NVIDIA 1180 Almost Here…

We had rumors for months as to what the next NVIDIA card would be, when it would release, and what it would cost. But, we are getting closer to a possible release. NVIDIA only goes so long before they release a new card. So…

Ray Tracing is a way of rendering a scene. Its big advantage is in rendering very realistic images. For instance, most of an Ikea catalog is made from rendered images that for a long time I thought were RL photos.

The reason it isn’t used so much in games is the cost of rendering the images. So, software like AutoDesk’s AutoCAD use it as real time rendering isn’t needed. The primary task is prototype product images, pictures of products not yet existing in RL. Only within the design process… a computer.  Making it more of a snapshot thing than a  movie camera.

NVIDIA adding in a Ray Trace feature will being higher quality graphics to more games. Less time will be spent calculating the effect of lights and shadows.

For use in Second Life it isn’t going to be a big plus or even a change. The SL render engine is required to support older systems. So, adding a ray trace feature to the engine is not going to be a high priority, if it is even a consideration.

However, the card will be faster and likely have faster video memory.

2 thoughts on “NVIDIA 1180 Almost Here…

  1. But will it be any “improvement”? I have been doing numerous performance tests vs 2 friends with a Ryzen and GTX 1070 and one who has an 8700K and a GTX 1080 Ti. About 6 generations newer than my system and they don’t get any better performance than me. At least at the High preset. I’m guessing they must get lower usage and temps with the Ultra preset but not yet confirmed. I was going to upgrade but if I’m going to see zero benefit at least in SL I’m rethinking a purchase.

    • You are thinking and testing. You’re an exception to the current norm.

      The video card provides only about a third of the performance. CPU and memory/motherboard speed divide up the rest. The solution is to find where the bottleneck is in your system and upgrade that. I have articles here that will help you figure that out. Select the tag ‘Hardware’.

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