Autumn's the time for 512MB graphics

WHETHER WE NEED it or not, ATI and Nvidia will deliver whatever it thinks the market demands and now it thinks that's cards with more memory. It's called marketing, designed to encourage consumers to buy more, more and yet more, and takes advantage of human nature. nature. We just can't help ourselves.

An Nvidia and ATI Autumn refresh will bring you 512MB of memory and we remember that ATI actually said something about delivering 512MB cards by the end of this year.

More graphics memory means larger textures but then again our beloved game developers cannot resist the pressure of the source of their money, the publishers and have to optimise for more standard cards with a smaller amount of frame buffer memory.

It's sad that even years after people learned that the graphic chip is the heart of the graphic card responsible for performance, people still measure cards by the quantity of memory. The majority of people seem to want a slower card with 256MB than a faster card with 128MB.

So, after years with 256MB cards it's time for 512MB and ultimately to 1024MB in about a year, I expect.

The Nvidia NV48 and the ATI R480 are very likely candidates for 512MB but it all depends on availability at the time of launch.

If Nvidia and ATI are still struggling to ship X800XT Platinum and the Geforce 6800 Ultra imagine how long it will take them to take new NV48 and R480 on market. µ