[TerranUp16]

[H] Article with Slides + Whitepaper

So Fermi's been known to be coming for awhile (and it's been taking its time getting here of course), and much has been made about what it's doing on the GPGPU side, but until today it's really been anyone's guess as to what it will bring as... well, a graphics card. We still don't quite know that yet, but at least we now know what nVidia is setting its eyes on.

So I've gotta say that I'm rather interested now. nVidia's focus on increasing geometric detail is admirable and in some ways unexpected. ATi has been working with tessellation for far longer- well before DX11 came around- so I did not expect nVidia to pick a fight with that. Actually, the way that nVidia completely ignored DX10.1, I almost expected nVidia to play down tessellation and other DX11 features. Obviously, they're not, and this is where things are going to get interesting, but it will all depend on how the cards actually perform once they're out (but their heads seem to be in the right place here).

Otherwise, 32xCSAA looks and sounds nice although for all the talk of image quality I haven't heard any mention of nVidia perfecting their AF algorithm- I'm not sure if they're purposely side-stepping this or they feel it's a given. The computational features are, as always, impressive. Price, power, and heat no one knows about yet, but nVidia claimed that they learned about price from the GTX 280 launch ($650 initially and then they quickly knocked that down to ~$450 a month after launch) so I'd expect they won't make that mistake again (particularly not when they're talking about 3D Surround requiring SLI). Power and heat will probably be bigger factors... both nVidia and ATi have run into problems there (GeForce FX5xxx series and Radeon HD 2900XT, respectively) but both also seem to have learned from it since. (Shrug) will be interesting, as will ATi's reaction (I am expecting to see some good deals on HD 5870s during the GF100 launch if GF100 actually gets what it needs to right).

[ibfreeekout]

I've been reading up on this upcoming card and it looks like a possible contender for ATI's new cards. I'm sure many of you have probably already seen this information but I might as well post this link for those who haven't. I'm sorry if some of the information is redundant but it is also a good source for upcoming tech reveals as well. MaximumPC Article on Fermi GPU. As you said Terran the heat does sound like a major issue; apparently the fan on the new Fermi GPU's is louder than what most would consider reasonable, even for a gaming rig. Another thing I see as being a downfall for this card though is that unlike ATI's 5970, Fermi can't run more than two monitors on a single GPU, although I don't know many people who run more than two. We'll see how this plays out though.

[TerranUp16]

ibfreeekout, on 19 January 2010 - 02:45 AM, said:

I've been reading up on this upcoming card and it looks like a possible contender for ATI's new cards. I'm sure many of you have probably already seen this information but I might as well post this link for those who haven't. I'm sorry if some of the information is redundant but it is also a good source for upcoming tech reveals as well. MaximumPC Article on Fermi GPU. As you said Terran the heat does sound like a major issue; apparently the fan on the new Fermi GPU's is louder than what most would consider reasonable, even for a gaming rig. Another thing I see as being a downfall for this card though is that unlike ATI's 5970, Fermi can't run more than two monitors on a single GPU, although I don't know many people who run more than two. We'll see how this plays out though.

What they're saying about 3D Surround atm is that it will require at least SLI in order to run 3D Surround w/Stereoscopic 3D. It sounds like a single card though will still be able to handle 3x 2560x1600 (provided that card has sufficient connections) for nVidia's version of Eyefinity (that is, non-3D). For a single card to run three stereoscopic monitors, it would basically be like running six monitors.

Cooling sounds =( Usually ATi is the one with the loud fans.

[ibfreeekout]

TerranUp16, on 19 January 2010 - 04:04 PM, said:

What they're saying about 3D Surround atm is that it will require at least SLI in order to run 3D Surround w/Stereoscopic 3D. It sounds like a single card though will still be able to handle 3x 2560x1600 (provided that card has sufficient connections) for nVidia's version of Eyefinity (that is, non-3D). For a single card to run three stereoscopic monitors, it would basically be like running six monitors.

Cooling sounds =( Usually ATi is the one with the loud fans.

I guess I missed the part about the two GPU's for 3D. I have mixed feelings about 3D games though. I mean it's a great concept, but the costs of all of this hardware is just too much for most people. I mean I had to build my computer on a $500 budget; some of these new GPU's cost that much.

[TerranUp16]

ibfreeekout, on 19 January 2010 - 05:25 PM, said:

I guess I missed the part about the two GPU's for 3D. I have mixed feelings about 3D games though. I mean it's a great concept, but the costs of all of this hardware is just too much for most people. I mean I had to build my computer on a $500 budget; some of these new GPU's cost that much.

3D imo is forward-looking at the moment. And of course there are always those that have the cash to toss around to get the future now, and nVidia's catering to that as well as positioning themselves for when the future becomes the present (something they're doing a lot of currently, with the other evidences of that being their continued focus on the GPU as a HPC and now Raytracing on the GPU as well; nVidia has a lot at risk right now with new tech on the horizon, the increasing parallelism of CPUs, and Intel's posturing towards properly entering the graphics market).

My bigger interest is how the non-3D version of Surround works (which I won't be able to use yet thx to having a 1920x1200 and a 1600x1200 but then I'm not planning on getting a GF100 on launch either) since that is one of the areas that they need to address in the present.

[Avalon]

OVER 9000 SIMD UNITS PUMPING PIXELS IN UNISON OH MY GOD JESUS CHRIST WHAT JUST WHO SAID WHY ARE YOU TOUCHING ME I DONT EVEN

[cyb.tachyon]

even even even even even even