NVIDIA

NVIDIA to Release OpenGL 3.0 Drivers September

less than 1 minute read

It’s been a while since I posted but this one will make up for it. A messy screenshot of NVIDIA’s 2008 timeline has emerged on Chilehardware (CHW) and reveals that OpenGL 3.0 drivers/implementation will be due in September of this year in a collection called Big Bang II (Big Bang I was SLI).

CHW member KaiserGerhardI has provided a deciphering of the screenshot which provides more information on the contents of the screenshot:

  • First: Quad ?????? Release February
  • Hybrid Shipped Spring
  • Spring Notebook Cycle
  • GT200 + ????
  • Big Bang II-Fall Will Focus on
    • Now/WWW features
    • SLI connectivity features
    • Display connectivity
    • Quality improvements
    • Performance improvements
    • OpenGL 3.0

The words which could not be deciphered are marked with question marks. What this means for OpenGL enthusiasts and developers is that we won’t have to attend SIGGRAPH, NVISION or any other meeting for that matter, since this is basically a confirmation on its own.

Now, let’s hope that ATI will also provide an implementation this soon.

Geforce GTX 200 Series Announced

less than 1 minute read

NVIDIA officially announced its new line of GPUs today on their website. Two models from the line have been announced, namely the GTX 260 and the GTX 280.

NVIDIA claims that the cards have a 50% performance increase over the Geforce 8800 Ultra (figures anyone?). Below are some highlighted specs for the high-end GTX 280:

NVIDIA Geforce GTX 280 Specs

Processor Cores 240
Graphics Clock 602 MHz
Processor Clock 1,296 MHz
Texture fill rate 48.2 billion/second
Memory 1GB DDR3
Memory Interface Width 512 bits
Memory Clock 1,107 MHz
DirectX Version 10
OpenGL Version 2.1
Card Dimensions (WxHxL) 2 Slots x 4.376″ x 10.5″

I’d love to see a benchmark done on this puppy.

NVIDIA PhysX SDK + more

less than 1 minute read

As you might know, NVIDIA has recently purchased Ageia, makers of the PhysX real-time physics SDK. Since then, NVIDIA has taken over the development of the SDK and a new version of the SDK is now available for free in binary form from the NVIDIA website, click here to go to check it out. A special license for the source code version of the SDK can be acquired for a mere $50K.

In other NVIDIA news: two new free book releases are now available on the NVIDIA website, namely: The Cg Tutorial and GPU Gems 2 which are two incredibly useful books. NVIDIA is on a roll, and looking at the manner in which freebies are coming in lately, I’ll be the last one to stop ‘em.

NVIDIA Opens Up GPU Gems

less than 1 minute read

NVIDIA has decided to publish the acclaimed GPU Gems book on their website, free of charge. Go to the NVIDIA website to read it. Did I mention it was free? Its free.

ATi too slow or NVIDIA too fast?

1 minute read

DirectX

In November of last year, NVIDIA released its latest flagship graphics card chipset, the 8800 / G80. This chipset featured the first full featured DirectX 10 support ever conceived and was (still is at the moment) the only DirectX 10 card on the market.

So when will the other giant, ATi, catch up? According to rumor, ATi is planning to release its latest chipset (R600) in the first quarter of 2007, more precisely an early March launch.

But did ATi push its launch too far back or did NVIDIA jump the bullet on this one? Some say that ATi is holding back for a reason so they can improve their technology and beat NVIDIA performance wise. Others say that ATi didn’t expect NVIDIA to launch this early and is trying to throw together a product too fast. The latter, I personally don’t believe.

ATi has been a major player in graphics technology for a while, so it would be a strange decision to underestimate DirectX 10 and continue focusing on their X1900 technology. I think we can safely assume that ATi is preparing its product to perform to the fullest and maybe be waiting for better software support in Vista - something that NVIDIA has been lacking.

Also, what good is a DirectX 10 card if there are no DirectX 10 games out yet? Again, some say that the 8800 is simply “the best DirectX 9 card out there that happens to have DirectX 10 support.” Yet according to hardware tests on TomsHardware.com, the ATi X1950 XTX stands above the card with full head and shoulders.

So what can we expect in the near future from these two graphics giants? In my opinion (Nostradamus style), ATi will launch the R600 chipset and will make the G80 look like something from 1999 performance wise. The 8800 GTX will get a successor soon enough that will compete with the R600 and I think that ATi will get you more value for the money, as is happening with all AMD and ATi products lately (same company).

I was eagerly looking into buying a G80 or 8800 but I have a feeling I’ll be regretting it within the span of one month. After all, the G80 is already 4 months “old”.