NVIDIA brings GeForce RTX 40 graphics to laptops

It didn’t take long for NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 40 graphics to reach portable PCs. The company has introduced RTX 40 GPUs for laptops that promise large leaps in performance, even in lower-end systems. The flagship RTX 4080 and 4090 GPUs are reportedly powerful enough to play games across three 4K monitors at 60 frames per second — you might not need a desktop to immerse yourself in a flight or racing sim.

Even the mainstream GeForce RTX 4050, 4060 and 4070 chips are billed as faster than the outgoing RTX 3080. They’re quick enough to deliver 1440p gaming at up to 80FPS, and are supposedly up to twice as fast as a PlayStation 5. They also make it more practical to handle pro tasks like 3D modelling and AI-based media editing on 14-inch laptops, according to NVIDIA.

The RTX 40 architecture is notoriously power-hungry on desktops, but NVIDIA claims it’s keeping energy efficiency in check with the laptop variants. DLSS 3 AI upscaling is now optimized for mobile use, while finer-grained “tri-speed” memory control lets the GPU drop to lower-power RAM states. On-chip memory tweaks(such as doubled bandwidth) and low-voltage GDDR6 RAM also help wring the most out of the video hardware.

You’ll have to wait a little while to buy a laptop with GeForce RTX 40 tech. The first RTX 4080 and 4090 models will be available February 8th at a starting price of $1,999. If you want an RTX 4050 machine, you can buy them beginning February 22nd with an entry price of $999. NVIDIA didn’t provide a full list of laptops, but you can expect adoption from well-known brands like Acer, Alienware, ASUS, Dell, Gigabyte, HP, Lenovo, MSI, Razer and Samsung. It’s too soon to say if the GPUs live up to NVIDIA’s billing, but they’ll be welcome updates if you were already eying RTX 30-based computers.

NVIDIA’s GeForce Now game streaming is coming to cars

You’ll soon have access to a host of PC games in your car without buying a Tesla. NVIDIA has announced that it’s bringing GeForce Now game streaming to cars using the company’s Drive platform. The rollout will offer access to titles like Cyberpunk 2077 on a driver display while you’re charging or parked, or any time from the backseat. That could be more than a little helpful on a vacation, especially if you’d rather not buy a Steam Deck or Switch for a budding young gamer.

The cloud gaming option already has initial support from major brands like the Hyundai group (including Genesis and Kia), Polestar and China’s BYD. NVIDIA didn’t offer a timeframe for GeForce Now access, although it noted that BYD would offer Drive Hyperion-powered cars in the first half of 2023. The Polestar 3 SUV (built using Drive Orin) arrives in late 2023.

The in-car GeForce Now client works on either Android or web-based infotainment systems. NVIDIA’s service provides a catalog of 1,500 games, over 1,000 of which are playable using gamepads. While most of the selection is paid, there are free-to-play options like Destiny 2 and Fortnite.

As with other game streaming services, this could get costly if you plan to use it often. While basic GeForce Now use is free, you can pay up to $200 per year for the full experience before you factor in the cost of the games themselves. In some cases, though, this might make more sense than buying a handheld console or tablet. You only need to pay for a higher-end plan when you expect to use it, after all — you could subscribe during a road trip and stick to free usage when you’re commuting around town.

NVIDIA unveils the $799 RTX 4070 Ti

The rumors were true: NVIDIA finally unveiled its latest mid-range GPU, the RTX 4070 Ti. Starting at $799, it’s meant to be a slightly more reasonable alternative to NVIDIA’s $1,199 RTX 4090 and $1,599 4090. But yes, it’s still pretty costly — gone are the days when “mid-range” video cards were below $500. For the price, though you get a GPU that can play Cyberpunk 2077 three times as fast as the RTX 3090 Ti in Ray Tracing Overdrive mode (according to NVIDIA, at least).

While the RTX 4080 and 4090 Ti are targeted at 4K gaming, NVIDIA is positioning the RTX 4070 Ti as the pinnacle of 1,440p gaming beyond 120fps. DLSS 3 is a big reason for that — just like with the other 4000-series cards, it uses machine learning to generate entire frames, rather than the pixels DLSS 2 created. That means it should be able to deliver better overall framerates, especially when it comes to CPU-bound titles.

As the leaks foretold, the RTX 4070 Ti features 7,680 CUDA cores and 12GB of GDDR6X memory. In comparison, the 4080 sports 9,728 CUDA cores and 16GB of memory, while the 4090 has 16,384 CUDA cores and 24GB of RAM. Since it’s supposedly comparable to the 3090 Ti, you can expect the 4070 Ti to handle a bit of 4K gaming, especially with the help of DLSS 3. But really, it seems more like the card gamers with fast 1,440p monitors have been waiting for.

Surprisingly, NVIDIA didn’t spend much time on the 4070 Ti during its CES livestream, even though it will likely be the most popular 40-series GPU this year. If you’re looking for more of a bargain, NVIDIA’s 30-series GPUs are still fantastic and should start dipping in price soon. But for someone who wants the full power of NVIDIA’s Ada architecture, as well as DLSS 3, the 4070 Ti is the cheapest way in.

The RTX 4070 Ti will be available on January 5th, and you can expect to see a variety of options from different manufacturers.

South Korea fines Tesla $2.2 million over EV range disclosures

Tesla has suffered another blow after a South Korea regulator said it would fine the company 2.85 billion won ($2.24 million) for failing to disclose the shorter ranges of its electric vehicles in low temperatures. The Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) said that Tesla EV ranges drop by up to 50.5 percent in cold weather, compared with the ranges that the company stated online.

The antitrust agency claimed that Tesla exaggerated the ranges of its vehicles on a single charge, the performance of Superchargers and fuel cost effectiveness versus combustion engine vehicles, as Reuters reports. The KFTC said that Tesla did so on its South Korean website between August 2019 and recently.

Studies have shown that ranges for all EVs can drop significantly in colder weather, mainly because the battery that’s used to power those cars also heats the interior. Based on data from South Korea’s environment ministry, a local consumer group claimed in 2021 that the ranges of most EVs drop by up to 40 percent in cold weather. Tesla’s vehicles saw the biggest drop, according to Citizens United for Consumer Sovereignty. Tesla doesn’t have a communications department that can be reached for comment.

While the fine is a relatively small one, it’s more bad news for Tesla. The company said on Monday that it set a new quarterly record for EV deliveries in the last three months of 2022 with more than 405,000 (an increase of nearly 97,000 compared with a year earlier). However, analysts expected Tesla to deliver 418,000 EVs last quarter. By 10:30AM ET on Tuesday, Tesla’s stock had dropped by over 10 percent compared with Monday. The company’s share price has plummeted by 72 percent over the last 12 months.

Watch SpaceX’s first launch of the year take 114 satellites into orbit

SpaceX is gearing up to launch the Transporter-6 mission today, January 3rd, and is hoping that the Falcon 9 rocket taking it to space will begin making its way to low-Earth orbit by 9:56 AM ET. The Transporter-6 mission will take off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral in Florida using a first stage booster responsible for taking over a dozen other previous missions to orbit, including 10 Starlink launches. It’s the company’s first launch of the year and the latest in SpaceX’s series of dedicated rideshare Transporter missions.

Transporter-6 will take 114 payload to space. As NASA Spaceflight notes, those include tiny picosatellites only a few centimeters in size to microsatellites that weight around 200 pounds for both scientific institutions and commercial entities. One customer is EOS Data Analytics, which will launch the first satellite for its agriculture-focused constellation on this mission. A couple of companies is also launching space tugs, or spacecraft that can transfer cargo from one orbit to another, that will deploy payload for customers of their own at a later date. 

SpaceX will livestream the Transporter-6 launch on YouTube, with coverage starting 10 minutes before liftoff is expected to happen. You can watch the live webcast below:

Apple is raising the price of battery replacements for older iPhones on March 1st

You’ll want to act quickly if you’re considering a fresh battery for an aging iPhone. 9to5Mac has noticed that Apple is raising the price of battery replacements for pre-iPhone 14 models by $20 on March 1st. For notched iPhones (iPhone X through iPhone…