NVIDIA announces GeForce GTX 580M and 570M, availability in the Alienware M18x and MSI GT780R

We know you’re going to be shocked — shocked! — to hear this, but NVIDIA’s gone and refreshed its high-end line of GeForce GTX cards. The GTX 580M takes the place of the GTX 485M, and NVIDIA’s bragging that it’s the “fastest notebook GPU ever,” capable, we’re told, of besting the Radeon HD 6970M’s tesselation performance by a factor of six. The new GTX 570M, meanwhile, promises a 20 percent speed boost over the last-generation 470M. Both 40-nanometer cards support DirectX11, OpenCL, PhysX, CUDA, 3D Vision, Verde drivers, Optimus, SLI, and 3DTV Play. As for battery life, NVIDIA’s saying that when coupled with its Optimus graphics switching technology, the 580M can last through five hours of Facebook, but last we checked, that’s not why y’all are shelling out thousands for beastly gaming rigs. You can find the 580M in the Alienware M17X and M18X (pictured) starting today, though you might have to wait a week or so for them to ship. Meanwhile, the 570M is shipping in the MSI GT780R as you read this, and you’ll also find the 580M in a pair of 3D-capable Clevo laptops: the P170HM3 and the SLI-equipped P270WN. Handy chart full ‘o technical details after the break.

 

Dell kills Alienware M15x, government denies it ever existed

This is sort of the gaming laptop version of a politician stepping down to spend more time with his family. We’ve confirmed with Alienware today that the M15x system is no longer available — the company has opted to focus its efforts on the rest of its line of glowing extraterrestrial gaming laptops. After all, while the 15-inch form factor will no doubt be missed by some, devoted gamers should be able to find solace in the arms of, say, an M11x, M14x, M17x, or M18x. It may be gone from sight, but surely grainy teardown footage from a New Mexico bunker can’t be far away.