Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

The Future According To nVidia

Posted by kdawson on from the when-all-you've-got-is-a-hammer dept.

NerdMaster writes "Last week nVidia held their Spring 2008 Editor's day, where they presented their forthcoming series of graphics processing units. While the folks at Hardware Secrets couldn't tell the details of the new chips, they posted some ideas of what nVidia is seeing as the future of computing. Basically more GPGPU usage, with the system CPU losing its importance, and the co-existence of ray-tracing and rasterization on future video cards and games. In other words, the 'can of whoop-ass' nVidia has promised to open on Intel."

14 of 132 comments (clear)

  1. Who will have the better Linux driver support? by pembo13 · · Score: 5, Informative

    That's my main influence when I purchase video cards.

    --
    "Thanks for all the money you paid to us. We've used it to buy off ISO among other things" -Microsoft
    1. Re:Who will have the better Linux driver support? by Rosco+P.+Coltrane · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I fail to see how this is redundant. I too choose video cards based on how well they are supported under Linux. Or rather, I choose the ones with the less shitty support. Any Linux users who's ever tried to use any OpenGL app more complex than glxgears knows the pain, so I reckon Linux (or any OS other than Windows I suppose) support isn't a trivial, or a fanboy issue.

      So no, the post isn't redundant, because this issue isn't yet solved (not to mention, how can a first post be redundant?).

      --
      "A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
    2. Re:Who will have the better Linux driver support? by darthflo · · Score: 5, Insightful

      nVidia will probably continue their controversial blob model (i.e. you get a binary object plus the source to a kernel module that, with the help of said object, works as a driver). Purists rage against it because it's against freedom and-so-on, pragmatists tend to like the full 3D acceleration that comes with it.
      Intel is going the Open Source road, trying to be as open as possible. Unfortunately, from a performance PoV their hardware sucks. Their products are intended as consumer-level, chipset integrated solutions and, considering that, work nicely. Don't try any 3D games, though.
      ATi opened a lot of specs, so community-developed and completely open drivers are on the horizon. Unfortunately the horizon is quite far away and the movement towards it is similar to a kid on a tricycle. The situation is prone to improve though. Performance-wise, ATi may be a good choice if you'd like to play the occasional game, but they don't really compare to nVidia (which is unlikely to change soon).
      In the end, I'm going to stick to nVidia in the near future, using intel wherever low energy consumption is strongly desired (i.e. notebooks and similar). ATi just ain't my cup of tea, I wouldn't be putting a red card in a Windows box either, but my preference of nVintel is just such -- a preference. Go with whatever suits you best.

    3. Re:Who will have the better Linux driver support? by Hal_Porter · · Score: 5, Funny

      That's my main influence when I purchase video cards. Hi!

      I'm the CEO of NVidia and I spend all day reading slashdot. Despite that I hadn't noticed that Linux was popular until I read your post.

      I'll tell the driver developers to start fixing the drivers now.

      Thanks for the heads up

      Jen-Hsun Huang
      CEO, NVidia Inc
      --
      echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
    4. Re:Who will have the better Linux driver support? by SanityInAnarchy · · Score: 4, Informative

      Given that nVidia already makes Linux drivers, it seems to me that the only way they could spend less money on them short of not supporting Linux at all would be to open specs and source, thus getting the Linux community to write their drivers for them.

      And those drivers would actually be better. Better Linux support for less money.

      So what's the holdup?

      --
      Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
  2. Yawn by gd23ka · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The future according to Sun or IBM.. faster CPUs. The future according to Nvidia... more GPUs .. the future according to Seagate.. exabytes and petabyes, the future according to Minute Maid.. , the future according to Blue Bonnet .. lower cholesterol, the future according to ATT "more bars in more places", the future according to ...

    Another paid for article. Yawn.

    1. Re:Yawn by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      The future according to Goatse.. P1st fR0st!
      The future according to anonymous coward.. more trolling, offtopic, flamebait-ness, with the odd insightful or funny.
      The future according to Ballmer.. inflated Vista sales (it's his job, damnit!).
      The future according to Microsoft shill 59329.. "I hate Microsoft as much as the next guy, but Vista really is t3h w1n! Go and buy it now!"
      The future according to Stallman.. Hurd.

      BTW The promo video for HURD is going to feature Stallman as a Gangsta rapper, and features the phrase: "HURD up to ma Niggaz."

    2. Re:Yawn by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      The future according to the past...the present.

    3. Re:Yawn by ceoyoyo · · Score: 4, Funny

      Now what's wrong with more bars with more bartenders behind them so you get your drinks faster? Really, all this criticism of the American government when they're really trying to do something quite noble. :P

  3. Price / Perfomance works for me by Rog7 · · Score: 4, Informative

    I'm all for it.

    The more competition the better.

    Anyone that worries too much about the cost a good GPU adds to the price of a PC, doesn't remember much what it was like when Intel was the only serious player in the CPU market.

    This kind of future, to me, spells higher bang for the buck.

  4. Surprise, Surprise... by allcar · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The leading manufacturer of GPUs wants GPUs to become ever more important.

  5. Will they become platform supplier? by sznupi · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I was wondering about this...now that nVidia wants CPU to loose its importance _and_ they started to cooparate with Via on chipsets for Via CPUs (which perhaps aren't the fastest...but I've hard the latest Isaiah core is quite capable), will we see some kind of merge?

    --
    One that hath name thou can not otter
  6. Re:Well API isn't their department by ardor · · Score: 4, Informative

    nVidia doesn't do the APIs for their cards. Wrong.
    GPGPU absolutely demands specialized APIs - forget D3D and OGL for it. These two don't even guarantee any floating point precision, which is no big deal for games, but deadly for GPGPU tasks.
    --
    This sig does not contain any SCO code.
  7. nVidia's split personality by argent · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Nvidia's chief scientist, David Kirk, is really down on raytracing and particularly on dedicated raytracing hardware.

    http://scarydevil.com/~peter/io/raytracing-vs-rasterization.html

    However... Dr Philipp Slusallek, who demonstrated how even a really slow FPGA implementation of raytracing hardware could kick general purpose processors (whether CPU or GPGPU) butts in 2005, has been working as a "Visiting Professor" at nVidia since October 2007.

    They're still playing their cards close to their chest.