That io chip in middle of everything would allow for all kind of neat things if it could do compression/decompression. It seems to be capable of routing traffic very nicely without first having to bother dgpu/cpu.
This hardware IO is easier to implement in a fixed console design. But for PCs, which hardware block is going to pay for the transistor budget?
depends on what marketing wants.This hardware IO is easier to implement in a fixed console design. But for PCs, which hardware block is going to pay for the transistor budget?
AMD/ Nvidia on the GPU?
Intel/ AMD on the chipset/ CPU?
SSD manufacturers on the SSD itself/ or HW controllers?
Or purely software driven on CPUs?
If the hardware IO ends up somewhere at the expense of other transistor logic, competition can downplay one metric at the expense of another and slowdown adoption, for example. I suppose if DirectX implemented an API, whether it's software or hardware is left open for acceleration, but where will the hardware reside?
depends on what marketing wants.
Ryzen 5000 series now with new hardware compression for IO load times increase x amount , UE5 games get X amount faster.
New PCI-E 4 nvme drive now with hadware compression logic for IO load times , so on and so forth.
Depending on the actual cost to include we could see it everywhere. What if the compression hardware is on the SSD , CPU and Video card ? Would they be able to just keep the textures compressed even in graphics ram ?
This hardware IO is easier to implement in a fixed console design. But for PCs, which hardware block is going to pay for the transistor budget?
AMD/ Nvidia on the GPU?
Intel/ AMD on the chipset/ CPU?
SSD manufacturers on the SSD itself/ or HW controllers?
Or purely software driven on CPUs?
If the hardware IO ends up somewhere at the expense of other transistor logic, competition can downplay one metric at the expense of another and slowdown adoption, for example. I suppose if DirectX implemented an API, whether it's software or hardware is left open for acceleration, but where will the hardware reside?
Although given most systems only have one M2 slot that would restrict NVMe use for most users to gaming only. Everything else would have to operate from good old SATA or HDD. Unless you use a PCIe expansion card of course.
PC gamers will buy hardware to make games run better
Really? The only people I see buying hardware right away will be hardcore gamers/YT Gamers if they can afford it and pros. Your casual gamer won't necessarily buy such hardware unless it's cheap or at least doesn't hit the wallet that hard. And there's a lot more casual gamers than hardcore/pros. It's why the console is popular, it offers good hardware at a great price at launch.
I'm not convinced. And I won't be unless the hardware is dirt cheap, which it won't be.Yes, really.
The real question of course being - in what volume?Yes, really.
The real question of course being - in what volume?
The most popular CPU among those dedicated enough to build their own gaming rigs right now is the AMD 3600. At the German shop Mindfactory it outsells the 3950 by 30:1. The gamers who buy second hand et cetera, or even use laptops don’t even have a chance to register in these statistics. PC gamers are more sensible with their money than the typical tech site material implies.
PC gamers will buy hardware to make games run better and there's a lot of empty PCIe slots on most motherboards now that multiple GPUs isn't really a thing anymore. I'd imaging OEMs would be very willing to build and sell DirectStorage cards under their gaming brands. Aside from that, even the mini-ITX motherboard in my secondary PC has 2 m.2 slots, so that's not exactly uncommon.
Errr - that’s the Switch breaking records.Nvidia just reported $1.34 Billion in revenue from gaming in the last quarter. That's a lot of people willing to spend money for a better gaming experience.
You can't really know because at the moment, hardware changes aren't essential. If it became a case that they had to buy an upgrade or not play PC games any more, would they give up PC gaming, move to consoles, or upgrade?Really? The only people I see buying hardware right away will be hardcore gamers/YT Gamers if they can afford it and pros.
They attribute it to lock-down people buying new GPUs. Data Centre revenue was up 80%Errr - that’s the Switch breaking records.
While it wouldn't happen over night, I think utilizing the 8x/16x PCIe slots on motherboards for "gaming tailored SSDs" or drives with custom decompression/compression blocks on the PCB is the way to go until M.2 slots on the motherboards get enough bandwidth to be able to support it.
Obviously not everyone is going to have a spare 8x/16x PCIe slot available, however, games should be able to be designed to scale down well enough that they should work on a good quality M.2 NVMe drive as it is. So people who don't have a spare PCIe slot, or don't want to purchase a new drive, can at least play the games, just not at the highest settings.