There will be a lot of talk this CES about AMD’s FreeSync for enthusiast gaming monitors as it is the newcomer challenging Nvidia’s established G-Sync. FreeSync will draw the attention of monitor manufacturers since it is less costly to implement and license than the G-Sync solution. The LG 34UM67 will be a curved ultra wide monitor that will feature AMD’s FreeSync, and should definitely steal a lot of the spotlight next week.

The mobile computing segment is also something to watch next week as we will see a lot of small notebooks with very high resolution displays. It is easy to say that there will be a number of notebook models that will feature 3K and 4K screens, even at the 15.6-inch sizes. There will also be a movement with ultraportable gaming notebooks of small size that can be docked with a desktop graphics card for superior gaming ability while at a desk. With the shrinking of parts that make up computers we will be seeing a drastic reduction in size and weight of these ulta portable notebooks. Not only will they be smaller but they will be potent and even come equipped with quad-core Intel i7 processors and decent graphics. On the other hand you will also see that there is a move to the opposite extreme as there will be new 18″ gaming notebooks that will be the true embodiment of the “desktop replacement” name. Some of these huge notebooks will even sport gaming grade mechanical keyboards featuring Cherry MX Brown switches.

Be sure to check back throughout next week as CES 2015 kicks off in Las Vegas.

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Get an Acer 4K Monitor for $349

Anshel Sag — Wed, 26 Nov 2014 02:36:54 +0000

Yes, you heard that right. Newegg’s Black November (because Black Friday and Cyber Monday aren’t enough) has given us a pretty awesome deal. This deal is for an Acer B286HK 28″ 4K monitor that can display 4K video at 60 FPS and does it over DisplayPort 1.2. This monitor’s original price was $699, which isn’t that bad for a 4K monitor, but there are others out there with arguably better panels and design than the Acer at that price.

However, at $349, there is no monitor on earth that can compete with a 28″ 4K monitor at that price. In fact, someone recently pointed out that 4K monitors are starting to sell at lower prices than 1440P monitors and for some reason they are easier to find as well. We can partially thank the Chinese panel manufacturers for that, and we can also thank the fact that 4K gaming is finally starting to take off and people just aren’t interested in 1440P as much as 4K.

The other great thing about this monitor is the plethora of connectivity that it supports, which includes DVI (DVI w/HDCP), MHL, Displayport(v1.2) and MiniDP. It also tilts, swivels and adjusts the height. So you could theoretically have three 4K monitors in portrait mode and not even spend $1,000 which is something that was unheard of until today’s Acer deal. In fact, the reality is that you can have 4K surround gaming with these monitors for under a grand and that’s about as much as it’ll cost you to run three Nvidia G-Sync monitors together.

It does only have a viewing angle of 170 (H) and 160 (V) which clearly indicates that it is not an IPS panel, very likely a TN, but at $349 nobody is going to complain about a 4K TN panel. There are plenty of people out there that would happily buy a TN 4K planel for $349 and I suspect that this monitor will very likely not last until Cyber Monday unless Newegg has some ridiculous amount on hand.

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AMD Partners With Samsung for FreeSync Displays

VR World Staff — Fri, 21 Nov 2014 06:21:08 +0000

AMD (NYSE:AMD) and Samsung (KRX:005930) announced a partnership today at the AMD Future of Compute event in held in Singapore.

The partnership will have Samsung making FreeSync enabled displays, and they will begin to appear in March of next year. The first will be 23.6 inch and 28 inch versions of the UD590 which will both be UHD (4K) displays. Later will come some more UHD displays in the UE850 line with 23.6 inch, 28 inch , and 31.5 inch models. AMD’s FreeSync is its alternative to Nvidia’s G-SYNC tech that has been in the market for over a year now. AMD went the royalty free route with its FreeSync technology that is based on the Adaptive-Sync open standard for DisplayPort. VESA is implementing this technology in the new DisplayPort 1.2a and DisplayPort 1.3 specification. With the lower costs of FreeSync tech this will no doubt encourage more manufacturers to use it in upcoming models.

It may be fairly late in the game for FreeSync since G-Sync has done well with gaming enthusiasts looking to get a good gaming monitor. Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) has made headway getting companies on the G-SYNC train, such as ASUS (TPE: 2357), BenQ (TPE:8215), Philips, and Acer (TPE:2353). The 27″ QHD (2560×1440) 144Hz ASUS ROG Swift PG278Q is by far one of the best G-SYNC monitors that is currently available but sells for $799 and isn’t even 4K. There are also UHD versions available such as the Acer XB280HK that retails for just under $800. But even with a decent amount of monitors on the market, Nvidia’s G-Sync monitors command a serious premium over equally specced monitors without G-Sync. As such, this could potentially put Nvidia at a disadvantage since many monitor manufacturers are constantly looking for ways to differentiate without spending too much money on the bill of materials (BOM).

There is little doubt that FreeSync will do well and that the partnership between AMD and Samsung will do well with the products. With about four months until the models come out users will have plenty of time to set some money aside each month now that we have a date. This will be the go-to monitor of choice for the AMD fans and there sure are plenty of them waiting for the next-gen AMD product to pair with a FreeSync monitor. There has also been talk of companies like BENQ and even ASUS potentially releasing FreeSync compatible monitors. The reality of the situation is that adaptive sync is the superior technology and will very likely get adopted by Intel and that will help AMD overcome Nvidia’s overall size and dominance in the graphics market. Once AMD can partner with Intel (crazy to think) to push FreeSync/Adaptive Sync in both companies’ products then G-Sync will effectively be dead. But you can’t blame Nvidia for wanting to improve gaming, even at a fairly high cost.

The partnership will see Samsung releasing new FreeSync monitors in March 2015.

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Top Five Graphics Cards of 2014

Anshel Sag — Thu, 20 Nov 2014 07:19:38 +0000

There have been some fantastic graphics cards released this year, many with varying price points and performance levels. We are going to take a look at the best of all the GPUs available in 2014 and give you our explanation why. Do keep in mind, that some of these cards may have been released in late 2013, but remained relevant for most of 2014 and still are to this day. And without further ado, we give you the five best graphics cards of 2014. They are going to be listed in descending order from most expensive to least expensive and hopefully they will help you pick the right card for your budget. You can click on the image of the card below to find the card at the posted price on Amazon.

AMD Radeon R9 295X2 – $799

The AMD Radeon R9 295X2 was specifically designed for 4K gaming and to this day remains the best card for 4K gaming for a lot of reasons. In our review of the R9 295X2 graphics card, we found it to be one of the best cards for 4K with a single graphics card. One of the other things that made the R9 295X2 so fantastic and worthy of this list is that the liquid system that cooled this card is probably the most effective cooling solution that has ever cooled a graphics card, ever. The AMD R9 295X2 is also a great card because instead of bringing down the level of the 290X in order to be thermally manageable they actually clocked it even higher and gave you a card that was faster than two R9 290Xs. Currently, you can find the R9 295X2 selling at retailers for around $799 which is a great deal when you consider it launched earlier this year for $1,500 and the price has dropped all the way down to $799. There are some places selling a VisionTek R9 295X2 for $779, but that’s just one card at one store and $799 is a much more realistic price because the Visiontek card is likely to sell out. But why, you may ask, is AMD’s card that launched back in April at $1,500 now selling at $799 in November, only 7 months later? That would be because of the competition from the next card on our list.

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Top Five Graphics Cards of 2014

Anshel Sag — Thu, 20 Nov 2014 07:19:38 +0000

AMD Radeon R9 295X2 – $799

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MHL Alt Mode Enables HDMI Through USB Type-C

Anshel Sag — Tue, 18 Nov 2014 00:36:11 +0000

We recently talked about the fact that DisplayPort would be transmitting over USB Type-C in a format called DisplayPort Alt Mode, well, now there’s announcement from MHL who is announcing a similar alternative solution. MHL is the mobile connectivity standard body that allows for mobile devices to connect to your TV or other HDMI-enabled devices while still being able to use one connector and deliver power to your mobile device. Currently, MHL 3.0 is capable of transmitting 4K video over a microUSB 2.0 to HDMI MHL cable and simultaneously delivering power to the device as well. This standard is specifically designed to work with TVs and HDMI ports as one of MHL’s biggest members is Silicon Image, who are also the co-creators of HDMI and MHL.

With MHL Alt Mode, there is now going to be the ability to use USB Type-C for MHL signaling, which means that signaling standards like HDMI will be supported over USB Type-C, which isn’t necessarily unexpected considering that MHL had already achieved that in the past with an MHL 3.0 cable with a microUSB connector. The cool thing about USB Type-C, though, is that it enables powering of devices and HDMI signaling thanks to MHL Alt Mode. And because MHL Alt Mode and DisplayPort Alt Mode use exactly the same pins on USB Type-C you could theoretically have a device that supports both standards simultaneously without the consumer ever knowing. Obviously, that’s not going to be the case in most situations, but there’s a good chance that now DisplayPort can be transmitted over USB Type-C that MHL is going to have more competition than they did in the past.

Not to mention, DisplayPort is royalty free, unlike MHL or HDMI, which may end up being less costly solutions. But there’s no escaping the reality of HDMI and the fact that HDMI 2.0 is going to prolong the life of HDMI probably for another 10 years. MHL already has a fairly large 650 million device install base, with multiple SoC vendors building in MHL functionality directly into the SoC. So, clearly, there is still quite a bit of competition expected to exist between MHL and DisplayPort even though they both will likely use the same connector on most mobile devices in the future. In addition to that, MHL’s new USB Type-C MHL Alt Mode standard already supports HDCP 2.2 out of the box, which is going to be important for delivering protected content from a PC or a smartphone to a TV with HDMI. MHL also enables some really interesting use cases like docks that allow for you to dock your phone or tablet and then use it as a desktop with keyboard and mouse functionality being enabled by the MHL dock.

MHL Dock

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Special Report: All Eyes on 4K

VR World Staff — Fri, 14 Nov 2014 10:45:51 +0000

If one were to try and find a point where 4K — called such as it’s four-times the resolution of HD — started the path to going mainstream, one might look back to May of this year when China’s Xiaomi launched the first affordable 4K television at a press event in Beijing.

Priced at $640, the 49-inch set is price-competitive with some standard HD sets. Likely a loss-leader for Xiaomi, the set, though not available outside China, forced the hand of global manufacturers to lower their prices in order to build a competitive product. Vizio sensed the demand and recently released the P-series, which priced at $999 brings 4K down to the sub-$1000 level.

But for all the benefits of the enhanced resolution, 4K brings its own set of problems. With the increase in resolution comes an increase in required bandwidth. Infrastructure has to be there to support it. There’s also the question of content. While television sets are becoming more affordable than ever, without content, be it movies, gaming, or pornography 4K’s introduction will be at the speed of molasses.

The future of 4K is in the hands of these stakeholders. It can take off at rocket speed, eclipsing HD faster than HD replaced SD, or it may be a slow process if stakeholders cannot convince the public to make the jump to higher resolutions.

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Gigabyte GA-F2A88XN-WIFI : The Start Of A HTPC

VR World Staff — Sat, 15 Nov 2014 00:58:44 +0000

When considering a new HTPC build a lot should be taken into account, and a big part of that should be the motherboard, If size is to be kept to a minimum then the obvious choice for a motherboard is a Mini-ITX form factor board. If it should be power efficient then the AMD APU lineup is a good starting place since it has decent GPU and CPU power. Choosing something that fits both of those criteria will mean that a A88X Mini-ITX board is likely on the list. This Gigabyte GA-F2A88XN-WIFI will fit the bill nicely since it has a lot of features that a user will want when building a HTPC and not a lot of unnecessary fluff filling up the already cramped board.

The HTPC is a great option for those who have a lot of media that they have accumulated over the years and want to watch on a tv or home cinema. There are plenty of large HTPC builds that users can do with a simple ATX sized board and a big case. But for those looking for something a bit smaller that will look great next to the tv or in the home cinema the Mini-ITX solutions are often the best. They will be compact builds and many of the HTPC cases for them look great and will blend right in with current components that users may have or will be getting.

Overview

Gigabyte is a well known and trusted brand and its boards are many peoples first choice when it comes to picking a new motherboard. They have a couple different choices of A88X Mini-ITX boards. The only current AMD chipset Mini-ITX boards that you can find on sites like Newegg are the A88X boards. So they made sure that people have a few choices in that small segment, which is great for selecting a board that will suit your needs. This board sits at the top of the lineup and it comes packaged with a dual band 802.11ac and Bluetooth 4.0 add-in card. This means that the board is up to date with the speediest Wi-Fi standard available, and will be able to operate at speeds of up to 867Mbps.

The board offers a few features to enhance this board. The board has Gigabyte’s Ultra Durable 4 Plus, meaning that the board is built with good quality components that should stand up to stress that may come from certain setups. The board also uses all solid capacitors and Low RDS(on) MOSFETs which will work at higher temperatures and have longer lifespans. This board also features DualBIOS which means that users will have a second BIOS to fall back on if the first one has issues, such as a failed BIOS flash. Humidity Protection, Power Failure Protection, and Electrostatic Protection are all in the board as well. Also on the board is ESD protection for USB and LAN, as well as one fuse per USB 3.0 porst.

AMD Eyefinity technology is available for those who choose to use this as a small desktop build with multiple monitors. This board also has two HDMI ports instead of having multiple different options. With using a qualified AMD APU and GPU that have Dual Graphics technology the board will use both the discrete GPU and the APU to deliver better graphics performance. 4K Ultra HD support is there right out of the box as well via HDMI ports.

Specifications:

Model: GIGABYTE GA-F2A88XN-WIFI
CPUs: FM2+ / FM2 Athlon/A- Series
Chipset: AMD A88X (Bolton D4)
Memory: 2×240pin Dual Channel DDR3 2133/1866/1600/1333
Maximum Memory Supported: 64GB
Expansion Slot: PCI Express 3.0 x16
Mini Card Slots: 1 x mini-PCI Express slot for the wireless module
SATA: 4 x SATA 6Gb/s
SATA RAID: 0/1/5/10/JBOD
Audio: Realtek ALC892 / 7.1 Channels
LAN: Realtek 10/100/1000Mbps
Wireless: 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac with Bluetooth 4.0, 3.0+HS, 2.1+EDR

Rear Panel Ports

1x PS/2 keyboard/mouse port
1 x DVI-D
2 x HDMI
2 x USB 3.0
4 x USB 2.0
1 x Optical
5x Audio Ports

Internal I/O Connectors

2 x USB 3.0 + 2 x USB 2.0
1 x 24-pin ATX main power connector
1 x 4-pin ATX 12V power connector
1 x APU fan header
1 x system fan header
1 x front panel header
1 x front panel audio header
1 x S/PDIF Out header
1 x Clear CMOS jumper
1 x chassis intrusion header

Physical Spec

Mini ITX
6.7″ x 6.7″
Power Pin: 24 Pin

Features

GIGABYTE Ultra Durable 4 Plus Technology
IR Digital 4+2 phase APU power design
GIGABYTE UEFI DualBIOS
Support for @BIOS
Support for Q-Flash
Support for Xpress Install
Support for EasyTune
Support for Smart Recovery 2
Support for ON/OFF Charge
Support for Wi-Fi Share
Support for Cloud Station

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DirecTV to Deliver 4K Content to Samsung Customers

Anshel Sag — Fri, 14 Nov 2014 20:45:00 +0000

Are you a frustrated Samsung customer? Annoyed by the lack of 4K content outside of Netflix? Well, DirecTV has your back, sorta. DirecTV (NASDAQ: DTV) is partnering up with Samsung (KRX: 005930) to release a bunch of UHD content for any and all Samsung 4K TVs released in 2014. These TVs already have DirecTV built into them and do not require a receiver be directly connected to them in order for them to receive TV service.

The real big deal here is not the built-in DirecTV service, which has been available for quite some time, but rather the fact that now DirecTV will be serving 4K video through their DirecTV Genie HD DVR devices to Samsung TVs in glorious 4K. This service currently only offers 19 films to consumers in UHD. Many of the films are remastered in 4K, but that doesn’t change the fact that Samsung’s 4K portfolio was close to nil when they launched these 4K TVs. Sony was the only place you could really get access to a sizable library of 4K content as Samsung only included 5 movies in their Samsung UHD Video Pack on a 1TB hard drive with their curved UHD TVs earlier this year.

Thankfully for Samsung owners, Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) already offers a pretty sizable library of 4K content including both House of Cards and Breaking Bad as well as a few remastered movies and nature films. The expectation is that Netflix’s library will continue to increase in order to stay competitive with all other streaming services and Amazon who will inevitably do the same. If you consider how fast 4K is gaining adoption, there’s a very good chance that if cable providers don’t get on the 4K bandwagon quickly they will be left behind by the streaming providers that are finding a way to deliver 4K to consumers quickly and effectively. There is already talk of Comcast’s 4K video service, which will also supposedly launch on Samsung first, but it remains to be seen if that will use Comcast internet service or Comcast cable service.

The 4K content wars are heating up, but most of the studios and Blu-Ray are still missing. The studios are missing a huge opportunity to capitalize on the high price of 4K TVs and use that to their advantage to charge higher prices for 4K mastered content. The biggest problem is that Hollywood seems uninterested in launching 4K content even though the market is starving for it globally. So, as a result, a lot of older content is getting remastered. And the interesting thing is, if you look at the newer content that is doing well and already 4K ready like Breaking Bad or House of Cards that is because both productions took production into their own hands and did things their own way. As a result, both of them shot their entire productions in 4K and are the premiere content for Netflix 4K.

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Japan’s ‘Battleship Island’ Soon to be Viewable in 4K HD

Christian Crisostomo — Thu, 06 Nov 2014 10:01:11 +0000

Hashima Island, also known as Gunkanjima (‘Battleship Island’), is one of Japan’s most famous abandoned areas, and is located in Nagasaki Prefecture. Since its re-opening to the public in 2009, many photographers have brought home HD images of the deserted military mining facility.

Major Japanese newspaper company Nishinippon Shimbun however, wants to take a step up from the conventional documentation style of the uninhabited island. The company planned to showcase the historical place in full 4K HD, and starting a few months back last September, the company have dispatched a professional team of photographers, as well as its army of drones. Yes you heard that correctly. Equipped with 4K HD recording equipment, the company’s drone ‘swarm’ scoured the entire island, snapping photos and recording video footage of many of its buildings and facilities.

While a portion of Hashima island is officially open to the public today, much of the island is still off limits to visitors and outsiders. For one thing, the fragility of most of the aging structures poses a clear risk and hazard to anyone who sets foot on these areas. Not only using drones considered safer this way, but it also provides a way to explore these restricted areas while still preserving its ‘untouched’ state. It is already largely considered as a heritage site after all, though there seems to be no word on using these drones to tread the dark, lightless, abandoned building halls at night.

Though the project may seem like a promotional gimmick by the newspaper company, it is actually for official historical documentation. The photos, videos, and the upcoming documentary itself will be part of what is called as the ‘Gunkanjima Archives‘. The updated information will serve well to give the already growing popularity of this archaic tourist destination even more public exposure.

For now, let’s just enjoy the recently released trailer of the company’s soon-to-be-completed project. (in 4K HD of course)

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Nvidia In Discussions with 'Many' GPU Licensees

Anshel Sag — Fri, 07 Nov 2014 00:15:40 +0000

During today’s Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) earnings call for Q3 with very good numbers, Nvidia’s CEO Jen-Hsun Huang indicated that the company was already actively discussing licensing its GPU technologies in the mobile space to certain partners.

While Huang did not say how many partners they were working with or at what stage they were in the discussions, he did say the following, “Our licensing discussions are very active. And we have many in important stages.”

That statement was a response to an analyst question about the success of Maxwell and if it was bringing any potential progress on the licensing front. Currently, Nvidia is the sole user of its mobile GPUs and mobile GPU IP, however, with the success of Maxwell in desktop, there is a very good chance that some companies would become interested in utilizing it for their SoCs. Afterall, if you look at some of our Maxwell reviews, you can see that Nvidia is getting much more performance out of their GPUs while using the same process (28nm) as the previous generation and simultaneously reducing power. These advancements eventually trickle down to Nvidia’s mobile products as the company’s product roadmaps have indicated in the past.

Currently, the Tegra K1 utilizes Nvidia’s Kepler architecture, which was originally launched in desktop and laptop GPUs back in 2012 and then perfected in 2013 with the GTX Titan. Following the Kepler release in 2012, Nvidia announced the Tegra K1 (formerly known as Tegra 5) with Kepler in the beginning of this year and has been shipping Tegra K1 SoCs since the summer. So, a realistic timeframe to see Maxwell GPU IP in mobile is very likely going to be towards the tail end of 2015 or the beginning of 2016, so that isn’t necessarily going to be as quick as the mobile refresh cycle usually is. However, with each generation of SoC Nvidia has vastly improved the speed of GPU architecture implementation so there’s no knowing exactly how soon we could see an Nvidia GPU in something like a MediaTek.

It will be interesting to see how Nvidia will balance their GPU IP licensing with customers if they are also simultaneously competing with them. After all, ARM and IMG license both CPUs and GPUs, but neither of them actually produce their own products that compete with their licensees. There is also a chance that Nvidia may be trying to muscle weaker companies into licensing their technology because of the strength of their patents, which may be why Nvidia recently sued Samsung and Qualcomm.

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Asustor Unveils the AS7004T NAS with Support for 24 TB Storage

Harish Jonnalagadda — Thu, 30 Oct 2014 07:26:35 +0000

Asustor launched its latest NAS unit, the AS7004T, which the vendor claims is its most compact four-bay model in the AS70T line. The highlight of the AS7004T is that it can accommodate a total of 24 TB storage, which meets the needs of even the most demanding SOHO users.

Powered by a 3.5 GHz dual-core Intel Core i3-4330 CPU, the AS7004T is extensible not just in the storage department, but also when it comes to memory. The NAS features 2 GB of RAM by default, which can be extended to a maximum of 16 GB. Although the read and write numbers are based on the kind of hard disk you install, Asustor claims that with a NAS-compatible disk can net speeds of over 112 MB/s.

In terms of connectivity, there are two Gigabit Ethernet ports at the back, three USB 3.0 ports, two USB 2.0 ports, one HDMI (1.4a) and two eSATA ports as well as an S/PDIF port for high-definition audio. Cooling is taken care of by a single fan and dedicated heat pipes that direct airflow from the front to the back of the NAS, effectively cooling the CPU and disc trays in the process.

A basic security measure sees the inclusion of locks for drive bays, and the hard discs can be mounted in various configurations that include a single disc, JBOD, RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 6 and RAID 10. There’s also the ability to hot swap discs and online RAID migration.

On the software side of things, the AS7004T comes with ADM 2.3 (ASUSTOR Data Master), which features a redesigned interface that allows for faster navigation. For using wanting to link their multimedia to a home theatre client, there’s the provision to install XBMC, and ability to stream 4K content. Rounding things off is a configurable LCD readout that lets users monitor disc usage and more. The AS7004T is backed by a three-year warranty.

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Nvidia's GTX 980 and GTX 970 Launch, One Month Later

Anshel Sag — Sat, 25 Oct 2014 00:39:05 +0000

Since the September launch of Maxwell for high-end, we’ve seen Nvidia launch the GeForce GTX 980 as well as the GTX 970 and their accompanying mobile bretheren, the GeForce GTX 980M and GTX 970M. Now that Nvidia’s high-end GPU has had roughly a month of sales, we want to take a look at how well they’re doing and exactly why they are doing so well or so poorly. The GTX 980 is going for anywhere between $549 and $599 and the GTX 970 is selling for anywhere between $329 and $409.

We first decided to talk to some retailers, specifically some etailers across the globe. From our conversations with them they had indicated that they are essentially selling as many GTX 980s and GTX 970s as they possibly can and that when the cards had initially launched, they had difficulty keeping them in stock. Now, if we look at the stock situation for the GTX 980 and GTX 970 now, it appears to be better. A quick stock check of GTX 980 and GTX 970s on Newegg shows a fairly good amount of cards in stock, while some others are still out of stock or on order. If you look on Amazon, you can actually see that other than the ‘budget’ cards like the GTX 750 Ti, 8400GS and HD5450, the rest of the top 10 cards on Amazon are all GTX 980s and 970s, mostly being 970s. Do keep in mind that Amazon’s numbers are a rolling total, rather than a weekly or monthly figure meaning that the relatively new GTX 970s are already selling like crazy.

This lines up with what we’ve been hearing from our retailer friends who have all said that the GTX 970 is their best selling graphics card and that in many cases people are buying two of them at a time because of their relatively inexpensive price of $329. Two GTX 970s in SLI is going to be a lot more powerful than a single GTX 980 and only at a $100 price premium, if that. The retailers we spoke with also indicated that they had double digit SLI sales (dual 970) and it continues to be the best selling card that they have in their inventory. Some retailers even said, if they had more cards available to them, they’d probably sell even more.

In addition to retailers, we also polled a few system builders anonymously. In their case, we saw essentially the same behavior with the GTX 970 being the most popular card that they sold and the GTX 980 coming in second after it. Considering the $220 price difference, that doesn’t seem that far fetched. All system builders also indicated that the release of these cards, like many graphics card launches, helped boost sales significantly the the point where they could actually measure the difference in demand.

The really big factor here in all of this is that Nvidia has had an incredibly strong launch and has sold more cards than we’re actually able to count. What’s more interesting was that one of the retailers pointed us to a fairly thoughtful point, we haven’t officially broken into the holiday buying season yet and they believe that Nvidia’s graphics card sales are going to skyrocket during the holiday season. And considering how dominant the GTX 980 is in benchmarks, they suspect that many GTX 980 buyers are going to wait until the holiday season when they’ve been able to save up more money or get their holiday bonuses. The GTX 980 is a more expensive card, which is what’s partially keeping it from being as successful as the GTX 970. That’s primarily because the GTX 970 is 30% cheaper and only about 10-20% slower than the GTX 980, the more affordable card will always sell better than the highest end card if it delivers a good value, which the GTX 970 undeniably is.

So, we’ll be looking towards this holiday season to see exactly how well Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 980 and GTX 970 do, but if early sales figures are any indication they are going to do extremely well and have a fantastic quarter.

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Qualcomm Wants to Lead Us to 4K

Anshel Sag — Thu, 23 Oct 2014 01:01:02 +0000

Last week, Qualcomm (NASDAQ: QCOM) held a press and analyst event in New York City, spread across the Plaza Hotel and the Hayden Planetarium. It was a combination of a wireless modem workshop with a 4K content push. The day began with presentations from Verizon, Ovum, JPR and Qualcomm. These presentations were followed up by a demo session showing off Qualcomm’s various wireless technological capabilities including their LTE Broadcast capabilities as well as WiGig, which was one of the focal technologies of the day. Later in the evening, Qualcomm held a press event with film makers to talk about 4K as well as the CTO of the MLB to talk about the importance of 4K to sports. Oh, and one of the guest film makers was none other than Guardians of the Galaxy Director, James Gunn.

Qualcomm’s presenters for the day were VP of Worldwide Marketing, Tim McDonough and SVP, Product Management at Qualcomm Raj Talluri.

Tim McDonough giving the opening presentation

Raj Talluri talking about the importance of Qualcomm’s wireless technologies

Most of these presentations covered the importance of technologies like LTE Broadcast (Verizon) and 4K video, with Jon Peddie’s presentation ensuring that you know that 4K is coming whether or not you like it. And he’s not wrong.

During the wireless demonstrations, Qualcomm showed off something that may be a taste of what’s to come with the integration of WiGig technology into their SoCs. The company formerly known as Wilocity has developed a very high throughput 60 GHz Wi-Fi technology also known as 802.11ad or WiGig. WiGig currently enables speeds of up to 2 Gbps, with the next generation doing 4 Gbps. At the demo room, Qualcomm showed off their upcoming Snapdragon 810 streaming a 4K video from one tablet to another, which would then display the 4K video on a TV in 4K. This is the first time they’ve shown the Snapdragon 810 SoC in public and the first time they’re showing 4K video streaming over WiGig with the Snapdragon 810.

WiGig Antennas and PCIe wireless card

Snapdragon 810 WiGig Test Device showing 802.11ad bandwidth while streaming 4K video

Currently, Qualcomm is the leading vendor of SoCs capable of creating 4K videos for consumers. It was the first to market with the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 and the Snapdragon 800. The Snapdragon 800 was the first chip that enabled 4K video recording and Samsung’s Galaxy Note 3 was the first phone to enable that. In fact, we took a video testing out that feature at this last CES just to test that out. In fact, at this moment, Qualcomm’s SoCs power 12 different Android devices that are capable of recording in 4K, which includes the featured phone of the night, the LG G3. In fact, two vendors that make these 4K capable phones, Sony and LG were on hand to give people hands on experiences with the LG G3, Sony Xperia Z3 and Z3 Compact.

The real key here is that Qualcomm is talking about 4K content creation to help satisfy the vacuum left by Hollywood. As of right now, there’s virtually no 4K content out there for people to enjoy on their 4K TVs unless they haven’t seen House of Cards or Breaking Bad before (both are available in 4K on Netflix). The reality is that 4K content creation on phones is already here and possible and that we already have TVs selling for under $999 that you can play that content on. Not to mention having 4K video quality means that you can always downsample and get even better quality 1080P and 720P videos as well.

The LG G3 was brought up a lot over the course of the press event in the evening, as Qualcomm had given both Nathan Silver and James Gunn LG G3 phones to use for 4K video recording. In fact, Nathan Silver made a quick and short film in 4K called “Family Affair” with the phone that Qualcomm gave him. Nathan Silver’s dad eventually came on stage and they talked about the short film, at which point James Gunn came on stage to talk with Tim about how 4K is important to him and how having a 4K phone is valuable for him in film making. Needless to say, none of them seemed disappointed with the LG G3’s 4K capabilities, especially when you realize that you can also play back and simultaneously zoom 4K footage as its playing back.

Tim McDonough with Nathan Silver and his dad.

Tim McDonough with James Gunn

Tim McDonough and Raj Talluri on stage with James Gunn and Nathan Silver talking about 4K movies and film making and doing Q&A to wrap up the event

To end the event, Qualcomm announced, with all of the men on stage, a new $25,000 contest for the best 4K video. All you have to do is the following:

Capture a 1-2min 4K Ultra HD video on an eligible Snapdragon powered device
Edit and Upload to your YouTube channel
Enter the contest with your video URL on the contest page

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SanDisk Reports Lukewarm Earnings for Q3 2014

Anshel Sag — Fri, 17 Oct 2014 23:49:10 +0000

SanDisk (NASDAQ:SNDK) yesterday reported its earnings for for the third quarter of 2014, ending September 30th.

For the third quarter of 2014, SanDisk reported earnings of $263 million on a record $1.75 billion in revenue, this translated to an earnings per share of $1.09, compared to profits of $277 million last quarter ($1.18 EPS) and $274 million in the same quarter a year ago ($1.14 EPS). As a result, SanDisk’s investors were not happy to see the company’s earnings shrinking even though revenue continues to increase. In fact, SanDisk posted record revenues this quarter, even with declining profitability.

Even so, SanDisk continues to be on a march to ensure that solid state technologies are the leading technology in the storage industry. This was made clear by the acquisition of FusionIO, which completed this quarter and should help pump up their enterprise offering, as well as their expansion of consumer flash products for mobile and photography. SanDisk now has a 512 GB SD card as well as 128 GB microSDXC memory cards which are capable of 4K video capture. In fact, there’s a very good chance that a lot of people will be buying lots of SanDisk microSDXC memory cards for their new GoPro Hero4 cameras (which we’re reviewing) this holiday season. After all, SanDisk’s 128 GB microSDXC card will only yield 4 hours of 4k footage on a GoPro Hero4 camera.

SanDisk saw channel revenue grow 13% while retail shrunk 2%, channel revenue was mostly driven by SSD growth in both enterprise and consumer, which offset the losses in retail, resulting in a record revenue quarter. SanDisk also talked about their ramping of their fabs from 19nm to 15nm and how they will slowly begin to make the transition over the course of the next year, which will start to yield them cost savings as opposed to pure operating expenditures.

The company also issued forward looking statements for Q4 2014 as well as 2015, stating that they expect to reduce inventory levels in order to fulfill demand across all key product categories as their customers are indicating to be true. However, the company is cautioning that it expects to be “in supply allocation” and that will constrain their growth in some areas in Q4.

Problems with supply

One interpretation of the term “supply allocation” is a euphemism for a shortage of some resources or manufacturing in order to properly supply demand from customers. The company then proceeds to say that it will, “prioritize our business according to our strategic priorities and customer relationships,” which essentially translates to larger and more loyal customers are going to get what they order when they ask for it and everyone else is going to have to wait. But even so, its forecast for the fourth quarter of 2014 indicates revenues of $1.8 billion to $1.85 billion, which would be another record revenue quarter for the company.

Based on yesterday’s earnings announcement, SanDisk’s investors did not seem pleased by the company’s earnings report. In fact, SanDisk today closed down nearly 3% in regular trading, this was even though many of their competitors closed the day up, clearly indicating a reaction to yesterday’s earnings.

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