nVidia's new GF100 series

[Zachalmighty]

WTF Happened to the 300 series!!!

[Alucard]

Originally Posted by zechin

Gimmick so people only buy nvidia cards.

http://www.pcper.com/comments.php?nid=6954

OpenCL will be compatible with both. physx is still nvidia only and isnt going to be tossed aside.


OpenCL way of the future.

Originally Posted by Dj Jimmi Zero

The PC I've been putting together has parts specifically for ATI cards and AMD Processors. For what Nvidia does, it isn't as satisfying as ATI has been to me, and if you can find a better Nvidia card thats cheaper than the 5850 then I may bite, otherwise I'm sticking with what I know.

You're talking about price and performance for choosing ati, which is fine. The closest to the 5850 in terms of price would be the gtx275, and that ones cheaper. Some games its stronger then the 5850, but most of the games it isnt its about 10fps lower average if you buy the overclocked version of the 275, which is about $10 cheaper still. But these prices will change come march/april when the new nvidia cards are out.

But still I'm on my old 8800gts and that runs almost any game at max smoothly, unless I were to run games at 1900x res which is insane. It also depends on the monitor you have as ati runs better at higher resolutions. But still end of the day both cards will run any game flawlessly, but the difference here is the nvidia one you get extra graphic options and better drivers. I used to get ati cards. No more.

[flowForth]

Originally Posted by zechin

Gimmick so people only buy nvidia cards.

http://www.pcper.com/comments.php?nid=6954

OpenCL way of the future.

Not necessarily. OpenCL is an open-standard (like OpenGL) - which are prone to slow updates and stagnation for long periods of time. Proprietary technologies like DirectX are more aggressively updated with newer features faster. As far as I'm aware, DirectX (more specifically Direct3D) is preferred over OpenGL for games - and that's Microsoft proprietary.

Displacement mapping is an old technique - it just seems now that it's natively accelerated in the hardware. Not sure why it's being so hyped in DX11.

Personally, I think the hair is the greatest achievement. Realistic, detailed hair has been the bane of many a game artist.

[progmetal]

As long as they can do realistic manly neck hair like Drake has, even if they don't have the power of the cell.

Click for full size

[memory to zack]

About OpenCL, it depends if the devs support it. Considering Microsoft agressive satance and the deals they close with Nvidia/Ati/Intel, everybody believes that Directx is far better. It may, or may not be, but the advantage of open source are sadly quickly forgotten.

[flowForth]

Originally Posted by memory to zack

About OpenCL, it depends if the devs support it. Considering Microsoft agressive satance and the deals they close with Nvidia/Ati/Intel, everybody believes that Directx is far better. It may, or may not be, but the advantage of open source are sadly quickly forgotten.

There's a difference between an open standard and open source. Open source refers to products where the original source code is open to anyone that wants to make changes. Open standards are just standards designed to make compatibility easier.

Part of the reason why DirectX is so popular with game developers is Microsoft's domination of the OS market. Few developers choose to port games to other OSs (likely because they judge the market too small) - those that do are the ones that typically use OpenGL (OpenGL implementations are supported on Mac and Linux).

Regarding the GF100 series though - I think from a consumer perspective, there's no immediate need to buy a new card. It's unlikely we'll see full-fledged support from developers for some time because there's a lot of consumers out there without Vista/Windows 7. I've got a GTX280 myself and that will remain sufficient for several years.