NVIDIA's GeForce 7950 GX2 & Forceware Rel. 90

Name: NVIDIA's GeForce 7950 GX2 & Forceware Rel. 90 - Page 6
Brand: NVIDIA's

by Marco Chiappetta — Monday, June 05, 2006, 08:00 AM EDT

NVIDIA spent considerable resources engineering the new Forceware Release 90 drive suite. The new control panel design simply didn't come about from an arbitrary decision to make a change. NVIDIA actually built their own Software Usability Lab complete with state-of-the-art digital video equipment to aid them in the design.

NVIDIA's New Usability Lab

User reactions were monitored in the usability lab and the new Rel. 90 control panel was molded based on those reactions. NVIDIA also used Microsoft and human interface research in the design, they interviewed NVIDIA and OEM support staff for suggestions, and also took user comments in many open forums into consideration. The end result is a completely new control panel with a larger emphasis on usability, that's much easier to navigate and understand. The Forceware Release 90 drivers give enthusiasts more control over their hardware, and give novices an easier to use interface. If you haven't already installed these new drivers on your own systems, we urge you give them a shot. According to NVIDIA, 88% of users preferred the new interface in "blind taste tests" that took place in the usability lab.

NVIDIA's GeoForms Demo

Globs of dancing goo!

Whenever NVIDIA unveils a new flagship graphics card, they usually release a new demo to exploit the card's new features and performance capabilities. To coincide with the launch of the new GeForce 7950 GX2, NVIDIA is introducing a new demo dubbed GeoForms. In this new demo, the GeoForms change their shape to the beat of music. The GeoForms can also change their subatomic organization, quickly morphing into almost any material, be it glass, metal, water, wax, putty, brushed metal, marble, or jade. The materials can range from opaque to translucent, polished smooth to rough as sand, and from plain to porous and veined. The GeoForms demo uses many advanced rendering techniques, including HDR with anti-aliasing (using a proprietary technique), HDR Motion Blur, HDR Lens Flare, Real-time "Depth Peeling" Refraction, and Sub-Surface Light Scattering.

Tags: Nvidia, GeForce, X2, Forceware, force, 7950, id, AR

Marco Chiappetta

Marco's interest in computing and technology dates all the way back to his early childhood. Even before being exposed to the Commodore P.E.T. and later the Commodore 64 in the early ‘80s, he was interested in electricity and electronics, and he still has the modded AFX cars and shop-worn soldering irons to prove it. Once he got his hands on his own Commodore 64, however, computing became Marco's passion. Throughout his academic and professional lives, Marco has worked with virtually every major platform from the TRS-80 and Amiga, to today's high end, multi-core servers. Over the years, he has worked in many fields related to technology and computing, including system design, assembly and sales, professional quality assurance testing, and technical writing. In addition to being the Managing Editor here at HotHardware for close to 15 years, Marco is also a freelance writer whose work has been published in a number of PC and technology related print publications and he is a regular fixture on HotHardware’s own Two and a Half Geeks webcast. - Contact: marco(at)hothardware(dot)com