14 DAY TRIAL // No, AMD did not release the new graphics card lineup yesterday, as a response to NVIDIA's new GT200 series. However, the chip manufacturer did do something, and that was to hold a press conference in San Francisco, during which it showcased "a milestone achievement in ultra-realistic and interactive visual computing." Not really the launch of a graphics card, but rather a marketing scheme to demonstrate the graphics capabilities of the upcoming RV770-based lineup, the conference was simply dubbed "Cinema 2.0 experience."
We all know how AMD's graphics subsidiary, ATI, is trying to pull a better product than the current leader on the market, NVIDIA. This is why almost every user out there is expecting that the next product that comes from Advanced Micro Devices is a real competitor to NVIDIA's new graphics card series. Were we to look closer at yesterday's demonstration, we just might say this is quite possible.
"With Cinema 2.0 you won't just play movies, you'll play in them. Imagine the ability to look around the environments in a sci-fi movie, put yourself in the driver's seat in a race scene, duck behind things and pop up to see what's going on in an intense firefight - all of these things are possible with Cinema 2.0," said Charlie Boswell, director, Digital Media & Entertainment, AMD. "The challenge for any director has always been taking a wonderful vision in the canvas of the mind and translating that to film for the audience to see. Cinema 2.0 breaks down the time and cost barriers of getting a scene or shot that's 'just right', and what's better, allows audiences to dive deeper into the experience to explore every part of that director's vision." he explained.
In other own words, AMD is trying to say that its yet-to-be released graphics cards are going to provide a whole new meaning to computer graphics. But the conference got really interesting when the company decided to display a new Ruby demo (which you can see here). The demo ran "live" on a system powered by a Phenom X4 9850 BE CPU on an AMD 790FX motherboard and a couple of RV770 cards in CrossFire.
In all fairness, the demo does look impressive but, then again, this is precisely what one is meant to do: impress! We'll see the real deal when we get to witness the power of these cards put into play by regular users.
