Nvidia Computex 2022 keynote recap: AI, networking and new DLSS games

Welcome back, computer heads! I'm John Loeffler, TechRadar's US Computing Editor,  bringing you all the latest from Day One of Computex 2022. We're about 50 minutes out from the Nvidia Computex 2022 Keynote, and it'll be interesting to see what Team Green has on tap for us this year.

With all the rumors about Lovelace getting ready for a reveal, will we hear much about it in tonight's keynote? If not, does that mean that Lovelace is a long way off? Right around the corner? Tell us, Jensen!

There's bound to be a lot of really techie cloud computing stuff and who knows, even something about Driver Assist or, Lord help us, self-driving cars. That out to get out resident Car Guy, John McCann excited, but maybe not. He likes to drive, so I don't know how he'll take that. 

In any case, let's dive into who we actually expect to see in this year's Nvidia Computex 2022 Keynote!

What does it mean if we don't see Lovelace tonight?

That is a very good question, and one that's bound to be on everyone's mind right about now. Honestly, don't expect a reveal. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang isn't actually giving the keynote, according to Nvidia's website, and if anyone was going to show off Nvidia's next-gen graphics cards, it would be Jensen.

That said, the very last speaker of the keynote is Jeff Fisher, Senior Vice President of GeForce at Nvidia, who has done graphics card reveals in the past, specifically variants like the Nvidia Geforece RTX 3090 Ti. 

Does that mean we're getting Ampere Supers or something similar? Definitely possible, but we've heard much about an RTX 3080 Super or RTX 3070 Super since last year, and even then it was rumors and speculation. That has largely died down more recently as talk of Nvidia Lovelace ramped up.

If Nvidia is planning a Lovelace launch as early as July, releasing a Super variant of an existing Ampere card doesn't make much sense. Still, if Lovelace is set more towards the end of Q3 2022 (i.e., September) that would put it about two years after Ampere launched, which both fits the cadence and means that there's a small hole to fill in the meantime that Super variants could fill.

Apropos of nothing, if you haven't given Raft a look, the game is exquisite. The soundtrack alone got me through the Pandemic, honestly, and I've been thinking about it quite a bit lately for an upcoming piece. Well worth giving a look if you're into survival games.

We're expecting to see a lot of data center and advanced computing stuff at the beginning of this keynote given the speaker's roster, so the early part of the keynote might be a tad dry for those who are just hoping to see some next-gen graphics cards. 

For those of us who dig computer architecture stuff, though, well...talk machine learning to me, Nvidia!

Ok, here we go folks.

This keynote already has more personality than AMD's.

The mimoji Jensen was adorable, honestly.

H100 definitely looks impressive.

Grace Superchips? Sounds like interconnected chips like Apple M1 Ultra are going to be more and more common for high-end computing. Take that Moore's Law!

Cloud gaming is the future, it looks like. Which makes sense. It's a more efficient use of semiconductors, since if you're not playing games on that fancy pants GPU, letting someone else use it is a better use of scarce silicon.

And silicon is going to get even more scarce in the years ahead, 1000%.

IT Nerds, this is your keynote. Enjoy it, you won't see another like this one all year.

AI Factories: All your chips are belong to us!

Gamers: What you say!?

AI Factories: You have no chance for the game, make your time. Ha Ha Ha!

Is there even enough silicon in the Earth's crust for all this AI?

Robots: All your chips are belong to us!

AI Factories: What you say!?

The Singularity is going to be so weird, and on wheels.

Ok, but can Jetson play Crisis?

In case you're wondering why AIs are going to need exponentially more resources than we have readily available, every variable added to a calculation – should I, as a robot, turn right? What objects are in my way? Every object is a variable to consider in this case – doubles the complexity of the calculation. Humans have millions of years of evolution to streamline these decision-making tasks, so we make them intuitively.

For computers to do it, we have to code all those decisions, and we've only really been at it for about 70 year at most, and nothing is intuitive with a machine.

Ok, gaming! Let's gooooooo!

Ray-tracing is nice, but AI is the real game-changer. DLSS is the most transformative gaming tech of the past decade, 100%.

Well, Nvidia has certainly earned the right to do a victory lap with Ampere. 

Oooh, Hitman III is getting ray-tracing? Excellent!

Nvidia is really bullish on Reflex. I'm not sure how Reflex helps in Icarus though.

500Hz refresh? Can the eye even see the difference between 240Hz and 500Hz?

Sometimes, I wonder if we're going to look back at this era with all its technological promises the same way we look back at early 20th century futurism.

Machinima really rolls off the tongue like a AA battery.

And that's a wrap.

Well, no Lovelace, which isn't surprising, but wow, that was a lot of AI and cloud services. Cloud computing is the fastest growing sector of the market by a long stretch, so it makes sense. After watching the AMD and Nvidia Computex 2022 Keynote back to back, it is really remarkable how AMD is just not in that space at all, while Nvidia honestly treated gaming as a bit of an afterthought in this keynote.

Well, there are some highlights for gamers, mostly in the software category with Ray Tracing, DLSS support, and Nvidia Reflex coming to a number of games, including Hitman III, which I will certainly be trying out tomorrow.

The 500Hz gaming monitor really is pushing the bounds of what is even necessary when it comes to competitive esports. If you can't no scope someone across a map at 360Hz, that extra 140Hz isn't going to get you the win. Then, of course, what do I know. I'm in that bottom 25% of the accuracy chart during the Reflex segment.

This was all about AI and cloud computing though, which is really interesting as a glimpse at the future, but I also can't help but see it as "The World of Tomorrow!" kind of kitsch, almost how Fallout sees the world in 2076 – full of Mr. Handys, self-driving cars, and sunny-eyed optimism that papers over a more overcast reality, but that's for a later op-ed I'm sure.

It's not even Memorial Day here in the States, so we've got plenty of year left for Nvidia to dazzle us some more with some actual next-gen products, and we here at TechRadar will be sure to bring them all to you as we see them.

For now, that's all from me here in New York. Have a good night folks. Be kind to one another.