JawZ
08-01-2008, 09:07 PM
http://arstechnica.com/journals/hardware.ars/2008/08/01/nvidia-forceware-180-big-bang-ii
NVIDIA will launch a new version of its ForceWare graphics drivers in September, and its unusual name is causing some ripples. GPUCafe claims to have information on what the new update will include, and if they're right, it will be quite an update indeed.
The new release, properly called ForceWare release 180, is being referred to in NVIDIA documentation as "Big Bang 2." This name evokes an earlier driver launch, Big Bang, which first allowed multi-GPU support on the GeForce 6000 series. The name implies that this driver release will be similarly huge, and the declared feature list is pretty compelling. GPUCafe says ForceWare release 180 will bring the following features:
* Multimonitor support for SLI
* Display Port support
* OpenGL 3.0
* Hardware video transcoding
* GPU PhysX support
* Performance optimizations
The performance optimizations are a continuing process, and a matter of routine. Support for the new standards is a good thing, and HTPC users will like the transcoding support. DisplayPort may now begin to appear on NVIDIA cards. The big news, however, is the PhysX and multimonitor announcements.
NVIDIA will launch a new version of its ForceWare graphics drivers in September, and its unusual name is causing some ripples. GPUCafe claims to have information on what the new update will include, and if they're right, it will be quite an update indeed.
The new release, properly called ForceWare release 180, is being referred to in NVIDIA documentation as "Big Bang 2." This name evokes an earlier driver launch, Big Bang, which first allowed multi-GPU support on the GeForce 6000 series. The name implies that this driver release will be similarly huge, and the declared feature list is pretty compelling. GPUCafe says ForceWare release 180 will bring the following features:
* Multimonitor support for SLI
* Display Port support
* OpenGL 3.0
* Hardware video transcoding
* GPU PhysX support
* Performance optimizations
The performance optimizations are a continuing process, and a matter of routine. Support for the new standards is a good thing, and HTPC users will like the transcoding support. DisplayPort may now begin to appear on NVIDIA cards. The big news, however, is the PhysX and multimonitor announcements.