What does shader mean

[smithinator101]

hi could you please tell me what shader means because a card i was looking at stated it and i dont know what it means. thanks in advance

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

 

[hundredislandsboy]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shader

 

[jitpublisher]

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=What+does+shader+mean%3F

 

[invisik]

^ how did you do that LOL??

 

[mactronix]

^ +1 Come on share the knowledge although after that I'm feeling unworthy

[:lectrocrew:5] [:lectrocrew:5] [:lectrocrew:5]

Mactronix

 

[daedalus685]

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=What+does+shader+mean%3F

I think the most disturbing thing about google is that because of the OP being lazy this thread is now the number one hit to "what does shader mean"... Thank you captain lazy!

 

[4745454b]

Isn't there a sticky about shaders on this forum? Very briefly, a shader is something that does work in a video card. We used to have seperate shaders/work units until DX10. (DX10 doesn't require you to use unified shaders, but it makes much more sense to do that.)

BTW, keep in mind that because AMD and Nvidia went different routes with their shaders, you can't just say that AMDs 320 shader card must be more powerful then Nvidia's 128 shader card. The amount of work each companies shader can do varies, and they aren't 100% comparable.

 

[smithinator101]

Thanks, i am very new to computers so i don't understand a lot of the jargon, i thought it would be easier for me to understand if i had someone explain exactly what it was and if i had any questions i could easily ask them. As i am sure you know finding very specific pieces of info anywhere on the web can be very difficult!!!

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

^ how did you do that LOL??

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=let+me+google+that+for+you

Very handy.

Learned about it on TWIT a while back.

 

[505090]

http://img194.imageshack.us/img194/9182/googlea.gif

that awesome I'm sure we will be seeing a lot of that in the forums now

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

OP, you are lazy, it's not that difficult if you really care.

Difficult was having to bike down to your local crappy & poorly funded library, look in a card catalogue for a computer / tech term and then translate the only books / articles on the subject that were published 5+ years earlier into something relevant to your current situation.

THAT's HARD !!!

The .net is easy, you just need to figure out how to use it.

Here's some easy first steps for you and others drawn here since this has now become a Google magnet;

A nice article by TOM himself on the GF3 architecture with a good section on Vertex and Pixel shaders;
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/high,294-3.html

and another good follow-up article with more detail on P & V differences;
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/vertex-shaders-pixel-shaders,411.html

Some good B3D resources;
http://www.beyond3d.com/content/articles/14/
http://www.beyond3d.com/content/articles/76/
Taken from : http://www.beyond3d.com/content/articles

Something a little lighter, and not quite 100% correct, does give a rough outline of past, present, future easy to digest;
http://www.brighthub.com/computing/hardware/articles/26972.aspx

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

that awesome I'm sure we will be seeing a lot of that in the forums now

It's actually a classic from THGC I've used for years.

Here's another fav from the forum;

 

[505090]

i hadn't seen either before, thanx

 

[mactronix]

So lets put a sticky at the top of evey forum in oh say 48 font that reads "Have you Googled it"

Mactronix

 

[jitpublisher]

http://lmgtfy.com/
Type your question, it will generate a link that does the rest.