Nvidia have released there new range of 200 series graphics cards. In this release we see a return to form with the top-end cards arriving first. Introducing the 1GB Geforce GTX 280 and Geforce GTX 260.
The specs are very impressive, now with 240 processor cores. Nvidia wasn’t about to leave all that power just laying around when your not gaming, they’ve created a platform that allows you to utilise the GPU for normal processing tasks. Effectively giving you another, very powerful processor.
“Beyond the field of play, GeForce GTX 280 seamlessly shifts tasks from the CPU to the GPU, allowing you to dive into the latest Blu-ray movie, surf the web in 3D, or transcode video to a personal video player up to 7x faster than traditional CPUs.”
If your wondering what happened to creator of Agiea PhysX after they were acquired by Nvidia.. well her now works for them. You can check out 3 videos on the Nvidia site (link at end of this post), where they showcase some of the new technology and uses for this extra power including improved utilisation of physics. One of the most impressive in my mind is the football game where the camera passes of the stadium crowd which are all full 3D models, not the typical 2D rotating plane where used 2 see in the top of the stands. There’s also some footage of the upcoming Far Cry 2, where the developer explain they’re able to achieve amazing draw distances.
Now what’s better than the fastest card available ? Two of course! 
Better than that ? The insane Tri-SLI allows for 3 of these monsters to be packaged together providing the ultimate gaming monster!
Alienware have already jumped at the chance to load these up as a US$1700 option in their Area 51 7500 gaming rig.
While Nvidia go from strength to strength and do a great job at decreasing the release cycle of new products (if you just bought 9800GTX.. you’d be a little pissed), the competition – ATI just aren’t even in the game at this point.
Oh and Leo, if your building the ‘Ultimate Gaming Rig’, this would be a great place 2 start.
