Prepare for the Graphics War
Funny how things change. It used to be AMD versus Intel, and ATI versus NVIDIA. But now it's Intel versus NVIDIA, as the two monolithic chipset companies tread further and further into each other's territory, and AMD and ATI take a back seat for the time being. It almost seems as if as soon as something is announced by Intel, NVIDIA announces its own version of that something. Mobile processors are obviously going to become big business in the next few years, thanks to the success of Asus's Eee PC and its army of clones.
Intel announced their low-power, high performance Atom chipset specifically for this market, and were closely followed by NVIDIA announcing the Tegra chipset. NVIDIA's chipset claims to be more powerful and draw less power, but the Atom is debuting in MSI's Wind notebook, whereas the Tegra, based on NVIDIA's APX2500 processor, has yet to be released.
Then Intel snapped up raytracing guru, Daniel Pohl, and NVIDIA acquired Rayscale shortly afterwards. Conceived by a team of scientists from the University of Utah, Rayscale specialize in ray-traced graphics not dissimilar to Pohl's projects.
Stiff Competition
Unlike Intel, NVIDIA is taking a more cautious approach to raytracing in games. David Kirk, NVIDIA's Chief Scientist jokingly said: 'Raytracing is the technology of the future and always will be.' NVIDIA is pushing in the direction of hybridizing ray-traced graphics with conventional rasterization, rather than putting all their graphical eggs in one GPU basket.
But the ultimate location of the Intel versus NVIDIA battle is going to be in the deep, dirty trenches of the graphics processing unit. NVIDIA's latest graphics card, the GTX 280 includes its latest GPU and promises 50 per cent more performance than its 9 series cards. But Intel have been pooh-poohing NVIDIA's advances, although Intel's Larrabee chip relies on a similar multi-threaded architecture. Both companies are focusing intensively on using the GPU for more than just graphics, and expanding the CPU's parallel power for intensive tasks, such as physics in gaming and media encoding.
Intel's current revenue is ten times the size of NVIDIA's, and although NVIDIA points out that its hardware is in a lot of PCs as well, Intel also have far more brand recognition, which could prove to be the clout they need to win the battle. But one thing's for certain: graphics will get a whole lot prettier in the coming years.
Related Tags: performance, graphics, amd, intel, ati, chipset, processors, nvidia
Subscribe to Sandra Prior's Online Newsletter
and get up to date Computer Technology
News delivered right to your email box for free.
See website for details http://usacomputers.rr.nu and http://sacomputers.rr.nu.
Recent articles in this category:
- What Is An Sd Card? What Are Main Types Of Sd Cards
Manufactured as a competition offering to Sony's Memory Stick, the SD Card was developed by the SD C - Industrial Computers
In this day and age you can't afford to run an industry efficiently without a computer as it plays a - Computer Fix Services - Tips To Choose Good Quality Personal Computer Maintenance Online
Online computer repair services have become a fast and reliable problem solution for day to day tech - Reverse Engineering Romer For Aerospace
One of the most amazing things about reverse engineering is its significant contribution in any fiel - How To Buy The Best Projector Bulb
It is very important for you to know the right time to change the projector bulb before it will burn - Laptops Vs Desktops- Their Significance
Computers obviously are commonly used for more or less everything from entertainment to office work. - Cooling Your Laptop
It is common knowledge that laptops are commonly used by everyone but one must also know how to take - Dymo Labelwriter Fast Performance & Reliability
I don't think I'm the only one who has gotten tired of trips to the post office, standing in endless - Buying Dell Laptops A Long Time Investment
Today if you go to an office or a school, Dell laptops can be seen very commonly. Though we do not b - Hard Drives - Digital Space
The first hard drives (Hard Disk Drives, HDD) were developed by IBM in 1956. Since then the need for
Most viewed articles in this category:
- Video Killed the Beautiful View
"The sound brought our group to a stop; we turned around to see the ice mass collapse with a roar. A - Crossfire: The Dual GPU System Gamers Want
CrossFire is the new dual graphics card system from ATI. It offers remarkable image quality improvem - Canon PIXMA IP1600 Photo Printer Review & Its True Cost of Ownership
With Canon PIXMA iP1600 Inkjet Printer you can make high quality photo printings at home. No need to - Basic Information about Nero Burn DVD
Nero is a popular burning ROM designed to burn DVD's. The way this product got its name is very inte - The Development of the Vital IBM PC in Spite of the Corporate Culture of IBM
The public history of the PC began in August 1981, when IBM first announced "The IBM Personal Comput - PC Repairs
PC Repairs are often needed when we need our computer the most. One way to take away many problems o - Affordable Computer Printer Ink
The computer - once considered a luxury item - has easily become a staple in today's modern homes; a - Build your Own PC
Build your own PC! Simple and Fun. Just follow these instructions and you're on your way to a rel - Extending the Life of an Inkjet Printer with Proper Cleaning and Maintenance
Inkjet printers are becoming another "throw away" electronic device due to reducing costs and high i - Check Printers
A check printer is a printer that hooks up to a computer that has the capability of printing checks.