36 |MAMAMAXIMXIMXIMXIMUUUUMMPPPCC|DEC 08 |www.maximumpc.com
Graphics
Larrabee will loom but not make an impact in ’09
It’s been a long time since a new vendor entered the 3D graph-
ics market, but that’s exactly what Intel plans to do late in
2009 with Larrabee. Unlike previous videocards from Intel,
which used traditional 3D pipelines, fairly standard x86 cores
will power Larrabee.
Larrabee will include many x86 cores, but the cores in Lar-
rabee processors will be greatly simplifi ed compared to a modern
Core 2 proc. Larrabee CPUs will be based on the Pentium P54C
design, updated to include modern features, such as 64-bit sup-
port and the inclusion of traditional GPU hardware in the form of
texture fi ltering units. Additionally, Larrabee will feature cache
coherency between the many x86 cores, which means that all of
the cores will have access to the same high-speed cache, and thus,
memory. This is a common feature in monolithic CPU cores, like
the AMD Phenom and upcoming Intel Core i7, but it isn’t typically
a GPU feature. Cache coherency should give Larrabee a signifi cant advantage over more traditional
architectures when it comes to running general-purpose computing applications on the GPU.
So should you start saving your pennies for a Larrabee-powered GPU in 2009? Not yet. We expect that
Larrabee will launch in late ’09 with parts targeted at the server community for render farms and scientifi c
applications, followed by mainstream parts designed to upgrade low-end machines that would typically
sport integrated graphics. For 2009, at least, Nvidia’s GT 200 and ATI’s RV770 cores (which power the exist-
ing GeForce GTX 280 and Radeon 4870 HD, respectively) will remain the top dogs in graphics.
So what exactly is upcoming from ATI and Nvidia? ATI will roll out a slew of parts across all prices
based on modifi ed versions of the RV770. The current rumor is that Nvidia will launch a modifi ed ver-
sion of the GT 200 sometime next year, tweaked to reduce power consumption and die size, that’s more
suitable for lower-end parts, as well as dual-GPU cards similar to ATI’s Radeon 4870 X2 boards.We’ve heard a lot of buzz from Nvidia and ATI about GPUs being used
for general-purpose computing, but to date, only a small number of
applications actually harness this power: a couple of Folding@Home
clients, a video encoder or two, and a whole host of scientifi c and
video-rendering apps that don’t really apply to normal users. Right
now, GPU-based computing is essentially a promising science fair
project—at least as far as Maximum PC readers are concerned.
In 2009, we expect that to start to change. A host of main-
stream apps, including Photoshop CS4, are slated to launch that
will impact the scene in a big way. By treating the photos you’re
editing as 3D textures, Photoshop is able to take advantage of the
astounding performance packed into a modern GPU. What’s the
end-user benefi t? Lightning-fast zooms, resizes, and scrolling,and that’s just the beginning. And
although the fi rst round of video
encoders failed to deliver acceptable
visual quality at better-than-CPU
speeds, we expect to see rapid improvement in visual quality as
the GPU-powered encoders mature.
However, we don’t expect to see any massive increase in these
GPU-accelerated apps until there’s a common API that lets software
vendors write GPU-accelerated programs for Nvidia, ATI, and Intel
GPUs. (Right now, apps must be specifi cally coded for either ATI or
Nvidia GPUs.) Both Microsoft and Apple have APIs in the works that
will compete to become the fi nal unifi ed standard, but today there’s
no way of knowing which will win.IN FOCUSGPUs for General-Purpose Computing
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