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NVIDIA 6200 w/ TurboCache Released
duanep writes "Gamers Depot has posted a first look review at NVIDIA's just announced GeForce 6200 cards with TurboCache - the first graphics cards that truely take advantage of the PCI Express bus by using system RAM to store textures."
Here are some other reviews:
TechReport
AnandTech
HotHardware
Some of these make a little more sense because they benchmark the 6200TC against some of its direct competitors in the low end instead of against a mid range card.
I think Gamers Depot's conclusion is a bit off too. What's notable isn't that it is slower than enthusiast cards. Of course it is. What's surprising is how well it still runs the very newest games, despite the drawbacks associated with that pricing range.
Since the review posted in the blurb is about as informative as an NVIDIA press release, check out the review at Hexus. It's not Beyond3D, but it will do.
Covered on TheReg.
Not a Twitter sockpuppet... but I wish I was.
NVIDIA's just announced GeForce 6200 cards with TurboCache - the first graphics cards that truely take advantage of the PCI Express bus by using system RAM to store textures."
BZZT, WRONG. Here is the first PCI Express video card that stores textures in system memory.
(For that matter, 3Dlabs were the first to release an _AGP_ card that stored textures in system memory: anyone remember the Oxygen chip?)
This TurboCache thing is much beter than the original AGP texturing idea (that Intel used to push with their i740 chipsets).
Imagine that when texturing instead of using 128 bit bus to the on-card memory - the card now uses a 128 bit bus to the on-card memory PLUS(!!!) another 128 bit bus to the local memory thus giving you higher bandwidth for the same cost.
Of course this can be used to boost a bit the speed of cards with crippled (slow, 64 bit) memory bus, but in the end - you get what you paid for.
Agreed for the most part, but they are a necessary evil, even for /.'ers. A case in point is last night, when I installed a new PS in my box - during the course of this, I somehow nubbed a connection on my Jet 4, making the fan go as slow as it possibly can (less than 2K RPM according to MBM). This made the CPU heat spike up to 60 C under load. My wife, bless her heart, asked me if I could take the CPU heatsink out of an 1.2 GHz P4 box that I have and use that on the 3 GHz HT box. I explained to her that this would be throwing an ice cube onto a fire, and started to check the wiring from the fan switch to the heatsink. I can't see anything pulled, frayed, etc, but it wants to run at a snail's pace, so I am left with a few options here:
1) Forego WoW, Desert Combat, using iTunes to update my iPod, or any other task tht will make the CPU run at 100% or close to it (this is regrettably not an option)
2) Go to newegg and get a replacement one there, pay for expedited shipping, and hope that they ship it today, so I get it tomorrow. Christmas is always more of a diceroll to get something reliably out the door. Last time I used newegg a month ago, they had a problem with their warehouse shipping system and orders were backed up for 6 days. I love these guys, but now can't stake my kids' lives on them shipping the same day as placing the order, especially with 5 shipping days till ho ho ho time.
3. Go to CrapUSA and get one there.
Places like this are good in a pinch, assuming you know exactly what you want and don't need to ask a single question. Once you open your mouth, you are doomed. I found one there online that should get me by without actively cooking my processor (yeah I know they should shut themselves down if they get too hot, but does any rational person want to bet on that?), or cringing every time I enter Azeroth with the thought that I am causing hidden damage to my shiny new P4. So in short, I reserved one, and will pick it up on the way to our company holiday party tonight. Places like this do survive on the general public, but it is nice to have them in our midsts for a rainy day. PS - happy holidays to all!
"As the intrepid kobold companion continues his journey, he begins to wonder... if priests raises dead, why anybody die?
One definition of a frame buffer is any buffer that stores the contents of an image using individual pixels. Your prefered usage adds on the distinction that the buffer is used to refresh a raster image. I do prefer restricting the use of 'frame buffer' to the memory buffer used to refresh the raster display, but there are other instances where the other definition has been used. The Nuon architecture and programming documentation refers to any memory region that is capable of being displayed or manipulated via pixel DMA as being a frame buffer. Part of this reason is that any image has the potential to be a frame buffer - simply set the channel base to the start of the buffer and set the width and height accordingly.