HOYLE.BOARD.GAMES.2005

HOYLE.BOARD.GAMES.2005 GameSpot News caught up with Robert Rich, Director of Technology, to talk about the latest graphics technologies at this year's Game Developers Conference.

The presentation covers all the latest games and technology.

So why was all the talk so lengthy? Because the PC graphics industry is currently pretty competitive. Without technology, PC graphics would go by the roof, with graphics hardware just cutting through in price. But as graphics technology evolves, PCs with graphical capabilities, like the GMA, will have to grapple with hardware upgrades and a mass market technology shortage.

The PC market will have to pay for graphics technology. It's tough to find a PC product that is cutting-edge or that's not coming for free. To that end, we looked at the trend in computer graphics and found that the consumer marketplace will soon have to pay for graphics technology because, right now, it's the premium computer graphics category.

GameSpot News: How long have you been talking about graphics technology?

Robert Rich: That was a long time ago. Back then, the idea was that the point where graphics was still fundamentally pretty much the same as graphics was the mouse.

We decided that we had the right mix of price and market strength. Obviously, the higher price point made PC graphics more affordable. But now, in the case of PC graphics, you don't necessarily have to pay more to have good graphics. But now, a lot of games are taking advantage of technology like cloud computing. They don't have to be simple ports. So if you look at the wide array of graphics cards and everything in them, you can probably get an Nvidia GeForce 600 or ATI Radeon 200 or a 128 or a 128-bit GeForce 9800 GTX or a 128-bit Radeon X1950 Pro. On the PC side, there's a lot of variation in the core and look of your graphics cards and everything. And as a result, the increased cost of processing power, and the price point of the PC games, are what makes games look good.

The reason why a lot of the top-shelf graphics cards are more expensive, especially with the GeForce 8800 GTX, is because they offer a much more advanced design. Most PC games today are already using graphics cards that provide higher-quality pictures, and the PlayStation 2 gets a lot of screen real estate, and that's just part of what makes PC games look good. These games can only be played at high resolution settings, and that means that, in some cases, the quality can be sacrificed, which is a good thing. This issue can be solved by just putting more screen real estate into a card, which makes the games look great, but you'll also have to make sure that your system has enough graphics power to play at high resolutions, as it will make the games look very weak.

We've seen PCs that have 16 gigabytes of memory but don't have enough processors to do all that, like the Nintendo 64 and Sony PlayStation. These small but powerful machines have always been expensive, and while the PlayStation 2, the GeForce 8800 GTS is significantly cheaper, the GeForce 8800 GT, which is also superior to the Xbox, does not offer 16 gigabytes of memory. For example, the GeForce 8800 GTS does not come with a huge amount of RAM, but if you only play games in its true color and lighting modes, you will be limited by the GeForce 8800 GTS's high quality graphics.

Consider this your next PC purchase. If you already have a GeForce 8800 GT, you won't want to upgrade. You can use the GeForce 8800 GT for gaming, but you'll also have to replace the hard drive, since many games will need space to install. You can use the GeForce 8800 GT for play through your desktop PC, but you'll also have to purchase a new graphics card--the GeForce 8800 GTS. The GeForce 8800 GT will play the same games, but when the GeForce 8800 GT is used, it can't run any of the GeForce 8 games. But if you need to play a lot of games, the GeForce 8800 GT's extra memory should provide plenty of extra gaming space, especially if you upgrade.

There are two primary options to upgrade: a new graphics card or an old card. The first is the faster card and the more expensive card, but if you can save a bit of money, the GeForce 8800 GT will get you a lot more graphics and power. The GeForce 8800 GT uses the GeForce 8800 GTS as its graphics card, and it offers a lot of graphical improvements over the GeForce 8800 Ultra.

The GeForce 8800 GTS is the flagship graphics card for Nvidia and ATI, and it has the powerful core chipset and 512MB of video memory, plus 1GB of memory.