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Nvidia's DX11 GF100 Graphics Processor Detailed
J. Dzhugashvili writes "While it's played up the general-purpose computing prowess of its next-gen GPU architecture, Nvidia has talked little about Fermi's graphics capabilities — to the extent that some accuse Nvidia of turning its back on PC gaming. Not so, says The Tech Report in a detailed architectural overview of the GF100, the first Fermi-based consumer graphics processor. Alongside a wealth of technical information, the article includes enlightening estimates and direct comparisons with AMD's Radeon HD 5870. The GF100 will be up to twice as fast as the GeForce GTX 285, the author reckons, but the gap with the Radeon HD 5870 should be 'a bit more slender.' Still, Nvidia may have the fastest consumer GPU ever on its hands — and far from forsaking games, Fermi has been built as a graphics processor first and foremost."
There's no point bragging about being faster than last month's graphics card if your own is still a quarter of a year from being an actual product.
The days of needing the biggest, fastest, most expensive card are pretty much over. You can run just about any game out there at max settings at 1920 X 1080 silky smooth with a 5870, which goes for less than $300. Hell, even the 4870 is still almost overkill.
Unless you plan on maxing out AA and AF while playing on a 30 inch screen, there is no reason to drop $500-$600 on a video card anymore...
Living With a Nerd
there is no reason to drop $500-$600 on a video card anymore...
I assume they mean the scientist Enrico Fermi. So, did they dig him up, or is this one of those Jesus fingerbone type of thing, where there are more fingerbones than there are chickens? Did they use the whole Fermi, or are there only specific pieces of him that work? Whatever the case, there must be a limited number of cards that can be built, since there is a finite amount of Fermi.
Who would win this election: Andrew Weiner vs Andrew Weiner's weiner.
You can run just about any game out there at max settings at 1920 X 1080 silky smooth with a 5870, which goes for less than $300.
Well, that's until Crysis 2 with Stereo 3D + Multi-Head and Windows 8's compositing + DirectX 13 come out.
Then it'll be again waiting 1 year until the hardware catch up.
Remember the mantra :
What hardware giveth, software taketh...
Also, you assume discreet GPU.
nVidia and ATI have still to do some improvement until the performance you quote happen on a low-power miniature *embed* GPU in a laptop (that doesn't drain the battery flat after 10 minutes).
Thus expect future generation with better performance per watt and performance per dollar.
And while they manage such ratios, why stop at embed ? You can pretty much bet that the same technology will once again be available in a range between embed GPUs (with the performance you quote above despite punny foot-size) and as much raw power as you can cram into a 200$ GPU - for ludicrious graphics speed.
Therefore it seems pretty much logical that nVidia is courting the science market in order to find more buyer interested in those monsters... ...Well, that's until Crysis 3 starts using ray-tracing and crawls at 3fps on those cards.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
Isn't this going to be built on the same TSMC process as the 5870? The same one that's having yield problems and supply shortages for AMD and yet the nvidia chip is even bigger and more complex chip? I for see delays.
The 5870 still seems to cost more than $400, but your point is of course valid. What might become an issue is multi-monitor gaming like ATI's Eyefinity. Running a triple-screen setup demands a bit more. I don't know if multi-monitor will become mainstream, but it's roughly in the same ballpark price-wise as high-end GPUs.
Enough to write a Free driver?
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
None of the above, you simpleton!
The GF100 is clearly nuclear powered, which would explain the massive heatsink and PCB, which takes up a majority of the standard size PC case and conveniently covers all available SATA and all other types of peripheral interface connectors.
Mod me down, my New Earth Global Warmingist friends!
Girl Free maybe?
because you probably don't have one if you are wasting your money on it?
Or Maybe it is suppose to be a Girl Friend replacement?
So was it created in the Fermilab?!
While the articles is very interesting on explaining the chip archetecture and technical specifications, I can't believe there sin't a single actual gaming benchmark on these chips yet.
The best they can do is give an estimated calculation on how the chips may or may not actually live up to. They estimate that it will be faster at gaming than ATI's already released 5870.
By the time Nvidia actually releases their Fermi GPU's, ATI's Cypres will have been actively selling for over 3 months. And there's a funny thing about advancements over time: things keep getting faster (aka Moore's Law). Supposing that chips are supposed to double in transistor count every year, the new Fermi chips need to have 20% more transistors than ATI's RV5870 if they release 3 months later... just to keep on the same curve.
And there's still no mention of pricing... but that's expected on a product that doesn't actually run games yet. I don't see a lot of optimism on the gaming front, so I hope for Nvidia's sake that the investment into GPGPU is the branch out they need to trump ATI's sales.
Sure, it might "kill" PC gaming if all that matters for "true PC gamers" is bling...
Though I wonder how that correlates with the fact that most PCs sold have integrated GFX. And that most popular PC games are Solitaire, Minesweeper, Peggle, flash games, etc.
One that hath name thou can not otter
If you're going to use any "random" game is an example, why would you purposely choose a game that was not very well optimized? Crysis ran pretty poorly on top of the line hardware at the time too (in comparison to other games that looked just as good and ran better). Age of Conan unfortunately resulted from a lot of the same issues. It wasn't as bad as Crysis, but still pretty bad in that regard.
Does nVidia sell any of these top-end GPU chips with a full x86 core on the die with it? A CPU that's maybe as powerful as a single core P3/2.4GHz, tightly coupled for throughput to GPU and VRAM, going out to the PC bus (PCI-e) just for final interface to a video display (or saving to a file, or streaming to a network).
--
make install -not war
aren't current LCD monitors pretty much locked to 60 fps anyway?
No.
- There are 3D-Stereo-grade monitors which are able to work at higher refresh rates, so that the left-right alternating doesn't get noticeable. Usually the HDMI bandwidth is the limiting factor. Hence newer norms as HDMI 1.4
- Auto-Stereo LCD exist. (they don't alternate between left-right, they display both at the same time and rely on some hardware property - say lenticular filter - to separate the images).
And they've become cheap.
Also beside LCDs :
- Modern projector internally function at much higher refresh rate so the separate colours aren't noticeable (to avoid the "rainbow smear" of earlier projectors). So 120Hz alternating left-right are clearly manageable (as the actual displayed rate will be probably much higher anyway) - usually the limiting factor is the HDMI interface having to cope with a bigger bandwidth.
- Don't forget plain old CRT display which are able to cope with much faster refresh rates as LCD by design.
And you won't necessary alternate between left and right :
- Head-mounter display exist too - they have separate output screen so don't need to alternate.
So the graphic card outputs 120Hz, but each screen is refreshed at 60Hz.
(But these aren't cheap).
- Separate polarized projectors. But that cost a lot as you have two projectors, and need can't use a bedsheet or a plain white wall, but need a more expensive material which will preserve the polarisation of the reflected image.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
Heat.
Looks like a cool chip. It will be interesting to see how Nvidia does in the marketplace when the don't have rabid enthusiast gamers subsidizing their development efforts every 6 months. Let's face it, who runs out to buy the latest graphics card anymore, when you get the same game on your 360/PS3 with no upgrade? They're mostly positioning this launch as a 'compute' GPU, so they certainly see the writing on the wall. With Fermi and beyond, Nvidia will have to provide tangible real-world profits for some company that needs things like this in order to make it.
FUNK!
I for one love that the pc market has gone down in flames. The best thing about it has been linux can now run 99% of the new titles from windows :) that would have been unthinkable 2-3 years ago. The other thing I like about it is my 30" dell on my gtx core 216 runs ANYTHING at maximum detail settings. Not that I care since I mainly play Wing Commander.
for exposing to CRT carcinogenic rays.
New Economic Perspectives
I would never, ever waste money on a console. At $50 per game, I am more than happy to play the >1000 titles I already own in emulation. I own the roms to most of the best N64, Snes, PSX, and Wii and Gamecube games. I bought almost all of them used. And they all run perfectly in emulation on a decent computer. And at higher resolution, a better interface (no more disk swapping, shelves, cleaning, etc., they are all files on a 16gb USB stick), and with actual wiimotes. Most consoles cost $300 (with all four controllers, usually more), and each game is $50 and not any different/better than the previous version. Even if you want the latest/greatest, many are available for Wii and the Wii emulator works very well for MOST new games.
Truthfully, the games that get played the most on my projector:
Mario Kart N64
Bust a Move SNES
Urban Terror (Quake 3 Tech)
Super Mario All Stars & World SNES
Mortal Kombat 4 N64
Civilization II
All play perfectly on ANY computer out today, even on most onboard graphics cards.
Why anybody would throw their money away on a console to play the latest/greatest games that generally aren't as fun as the ones I listed is a real mystery. Especially when any decent quad core and graphics card will emulate the Wii perfectly in addition:
Mario Kart Wii
New Super Mario Bros.
Super Mario Galaxy
Beatles Rock Band
I hold very few opinions. I hold information based on observation and fact. If you wish to disagree, please use facts.
The whole "waiting" concept is kind of silly. Unless an impending product is coming out THIS WEEK, and will significantly lower the price of another product you were already looking at, waiting more than a week is pretty silly. By your rationale we should all "wait" till there are core 12 GPU/CPU hybrids that run circles around all current hardware.
If we all "wait", current inventory will stop the manufacturers from being able to afford to put out new products.
I hold very few opinions. I hold information based on observation and fact. If you wish to disagree, please use facts.
[...] but the gap with the Radeon HD 5870 should be 'a bit more slender.' Still, Nvidia may have the fastest consumer GPU ever on its hands
Does not compute...
No the HD 5870 is a bit faster, but still nVidia has the fastest GPU?
Also, let’s see what ATi brings out when the Fermi finally comes out... in 2016 or so. ^^
Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.