The state of the GPU

There has been widespread dissapointment over leaked benchmarks from NVIDIA's "new" 9800-series. You don't need to be Sherlock Holmes to have realised by now that this series is not the true next gen cards from NVIDIA but simply a repackaging of the newer 8800's (GT & GTS512). While the 9600 shows a lot of value, 9800GTX and GX2 doesn't seem to be a huge (if any) step up in comparison with the older 8800GTX/Ultra. True, the cards is not out yet and the drivers are not optimized. But if you're hoping for a Crysis-cruncher, this will not be it. Why?

Because there is no pressure on NVIDIA to release their true next gen yet. Although it seems that the G100/GT200 (naming ambiguity all over again...) seems to be ready, the competition for now is ATI's 38xx-range. I think that all the angry fuzz around the "new" G9x stems from the misconception that the 9800 would be the Next Big Thing. It's no wonder though since the rumors around the 9800's since last summer or so have been so diverse and wild to say the least. No, it's when the summer comes that things will get interesting with ATI's 4xxx (R7x) and NVIDIA's answer to those cards.

In the future things could get a bit more interesting since Intel is showing interest in participating in the GPU race. It would be an interesting twist to the market, and I hope they can give ATI and NVIDIA a fight. Competition is a good thing.

In other news NVIDIA recently bought Ageia. NVIDIA is also working on physics software to be compatible with their ordinary GPU lineup. So it's possible that we will soon be able to use part of a card to handle physics or even dedicating one to the task. Interesting since physics is an area where lot's of numbercrunching is required and the use of "real" physics is something that's slowly working it's way into games. I'm thinking primarily of upcoming games like Alan Wake, Alone in the Dark and Far Cry 2.