Robotics Trends To Watch In 2026

2025 has been a breakout year in robotics and we expect that growth to be even stronger in 2026! 

China leads a massive robotic surge with growth expected to reach new levels in 2026. More than 82% of the 300+ global robotics investment deals in the first half of 2025 occurred in China, with total financing topping at least 20B yuan (~$2.7 B). State-backed funds have earmarked some 70B yuan (about $9.7B) for humanoids and robot initiatives, while pushing robotics into public spaces. Companies like Unitree (eyeing a $7B IPO), Agibot, and EngineAI closed massive rounds, with Unitree slashing prices to $5,900 for its R1 humanoid. Even Elon Musk has warned that in humanoids “positions two through ten could all be Chinese companies.” China now produces 70–80% of global planetary roller screws — the critical actuator component that Tesla, Figure, and 1X all depend on.

Humanoid bots go mainstream - will you see one in your house in 2026?

• Big industrial customers began running serious pilots, testing humanoids on warehouse lines, with 1X’s Neo moving into homes (but with a major caveat).
• Tesla, Figure, Agility, Apptronik, and 1X shifted focus from viral clips to reliability, safety, and per-hour economics in real customer environments. Tesla is set to begin mass production of their Tesla Optimus by the end of next year
• Tooling, components, and software platforms around humanoids matured, from actuators and battery packs to “generalist” control and vision models.
• China turned humanoids into industrial policy, dangling pilots to push domestic players toward large-scale deployment by the end of the decade.
• Analysts are estimating the market will be worth more than $5 trillion by 2050

Robotaxis hit real streets with mixed results! 2026 we expect fewer Uber and Lyft drivers and more driverless cars.

• Waymo began weaving freeway driving into routes across Phoenix, San Francisco, and LA, stretching its service to San Jose with 24/7 airport pickup.
• Amazon’s robotaxi subsidiary Zoox launched its custom vehicles in Las Vegas — no steering wheel, no pedals, just two rows of seats for 4 passengers.
• Tesla just started testing empty robotaxis on Austin streets this past weekend, with no safety monitor in the passenger seat.
• China’s Baidu and Uber announced plans to deploy thousands of Apollo Go vehicles on Uber’s platform, while Pony AI rolled out 1K robotaxis in Shenzhen.
• Uber's CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said robotaxis are a "trillion-dollar-plus" industry and expects to see the company to have cars 10-plus markets by next year.

The rise of the warehouse bot saw Warehouse bots becoming the main characters of robotics in 2025. 

• Amazon blew past 1M deployed robots marking the shift from simple mobile robots to integrated AI-powered workcells.
• Autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) now account for 45% of warehouse deployments, with e-commerce driving half of new installations through 2030.
• Beijing went all in, openly targeting hundreds of thousands of deployed units by 2030 while running 1.8M industrial robots on factory floors.
• Agility’s Digit moved 100K totes at a GXO facility while humanoids from Apptronik and others tackled “last-meter” tasks that wheeled bots can't handle.

Industry Diversification: Robotics adoption is expanding beyond traditional automotive and electronics manufacturing into sectors facing labor shortages or high-risk conditions.

• Construction: Robots are increasingly used for surveying, inspection, demolition, and precise tasks like drilling and bricklaying, reducing human exposure to hazardous conditions.
• Healthcare and Pharma: Automation is used for logistics, dispensing medications, performing minimally invasive surgeries, and assisting with patient rehabilitation through soft exoskeletons.
• Retail and Hospitality: Robots are appearing as shelf-scanning inventory managers, automated baristas, and hotel assistants.

In 2026, the emphasis is going to be on human-robot collaboration and the integration of robots into daily life as intelligent partners rather than mere replacements. Growth and expansion of AI and the integration it is already making into everyday life will be key. So to will regulations and governmental guidelines and oversight. We've already seen some drawback on autonomous cars with state legislators weighing in on regulations for autonomous vehicles. We fully expect more regulations and safety nets related to bots taking over the workforce and/or entering our daily lives. 

U.S. DOE Expands Genesis Mission With New Partnerships

The U.S. Dept. of Energy just announced partnerships with 24 organizations to power the Trump administration’s Genesis Mission effort to accelerate scientific research with AI — including OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, and Nvidia. 

The details: 

The initiative unites 17 national labs with 40K researchers, targeting breakthroughs in nuclear energy, quantum computing, and manufacturing. Google DeepMind will grant lab scientists early access to tools, including its AI co-scientist agent, AlphaEvolve coding system, and AlphaGenome DNA model. AWS pledged up to $50B in government AI infrastructure, with OAI already deploying models on Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Venado supercomputer. Additional signatories include xAI, Microsoft, Palantir, AMD, Oracle, Cerebras, and CoreWeave.

“Today’s announcement of 24 new research partnerships is only the beginning, as we deliver on President Trump’s mandate to bring the entire scientific community, including companies, universities, non-profits, and Federal agencies, into the Genesis Mission,” said Assistant to the President and OSTP Director Michael Kratsios. “Harnessing cutting-edge AI for science will dramatically increase the productivity of American scientists and researchers. The Genesis Mission will help America’s scientists automate experiment design, accelerate simulations, and generate predictive models that will lead to breakthroughs in energy, manufacturing, drug discovery, and beyond.”

The full list of organizations include: Accenture AMD Anthropic Armada Amazon Web Services Cerebras CoreWeave Dell DrivenData Google Groq Hewlett Packard Enterprise IBM Intel Microsoft NVIDIA OpenAI Oracle Periodic Labs Palantir Project Prometheus Radical AI xAI XPRIZE

CES 2025 Is Here With AI In Everything!

 CES 2025 has officially kicked off this week with all the biggest names in tech showcasing their newest tech offerings. As expected AI is at the forefront of just about every single major announcement. With NVIDIA, Intel, AMD and Qualcomm all showcasing the latest in AI centric chips. While others such as LG Google, Hisense and TCL show off some of the newest in AI powered TVs and home theater gizmos. Not to take a back seat major auto manufactures have showed in force this year with Toyota, Volvo, BMW and others highlighting new AI integration and manufacturing advancements.  

As many expected AI has found its way into almost every device from the outrageous new personal robots. To the most mundane of children's toys. Just about everywhere you look someone is introducing a new AI powered gadget or gizmo of some sort!

Among the major announcements made was NVIDIA's CES keynote highlighting their newest RTX 50 series flagship GPUs as well as a very interesting new addition dubbed Project Digits. NVIDIA Project DIGITS, a personal AI supercomputer that provides AI researchers, data scientists and students worldwide with access to the power of the NVIDIA Grace Blackwell platform. With Project DIGITS, users can develop and run inference on models using their own desktop system, then seamlessly deploy the models on accelerated cloud or data center infrastructure.

As previously mentioned TV and display manufactures are looking to put AI to use in more ways than one. Google has announced they adding a slew of Gemini features to Google TV. With Gemini Google promises your interaction with your Google TV powered devices will be more natural and intuitive.  Offering things like summarized results, better search, and more total control over your connected devices. Google plans to release these new Gemini capabilities for new and existing Google TV devices toward the end of 2025.

In the auto arena Toyota took the wraps of some very ambitious projects including a move into space travel, autonomous vehicles and a very intriguing idea dubbed Toyota Woven City. This new 'Smart City" project is promised to be a hub for innovation, blending autonomous vehicles, AI and robotics

The concept of Toyota’s radical Woven City – which the Japanese automaker describes as a “test course for mobility” – was initially revealed in 2020. Now, five years later, the company says the first phase of construction is complete and ready for launch later this year.

It wouldn't be CES of course without the addition of tons of other gadgets. And it looks like there are plenty of those to choose from. The folks at ZDNET found everything from smart rings, to door locks. And did we mention the robots? It seems as though there is a robot for just about everything these days!

Are External AI Accelerators Coming Soon?

A couple years ago several companies introduced external GPUs. Portable boxes that held a top end GPU that could run the latest games on your small form factor PC or your otherwise under-equipped none gaming PC. They could be used on just about any PC to add in gaming or graphics  power without the need for a new build or major upgrade. With the need for today's computers to keep up with the draw of AI computing will we soon see add-on or scalable external AI Accelerator Box becoming the new thing?

The fundamentals of on-device AI computing are easy enough to understand. You put an NPU, AI ready GPU ect into a device and you are reasonably set. Most new laptops and desktops will come with these chip integrated. However, the need to add AI computing power to older machines, without a large scale upgrade, might be the next big draw. Much like add-on GPUs having a stand-alone AI Accelerator NPU might be a great solution.

Think of it this way, you own a PC or laptop that is a few years old and instead of buying something brand new you add on an external NPU or even GPU box the size of a standard portable hard drive. You instantly boost your computing power and/or graphics power. Now add to that you could potentially be running them in tandem and multiply your base computing power exponentially based on whatever configurations you have! You become your own distributed computing system running everything from one machine. You can then take those same devices and run the same level of computing from your laptop, work PC or possibly even your phone! 

Unlike a normal PC with an AI Accelerator Box you won't have to continuously upgrade. Rather you scale your computing power based on each new AI Box you add or swap out. Your base footprint would still be less than a single high end desktop, but with exponentially more compute power!

We do have a few solutions similar to what I'm suggesting today. ADLINK Tech has a portable NVIDIA RTX GPU and companies like Zotac still have their external GPUs. However, none of these offer the true scalability and raw AI processing power that I'm talking about. Eventually I believe well see some true standalone Intel or AMD based AI accelerator chips in external boxes setup for running as a daisy chained system.

What Are AI PCs? A Brief Explanation

Before I start with the explanation below I'd like to say that I believe that AI (artificial intelligence) as we are defining it today is not what most people envision as true 'artificial intelligence.' I look at it more as an augmented intelligence, one that uses your own interactions and those of users like you to generate best case answers, images, videos ect. We've been using the same software, same search algorithms, same voice commands, same pretty much everything for several years now. We never called it AI before because of the marketing strategy. Today we are just now seeing the marketing hype behind those same tools that have been learning our habits for years (I won't get started on the privacy issues here).

AI PCs - Intel's New Marketing Term

To put this simply the term AI PC is an Intel derived marketing term that requires specific Intel hardware and standards to apply. This doesn't mean that other PCs or devices can't run AI or that they aren't AI ready or AI chip equipped. So don't be confused here! 

Intel has stated that for a PC to receive the coveted "AI" label, it needs four things: a neural processing unit (NPU), a graphics processing unit (GPU), and the ability to handle Vector Neural Network Instructions (VNNI) and DP4a instructions (so that the GPU can handle video processing)  In other words what Intel is saying is that in order for them to call a new computer an AI PC it must be one with their latest CPU.

 

What is AI Ready and AI equipped

When it comes to slapping the AI ready label on things these are the few small things to know. AI apps and tools are currently used in two different ways. The difference between the two and how you are using them is really the difference in hardware requirements and what is needed. Basically any PC, smartphone, tablet or device can access and use cloud based AI.  On device generative tools require much better, more efficient hardware and that is were some of the confusion starts for most people.

One of the easiest ways to explain the hardware is to say the modern CPU as most people know it has become extremely outdated. New software changes take advantage of and use the GPU and a new NPU (secondary chip) to do the heavy work. These are both considered AI accelerators, deep learning processor, or neural processing units (NPUs). They have been specifically designed to accelerate artificial intelligence and machine learning applications and algorithms. (More on the differences here)

Tools like ChatGPT, Google image generator Gemini, or Microsoft CoPilot are all cloud based and do all their work in a cloud based system. This allows EVERY device to utilize AI because all the work is done by other, much more powerful systems, that then send the results to your PC or phone. This will soon change however as Intel has confirmed CoPilot and other applications will soon run locally on PCs and require better hardware to do so. 

PCs meeting those requirements are already shipping and other devices like the Apple iPhone, Google Pixel 8 and Samsung Galaxy phones are already using secondary more AI specific NPU chips for on-device AI.

In conclusion - don't be confused or fooled!
I'm writing this post I'm really hoping to take some confusion out of buying or upgrading your systems and hope that people aren't fooled into think they have to run out and search only for an AI PC to run their newly hyped apps. Yes newer hardware will eventually be required, and yes it only makes sense to adopt that hardware if you are already upgrading. No, that doesn't mean you will be left out if you don't!

AI Regulations and Why Companies Welcome Them

As the adoption of AI, more directly generative AI, we see more companies calling on the government to step in and step up with regulations. For some this seems counterintuitive. Why would an AI company seek regulation in their own industry that would slow down adoption of their tools right? There are two schools of thought on this.

• Companies are truly concerned that their tools are being used for nefarious activities (scams, hacking cheating ect)
• Companies are concerned that the pace of the market means they will become irrelevant before they can make a market impact

As much as we'd like to think that tech companies are altruistic. Historically speaking, this hasn't been the case. So while some of their calls to action might be rooted in a desire to steer things down the 'right path' it is more likely that they are worried about their massive investment and potential returns.

The AI movement/generation is very quickly becoming what the DOT-COM era was. Startups are hitting amazing valuations and being gobbled up by the big boys in tech. Amazon recently spent 4b investing in AI Startup Anthropic. While Google, NVIDIA, Apple and others are not far behind. If AI continues to evolve at the pace it is now, many of those investment could be outdated and loose overall value well before they produce something that is marketable.

As a comparison Siri was first released in 2011, Alexa in 2014 and both are precursors to the large language models we see rapidly advancing today. It too more than a decade for their widespread adoption. Whereas ChatGPT broke into the market this past year and set off a firestorm and created a free for all in the market and development space. So while we are seeing companies actively petition for some government oversight, what we aren't seeing is those very same companies exhibiting a measure of self control!

 

Related Articles

https://epic.org/the-state-of-state-ai-laws-2023/

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-02491-y

https://techcrunch.com/2023/09/11/the-ftc-is-setting-its-sights-on-generative-ai/

Nvidia GeForce GTX 970 Owners Apply Now to Get Your $30

Take notice all you gaming geeks out there, if you own Nvidia Nvidia GeForce GTX 970 the time is now to submit your claim for your refund! The pending class action lawsuit against Nvidia that we had reported on a few months back has finally settled and been approved. That means it is time to get stake your claim to your cold hard cash!

US residents who purchased an Nvidia GeForce GTX 970 graphics processing unit between Sept. 1, 2014, and Aug. 24, 2016, can now submit a claim for $30 cash for each qualifying device. In order to verify ownership and stake your claims you'll need to provide a verification code or proof of purchase.

Verification codes should be listed on the notices of the settlement, if you received one. If not, you can submit a sales receipt, credit card receipt or statement, a shipping manifest, a purchase order, an email confirmation, or other similar documentation. If like most geeks I know you don't keep that stuff handy (shame on you!), you can also submit a Product Identification Number found on the box, back, or bottom of each GPU or in the settings for the GPU via the software of your choice.

Once you have all your information in order, simply head to the GTX 970 settlement site, submit your claim and sit back and wait on the cash to roll. Can't be much simpler right?

The settlement is still subject to a final approval hearing, which is set to take place on December 7. Following that your check should be in the mail -- haha. Usually it takes a fews, and you'll likely forget it is coming, but unlike some other things we can think of (cough MIRs) these settlements are typically paid in a pretty timely manner.

Nvidia GTX 970 Owners You May Be Owed Money

Listen up you gaming geeks out there! If you purchased the Nvidia GTX 970 Nvidia may owe you some cold hard cash, thanks in part to some bad advertising and misleading specifications that has led to a proposed settlement in a class-action lawsuit.

For those that don't recall, shortly after the GTX 970 rolled out, users started noticing issues with the cards 'alleged' 4GBs of VRAM memory. In short the card's memory allocation didn't work correctly and wasn't allowing games and applications access to the full 4GBs of memory. Additionally, when access to the additional memory was available users saw significant drops in performance.

Nvidia later admitted that the design of the card was to blame, which split the card’s memory into 3.5GB and 512MB segments. Nvidia’s CEO later explained that the memory segmentation was an inventive way to make the GTX 970 a 4GB card when it normally would’ve been 3GB.

In addition to the issues with crippled memory, it was later discovered that Nvidia also made false claims on other specifics. The card was originally listed as having 64 ROPs (Render Output Unit), when in fact it was found to only have 56. The L2 cache capacity was also misrepresented at 2048KB but in reality it ended up being 1792KB.

At the time some online retailers felt the need to offer refunds, which many of you geeks out there likely took advantage of. However, others felt a little more slighted and filled lawsuit over the issue. The lawsuits largely claimed that Nvidia misled its customers. Allegations that Nvidia has continued to deny. The proposed settlement would not force the company to admit to any liability or false claims, rather they would issue a cash refund for those impacted.

According to the proposed settlement (via The Register) GTX 970 owners will be reimbursed $30 per card. Essentially the amount that they feel makes up the discrepancy between what customers should’ve paid had Nvidia been honest about the memory and ROP discrepancies from the start. The court will hear the petition to approve the settlement on Wednesday, August 24, as first reported by Top Class Actions. A total of 15 lawsuits seeking class-action status would be settled if the proposal goes through.

As the agreement has not yet been settled there are no details as to how GTX 970 owners can claim their refund. However, it appears as though eligible owners that have previously registered their cards will be notified of the settlement by October 23, and all claims will need to be filed by December 21. We'll be keeping track of the settlement so that once there are more details about filling claims we can update our readers so they can get their $30 refund.

NVIDIA Introduces GeForce NOW $8 Per Month Game Streaming Service

When most geeks think streaming the first thought that comes to mind is likely video streaming through NetFlix or Hulu or audio streaming through Spotify or Rhapsody. Few if any would think of video game streaming (unless of course you used the now defunct OnLive service) and if they did it would likely be game video streams on sites like Twitch, Ustream or the new YouTube Gaming service. However, today that may change as NVIDIA has just announced GeForce NOW, an on-demand gaming service for the company's SHIELD family of gaming devices.

"GeForce NOW is all about instant gratification. But it took us a decade to invent the technology behind the service that streams GeForce GTX-quality graphics to SHIELD devices," Nvidia stated in a blog post. "GeForce NOW is your game library in the sky. See all the titles we offer from a game series at a glance — like the LEGO collection or the Batman Arkham series — for binge gaming. Use voice search to find your favorite games. Search through games by category. Or quickly browse the latest and most popular games."

NVIDIA has said that GeForce NOW will stream games at 1080p and 60 frames per second (depending on the users connection speeds). This will make it the first non-beta cloud-gaming service capable of such his resolutions and frame-rates. It will launch with over 50 titles included in your $7.99 membership fee. Most of them are slightly older games such as Batman: Arkham Origins, Lego Marvel Super Heroes, and Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, to name just a few.

NVIDIA will also offer newer "Buy and Play Instantly" titles like The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt ($60) and Saints Row IV ($20). In other words, some games will be available for sale. As a bonus those just wanting to try out the new program will get a free three month trial when it launches next month. You can find more details via NVIDIA's Shield Blog.

NIVIDIA Shield Now Available Checkout These Reviews

Following up on last week's announcement of the all new NVIDIA SHIELD gaming tablet comes the launch of the $300 8-inch gaming device. The only question that remains now is whether or not you the SHIELD is geek-worthy enough for you gaming geeks to plop down your hard earned cash.

We scoured the web and found some reviews from our favorite geeks sites that we hope will help you make your decision.

Maximum PC: NVIDIA Shield Tablet Review

Would we buy the Shield Tablet if we owned the original Shield (now renamed the Shield Portable)? Probably not. If we were looking for a new tablet and top notch gaming performance was on the check list, the Shield Tablet is easily the top contender today. We’d take it over the second-gen Nexus 7 in a heart beat. While we understand why Nvidia decided to separate the cover and controller to keep the prices down and avoid the Kinect factor, we think a bundled package with a small price break as an alternative would have been nice. All things considered though, consider us surprised. The Shield Tablet is pretty dang cool.

AndroidCentral: NVIDIA Shield Tablet Review

If you're looking for something a little different in a tablet, and think that you'd take advantage of the huge gaming potential available in the Shield Tablet, this may be one to take a look at. As long as you're willing to go all-in with the accessories and spend a little money on games as they come out, this is a better value proposition than picking up a gaming device and tablet separately. But if your tablet budget is $299 and not a penny more, you'll likely be better served by something that's cheaper and simpler — just be sure keep your gaming aspirations modest.

GameSpot: NVIDIA Shield Tablet and Controller Review

Given that Twitch streaming is one of the key selling points of the Shield Tablet, it's disappointing that it doesn't work consistently across the device. Its small line up of games doesn't help matters either, particularly as there are frame rate issues with the more graphically intensive titles. Certainly, you're not going to be swapping your Vita or 3DS for a Shield Tablet anytime soon.

However, I like to think of the Shield Tablet this way: if you buy one, you're getting a great looking, powerful Android tablet with a near stock version of the OS for an enticing price; its gaming features are simply a nice bonus. PC players with a large library of games will also get a lot out of the tablet's Gamestream functionality, which--despite its issues over slower connections--is a great way to access your games away from your main machine.

Despite Nvidia's claims, I wouldn't get a Shield Tablet for its gaming features alone. Indeed, if you're buying it solely for the gaming features, then you might be a little disappointed. But, if you're interested in what the future of gaming might look like, Shield Tablet is perhaps the best glimpse we've had of it so far. If Nvidia can push the power of its mobile chips every year as much as it does its desktop ones, and if broadband keeps up, within a few years, something like the Shield Tablet may very well be the best way to game.

AnandTech: The NVIDIA SHIELD Tablet Review

After getting through all of these observations over the past five days, I’ve come to realize that even though it’s not the perfect tablet, all of the features that this device brings to the table right now would be enough for me to seriously consider buying one. If NVIDIA manages to get enough multiplayer titles with an active community on Shield Tablet, there wouldn’t be a need to stop and consider at all. As someone that has spent the past few years never considering a tablet purchase at all, the Shield Tablet is the first ARM tablet that I would seriously think about buying.

Gizmodo: Nvidia Shield Tablet Review: A Gaming Beast, But So Much More

Do you care about games? Like at all? Do you think you might in the future? Then yes. Yes! The Shield tab is not quite the best all-around tablet tablet out there (mainly because of battery life reasons, and also because it's a little hefty) but it's still damn good for $300, futureproof like whoa, and the most bang for your buck because of it. Unless your use-case is literally "I want to watch at least 9 hours of consecutive video with a single charge, on a particularly small and light tablet" (get a Kindle Fire HDX) the Shield tablet is a Solid Buy.....It's not bar-none the best choice for normals and gamers alike—that wonderful ideal of gaming hardware that's also just "the best"—but it's delightfully close for a first stab. The future is bright. Get excited.

Hexus.net: Review: NVIDIA Shield Tablet

Shield Tablet's gaming credentials are unmistakable, yet it would be remiss of us not to mention the device's strengths as an everyday tablet. Take away the controller and Gamestream, and you still have one of the quickest Android tablets on the market, complete with 2GB of memory, excellent stereo speakers, a very handy stylus, dual 5MP cameras, expandable storage and solid build quality throughout. A higher-res display would have been preferred, but from a hardware perspective Shield Tablet ticks a lot of boxes at the $299 price point.

Nvidia has built a tablet that's undoubtedly strong on various fronts, however there's one crucial piece of the puzzle that's still missing: high-quality Android games. As it stands, Shield Tablet is a device with promise, but it needs developers to harness the power of Tegra K1 to deliver a truly outstanding games-playing experience.

Bottom line: for PC gamers in the market for an Android portable, Shield Tablet makes a lot of sense. For everyone else, it may pay to wait for the software ecosystem to catch up.

Reading the full reviews you will see a few mixed messages in there. However, for the most part everyone agrees that the NVIDIA SHIELD was a strong performer and not likely to disappoint and gamers or geeks that buck up for the purchase. It most certainly caught or eye and earns many kudos to being a very strong fist production unit. If this is a sign of things to come from NVIDIA then gamers should hold on to their seats because we might be in for a wicked fun ride!

NVIDIA SHIELD Tablet Makes Official Debut

Following lots of rumors and speculation, NVIDIA has finally taken the wraps off the company's much anticipated gaming tablet dubbed NVIDIA SHIELD. The new 8-inch gaming tablet will be powered by Android and feature plenty of power and performance thanks to a solid set of specs!

At the heart of the beast is NVIDIA’s new mobile SoC, the NVIDIA Tegra K1, which features the same Kepler graphics cores NVIDIA builds into their GeForce GTX graphics cards and Tesla supercomputer accelerators. The quad-core ARM chip features 192 CUDA cores with a 2.3GHz max clock speed. K1 supports a variety of APIs and features which include OpenGL ES 3.1, AEP, OpenlGL 4.4, DX12, Tessellation, CUDA 6.0. Nvidia claims that the K1 can do all of this while consuming less than two watts of power.

For exceptional video and sound the SHIELD will feature an 8 inch 1900x1200 IPS display and front facing speakers with NVIDIA PureAudio technology and dual-bass reflex ports into the tablet to deliver great sound.

"If you're a gamer and you use a tablet, the NVIDIA SHIELD tablet was created specifically for you," said Jen-Hsun Huang, NVIDIA's co-founder and chief executive officer. "It delivers exceptional tablet performance and unique gaming capabilities to keep even the most avid gamers deeply immersed, anywhere they play."

Since the shield offers a full Android experience users will have access to the thousands of Android games currently available on Google Play. However, the games don't stop there. NVIDIA says there are now more than 400 SHIELD-optimized games available through the SHIELD Hub, as well as 11 specially optimized games for Tegra K1.


Additional features of the SHIELD tablet include what NVIDIA says are a range of firsts for a tablet:

• PC Streaming: First to stream games from a PC desktop or notebook using NVIDIA GameStream technology, which streams from NVIDIA GeForce GTX- powered GPUs.
• NVIDIA GRID Cloud Streaming: First to stream PC games from NVIDIA GRID. Gamers can access the GRID cloud gaming beta, available exclusively to SHIELD owners in Northern California, to instantly stream a library of high-quality PC games, and then save them in the cloud.
• Twitch and NVIDIA ShadowPlay: First to feature ShadowPlay, an advanced game-capture tool that lets users save and stream their greatest gaming moments to Twitch, the leading video platform and community for gamers. Gamers can stream titles from the SHIELD tablet to friends and foes worldwide. SHIELD tablet also includes a 5MP front camera to enhance the image of the gamer overlaid on the Twitch gamecast.
• Console Mode: First to feature NVIDIA Console Mode, which takes tablet gameplay to big-screen TVs. Console Mode transforms the device into a full living-room gaming and entertainment experience. Gamers can connect their SHIELD wireless controller, sit back on the couch and play PC and Android games, browse the web, and watch their favorite movies -- all in native 1080p HD.

Pricing, Availability and AccessoriesThe SHIELD tablet comes with either Wi-Fi connectivity, or Wi-Fi and LTE. It's available in 16- and 32GB, with MicroSD support (up to 128GB), starting at $299. The SHIELD wireless controller retails for $59. The SHIELD tablet cover retails for $39.

The SHIELD tablet, wireless controller and tablet cover are now available for preorder in the United States, Canada and select European countries. Preorders in the United States are available at shield.nvidia.com, Amazon, Best Buy, Fry's Electronics, GameStop, Micro Center, Newegg and Tiger Direct, and in Canada at Canada Computers, Memory Express, NCIX and ThinkGeek. Preorders in Europe are available at many top e-tailers.
The full list of resellers and further information, including product specifications, are available at http://shield.nvidia.com/.

Source: NVIDIA

Nvidia Announces $3k Dual-GPU GeForce Titan Z

Looking to build the ultimate gaming powerhouse? If money is no object then Nvidia might have just announced the card for you!

Announced today at the GPU Technology Conference (GTC), the new Dual-GPU GeForce Titan Z packs two GK110 chips which translates into a mind bending 5,760 CUDA cores and 12GB of memory for 8 TeraFLOPS of performance. Nvidia says unlike traditional dual-GPU cards, Titan Z’s twin GPUs are tuned to run at the same clock speed, and with dynamic power balancing. So neither GPU creates a performance bottleneck.

"If you’re in desperate need of a supercomputer that you need to fit under your desk, we have just the card for you," Jen-Hsun stated in a blog post.

Given the hefty price tag it is unlikely that the Titan Z is aimed gaming and is more geared towards high-end computing and most likely Bitcoin style farming. Those few gamers that can afford it however might want to throw it into a screaming desktop gaming machine and for those Huang showed a demo from Epic Games which was built with Unreal Engine 4.

Other than the monstrous $2,999 price tag and an April release date, few other GeForce Titan Z specifications or details are known at this time.

NVIDIA Shield Gaming Console Gets Official At $349

NVIDIA has finally taken the wraps off their new Android gaming console know as Project SHIELD. The gaming device was revealed at CES and took many by surprise, but today NVIDIA’s released all the details you've been waiting for.

Before today all we knew about Project SHIELD was that it was coming soon, and it would rock a quad-core NVIDIA Tegra 4 processor. But the full array of details weren’t yet know until earlier today.

For $349 here’s what you’ll get:

• Tegra 4 – The world’s fastest mobile processor delivers rich graphics and unbeatable performance thanks to 72 GPU cores, four CPU cores and 2GB of RAM
• Console-grade controller – Precise control thanks to dual analog joysticks, a full-sized D-Pad, left and right analog triggers, full-sized bumpers and A/B/X/Y buttons
• Multi-touch display – 5-inch, 720p retinal multi-touch display for high-fidelity visuals
• Integrated speakers – Custom, bass reflex, tuned port audio system – we think this is SHIELD’s sleeper feature
• Wi-Fi – 802.11n 2X2 MIMO game-speed Wi-Fi for game streaming
• Pure Android – Latest Android Jelly Bean operating system from Google, for access to Android games and apps
• There’s more – We put into SHIELD everything we would want in a premium mobile gaming device: 16 GB memory, GPS, Bluetooth 3.0, a mini-HDMI output, micro-USB 2.0, a microSD storage slot, a 3.5-mm stereo headphone jack. See the full spec sheet, here.

SHIELD runs on a completely stock from Google, version of Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and will come out of the box pre-loaded with NVIDIA’s TegraZone for a suite of Tegra-optimized games that will make the experience top notch. As well as two free games for those who pre-order. You’ll get Sonic The Hedgehog 4 Episode II, and Expendable: Rearmed absolutely free. This means you can connect to your Google Play account to enjoy your favorite games as well as movies, music and apps. NVIDIA plans to add NVIDIA GRID and Geforce streaming support, which will give SHIELD the power to access your NVIDIA GeForce GTX GPU-powered computer and boost the consoles gaming power through the use of grid computing. There are also plans to add streaming of your favorite PC games to SHIELD, including great titles from Steam.

NVIDIA also has a few accessories they’ll also be offering. A dedicated hard carrying case will be available for $39.99 that will offer charging while in the case via micro-USB, then they’ll have some lid covers. The aluminum silver trim when the device is closed (as pictured below) will be customizable with a gloss black, and carbon fiber lid options starting at $19.99. We can expect some custom engraved gaming versions and more coming soon too.

Project SHIELD will begin shipping in June for $349 and will be available at NVIDIA’s online store, Newegg, Gamestop and Microcenter. Pre-orders will go live on May 20^th from the partners listed above, and on shield.nvidia.com.

Source: NVIDIA

NVIDIA launches GeForce 650 Ti With $150 Assassins Creed 3 Bundle

NVIDIA has announced the new GeForce 650 Ti, a beefier version of the company's GTX 650 with extra Cuda cores and up to 40 percent more performance than the regular 650. That new card will fill the gap between the $229 GeForce GTX 660 and $109 GTX 650 cards and run $149 (estimated), with a free copy of Assassin Creed III.

The Assassin's Creed 3 bundle offering won't be offered with every version of the GTX 650 Ti, so you need to check that the card you're buying includes a download coupon for the game. A quick check on Newegg showed versions of the GTX 650 Ti from Asus, EVGA, Gigabyte, MSI, and Zotac all included the Assassin's Creed 3 bundle. Prices on Newegg started at $155.

GeForce GTX 650 Ti Specifications

Specifications	GeForce GTX 660 Ti	GeForce GTX 660	GeForce GTX 650 Ti	GeForce GTX 650
Chip	GK104	GK106	GK106	GK107
CUDA Cores	1344	960	768	384
TMUs	112	80	64	32
ROPs	24	24	16	16
Base Clock	915 MHz	980 MHz	925 MHz	1058 MHz
Boost Clock	980 MHz	1033 MHz	N/A	N/A
Memory Configuration	2 GB	2 GB	1 GB	1 GB
Memory Speed	6.0 Gbps	6.0 Gbps	5.4 Gbps	5.0 Gbps
Memory Bandwidth	144 GB/s	144 GB/s	86 GB/s	80 GB/s
Power Connectors	2 x 6-pin	6-pin	6-pin	6-pin
Price	$299	$229	$149 (estimated)	$109

GeForce GTX 650 Ti Benchmarks and Reviews

• Tom's Hardware - Gigabyt GeForce GTX 650 Ti Review: Nvidia's Last Graphics Card For 2012
• TechSpot - Nvidia GeForce GTX 650 Ti Review
• Hot Hardware - NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 Ti Round-Up: EVGA, ZOTAC, GigaByte
• AnandTech - The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 Ti Review, Feat. Gigabyte, Zotac, & EVGA
• Legit Reviews - NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 Ti Video Card Review w/ MSI and EVGA
• OverClockers Club - NVIDIA Geforce GTX 650 Ti Review - Overclockers Club

Related articles:

• ASUS Releases Two GeForce GTX 650 Ti DirectCU II Graphics Cards
• Announcing the EVGA GeForce GTX 650 Ti!
• Introducing the SPARKLE GTX650Ti
• KFA2 Debuts the GeForce GTX 650 TI EX OC 
• ZOTAC Completes GeForce Kepler Lineup With GeForce GTX 650 Ti

NVIDIA Introduces New GeForce GTX 660 and GeForce GTX 650 Series

NVIDIA today announced two new mainstream GPUs based a variant of the company's Kepler architecture. Which according to NVIDIA offers consumers some of the world's fastest and most efficient high performance computing (HPC) GPUs. NVIDIA promises it will deliver impressive gains in terms of power and performance for desktops and laptops alike.

NVIDIA has already launched several GPUs in the GeForce 600 Series which are all based on the Kepler designed chips. Today's announcement fills the gap between the budget friendly GT 600 series and the enthusiast level GTX 660 Ti and NVIDIA's high-end cards the GTX 670, GTX 680, GTX 690.

GeForce GTX 660 and GeForce GTX 650 Specifications

	GTX 660 Ti	GTX 660	GTX 650	GT 640
Stream Processors	1344	960	384	384
Texture Units	112	80	32	32
ROPs	24	24	16	16
Core Clock	915MHz	980MHz	1058MHz	900MHz
Shader Clock	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Boost Clock	980MHz	1033MHz	N/A	N/A
Memory Clock	6.008GHz GDDR5	6.008GHz GDDR5	5GHz GDDR5	1.782GHz DDR3
Memory Bus Width	192-bit	192-bit	128-bit	128-bit
VRAM	2GB	2GB	1GB/2GB	2GB
FP64	1/24 FP32	1/24 FP32	1/24 FP32	1/24 FP32
TDP	150W	140W	64W	65W
GPU	GK104	GK106	GK107	GK107
Transistor Count	3.5B	2.54B	1.3B	1.3B
Manufacturing Process	TSMC 28nm	TSMC 28nm	TSMC 28nm	TSMC 28nm
Launch Price	$299	$229	$109	$99

Looking at the early benchmarks and reviews its easy to see these cards perform about as well as to be expected. That is to say there aren't any major surprises one way or the other. They were built to fill a gap in NVIDIA's line-up and compete with some of the lower cost options from AMD and they seem to do that fairly well. This is by no means a bad thing, it simply means that this is just an everyday product launch.

GeForce GTX 660 and GeForce GTX 650 Benchmarks and Reviews:

• AnandTech - The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 Review: GK106 Fills Out The Kepler Family
• FudZilla - Nvidia GTX 660 2GB goes against HD 7870
• TweakTown - NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 660 2GB Reference Video Card Review
• Guru3D - KFA2 GeForce GTX 660 EX OC review
• TechSpot - Nvidia GeForce GTX 660 Review
• Tom's Hardware - Nvidia GeForce GTX 650 And 660 Review: Kepler At $110 And $230

Read More:

• ZOTAC Introduces New GeForce GTX 660 and GeForce GTX 650 Series
• Kepler For Every Gamer: Meet The New GeForce GTX 660 & 650
• Announcing the EVGA GeForce GTX 650! | Announcing the EVGA GeForce GTX 660!
•  GALAXY Launches the GeForce GTX 650 GC 1GB | GALAXY Launches the GeForce GTX 660 GC 2GB
• Introducing the Club 3D GeForce GTX 650 | Introducing the Club 3D GeForce GTX 660
• Double Impact with Inno3D GeForce GTX660 & GTX650!

NVIDIA Introduces New GeForce GTX 560 GPU

NVIDIA today introduced the new mainstream GeForce GTX 560 GPU, yes that is 560 and not the GeForce GTX 560 Ti which was released earlier this year. The new lower priced GTX 560 is the latest addition to the company's Fermi architecture-based product family and comes in priced at about $199 or $50 less than the GTX 560 Ti. Meaning the card is situated between the GeForce GTX 460 and GeForce GTX 560 Ti in terms of price and performance.

GeForce GTX 560 Specifications

• 1024MB GDDR5 Memory
• 810-950 MHz Graphics Clock
• 1620-1900 MHz Processors Clock
• 4008 MHz Memory Data Rate
• 56 Texture Units
• 336 Cuda Cores
• 256-bit wide memory interface
• 150w TDP
• Support for Direct X 11, Open GL 4.1, 3D Vision, Cuda PhysX and 2 way SLI

GeForce GTX 560 Benchmarks and Reviews

• NeoSeeker - Gigabyte & MSI GeForce GTX 560 Launch Review
• Guru3d - Palit GeForce GTX 560 Sonic Platinum review
• Guru3d - MSI GeForce GTX 560 Twin Frozer II review
• Bit-Tech - Zotac GeForce GTX 560 1GB Amp! Review
• Hot Hardware - NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Debuts: ASUS and MSI
• OCC - Gigabyte GTX 560 OC Review
• AnandTech - NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 560: The Top To Bottom Factory Overclock

For an in-depth look at the GTX 560, and to view a special video with footage from this summer's hottest PC games of the year, please visit: http://www.geforce.com/#/News/articles/560-game-previews/.

Related Articles

• ZOTAC Unveils New GeForce GTX 560 Series
• Palit GeForce GTX 560 Series
• SPARKLE Debuts GeForce GTX 560 Graphics Cards
• MSI Unveils the N560GTX Twin Frozr II Series Graphics Card
• EVGA Introduces The GeForce GTX 560

MSI N560GTX-Ti Hawk – How fast is it?

The following is a guest post by Andy G of http://www.bravofiles.com/ which features a great collection of hardware device drivers and software.

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Introduction
MSI had great success with the R6870 Hawk powered by AMB and now with the launch of the card, which is fueled with an Nvidia GTX Ti GPU; they hope to fly even higher than before. It has the makings of being the best MSI has in regards to graphic solutions ever. Containing military class II components and MSI claims it will deliver the best performance and stability. Also containing MSI Afterburner functionality and Triple Over-voltage Support, which allows for intrinsic level of tweaking and completely beefed-up power delivery?

Speed
The N560GTX-Ti Hawk has 950mhZ on its GPU, 1900khZ on its shader and an effective 4,200mhZ for its memory of 1,024MB GDDR5. MSI is extremely confidant that with the cooling systems abilities, the card will be able to have clock speed in excess of 1GHz, without any problems. It contains the revolutionary new Twin Frozr III cooling system.

Features
It features the unique technology of Propeller blade, which is exclusive to MSI, which delivers airflow of up to twenty present more as oppose to conventional fans as well as reducing GPU temperatures with 17 degrees. Also featuring the PWM design is an 8+1, which effectively doubles power for the GPU. The graphics card, combined with the Triple Over-voltage technology greatly improves the potential over-clocking of the card. Over-clockers can use the Afterburner over-clocking utility, easily monitor the condition of their cards, and thus simplify over-clocking processes. It will allow the most demanding users to monitor Memory, GPU and PLL voltages at voltage measurement points with added multi-meters. Over-clockers should really invest in this latest innovation of MSI.

The Military Class II components include Tantalum capacitors with over eight times the lifetime as opposed to solid capacitors. Thirty present more powers are gained from the SFC choke and ten-year life service is guaranteed from the solid-cap capacitors. The choice to use these components is only to further the stability of the card and to ensure the highest quality as extreme over-clocking potential. MSI has their unique P/S switches, which allows consumers to change speed of dual fans in regards to their own usage environment and preference. Different performance modes will let the GPU temperature stay low even during high loads, which will enhance performance. The silent mode of the graphics card balances the fan noise using thermal management when used for multimedia or during games. The APS helps saving power by automatically controlling usage of PWM with the enhanced design.

Conclusion
Currently it will be the fastest as well as best GTX560 Ti graphics card available in the industry and sells at $272.00. Competitors will have to really dig deep to go better on this new innovation although the only complaint against it is the fact that it is only 1GB and consumers wish they could see it at 2GB. The installation of the card is made simple with a driver download of Nvidia graphics drivers where you will find products and drivers for MSI products and then follow online instructions to install.

AMD Challenging NVIDIA's World's Fastest GPU Claims

Laying out bold claims like "world's fastest" is nothing new and by now we should all be use to the marketing schemes that companies use to pry our money out of our hands. Savy consumers should know to wait for reviews, benchmarks and thorough testing before they jump on the band-wagon just because a company claims the top dog title.

This week, however, AMD has decided it wants to challenge the claims Nvidia is making about its latest graphics card, the GTX 590. When AMD launched the Radeon HD 6990, the company of course laid claims to the title of the fastest card on the market. The company even showed the card scored highest ever score using 3DMark 11 benchmark. Fast forward to a few days ago, when NVIDIA released the GTX 590, and NVIDIA is now claiming the fastest card title, but has not released any test scores to back that claim up.

Now AMD wants proof, and has challenged NVIDIA to prove its claim as to the title of fastest graphics card on the market. In a recent blog post Dave Erskine the Senior Public Relations Manager for Graphics Desktop at AMD threw out the challenge:

We combed through their announcement to understand how it was that such a claim could be made and why there was no substantiation based on industry-standard benchmarks, similar to what AMD did with industry benchmark 3DMark 11, the latest DirectX® 11 benchmark from FutureMark.  

So now I issue a challenge to our competitor: prove it, don’t just say it. Show us the substantiation. Because as it stands today, leading reviewers agree with us here, here, here, and here that the AMD Radeon HD 6990 sits on the top as the world’s fastest graphics card.

The gauntlet has been thrown down, it'll be interesting to see how (or if) NVIDIA responds. We know this is really just a war of the words between two rivals but I think its going to be fun to see how it plays out.

NVIDIA Announces The New 'World's Fastest' Dual GPU GeForce GTX 590

As teased yesterday by NVIDIA today the company announced the new NVIDIA GeForce GTX 590.

The new high end, meaning very expensive and extra powerful, GTX 590 is designed for the über enthusiasts and those looking to build the ultimate PC gaming rig. With dual NVIDIA Fermi class GPUs the card is taughted by NVIDIA as the "fastest dual graphics card available today."

With a combined 1024 NVIDIA CUDA architecture cores, 3GB of GDDR5 memory, 6 billion transistors and over 2200 individual components all packed into an 11 inch dual slot card, the GTX 590 delivers a staggering 32 tessellation engines that can power today's cutting edge DX11 games at resolutions of 2560x1600 and higher. The core is clocked at 607 MHz, the shaders are clocked at 1214 MHz, and the memory is clocked at 853 MHz for a memory data clock rate of 3414 MHz. This gives you a total effective memory bandwidth of 327.7 GB/s and a texture fill rate of 7.7 GigaTexels/s.

All that power means the GTX 590 is a bit of a power hungry beast, which should be expected. It has a Thermal Design Power (TDP) of 365 Watts pushing the recommended PSU rating to 700watts.


NVIDIA GeForce GTX 590 Benchmarks and Reviews

• Anandtech - NVIDIA’s GeForce GTX 590: Duking It Out For The Single Card King
• BenchmarkReviews - NVIDIA GeForce GTX 590 Gemini Video Card
• Bjorn3D -  Nvidia GeForce GTX 590: The Dual-GF110 Beast
• Hardware Canucks - NVIDIA GeForce GTX 590 3GB Review
• HardwareHeaven - ASUS NVIDIA GeForce GTX 590 Graphics Card Launch Review
• Hard OCP - ASUS GeForce GTX 590 Video Card Review
• HiTech Legion -  EVGA GeForce GTX 590 Classified Dual Graphics DirectX 11 Video Card Review
• HotHardware - NVIDIA GeForce GTX 590: Dual GF110s, One PCB
• InsideHW - GeForce GTX 590 vs Radeon HD 6990: You Want The Best?
• Legit Reviews - ASUS GeForce GTX 590 3GB Video Card Review
• OCC -  NVIDIA GTX 590 Review
• PCPerspective - NVIDIA GeForce GTX 590 3GB Dual-GPU Fermi Graphics Card Review
• TechReport - Nvidia's GeForce GTX 590 graphics card
• TechSpot - Nvidia GeForce GTX 590 Review: Dual-GPU Wars
• Tom's Hardware - Nvidia GeForce GTX 590 3 GB Review: Firing Back With 1024 CUDA Cores
• TweakTown - ASUS GeForce GTX 590 3GB Video Card Review
• X-Bit Labs - Equilibrium: AMD Radeon HD 6990 vs. Nvidia GeForce GTX 590

Related Articles

• ZOTAC Announces GeForce GTX 590, Fastest DirectX 11 Graphics Card
• ASUS Releases its Dual-GPU GeForce GTX 590 with VoltageTweak
• Point of View Doubles Performance with Dual-GPU GeForce GTX 590
• GigaByte Monster GTX 590 Graphics Card
• Announcing the EVGA GTX 590 Classified!
• MSI launches the fastest graphics card – N590GTX-P3D3GD5 

Newegg Pricing

• EVGA GTX 590 CLASSIFIED Limited Edition - $729
• ASUS ENGTX590/3DIS/3GD5 GeForce GTX 590 (Fermi) - $699

NVIDIA Teaser Video Promises Big Things Tomorrow

NVIDIA is trying to build a little hype for tomorrow's release of their "next generation" graphics card. What may it be you ask well unless that have something totally shocking that no one has heard rumors of its the new Nvidia Geforce GTX 590 dual-GPU card. The card has been delayed a few times but speculations says it should be releasing tomorrow.

The GTX 590 combines two of NVIDIA's massive GF110 GPUs on one package menaing the GTX 590 is essentially a down-clocked GTX 580 SLI setup compacted into a single dual height card. The GTX 590 packs 1024 CUDA processors, 128 texturing units, 96 ROP units as well as dual 384-bit memory buses with the clock speeds set as 612 MHz for the core and 3420 MHz for the 3GB GDDR5.

Pricing is expected to be $699. We'll have more details of the release, final specs and benchmarks as they are released tomorrow.