Use the Force - Nvidia’s GeForce that is!

By Mr. Miller on November 9th, 2006

Yesterday Nvidia unveiled its best graphics processor yet. Packing more than double the processing power of its previous processors, games and non-graphics programmers are going to see huge improvements. The GeForce 8800 series boasts over 600 million – that’s right – 600 million transistors. Doubling the amount of transistors of its previous high-end graphics processor. But this GPU is not just for your PC games.

“The quality of images and speed delivered is going to be astounding. This is most notable in computer games. You aren’t going to go to the movies, you are going to be in the movies,” said Jon Peddie, head of marketing and consulting company Jon Peddie Research.

Nvidia also said that they are releasing a set of tools that will let programmers tap into the processing power of the GPU and crunch data such as weather patterns or geological formations. Just imagine what you could do if you over clocked this processor and ran this processor with Windows Vista and a dual or quad core processor? Just imagine playing Halo, World of Warcraft, Half Life or Quake. But only after I finish working. Okay, that’s enough. Let’s stop laughing.

“When I think about extending the capabilities (of graphics processors), this product will be the most profound we’ve ever introduced,” said Michael Hara, Nvidia’s vice president of investor relations.

Nvidia is hoping that the new tools being released with its new GeForce 8800 series will let users tap the processing power of their GPU as an additional processor.

New Features of the GeForce 8800 GPU:

· NVIDIA Unified Architecture
Fully unified shader core dynamically allocates processing power to geometry, vertex, physics, or
pixel shading operations, delivering an incredibly true-to-life 3D graphics

· NVIDIA Lumenex™ EngineSupport for 128-bit and 64-bit floating point HDR with up to 16x anti-aliasing delivering vividly
realistic lighting effects while obliterating ‘jaggies’. Vista Essential

· Microsoft DirectX 10 Geometry Shaders
Dynamic geometry creation smoothes surfaces and enables incredibly detailed environments, shadows, and effects.

· NVIDIA Quantum Effects™ Technology
Advanced shader processors architected for physics computation deliver amazing performance and visual effects such as smoke, fire, and explosions.