Intel's Sandy Bridge: Benchmarks and good graphics

[Squilliam]

Zlejedi said:

Squilliam said:

You can't run 3D at more than 1280 by 720 due to how the HDMI 1.4 spec operates. Its not a bandwidth limitation.

The reason why they should have limited GPU power?

1. It means that instead of simply tacking on more functional units they would have been forced to make them a lot more efficient and this would translate to improved performance from bottom to top.

2. It means that PC game developers would be able to target a more consistant specification and there wouldn't be as great a spread between the highest end and the lowest end GPU on the market.

That's for 3D. Normal picture can go to 1080p without problems.

Ad1. And they are working on power efficiency - radeon 5770 brings power similar to 4870 at 100W instead of 180, radeon 5870 has performance equal to pair of 4870 in 186W TDP instead of 360Watts.

Ad2. I'd rather prefer if they reduced this gap by increasing performance of low end cards instead of putting leash on development of high end ;) And actually next generation of cpus is doing exactly this. By greatly increasing power of integrated GPUs they give stable base for delevepor to benchmark against and also this will make tons of low end cards pointless which mean GPU manufacturers will have to impove low end gpus to the point when they bring serious performance.

That power efficiency is the result of improvements in process technology, stuffing more units in when each unit requires less power due to improvements in the silicon fabrication processes. What I was talking about is performance per watt on every given process. GPUs would have evolved differently if they had a limited power budget to work with and it would have been a lot more practical for OEM machines to be upgraded to gaming spec.

At the moment there are laptops, basic OEM desktop units and enthusiast machines. Each is an order of magnitude different in average performance. Smart developers have always targetted the lowest end possible. If anything something like The Sims or Starcraft 2 is the ideal PC game because of its market inclusiveness. The high end has always been a fools errand, but at least now everyone can see that. There are many good reasons why something like an HD 5870 is spinning its wheels trying to play any game at a typical PC desktop resolution, even full HD means you run out of settings to turn on for 99% of titles in existance.