[neoterran]

the AM2 socket will allow for 4x4 operation in a year or so, that is basically a buzzword for AMD's upcoming Quad Core chips and Dual GPU SLI (4 cores CPU, 4 Core GPU)

Considering that AMD's chips all use Hypertransport Point to Point interconnect with cache coherency between all 4 cores, that could end up being a considerably better platform in the long run vs a Front Side Bus Crippled Core 2 Duo.

[Fury]

Considering that AMD's chips all use Hypertransport Point to Point interconnect with cache coherency between all 4 cores, that could end up being a considerably better platform in the long run vs a Front Side Bus Crippled Core 2 Duo.

That's true. It eludes me as to why Intel decided to stick with outdated FSB.

[AlphaOne]

And here I was thinking that Intel CPU offer the best stabilaty and performance for programming and other stuff like that. I still can figure out why Intel have lagged so much behind??

[Turambar]

cause theyve been working on their new one, which is supposedly the pants.

[neoterran]

Another really interesting thing that is going on is that AMD has opened up their hypertransport architecture. That means that anyone can now make a chip that interfaces directly (plugs into) socket AM2.

I can imagine having a PPU running off the hypertransport bus might be quite exciting.

[Descenterace]

Has anyone written a raytracer that makes use of the GPU yet? Doing all those calculations in software seems rather inefficient. There must be some way of offloading the vector calculations onto the graphics hardware.

[Flipside]

Well, Nvidia are working on something that works alongside 3DSMax, but I don't know how effective it will be, GPU's use several 'Shortcuts' or optimisations to make things as quick as possible. Raytracting software doesn't do that because quality is far far more of an issue than speed.

[aldo_14]

Considering that AMD's chips all use Hypertransport Point to Point interconnect with cache coherency between all 4 cores, that could end up being a considerably better platform in the long run vs a Front Side Bus Crippled Core 2 Duo.

That's true. It eludes me as to why Intel decided to stick with outdated FSB.

Possibly down to trying to work around the limitations of stuff AMD have already patented, I'd guess.

[Colonol Dekker]

Theres that new Physix card that dell are sticking in one of their machines that certain games which suupport the feature will implement, The card effectively taking the phiysics calculations off the computres workload.

If a rendering equivalent (not a graphics card) but kinda like a dual core but explicitly for dedicated hardware rendering came along that would be V cool.

Unless i'm mistaken and you can do that with dual cpu anyway, I otta admit my knowledge of rendering goes back to 2002 last ime i did it for any duration.

[aldo_14]

There are dedicated - very expensive - rendering cards.  Have been for a while, it's just not the sort of thing you'd expect to see on the high street.

[Colonol Dekker]

If i was into hardcore rendering, As a leisure thingg, at the moment its more of an old hobby i wanna get back into, But if i WAS into it heavily, I could put a few grand up for it....

[Flipside]

Actually, I have an old computer that runs purely as a server and rendering machine. It means that speed isn't all that vital, since the machine isn't being used for anything else. So if it takes 3 weeks to render up a 10 minute movie, I'm not that bothered

[Colonol Dekker]

Taling about that i caught Advent Children last night. Visually splendid but what a load of crap with regards to the story.

Dont get me wrong i loved FF7 but the film is a load of arse.

I think this subject deserves another thread.

[Turambar]

building the computer yourself is a much better option.  you know exactly what you have, what components are in it, and how it's put together. its more than just some shiny plastic shell from alienware, its your baby when you build it yourself.

[Colonol Dekker]

I built my first pc over a decade ago, i just cant be botherer with hardware conflicts and jumper settings anymore.
When i was tinkering it was a good learning process and all that. But now i just dont see why i should go through compatability hassle issues when i can afford the shiny aesthetic pre-made stuff.

[neoterran]

physics processors are going to be a must when it comes to future games... have you guys seen cellfactor with the physX PPU (physics processing unit) ? It does things like barrels fly around and break open and realisitic liquid spills out... pretty neat.

Since AMD will allow companies to plug into the hypertransport architecture, you could see stand alone PPU's pluging into AM2 based dual motherboards in the next 2 years.

Currently Intel's Core 2 Duo is the nicest architecture, due to it's 4 x86 decoders, but AMD is still well positioned. All they need is a few tweaks to their next generation chips (the DDR3 ones) and they'll be right in the game.

Either way the consumer wins. Whether you have Core 2 Duo or a Dual Core Athlon, you have tremendous processing power compared to what was available even 3 years ago.

[neoterran]

I built my first pc over a decade ago, i just cant be botherer with hardware conflicts and jumper settings anymore.
When i was tinkering it was a good learning process and all that. But now i just dont see why i should go through compatability hassle issues when i can afford the shiny aesthetic pre-made stuff.

hardware conflicts are gone thanks to APIC and having things like hundreds of IRQs (at least, in Windows Vista, where it truly shines, but to a large extent in XP as well)

jumper settings ? All motherboards are jumperless nowadays (it really has been a long time huh!) The only settings you have to change are in the BIOS.

Of course, if you don't enjoy building your own machine, you can buy the pre-made stuff. But it really truly is a hobby for some of us.

[CP5670]

physics processors are going to be a must when it comes to future games... have you guys seen cellfactor with the physX PPU (physics processing unit) ? It does things like barrels fly around and break open and realisitic liquid spills out... pretty neat.

Although there may be a future for that concept in general, the $300 PhysX "decelerator" is currently something of a joke:
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2759

Cellfactor also reportedly runs at the same speed on software and on the PhysX card. In a few years this type of thing may become mainstream, but I don't see it going anywhere any time soon, especially in terms of how it affects gameplay.

[Flipside]

Yeah, these first ones will be like the very early graphics cards, really just adding functionality, it'll be a while before anything more relevent comes out.

[Descenterace]

Well, Nvidia are working on something that works alongside 3DSMax, but I don't know how effective it will be, GPU's use several 'Shortcuts' or optimisations to make things as quick as possible. Raytracting software doesn't do that because quality is far far more of an issue than speed.

No, fixed-function rendering (Gourad, etc) uses shortcuts. The programmable pipeline is simply a large number of very fast floating-point arithmetic units. The only shortcuts those take are the ones you program them to take.
The GPU is just a huge number of programmable FPUs with a default program.