Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang's keynote speech on the first day of Computex wasn't the grand coming out party for its next generation GPU architecture, but it wasn't completely devoid of exciting gaming news today. While talking about Nvidia's range of GeForce products, from graphics cards to laptops and monitors, Huang announced that this year's show would be the debut for a new line of HDR G-Sync monitors. We got a quick look at a pair from Asus and Acer, originally announced back at CES in January, but Computex will hopefully bring fresh news on pricing and availability for both.
Huang didn't mention which companies would be showing monitors at Computex or how many we should expect, but we'll be on the lookout for them on the exhibition floor. This may well be the next big thing for gaming monitors, now that we have high refresh, high quality displays like the best gaming monitors. Last fall we wrote about what HDR meant for gaming, and why it was taking so long to arrive on PC. Looks like that time has finally come.
Nvidia also hyped up "Max-Q" design for the laptops that come with a GTX 1080, its new buzzword for thinner, lighter gaming laptops that grant them peak performance at the most efficient power levels. This isn't a new product, just a way of explaining why and how gaming laptops have gotten so much thinner in the past few years without sacrificing power, down to 18mm.
VR played a small role in the keynote, but nothing exciting. Huang talked about Project Holodeck, Nvidia's name for collaborative VR. Invoking Star Trek is a bold move for a VR initiative that doesn't seem far removed from the rest of VR as we know it: Project Holodeck uses HTC Vive headsets, and so far has been a way for Nvidia to partner up with other tech companies. At Computex, Huang had the founder of the Gogoro electric scooter startup on stage to talk about his design, while Nvidia employee avatars hovered around a 3D model of the scooter on screen behind them. We're more excited about the monitors.
