And everyone told me it wouldn't happen :(

[overdosedelusion]

oh buggar...

well, i told people but they didnt believe me.

High-end gaming is going to be cleared out to make way for the CPU/GPU integrated chip. This unfortunately means that games will no longer be able to be played with all the sparkle and luster of a 7900GT, instead, we'll be left with mediocre graphics just so that we can have pc's the size of a palm top for "family" entertainment. And to make it all worse, we wont even be able to choose our components. Buffs of the ATi-intel, and the AMD-nVidia combo's will not be best pleased. AMD have surely dug a hole for themselves with this merger.

by 2008/2009 we are going to start seeing a dramatic change in the game market. i mean, what are they going to do, produce games solely for high end? or mass market the mid end? wonderful eh? guess we'll have to get used to playing games with blotchy aliasing, poor rendering, and physics in league with MOH allied assault. And o don't know about you guys, but i cant just jump onto console, I need a fecking keyboard and mouse, not some dodgey contoller that you practiclly have to guess with.

Its a sad sad day i need to game, my spirits are low.

[DaveW]

Hmm...i have my doubts. In order to build the GPU into the CPU, it would take a complete re-write of everything we know about computer architecture. Games will probably be less compatible, and will probably be classed as 'legacy systems' while the architecture changes. But This has been happening for a while now. I don't think you need to worry about this-this is only a prelude to a huge war between Intel and AMD. Everything we've seen so far is only scuffles and arguments.

Which means massive price drops and technological leaps for us.

Conroe vs. the new giant? Now THAT will be a war. What worries me is the longivity of my brand new x1900xt. Will future games be compatible with it?

If you ask me, this means that NVidea has pretty much won the Graphics Card battle now. The competition is owned by AMD, and by the time they've sorted out their affairs, NVidea will be miles ahead technologically.

However, if AMD/ATI were to buy Ageia...THAT would be a very interesting development indeed.

-Dave

[Omega]

if AMD/ATi were to buy Ageia, then it's game over for Intel and nVidia, unless they team up and find another Physics processor company...

[overdosedelusion]

actually, everything in the article confirm what my mums bf has been telling me, hes an intel engineer (number 1 in the UK aparently :S) but anyhow, he told me all this before the partnership even happaned. intel actually plan to get rid of their gaming side, as its such a small market compared to buisness use. I passed off what he said of complete bull, like everyone is saying to me. But i do belive now that this partnership has arised.

If this is supposed to be a war, the surely AMD should have snapped up nVidia? being the leading grphics card provider?. nVidia have now liscenced intel also (according to my mums bf) to use their SLi technology. So basically, we have an Intel/nVidia vs AMD/ATi, and with the new conroe chips, intel will slaughter AMD. Thus, intel will have their way and we will start seeing cpu/gpu architecture become standard. My mums bf was saying the AMD are just trying to be clever (i hope to god this isnt true, as id be happy with either ATi or nVidia) and that intel are going to seize the opportunity. nVidia will slowly become nothing (along with all their partners, who will either have to switch to the red team, or die out)

I too worry about the long term use of my 7950 card, in 1-2 years it wont be worth the silicon its made from.

Though i do hope however that nw companies will rise from the ashes, and produce hardware for gaming. perhaps nVidia could create their own CPU? it would be hard, ATi are out the window, but it could open a window for 3Dlabs or Matrox? nVidia have the tecnology to make their own motherboards, cpu's and graphics cards. I just hope this doesnt spell the end for PC gaming. but i think there is about a 98% chane that it will.

[nil8]

The end of pc gaming? WHAT?!
The first rule of business is to provide your product to your customers. Gaming is a massive industry and PC-related companies definitely thrive off large parts of it.
Come on, the end of gaming?

What I'm predicting is as the integrated technology advances, it will be used in business class desktops and different equipment will be available for enthusiasts.
Nothing will realistically change in either market, just technology doing what it always does. End of gaming...bah.

I'm glad AMD did this. They needed to branch out and ATI has a solid customer base and a good product. Let's hope AMD can keep their research dept up against NVidia.

Besides this, game developers will design games to run within certain specs, just like they do now. I highly doubt if developers will 'utilize' ATI or NVidia more than they do now. That cuts down on the customers that will spend the dough for the game and the possibility of a new graphics card.

You have to view what companies do with a dollar sign in mind. They do.

[overdosedelusion]

The end of pc gaming? WHAT?!
The first rule of business is to provide your product to your customers. Gaming is a massive industry and PC-related companies definitely thrive off large parts of it.
Come on, the end of gaming?

What I'm predicting is as the integrated technology advances, it will be used in business class desktops and different equipment will be available for enthusiasts.
Nothing will realistically change in either market, just technology doing what it always does. End of gaming...bah.

actually, its a miniscule market. just think, your local school probably have more pc's than everyone on this forum combined. now multiply that by how many shools there are in the district, and multiply that by how many districts in the world. and thats just schools, think about huge companies. gaming industry for pc's is so small that it wouldnt be missed. companies will simplpy produce games for consoles instead.

[GT40_GearHead]

just think, your local school probably have more pc's than everyone on this forum combined

be serious man! .....

you want to tell me that youre school has 5,295 comps, it may be America but that i dont belive!
btw: tell me what every body does soner or later on theyre home pc, they PLAY, so every pc owner is a potential customer....
i dont see how you can call that negligible

[overdosedelusion]

be serious man! .....

you want to tell me that youre school has 5,295 comps, it may be America but that i dont belive!
btw: tell me what every body does soner or later on theyre home pc, they PLAY, so every pc owner is a potential customer....
i dont see how you can call that negligible

hm, maybe i underestimated how many people were on this forum. but seriously, y college has about 1000, and there are about 8 colleges in my little area

[Silenced_Coyote]

This quote was taken off the bottom of page 1.

As functionality aligns and re-aligns, it makes more and more sense to create an integrated chip at the heart of the computer that handles all processing, be it system related, memory related, graphics or physics related. As we gain the ability to put more and more cores on CPUs, expect to see some of those cores dedicated to graphics processing, especially as 3D graphics capability becomes more important (cf Windows Vista).

From what I can tell, it doesn't sound like the end of PC gaming to me. You talk about a future game that doesn't have all the "sparkle and luster" yet why would they add more cores so that the CPU can handle more 3D intensive stuff? You might be thinking more along the lines of what integrated graphics on the motherboard did. Just because they are putting graphics and physics on the CPU, it doesn't mean that it is going to suck for PC gaming. That is why they are adding more cores.

I don't see why it can't be good for PC gaming like the cache on CPUs and the integrated memory controller.

[overdosedelusion]

well im just going off what my mums bf has been saying to me, and i seriously have no reason not to believe him. I see an end, or at least a dismal future for pc gaming. And we will lose high definition gaming. Dont come crying to me though i warned you. If im wrong ill be jumping for joy. i wouldnt say it if i didnt believe it.