DirectX10 explanation

I was flipping over a few pages of graphics cards reviews (since I've missed so many of them!) and suddenly I found an article, previewing DirectX10.

The article was good, especially when it explained the geometry shader in a plain English. I guess DirectX10 promises a very bright future in graphics indeed.

"The traditional vertex shader takes in a single vertex, a single point, and it has to output a single vertex. It's impossible for the vertex shader to create or destroy triangles because it always has to output a vertex for each one it takes in. The geometry shader lets the game operate on entire geometry primitives, lines, triangles, and points as well as neighboring adjacent primitives. The geometry shader can also create new primitives, add new triangles, before sending them further down the pipe to the rasterizer and pixel shader.

Even better, the geometry shader can also output results directly into memory, allowing data to go right back into the graphics pipeline without going out to the CPU for setup. The changes will let the GPU accelerate particle effects like smoke and explosions, which are usually done on the CPU. Games can also use the geometry shader in combination with texture arrays to accelerate effects like cube mapping. Games use cube maps to make an object reflect the world around it. To make an object like a stainless steel teapot reflect its surroundings, you have to determine the teapot's surroundings and map it onto the teapot. Normally, this can take six passes, but a game can use the geometry shader and a render target array to create a cube map in one pass."

Head over to TweaksRUs for the rest of the article.

X1800 GTO : Reviews about this card

I have been missing from the graphics cards scene for a few weeks and what have I got? I missed the fact that X1800 GTO had been launched! What a nice graphics card it is. Simply said, X1800 GTO is a very worthy competitor to GeForce 7600 GT from NVidia.

Sneak peek into its features:

• Ultrathreaded SM 3.0 engine with fast dynamic branching
• 500 MHz core speed
• 1.0 GHz memory speed
• 256-bit memory interface
• 12 Pixel shader processors
• 8 Vertex shader processors
• 512-bit Ring Bus memory controller with 256-bit GDDR3 memory
• 2 dual link DVI connectors
• HDTV and ViVO enabled
• HDCP option for board implementation

Basically, X1800 GTO is a cut-down X1800 XL using R520 chip. Now as we all have experienced in the past, there's a chance that this GTO can be modded.

LegitReviews and HotHardware have their reviews on X1800 GTO. Head over them for the full story.

GamePC : Review on XFX’s GeForce 7900 GTX Extreme Edition

GamePC has a review on this card, XFX GeForce 7900 GTX Extreme Edition, a step less than the ultimate version of 7900 GTX from XFX, the XXX 'Xander Cage' Edition. No, I made that Xander Cage thing up.

With the extra clocks kicking in, of course this card has some edge over some other 7900 GTX out there. That's what I love about XFX. Of course, that comes with a hefty price tag too.

"The Extreme Edition card is clocked 6-9% higher compared to the majority of other 7900 GTX cards on the market, which gives them a performance advantage of about 5% in the most graphically intensive scenarios. The clock speed boosts are significant enough to show some gains in the benchmark charts, but are not quite enough to make a difference in terms of power consumption or heat production. The cards sip a little more juice from the outlet, but nothing to get concerned about.

While it sounds as if I may be shrugging off the 7900 GTX Extreme Edition, I should reiterate that this card is extremely fast. In both single-card and multi-card scenarios, the 7900 GTX provided us with our highest benchmarks seen to date. Sure, they aren’t above and beyond other 7900 GTX cards, but these cards can certainly live up to the claim of being one of the fastest non-overclocked cards on the market."

Head over to GamePC for the full review.

NVNews: Review on eVGA 7900 GT

Head over to NVNews.net for its review on eVGA7900 GT (somehow I like the GT franchise, I don't know!)

"Out of the box the EVGA 7900 GT CO SUPERCLOCKED is one very impressive card. This is undoubtedly the fastest mid-range card I have ever tested staying with or bettering the 7800 GTX in the benchmarks used in this preview. Looking at the card you might want to replace the heatsink and fan arrangement and put some heatsinks on the memories. But after you run it you might want to wait on that awhile. It performs very well and seems to run cool even when stressed. So, in my opinion it is good to go as is. Yes, just plug it in and start gaming. That's what I plan to do and I may revisit this review with some updates after some gaming sessions. That is, if I can put the mouse down long enough to do an update.

I definitely rate the EVGA 7900 GT CO SUPERCLOCKED a least a 'Home Run'."

NVNews