The most important hardware feature/tech so far

[Reverend]

... since the debut of hardware TnL, I might add.

This forum's been pretty boring for some time now so I thought I might as well ask you guys what you think has been the most important 3D hardware technology or feature since (and including, which is important) the debut of DX7 3D hardware.

 

[AlphaWolf]

The molex connector.

Seriously though I guess I'd pick MSAA.

 

[soylent]

High performing AF.

 

[Fodder]

It's not 3D-specific, and it's not necessarily new, but I'm a big fan of the power management goodies we're getting more and more of.

 

[wireframe]

hmmm....normal mapping?

"Tell me what to say, pleeeeeeaaaase!" - Brian

 

[Moloch]

Dual slot cooler.
Nvidia really paved the way with their wonderfull 5800 ultra!
Go nvidia!

 

[Reverend]

High performing AF.

This is an available fexture/tech now?

 

[jvd]

This is an available fexture/tech now?

He never said high quality af . Just really fast af

 

[Ailuros]

Floating point HDR.

 

[Kanyamagufa]

Really tough question.

As far as what is now able to be done in terms of graphics, I think Ailuros is right with HDR and the possibilities that will open up for lighting in future games.

On the hardware side, I have no idea.

 

[Ailuros]

Uhmmm can you really get float HDR w/o any HW support?

 

[Luminescent]

Hardware programmability. More specifically, the ability to run customized programs at the pixel and vertex level.

Performance-wise, I believe that that aggressive parallelism, multithreading, pipelining, and advancements in scheduling [at the hardware level] have been responsible for the majority of processing power and efficiency increases of the gpu. Consider that the gpu has had to deal with an ever increasing amount of off-chip data, producing a need for latency masking. Quite a bit of ingenuity has been successfully invested in preventing the stalling of the pipeline.

 

[Skrying]

HDR..... some day. I think in its current state, or at least the way I've seen it, it looks like utter shit. But I see where it can help a lot, and I see how it can really improve graphics....... some day.

 

[THe_KELRaTH]

Transparancy / Adaptive AA.

With this feature 3D cards have finally past 3DFX AA in terms of quality with performance.

Just a shame ATI haven't added this feature to openGL... but I expect MS have told them that they'll all be sacked at takeover time if they do.

 

[_xxx_]

In theory, total programmability and very high flexibility of the hardware.

Neither HDR nor AA are new, IMHO HDR is nothing really special although it's a nifty feature. But there was really nothing groundbraking since the introduction of T'n'L, again IMHO.

 

[trinibwoy]

Has to be programmability. Nothing has come close to having the same impact. Everything else has just been tweaked/improved using smaller, faster process nodes.

Even unified shaders won't bring anything to the table feature wise. I figure the next big thing is the SM4.0 geometry shader.

 

[rashly]

Definitely programability. Being able to run fragment programs changed everything.

 

[Putas]

I am also for programmable pipeline, with clear shader models. Microsoft did good job with this.

 

[pascal]

Programability is the most important after T&L, but maybe not the one with most impact now. Other itens have more immediate and pervasive impact. IMHO the real impact will come in the not so long future.

 

[Remi]

Programability. Programability. Programability. And Programability. Did I mention programability ?