We’ve already received information that NVIDIA has equipped its G80 family with a physic acceleration unit, which like PureVideo will be an extra circuit for dedicated purposes. Now it seems that NVIDIA has apparently decided to dedicate even more space for special calculations in its new architecture, namely HDR and antialiasing. The new unit of G80 will sport 128-bit HDR (High Dynamic-Range), which is twice the bits compared to today’s 64-bit of today’s high-end cards, but also 16X antialiasing. NVIDIA already has support for 16X antialiasing today, but only with SLI systems so G80 will be the first single-circuit with support for this advanced technology.
If we look back at the HDR functionality, NVIDIA has used a format developed by Industrial Light and Magic, which is perhaps best known for making the special effects in Star Wars. The format supports 128-bit floating point HDR and should result in more powerful HDR effects. We are waiting for more concrete examples, but we already know what the HDR effects of today can do to games such as Far Cry, Oblivion and more.
We’re eager to see who NVIDIA will tie everything together. G80 looks to be a very capable graphics circuit, but we shouldn’t expect too much before we actually see what the cards can do in neutral tests.
