OGD1: the first ''free'' graphic card Nvidia acquires RayScale 3DMark Vantage Hotfix 1.0.1 is online Photos of the GeForce GTX 280

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OGD1: the first ''free'' graphic card   Posted on 22/05/2008 at 22:50 by Nicolas

	Traversal Technology has worked in collaboration with Open Graphics Project to offer the OGD1, a new type of graphic card as its creator wants to feature a model whose entire specifications are published and which of course will be accompanied by an open source driver. Besides the open aspect of the project, the accent will be put on the card’s 2D performances and complete implementation of OpenGL with as much hardware acceleration as possible. In PCI-X format (64-bit/133 MHz) but compatible with traditional PCI format, it will notably integrate a Xilinx Spartan-III XC3S4000 FPGA chip (under the Voodoo Banshee heatsink/BX chipset), Lattice LFXP10 non-volatile FPGA, and Conexant CX25874 (for video encoding) as well as 256 MB of DDR400. The development kit which includes the B revision of the card is now offered on pre-order but you will still have to plan on spending $1400...

Nvidia acquires RayScale   Posted on 22/05/2008 at 22:27 by Nicolas

	HotHardware has announced the buyout of RayScale, a start-up launched 10 years ago which has 8 employees and is specialized in interactive ray tracing. This is a term that is often ‘’too’’ easily associated with Intel’s Larrabee. The Salt Lake City based company currently only offers LightNow for Autodesk Maya still in its beta version. When reading its product sheet, we can quickly see why the company could attract the interest of the firm with the green chameleon: LightNow provides interactive feedback with physically-based ray tracing, as well as high quality batch rendering. Version 0.9 Features: Lambert, Phong, PhongE, Blinn, and Anisotropic materials Maya lights Fully responsive ray traced rendering window that updates to changes in the Maya model's geometry or materials Integration with Maya Rendering window Simple ray tracing Global illumination HDR rendering Environment mapping Additional version 1.0 Features: Caustics RayScale advanced shaders In mid-December Nvidia already acquired Mental Ray which develops the 3D rendering engine software used in the movies the Matrix Reloaded, Star Wars : Episode II and Hulk but especially by programs such as Maya, XSI, 3D Studio Max, Houdini and SolidWorks.

3DMark Vantage Hotfix 1.0.1 is online   Posted on 22/05/2008 at 22:04 by Nicolas

	Futuremark has put the first Hotfix (Build 1.0.1) for 3DMark Vantage online. In terms of innovations, there is now the possibility of seeing scores in off-line mode with the Advanced Edition. Also with this edition, score save / submit saved options are now available. Otherwise, ad banners were taken out of all versions. There are also a number of bug fixes. An issue preventing valid serial key entry in some cases should now function, the detection of supported resolutions has been improved and the problem which caused the appearance of the the WM_QUIT" message error was resolved. For more details and its download, you can go here! Note that scores should not be affected by this update and they remain comparable to what was previously obtained.

Photos of the GeForce GTX 280   Posted on 22/05/2008 at 17:41 by Nicolas

	PCPOP has unveiled the first "recognizeable" photos of the GeForce GTX 280. This is contrary to those that appeared a few days ago in a dismal resolution and therefore of little interest also due to the fact that 3D images of the card were already leaked. Note the imposing size of the GT200 and the confirmed presence of a NVIO chip (on the left) which manages video inputs and outputs. On the other hand, the diode cable seems to be missing. The card’s power bloc is rather plush and apparently a VRM 2+1 phase.