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PC gamers may want to have some extra cash on-hand in a few month’s time, because both AMD and Nvidia are expected to release the “next generation” of graphics chips later this year.
How pleased is AMD? So pleased. Pleased enough with its video card accomplishments to issue a press release—and pretty product shots—of its 1 gigahertz ATI Radeon HD 4890. There just a slight catch.
Graphics card manufacturer NVIDIA bought PhysX cards creators AGEIA back in February, promising a free upgrade to existing GeForce 8 and above cards using their CUDA (Compute Unified Device Architecture) interface down the line. Well we are now sufficiently down the line, as NVIDIA has released the first of many planned GeForce Power Packs (grab it here), which not only enables the technology but also gives you some nifty tools to explore it with.
Included in the first Power Pack is a complete version of Warmonger, one of the original showcases for the PhysX technology, an Unreal Tournament 3 PhysX Mod Pack with three maps, sneak peeks at Unreal Engine 3 powered social networking service Nurien, a couple of tech demos, and the drivers to make the whole thing go. Hit the jump for more info on this rather impressive update.
Perhaps the most intriguing news for gamers coming out of CES this year is NVIDIA’s “Hybrid SLI” and AMD’s “ATI Hybrid Graphics Technology”.
Going by the info that’s currently available, these hybrid modes will allow users with sub-par integrated graphics chips – that is GPUs built into the motherboard – to pump better visuals at faster speeds with the aid of a discrete chip. The InfoWorld article on AMD’s implementation states that AMD’s tech will ship with notebooks (not so unusual) based on the company’s “Puma” platform. Yet the only way a notebook could benefit from this would be if it contained both an integrated and discrete GPU (very unusual). The only way this is going to actually work is if AMD gets its Fusion CPUs off the ground. Fusion will couple a general purpose processing core and GPU core onto the same die. A discrete GPU could then be plugged into the motherboard, allowing use of the hybrid mode. AMD’s main goal with this is power saving – use just the integrated GPU for easy 3D loads, and activate the discrete chip in tandem for heavy 3D processing.
Great for gamers? Not really. If I was going to buy a laptop for gaming, I wouldn’t purchase something with integrated 3D. Ever.
How about business users? Again, if you’re only going to use the system for word processing and PowerPoint, why do you need the option? It’s just going to add to the price.
You don’t listen to us. It’s OK, we’ve known for some time now. As long as our moms are reading and appreciating our cock allusions as much as we are, things are going pretty well on the old Kotaku. But if you plan on buying a videocard for your computer in the near future, you should listen to Epic’s Tim Sweeney, the number cruncher behind the Unreal 3 engine. Here’s his advice: In Unreal Tournament 3 and Gears of War for PC, there is a significant gain in having 512MB of video memory rather than 256MB. So, first and foremost, get at least a 512MB card if you can afford it. If you haven’t maxed out your budget, then go for the maximum single-card performance that doesn’t require extreme cooling, e.g. buy an entry-level GeForce 8800 over a GeForce 8600.
