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In the Forums... |
Posted: November 18th, 2002
Nvidia is betting the farm on the GeForce FX. This is the single largest investment it has ever made in the history of the company. That is why the name is so important. Not only are they bridging the gap from what once was games to what is now becoming cinema, they are highlighting the combined efforts of what was 3DFX; now Nvidia. Most notable is the shift in attention usually given to having the highest frame rates to having the best looking graphics and animations running as fast as possible without degradation. Cards based on this GPU are going to breathe new life into older games by simply adding the precision needed to do effects better, and with more speed to boot. The GeForce FX will use many features in the DirectX 9.0 toolbox, which removes almost all the limitations of DirectX8.x. The impression I get from reading the technical documentation is that Nvidia has really listened to developers. This is the most programmable GPU on the planet. It will be interesting to hear what developers have to say in the coming months, as it seems that they have received their Christmas present early. Nvidia basically doubled everything they could, again from becoming fully AGP 8X compatible (backwards compatible with all former versions of the AGP standard), to being the only GPU to host the new DDR2 memories, it has strived to make more than an upgrade to the existing line. I cannot wait to get my hands on a card and see what it can do. The only thing that remains to be seen is how much RAM the boards will ship with, and how many versions will be available. I am sure there will be a board for every price point. I'll leave you with this thought: It takes 8 passes to render the fur in the Wolfman demo distributed for the Geforce 4 cards, that is, running on a Ti4600. The GeForce FX card will do the same rendering in 1 pass; it will do it faster, and it will do it prettier. 3D gaming is about to change forever.
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