Nvidia Launches 8800 Series, First of the DirectX 10 Cards

mikemuch writes "The new top-end GeForce 8800 GTX and GTS from Nvidia launched today, and Loyd Case at ExtremeTech has done two articles: an analysis of the new GPU's architecture, and a benchmark article on PNY's 8800 GTX. The GPU uses a unified scalar-based hardware architecture rather than dedicated pixel pipelines, and the card sets the bar higher yet again for PC graphics." Relatedly an anonymous reader writes "The world and his dog has been reviewing the NVIDIA 8800 series of graphics cards. There is coverage over at bit-tech, which has some really in-depth gameplay evaluations; TrustedReviews, which has a take on the card for the slightly less technical reader; and TechReport, which is insanely detailed on the architecture. The verdict: superfast, but don't bother if you have less than a 24" display."

another review

[brunascle]

Hot Hardware has another review [hothardware.com]

Yeah, but...

[cp.tar]

... does it run Linux?

Seriously... when are the Linux drivers expected?

Re:WOW! This is FAST!

[Ant P.]

What they're saying is that if you're only ever going to go up to 1600x1200, this is just going to waste drawing more frames than your monitor can ever display. Right now it looks like the only thing that could strain this card is one of those huge Apple LCDs.

Re:Yeah, but...

[Anonymous Coward]

http://www.nzone.com/object/nzone_downloads_linux_ display_x86_1.0-9742.html [nzone.com]
http://www.nzone.com/object/nzone_downloads_linux_ display_x86_64_1.0-9742.html [nzone.com]

Re:Yeah, but...

[Ambassador Kosh]

Now

http://www.nzone.com/object/nzone_downloads_rel70b etadriver.html [nzone.com]

Check at the bottom the 32 and 64 bit linux drivers are beta and you can use them right now. It looks like they also have bsd and solaris support today also.

Re:MSI's 8800GTX @ Bootdaily

[theonecp]

Er.. link here: http://www.bootdaily.com/index.php?option=com_cont ent&task=view&id=178&Itemid=56 [bootdaily.com]

Re:SLI?

[noSignal]

From nvidia.com:

Q: Do the new GeForce 8800 GTX and GeForce 8800 GTS GPUs support SLI technology?

A: Yes. All GeForce 8800 GPUs support NVIDIA SLI technology.

Re:WOW! This is FAST!

[JohnnyBigodes]

Apparently Neverwinter Nights 2 has some sort of problem in it is *very* slow for some people with reasonably fast PCs. I've tried it and it also runs almost unbearably slow with things set to medium everything and a couple of lows (1024, no AA) on a 7800.

20fps with your 7800GTX in NWN2 is certainly not acceptable :)

Re:Yeah, but...

[Anonymous Coward]

People actually use high end graphics cards on Linux for things other then games. There are Linux systems running scientific viusalization software, virtual reality systems (flight simulators, driving simulations) and animation software for the non-game entertainment industry.

Re:SLI?

[Anonymous Coward]

From the looks of it, with the card having two SLI connectors on it, a 3-card SLI solution will be introduced soon enough. Scary to think that there are people out there willing to spend that kind of cash to get three top of the line 8800s - not to mention paying top dollar for a board that has three PCI-E 16x slots.

Re:Virtualisation Support?

[TychoCelchuuu]

Right now, although the card supports DX10, all your games and Operating Systems are in DX9. Until Vista comes out you're not going to see anything taking advantage of any neato DX10 doodads.

Re:Makes PS3 obsolete before launch

[Anonymous Coward]

target an output device with a typical resolution of 640x480 at 60 frames per second at most
You're living in the past. Is it a technical requirement to support 720p on both 360 and PS3. Some games are going for 1080, but that it rare.

Re:"DirectX 10 Cards"?

[Quasar1999]

Oh please!

It's called the CAPS structure, and DirectX has had it for as many versions as I can remember. You check to see what Capabilites the card supports and decided what features you'll use. The OpenGL extensions are the same damned thing, except there you enumerate a big string list, while on the DirectX side you have all extensions visible and most available in software emulation mode, with the CAPS structure telling you what was hardware accelerated.

Besides, how do you think pixel shaders and vertex shaders got to where they are today? It certainly wasn't because graphics card manufacturers decided to write extensions to OpenGL for the hell of it... It was DirectX specs that pushed them forward. And it's those same DirectX specs that allow developers to write games in parallel with the hardware development cycle, so that when the latest card comes out, there are already games ready to use it.

If developers had to wait for a card to come out with some OpenGL extension before being able to experiment, understand, and then use it (and only on one brand of card), do you think anything would be adopted in any reasonable amount of time?

I by no means love DirectX, it's got it's issues... but the OpenGL extension concept is in NO WAY helping innovation in the hardware arena.