Just wondering what you all think.Is it all going in the right direction or what? And how will nVidia compete with this with the release of a GeForce5 (if there will be a 5).
I’m kinda curious as to how nVidia and ATI will respond to this.I’m in the market for a new video card and everytime I make up my mind on one card,they go ahead and release another 
3DLabs strikes back !
I am really looking forward to the P10.
My engine should run nicely on it 
(The NV_Evelators did not really gave me what I needed in regards of higher order surfaces)
But sure, I would like to know as well what Nvidia & ATI ( in no specific order 
) are working on right now.
Regards,
LG
NVIDIA doesn’t have to compete with GeForce class systems, the P10 is targeted at a different market. The P10 is probably positioned higher end than a top of the line Quadro4, but time will tell since you still can’t buy one. NVIDIA’s CEO has said their new architecture to replace GeForce4 Ti class systems will be due out in August this year, this will certainly have versions positioned for high end gaming systems and cost much less than P10 based systems. If you really want a P10 you better start saving or hope that Creative does something exciting with 3DLabs when they aquire them (that would be cool). If you are interested in a card for games & hobby graphics then a P10 is probably out of your league, but don’t worry NVIDIA & ATI will come out with something interesting this year unless they screw up.
I thought the P10 was consumer level that competes with the GeForce and Radeon series.
>>the P10 is targeted at a different market<<
personally i dont think this is a wise move, the distinction between the two groups that used to exist is blurred now, 3dlabs i believe are gonna make this card cheap enough to be of interest to consumers IMO
Here’s a quote from the article:
We first got a whiff that 3Dlabs was exploring new opportunities for mass market graphics last summer. Trevett revealed a few sketchy details to us, on the promise of secrecy. We met with Trevett and John Schimpf, director of developer relations, on two other occasions to discuss the new architecture, codenamed P10.
This is definately a consumer-level card. Why do you think 3DLabs has been pushing OpenGL 2.0 for the past year? The high-end market doesn’t really need programmability or most of what OpenGL 2.0 offers over 1.0. No, 3DLabs wants to have the first OpenGL 2.0 compliant card out there.
the p10 architure is flexible enough to be targeted at both consumer and high end markets. It will be just like the geforce and the quadro from nvidia, one for consumer/business market the other the workstation market…
[This message has been edited by haust (edited 05-06-2002).]
My bad, I look forward to it! 3DLabs has had a dry spell in the consumer arena so it would be great if they could get back in the game with a full featured product. It’ll be real interesting to see how this pans out. 3DLabs have had world class OpenGL implementations for the longest time now, and a development like this could deliver that quality to the rest of us in an interesting product if they really can bring P10 to the unwashed masses. It’s looking like we’ll have at least 3 major new architectures to play with by the end of the year.
[This message has been edited by dorbie (edited 05-06-2002).]
To make a long story short, the prospect of being able to get one of these by the end of the year has completely destroyed my interest in the R200, NV20 and NV25. I’ll continue chugging along on my craptastic Radeon 1 in the meantime.
When Creative bought e-mu a few years back, they did so mainly to get access at a $500 product e-mu had just developed. Because of the awesome scale Creative can achieve, they could sell the same chip (with cheaper components) for $50, and moved on to rule the world with what’s affectionately known as the SoundBlaster Live! series (Emu10k1).
Seems they’re set on trying to do the same thing for graphics. It’ll be interesting to watch.
Oh, and regarding ATI/nVIDIA responses: I imagine they’ve been working on their DX9 level hardware for a long time, and will have it ready in time for the actual DX9 API release. That level features many interesting enhancements, although not full OpenGL 2.0 equivalency.
Zeckensack, it’s NV30 that NVIDIA claims it will launch in August. If this has destroyed your interest in both NVIDIA and ATI futures then I suppose 3DLabs’ marketing dept. has done their job reguardless of whether their engineering dept. does.
Well, I said it destroyed my interest in the current crop of chips. NV30 and R300 are still not specced out for the public, so I can’t say anything about these. I’ll just have to wait and see.
OTOH I’m really aching for an upgrade right now. I want some hardware to play around with, programming wise. To me that would have been an 8500LELE or some such, not top of the line speed-wise but very capable hardware.
But I know I’d just have to throw it away and get myself a P10 asap. As I see it right now, that will be the ultimate toy for a hobbyist graphics programmer like myself. NV30 and R300 might qualify as well, though I doubt it. AFAIK they won’t be anywhere near as flexible. But again, we’ll have to wait and see.
Ahh, wth, maybe I’ll still buy something in between, prices are good. It’s just that it won’t feel great anymore after having seen the P10 diagrams and stuff.
The card is still vaporware, although the feature set does peak my attention. 
I just hope Creative leaves 3Dlabs alone, or they will have another mess on their hands, like the SBlive driver fiasco that still plagues the SBlive.
I also wonder why Creative gobbled up 3Dlabs? Maybe they are also going in the chipset business? Or if the power requirements are low enough for the p10, maybe a new notebook chipset?
That seems like the trend now-a-days.
$#^%%^! Here I was about to order my GeForce4 4600 and now the P10 is announced. Now I have to wait till this fall to see how the P10 matches up to the GeForce5 and decide on a new card.<sigh> Will this cycle ever end?
OK, now I see what you meant zack… whatever the version of NVIDIA or ATI card you’re no longer considering purchasing, someone at 3DLabs has done their job well.
sure not, that cycle is called EVOLUTION
Looks like the graphics scene will get a little more interesting again. We’ll have at least four serious players in the closest future at least. Now Matrox will announce their next card on 14 May. It’s official:
http://www.matrox.com/mga/
Hope it’ll have a more fullfeatured OpenGL driver than the G400 had.
Has anyone actually used the new DX8-level SiS cards? Do they work well? What’s their OpenGL support level?