Good news on 2 fronts

[the Chase]

I like the way ATI is thinking- esp. on NOT going 4 way GPU's.

Edit- physics on a GPU I'm not so hot on- they are going to have to wow me for even a small consideration. But at least they are trying. The more choices the better.

Copy of news text- From OC Workbench-

According to sources close to ATi, ATi will probably be announcing new products at Computex Taipei this year. Instead the focus will be on the ATi's Physics acceleration technique.

The ATi's Physics acceleration technique (not the final name) does not require two cards of the same kind which NVIDIA SLI-Physic requires. It can be done using say a x1900+x1600.

NVIDIA will launch 7950GX2 and Quad SLI on 6 June. ATi so far has no plans to release such a product as it is not economical. It will continue to raise the bar of single card performance and CrossFire performance.

 

[fierydemise]

your link doesn't work

 

[the Chase]

Originally posted by: fierydemise
your link doesn't work

HHmmm..Thanks for the heads up- I can't get it to work either..... Fixed by quoting whole news story.

 

[Ika]

ooh that does sound interesting. that works along the lines of most people's thinking, i.e. why get such a powerful video card if all it's going to do is physics? look forward to seeing results in the future.

 

[TanisHalfElven]

does random mean mu x800gt can do the physics when i get a x1900xt. ?

 

[the Chase]

Originally posted by: tanishalfelven
does random mean mu x800gt can do the physics when i get a x1900xt. ?

Heh- you would think so- and I bet it would be able to- BUT- how much do you want to bet that (through drivers) somehow the older cards for some magical reason won't be able to pull off physics. Imagine that- time to buy a X1300 series and crossfore mobo..

 

[Munky]

The older cards may well not be able to pull off the physics. Not because they're slow, but because they lack the programming flexibility and data precision of newer cards. As a side note, I downloaded the newest Ati SDK, and they have examples of some interesting effects done using the R2VB function, such as cloth simulation, animation, collision, particle system, etc. I'd be interested in seeing how this gpu physics concept turns out.

 

[the Chase]

Well I know I'm cynical with marketing, etc. But when you mention programming flexibility I think of guys in the ATI boardroom saying-"do you think we should write the drivers to include some of the older series cards?? Nah, why would they buy new cards then. Start with the base X1600 model and work up from there." Look at the whole SLI/Crossfire driver restrictions that magically disappear as they try to get more competitive with each other. Trying to find a way to define "data precision". Looks like I need to read more. I'm not up to speed as much as you on the innards of GPU's. The new SDK sounds like game makers would have some cool tools at their disposal though.