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
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.
Today is the day. NIVIDA releases the GTX1060 @ MSRP US$249. Every place I’ve looked they are sold out.
GTX1060 – Released July 2016
The new GTX1060 has the same performance as the GTX980 but, for less money, even at eBay prices. At least for now. It takes time for those on eBay to catch up with the market.
Calla Cela got settings for her NVIDIA card, specifically her 970, from NVIDIA tech support. She made this handy video. Using it I decided to check my settings it has been forever since I looked at them. zOMG! When the Lindens changed the install folder name, (like L O N G ago) my SL setup apparently went away…
There are some gotcha’s in her video. Nothing wrong. Just some places where you are likely to hit a wall.
May 7th NVIDIA released two new video cards; GTX 1080 and GTX 1070. The 1080 seems to be the most impressive card going, at least for the moment.
GTX1080 – Image by: NVIDIA
These cards sell for GTX 1080 US$599 and the GTX 1070 for $379. It sounds expensive, but these cards outperform anything else being made by a large margin. The Titan X is listed on Amazon for $1,149. The GTX1070 outperforms the Titan X. It outperforms the 980 by nearly 2 times and generates VR imaging at more than twice the rate.
In Second Life we run on OpenGL. Most Windows games run on DirectX. Microsoft has announced DirectX 12. It will essentially make NVIDIA 500 series and older cards obsolete. To use DX12 you’ll need a 600 or newer series card. This video explains what is happening. OpenGL is not left out.
It looks like ATI/AMD is making a replacement for OpenGL called Vulkan. It sounds like Vulcan is targeting more devices than DirectX 12. I expect to see Vulcan working on an Android mobile device way before DX12. I still have serious doubts we will see real time 3D render of good quality on mobile devices in the near future.
So, is the Lab planning to upgrade SL to Vulkan? I don’t know. I’ve asked. Vulkan is open source.
Word is OpenGL will still be developed. I think that odd. OpenGL is referred to in one place that came up in my research as a high level API, higher than Vulkan. The basic geek speak uses high and low to refer to how close you are to the hardware… the closer you get to the hardware the more programming you have to do. With higher level languages the more the language does for you.
Think of it this way… a low level addition command would be written as: place this value in Reg#1 and this other value in Reg2 then preform an XOR operation on then and place the result in Reg3 then move Reg3 to memory as variable X. A high level language would let you write the code as A + B = X and handle all the registers, operations and moves for you.
There are good reasons for using higher and lower level languages and API’s. But, generally we want API’s that produce more overall efficiency. From the other stuff said about Vulkan I would think it should be called a higher level API…. it does way more for the programmer. Whether it is higher or lower it is the next gen descendant of OpenGL.
For those of us playing in SL this means little today. But, suggests that play in Sansar will mean we will need a 600 series card or higher.
If you are looking for more details start at the Wikipedia: Vulkan API.
