Hardware

What is the 2016 Titan X Pascal?

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A few days ago NVIDIA released the GTX1060. The 1060 is the mid-range video card for gamers. The GTX1080 has been out for some time and it was the top end video graphics card for gamers. Now 25% faster than the 1080 is NVIDIA’s 2016 Titan X (Pascal) Video Card nearing its release date, August 2, 2016. (NowInStock)

2016 Titan X - Coming 8/2/2016
2016 Titan X – Coming 8/2/2016

The cost of a GTX1080 is in the US$700 to $800 range. The 2016 Titan X is rumored to have a MSRP of $1,200. That is 50% more in cost for 25% more in performance. Not the most GPU per dollar but, it is fast. For the enthusiast this is sort of like comparing a Geo-Metro to a Farrari using cost per pound (kilogram) or top speed. Incomplete comparison.

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Now in Stock – The Trick to Buying it NOW

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Arwen
Arwen

I’ve got to tell you about a great site I learned about. It is so handy. Love it.

In the process of building my new computer I hit a purchasing problem. As I often buy things from eBay I’ve become accustomed to knowing when I can get an item. Things are ‘Buy It Now’ or the remaining time in the auction shows. I can control my wait time. But, getting a GTX1060 was proving to be a problem. 

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Second Life: Oculus Rift CV1 Viewer & How To

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Hamlet at New World Notes is pointing out David Rowe has a SL VR Viewer working. The page Hamlet  linked to is out of date. The new news is in the comments where David says,

Oculus Riftを貰った
Oculus Riftを貰った

David Rowe Post author5 Jul 2016 at 11:22 am

Just tried LL’s Rift viewer and, well, it’s surprisingly un-good. It’s like the graphics are being fed from the wrong framebuffer object or the pipeline is being misconfigured when you switch into HMD view. Intentional or bugs? I suppose time will tell. The graphics should be able to be so much better (even if understandably the FPS isn’t so good)!

Links:

Note Jo Yardley’s comment about being able to use Vorpx with a regular viewer (i,e., like Firestorm, Alchemy, or LL’s regular viewer) to view Second Life in your Rift. I haven’t tried it myself but am told it can be used.

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Graphics Cards and VR

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The site Road to VR has an article about Nvidia and the changes they are making to improve VR performance and that tech moving into game engines. See: Unreal Engine and Unity to get NVIDIA’s New VR Rendering Tech.

Waiting for my ship
Waiting for my ship

Until recently video cards were given geometry (the mesh world), lights, and a camera position and they rendered an image. As the camera moved the geometry was reloaded shaded and rendered again with mesh and lights in relation to the camera. (Which is technically saying it backward. Consider the camera fixed and to change the view we move the world. Think of your computer screen as the camera. It sits on your desk never moving. Everything displayed on it moves. Thus the reason for reloading geometry.) 

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Oculus Rift Update 2016 w27

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For some time people have debated the accuracy of the hype around the Oculus Rift. Now as competitors enter the market there is; hype, spin, rumors, and lies about the various Virtual Reality (VR) Head Mounted Displays (HMD).

LinusTechTips provides a video to give people a sense of what the facts are.

It appears HTC Vive is taking a lead. But, there may be more Google Cardboard mashups in use than all the other HMD’s combines. Vive ≈ 100k, Oculus ≈ hidden, Samsung Gear ≈ hidden. When companies hide their sales figures it usually means they are not meeting expectations.

Projections are Samsung will be the top seller, Oculus the second best, and Vive the third best.

Google Cardboard is reported to have 57% of all VR headset sales. (Reference) Samsung has 31%, Playstation 9%, and all others combined 3%. Oculus doesn’t even show.

So, do you think it is a good idea that the Lab is focused on supporting Oculus? Or… are they supporting the one device that is least likely to be used with Second Life™?

I’ve already said I’m waiting. I’m spending my money on a new computer. Then my first HMD is likely to be Cardboard or Samsung Gear… if we don’t count my trying VR with my S5, which was limited to one app a demo.