Thursday, September 17th 2009
DirectX 11 Won't Define GPU Sales: NVIDIA
"DirectX 11 by itself is not going be the defining reason to buy a new GPU. It will be one of the reasons." This coming from the same company that a few years ago said that there was every reason to opt for a DirectX 10 compliant graphics card, to complete the Windows Vista experience, at a time when it was the first and only company to be out with compliant hardware. In the wake of rival AMD's ambitious Evergreen family of DirectX 11 compliant graphics cards being released, NVIDIA made it a point to tell the press that the development shouldn't really change anything in the industry.
Speaking at the Deutsche Bank Securities Technology Conference, NVIDIA's VP of investor relations said "DirectX 11 by itself is not going be the defining reason to buy a new GPU. It will be one of the reasons. This is why Microsoft is in work with the industry to allow more freedom and more creativity in how you build content, which is always good, and the new features in DirectX 11 are going to allow people to do that. But that no longer is the only reason, we believe, consumers would want to invest in a GPU."
"Now, we know, people are doing a lot in the area of video, people are going to do more and more in the area of photography… I think that the things we are doing would allow the GPU to be a co-processor to the CPU and deliver better user experience, better battery life and make that computers little bit more optimized," added Mr. Hara
NVIDIA, which was until very recently a firm believer in graphics processing horsepower to serve as the biggest selling points of new GPUs, now switches its line on what it believes will drive the market forward. All of a sudden, software that rely on the raw computational power of GPUs (eg: media transcoding software), and not advanced visual effects that a new generation API brings with it (in games and CGI applications), is what will drive people to buying graphics processors, according to the company.
Mr. Hara concluded saying "Graphics industry, I think, is on the point that microprocessor industry was several years ago, when AMD made the public confession that frequency does not matter anymore and it is more about performance per watt. I think we are the same crossroad with the graphics world: framerate and resolution are nice, but today they are very high and going from 120fps to 125fps is not going to fundamentally change end-user experience. But I think the things that we are doing with Stereo 3D Vision, PhysX, about making the games more immersive, more playable is beyond framerates and resolutions. Nvidia will show with the next-generation GPUs that the compute side is now becoming more important that the graphics side."
The timing of this comes when NVIDIA does not have any concrete product plans laid out, while AMD is working towards getting a headstart with its next-generation GPUs that are DirectX 11 compliant, and also has compliance with industry-wide GPGPU standards such as DirectCompute 11 and OpenCL.
Source:
Xbit Labs
Speaking at the Deutsche Bank Securities Technology Conference, NVIDIA's VP of investor relations said "DirectX 11 by itself is not going be the defining reason to buy a new GPU. It will be one of the reasons. This is why Microsoft is in work with the industry to allow more freedom and more creativity in how you build content, which is always good, and the new features in DirectX 11 are going to allow people to do that. But that no longer is the only reason, we believe, consumers would want to invest in a GPU."
"Now, we know, people are doing a lot in the area of video, people are going to do more and more in the area of photography… I think that the things we are doing would allow the GPU to be a co-processor to the CPU and deliver better user experience, better battery life and make that computers little bit more optimized," added Mr. Hara
NVIDIA, which was until very recently a firm believer in graphics processing horsepower to serve as the biggest selling points of new GPUs, now switches its line on what it believes will drive the market forward. All of a sudden, software that rely on the raw computational power of GPUs (eg: media transcoding software), and not advanced visual effects that a new generation API brings with it (in games and CGI applications), is what will drive people to buying graphics processors, according to the company.
Mr. Hara concluded saying "Graphics industry, I think, is on the point that microprocessor industry was several years ago, when AMD made the public confession that frequency does not matter anymore and it is more about performance per watt. I think we are the same crossroad with the graphics world: framerate and resolution are nice, but today they are very high and going from 120fps to 125fps is not going to fundamentally change end-user experience. But I think the things that we are doing with Stereo 3D Vision, PhysX, about making the games more immersive, more playable is beyond framerates and resolutions. Nvidia will show with the next-generation GPUs that the compute side is now becoming more important that the graphics side."
The timing of this comes when NVIDIA does not have any concrete product plans laid out, while AMD is working towards getting a headstart with its next-generation GPUs that are DirectX 11 compliant, and also has compliance with industry-wide GPGPU standards such as DirectCompute 11 and OpenCL.
194 Comments on DirectX 11 Won't Define GPU Sales: NVIDIA
nvidias been struggling lately - if they werent, they'd have DX10.1 and 11 cards out, and they wouldnt need to rename products to keep in the news every time ATI release a new card.
Both cards at the time they were released were ATI's top tier card. At least Nvidias cards gave you a performance boost with the new named cards.
This is not new.
This is not related to DX11.
This is not related to GT300 or RV870.
I was just pointing out the hypocrisy of a company saying that new technologies aren't worth buying a new card for, when at one time, that was all I ever heard about Nvidia. I still think it's a very valid point.
It's not that I dont see a wave of gamers using multiple screens... Its just that I definitely wouldn't buy it... the borders are way too distracting.
while the ATI cards had the same performance, at least changes WERE made. features were added.
Nvidia doesnt add anything to theirs, you can even BIOS flash them between each "variant" of the cards.
Point is they don't have a dx11 part in the immediate future whereas AMD's 5870 is imminent - quite obvious why NOW, of all times, they are beating the DX11 doesn't matter drum. DX11 will start to matter only after their product comes out :laugh: then they will say that everyone needs to have for the best computing experience.
That crown is key... if the current benches are correct, then two $350 5870's will spank what is now two $500 gtx295 in quad SLI. And after all this time, I think that is a bitter pill for NV to swallow.
PS. I really hope AMD doesn't screw up this time. And please bring out the legit driver for DX11Compute / OpenCL. I wanna know how long Nvidia can hold onto their CUDA thing.
Heres my prediction. Since I'm ALWAYS wrong it will probably be just the opposite.
We are seeing roles reversed from the last generation. ATI will lead this time in over all performance and Nvidia will take their lunch in price/performance with the 300s.
DX9 has been a good platform, but it's time to retire at some point here, this is going to be it.
Hey if prices on GT200 class cards plummet that's good news for us :)
Nvidia is going to release its 300 series from what all sources point to next year sometime, now . . . . by that time ATI would already be about to release the HD6k(they always replace their cards in under a year, sometimes in 6 months) series and nvidia will be taking losses, that gonna be a short lunch.
either way you look at it, a next year launch on the 300 series is not looking good.
There's no stopping to the "horsepower", duh. To get more and better feats you have to pack some...
So NV, stop barking at the moon and get your act together, we need you so the prices go to normal levels.