Quote:
Originally Posted by cadaveca
Um, yeah.
G80 launched November 2006.
R520, which featured CTM, and Compute support(and as such, even supported F@H on GPU long before nVidia did), launched a year earlier, when nVidia had no such options, due to a lack of "double precision", which was the integral feature that G80 brought to the market for nV. This "delay" is EXACTLY what delayed DirectCompute.
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That GPGPU implementation was not Ati's work in reality, but Standford University's. That was nothing but BrookGPU and used DirectX instead of accesing the ISA directly like now. Of course Ati collaborated in the development of drivers so they deserve the credit of .
That has nothing to do with our discussion though. Ati being first means nothing as to the current and 5 past years situation.
Ati was bought and dissapeared a long time ago and in the process the project was abandoned.
AMD* was simply not ready to let GPGPU interfere with their need to sell high-end CPU (none is Intel), and that's why they have never really pused for GPGPU programs until now. Until Fusion, so that they can continue selling high-end CPU AND high end GPUs. There's nothing honorable on this Fusion thing.
* I want to be clear about a fact that not many see apparently. Ati != AMD and has never been. I never said nothing about what Ati pursued, achieved or made before it was bought. It's after the acquisition that the GPGPU push was completely abandoned.
BTW your last sentence holds no water. So DirectCompute was not included in DX10 because Nvidia released a DX10 card 7 months earlier than AMD, which also happens to be compute ready (and can be used even on todays GPGPU programs)? Makes no sense dude. Realistically only AMD could have halted DirectCompute, but reality is that they didn't because DirectCompute never existed, nor was it planned until other APIs appeared and showed that DirectX's supremacy and Windows as a gaming platform was in danger.