NVIDIA G80 Retail Details Unveiled

DailyTech’s hands-on with the GeForce 8800 series continues with more information about the GPU and the retail boards. The new NVIDIA graphics architecture will be fully compatible with Microsoft’s upcoming DirectX 10 API with support for shader model 4.0, and represents the company’s 8th generation GPU in the GeForce family.

NVIDIA has code-named G80 based products as the GeForce 8800 series. While the 7900 and 7800 series launched with GT and GTX suffixes, G80 will do away with the GT suffix. Instead, NVIDIA has revived the GTS suffix for its second fastest graphics product—a suffix that hasn’t been used since the GeForce 2 days.

Daily Tech - NVIDIA "G80" Retail Details Unveiled

More interesting is the rumoured but as yet unconfirmed Quantum Effects engine, which appears to be Nvidia’s pitch for physics processing. Quantum Effects essentially leverages the G80 shaders’ processing power for physics calculations, much as PureVideo uses today and tomorrow’s GPU shaders for video processing. Quantum Effects will, we’d guess, tie in to Havok FX’s physics API and to Microsoft’s anticipated DirectX physics API.

Hints that Nvidia is working on a physics processor of some kind emerged last month when Asus let slip the company’s plan in what’s presumably a reference to the upcoming 8800s.

Reg Hardware - Nvidia to make quantum leap with GeForce 8800?