NVIDIA Marketing Kicks Into High Gear - Part 5

[Apoptosis]

NVIDIA Marketing Kicks Into High Gear - Part 5

SCOOP: INTEL’S 2010 INTEGRATED GRAPHICS PERFORMANCE REVEALED!!!

We did not have a friend in Taiwan slip us one. We do not have any secret moles inside Intel. We did not violate any embargoes. We just took Intel at their word. This slide from Paul Otellini’s keynote at IDF says that we can take 965 chipset performance (circa 2006) and multiple by 10 to get performance numbers for 2010. Intel has been claiming DirectX 10 support for their 965 chipset since June 2006, so we included DirectX 10 numbers. We also used their 2008 driver, so these numbers include a two-year head start on driver work.

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Game                                       Project Performance in 2010                          
Splinter Cell Chaos Theory         41 fps
Half Life 2                                 88 fps
Supreme Commander                 89 fps
Prey                                         56 fps
Call of Duty 4                            53 fps
Battlefield 2142                          80 fps
Doom3                                      80 fps
Crysis (DX9)                             53 fps
World in Conflict (DX9)               50 fps
BioShock (DX9)                         37 fps
Call of Juarez (DX9)                   30 fps
Quake 3: Enemy Territory           CRASH
Call of Juarez (DX10)                 ERROR (Failed to initialize rendering device.  Check if your graphics card supports DirectX 10)
Crysis (DX10)                            ERROR (Can't enable the 'very high' settings (DX10) or change all settings to 'very high')
World in Conflict (DX10)             ERROR ("use DX10 Rendering" option in advanced settings is unavailable.)       
Bioshock (DX10)                       ERROR (“Can't enable DirectX 10 Detail Surfaces.)
Company Of Heroes (DX10)       ERROR (“Shader Quality - Can't enable 'Direct 3D 10' (DX10))
3DMark Vantage (DX10)            ERROR (Microsoft VisualC++ Runtime Library Runtime Error!) 

So in 2010 I will be able to play older games at 80 fps at 1600 × 1200 with no AA or AF turned on! Surely they will have fixed those pesky errors and deliver the DirectX 10 support they promised when they sold all those 965 chips. Testing their latest chipset (circa 2007) yields these results (G35 results x 10) on DirectX 10 games.

Game Project Performance in 2010
Call of Juarez 17 fps
Crysis 36 fps
World in Conflict 40 fps
Bioshock 30 fps
Company Of Heroes CRASH

In 2010, today’s DirectX10 applications will barely be playable at low IQ settings. Intel says that integrated graphics will increase in performance 10× by 2010, and that sounds like a lot. But you have to consider the starting point to make that number relevant. Performance requirements in 2010 will be well beyond Intel’s goal. Intel’s graphics simply do not deliver. Look for an optimized PC in 2010.


Project Performance was achieved by taking current performance of the Intel 965 and G35 chip sets and multiplying by 10. All games tested at 1600 × 1200 with no AA/no AF. Intel_965G, Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 1.86 GHz Memory 2x1024 GMA X3000. Asus P5B-VM, graphics driver 15.9.0.1472 and Asus P5E-VM HDI, Intel Core 2 Duo E6550, 2048 MB of RAM, Intel G35, Graphics driver 15.8.0.1437.

Do Not Be Misled

Intel has this statement on their website:

“Intel Graphics are built right onto your PC's motherboard, so you get excellent speed and functionality at low cost, compared to typical add-in graphics cards.”

And under the heading of “Get the most out of your money” they offer this advice:

“With the dramatic improvements in Intel Graphics and Intel® processors, it's no longer necessary for most users to buy expensive add-on graphics cards. Users can pocket the difference, or spend the extra money instead on system enhancements like a more powerful CPU.”

An optimized PC is one that has the correct balance of CPU and GPU horsepower. Even an entry-level graphics card offers an experience that blows integrated graphics out of the water. Too often PCs ship with insufficient graphics processing, and the result is an unbalanced PC that can’t run a bunch of applications. For the best experience, you should buy a PC with the right balance of CPU/GPU horsepower. Intel’s integrated products are missing critical features, andhave poor compatibility. It’s not just a question of whether Intel integrated graphics are fast enough, it’s a question of whether they will even run all the applications you want. There are too many popular applications and games that simply do not run on integrated graphics. And the ones that do may not deliver on a good experience.

Intel thinks graphics should look like this:

“In most cases, the higher the screen resolution, the lower the frame rate for the game. 640x480, 800x600, and 1024x768 are common screen resolutions for games. 640x480 is good for network play, where the frame rate must stay high in order to compete with other players. 1024x768 is good for single player gaming, where frame rate is usually not as important as visual quality.”

“Full scene anti-aliasing accomplishes this by rendering each frame at a larger resolution, then scaling it down to fit the actual screen resolution. This can lower the frame rate by a large amount, while increasing quality by a small amount. Usually, increasing the screen resolution is a better tradeoff than turning on anti-aliasing. Anti-aliasing is only useful for games when a lot of extra graphics performance is available.”

One Million People

Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures is a massively-multiplayer, online, role-playing game (MMORPG) based on the world and works of acclaimed author Robert E. Howard. In Age of Conan, players enter Hyboria with thousands of their friends and enemies to live, fight, and explore the dark and brutal world of King Conan. Funcom and Eidos announced that the Age of Conan Beta haspassed 1 million sign-ups for its BETA program! The timing is perfect, as talks of an unrelated Conan Movie project have started to surface, too.

ViewGenie Latest Visual Computing Application

ViewGenie was on ABC News demonstrating their object recognition software. ViewGenie organizes your digital images based on the objects that appear in them, using advanced computer vision and data analysis algorithms to compare and locate similar images. Grab it while it is free.


Sony PlayStation 3 moves nine million units

Nine million NVIDIA-equipped Sony PlayStation 3 consoles shipped last year. Sony is projected sales of another 10 million units in the current fiscal year (ending March 2009).


Intel <3 GeForce…maybe?

Pop Quiz: The following excerpt is from a blog by which company:

“People buy computers to get the work done that needs doing, or to use some cool content, such as a well-made game. Games drive 3D tech research now, games drive the desire for better and better hardware, and games drive PC sales, no matter how many pundits in our industry say otherwise. In other words, content STILL drives hardware sales. Content is still King. Long live great content! Go out and make some of your own ;-).”

A: NVIDIA, the leader in visual computing, maker of the GPU of choice for gamers, and the company who works with game developers to make sure their games play the way the designers intended.

B: Intel, a CPU company that asks people to dumb down their game settings to even run games and whose integrated products are missing critical gaming features and have poor compatibility with the most popular games.

The Answer may surprise you.

Rumors of the PC’s demise may be greatly exaggerated

People have been proclaiming PC gaming dead for a while. But EA says it ain’t so…

“On EA's earnings conference call, Chief Executive John Riccitiello pointed out that the PC games industry is actually doing just fine when you look at the total picture rather than isolating "soft" retail sales”.

Plasq Continues Visual Computing Wave
Fancy yourself a superhero; then, make your dream a reality. Plasq has a cool, visual computing application called Comic Life Magiq. Create your own comic with your own pictures and then print it! It’s simple, easy to use, and fun.

Blizzard hits Paris in June
Ron Pardo, Blizzard’s senior vice president of game design, will be the keynote speaker at GDC Paris, which will take place June 23 – 24, 2008.

[DMB2000uk]

This kind of hyperbole is almost getting funny to read.

Dan

[martini161]

This kind of hyperbole is almost getting funny to read.

Dan

i dont like when people use big words like that

[Sovereign]

*Drum roll*

EPIC FAIL!

640x480? Welcome to 1995 Intel... I can't take them seriously if they think that 1024x768 is a "great" resolution for gaming of any sort.

[skier]

640x480 for internet play!????? i use 1024x768, and don't like how THAT looks, i haven't had a game play that res since frogger for PC came out

[vicaphit]

Yeah, that is rediculous. I could only stand 800x600 in f.e.a.r. because I still only had about 20 FPS on my old onboard video card.