Unified Shader Pipes... when?

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USMC2Hard4U

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I may not exactly know what Im talking about :p because its 630 in the morning and Im still up but...

I know with current hardware such as the 7800GTX. It has 24 Pixel Pipes, and 6 or 8 or something Vertex Pipes. Whatever.

Arent they going to be making GPUs with Pipes that can do both / all? if so, when are these going to surface, is this next gen? or still aways off.

Thanks
 
R600 (desktop version of the XBox360s GPU - R500) and G80 will support it, I don't know exactly when they will be out but I think that in Q3 or Q4 of 2006.
 
That and anything else you hear can only be taken as assumptions. No one but those working in ATi and Nvidia could know about Unified Shader pipes, at least no one could talk about it as its most likely under a heavy NDA.
 
My best guess is that that both next gens from NV and ATI (sometime in 2H 2006) will have a unified architecture in order to utilize DX10/SM 4.0 with Vista.
 
The Prophet said:
R600 (desktop version of the XBox360s GPU - R500) and G80 will support it, I don't know exactly when they will be out but I think that in Q3 or Q4 of 2006.
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R600 is not a "desktop version" of the R500. They are completely different chips, they merely share some similarities (mainly the fact that both have/should have unified shader architecture).
 
Ok cool. So how exactly are these Unified shader units or pipes going to bennifit us?

Will the boost older games? or have to have special programing to take advantage of?
 
You're right, "desktop version" isn't the right word for it, but it is based on the R500 that was based (or is) the R400, they both have Unfied Shaders (because I assume that the R600 will support SM4.0 in order to support Vista's WFG2.0 which in order to support it and SM4.0 you will need Unified Shaders).
 
if i'm not mistaken unified shaders are shader engine that can do either a pixel or vertex shader at a time. so it can be optimize to run a certain number doing pixel shader and the others doing vertex shaders. But i'm not sure how its being decide though. If its software dependent, then it might be a little hard to e implemented on PC front.
 
Brent_Justice said:
My best guess is that that both next gens from NV and ATI (sometime in 2H 2006) will have a unified architecture in order to utilize DX10/SM 4.0 with Vista.
Click to expand...

Correct me if I'm wrong but the 'graphics API' for SM4.0 is WGF2.0 yes? I was under the impression that WGF2.0 didn't need to be used with a unified architecture...
 
tornadotsunamilife said:
Correct me if I'm wrong but the 'graphics API' for SM4.0 is WGF2.0 yes? I was under the impression that WGF2.0 didn't need to be used with a unified architecture...
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Things from MS have been constantly changing on this front. First it was DX10, then it was WGF, and now it's back to DX10. Nothing is really solid on it all yet.

As we move into 2006 hopefully more info will become available on exactly what they are calling it, and the specs.

It just seems logical though that next gen cards will be unified, Xbox 360 is afterall.

Again, these are just my best guesses and opinions.
 
USMC2Hard4U said:
Ok cool. So how exactly are these Unified shader units or pipes going to bennifit us?

Will the boost older games? or have to have special programing to take advantage of?
Click to expand...

It will just allow them to be more flexible. Some games like RTS call on the vertex side of things more than other games. Anyone else worried about "Jack of all trades, master of none"?
 
I thought microsoft was going to create a unified software model for pixel/vertex progs first and then the gfx card companys would later do it in hardware?
 
Lord of Shadows said:
I thought microsoft was going to create a unified software model for pixel/vertex progs first and then the gfx card companys would later do it in hardware?
Click to expand...

I believe either is compatible with WGF2.0, I know ATi are going hardware but I don't know if nVidia will go hardware also...
 
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