Nvidia announces the Titan X graphics processor, the most powerful GPU available

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SAN FRANCISCO — Nvidia smuggles in a treat during Epic’s press conference.

At Epic Games’ press conference during the 2015 Game Developers Conference this morning, Nvidia boss Jen-Hsun Huang interrupted Epic founder Tim Sweeney’s presentation and entered the back door with a wadded jacket under his arm. Inside that jacket was the very first Titan X GPU, something that Sweeney and his team have been asking about for a long time. The graphics hardware company’s CEO offered up the very first Titan X to Sweeney, marking it with his autograph.

Huang says that the Titan X is the most powerful GPU ever made, sporting 8 billion transistors and a massive 12GB frame buffer. What this means is that Epic and other companies have more muscle to use in the industry’s march toward photorealism and virtual reality.

This announcement from Nvidia ahead of its own event, the GPU Technology Conference, is a first and is odd, given that kicks off in two weeks. Huang joked that this year’s virtual reality-focused Game Developers Conference seemed to need his company’s new GPU and that he was there to save the event.

Epic Games showed a new, impressive real time-rendered technical demo that used its Unreal Engine 4 and this new Titan X. Unlike its past game-focused technical demos, this one was highly cinematic, featuring a child running through a lush forest while flying a kite.