New NVIDIA GPU Code Named GF100
31. Jan, 2010 
6 Comments
For those who don’t know, NVIDIA is the silicon-standard for PC gaming. Recently though, they are getting thoroughly thwomped by ATI, who is selling cheaper, much faster hardware. But the new GF100 GPU might make it worth your while to unload an extra 200-300 dollars. The new GPU packs in more than double the CUDA cores, packs some nice GDDR5 memory, and full DX 11 support.
NVIDIA claims to have the “world’s first scalable geometry pipeline with up to 16 individual tessellation engines on a single GPU.” basically, this will boast some shiny DX 11 injected environments setting up the framework for developers to make lush and detailed environments. Edges will also be smoothed out hopefully bringing an all about end to perfect and straight lines, replacing them with organic ones. This would sound like it would have a huge frame-rate hit, but the engine only renders what the gamer sees, a tech that is already prominent in other games and engines such as the Source Engine.
Physx is NVIDIA’s proprietary physics engine that can be found in games like Arkham Asylum and Mirror’s Edge. With the new GPU, the engine will include turbulence and fluid dynamics, an addition to the assortment of physics already in the engine including fabric. “The new NVIDIA® GigaThreadTM hardware scheduler allows 10 times faster switching between graphics and physics processing, enabling more complex effects to be rendered in real-time.” I really don’t care about more complex effects seeing as I think they are fine as they are, but more is always better, and I am still waiting for the day when I can shoot a gun near a snow peak, and it causes an avalanche that changes dynamically depending on the sound and snow clumping.
Ummm... yay
Now imagine this: what if people could actually set up environments and take pictures from different vantage points with developer tools. This could bring about a new form of photography. Artificial photography. Imagine being able to go all the way around the world without hopping on a plane, and take a picture of the glacier you made yourself! The result would look something like this, which utilizes the GPU to make crisper images. At the risk of being hung, with this new GPU, an entirely new art form could come about.
Though NVIDIA GPUs are usually considered gaming hardware, must I remind you that FASTRA II utilizes GPU processing, and is a desktop computer that is faster than super computers? This new GPU could do more than improve in-game performance. So what possible uses do you see for GPUs?
Article posted by: Jake Kenin
Bio: Jake is a student in South Florida looking to make his way into the gaming and computer software industries. He's a die-hard PC Gamer, and can be found on the internets as dirt1996. On twitter, he's @Jkenin.
HUZZAH
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I have seen some crappy posts but this one really impresses me. Good work!
wait… it that depth of field picture really from a game?
Great review, max! Please visit my website I could use a few extra hits! (Click my name to get to my site)
Actually it was Jake who wrote this article, but on thanks from both of us. And your link is broken. I’ll try to see if I can fix it and go over to your site.
LOl, its fine XD. I think the screenshot may be from Mirror’s Edge. Or a tech demo. But the point is it is a screenshot.
be sure to rate articles!
Fantastic Read! Looking forward to more! Bookmarked the site and will be back again. Came across it on Bing!