Linked by Thom Holwerda on Mon 9th Nov 2009 21:29 UTC
Over the past few years, there have been persistent rumours that NVIDIA, the graphics chip maker, was working on an x86 chip to compete with Intel and AMD. Recently, these rumours gained some traction, but NVIDIA's CEO just shot them down, and denied the company will enter the x86 processor market.
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Member since:2005-07-11
Member since:2005-07-08
Member since:2008-01-06
Windows, OSX, KDE4 and recently I believe also GNOME desktops use 2d graphics acceleration using a GPU.
You're wrong. Vista (w/ Aero), OS X (Quartz Extreme) and KDE4 use 3D acceleration to enhance performance with the GUI and reduce CPU load. OS X was first in this regard starting with OS X 10.2 Jaguar. 2D acceleration has been used since the 80's.
I have an ATI HD2400 graphics card (a very low end card), but even this very modest and inexpensive graphics card speeds up the KDE4 desktop quite a bit through 2D acceleration. I am using the radeon open source graphics driver, which doesn't have 3D functionality as yet, and it won't have until Linux kernel 2.6.32 comes out.
I dare you to find me a card made in the last 15 years that is a simple dumb framebuffer with no 2D acceleration. 2D acceleration helps, but without 3D acceleration, your card is crippled in my book. I will not use a card if I can't get 3D acceleration and no, I am NOT a gamer.
PS: When kernel 2.6.32 comes out, since ATI GPUs are far faster than Intel GPUs, after a little while ATI GPUs will become the best option for Linux. They will have open source drivers integrated with the kernel, like Intel GPUs, but unlike Intel they will also have performance on par with nVidia GPUs.
I don't know, even though the NVIDIA drivers are closed source, they perform pretty damn well. Every open source 3D driver I've used has been underperforming buggy crap compared to the closed source drivers. Even the older Radeon 9200 drivers sucked compared to the official drivers. I just wish they'd hurry up with the 64-bit FreeBSD drivers.
Anyway ... the speed of desktop graphics are nicely enhanced by 2D hardware GPU acceleration
And they have been since the dawn of personal computing. Nothing new there.
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Member since:
2007-02-17
Windows, OSX, KDE4 and recently I believe also GNOME desktops use 2d graphics acceleration using a GPU.
I have an ATI HD2400 graphics card (a very low end card), but even this very modest and inexpensive graphics card speeds up the KDE4 desktop quite a bit through 2D acceleration. I am using the radeon open source graphics driver, which doesn't have 3D functionality as yet, and it won't have until Linux kernel 2.6.32 comes out.
PS: When kernel 2.6.32 comes out, since ATI GPUs are far faster than Intel GPUs, after a little while ATI GPUs will become the best option for Linux. They will have open source drivers integrated with the kernel, like Intel GPUs, but unlike Intel they will also have performance on par with nVidia GPUs.
Anyway ... the speed of desktop graphics are nicely enhanced by 2D hardware GPU acceleration when it comes to operations such as scrolling or resizing/moving windows, and also for "bling" enhancements like pop-up notifications, hihglights, widget animations, transparency, fade-ins and fade-outs and shadows.
Edited 2009-11-09 23:25 UTC