Stuff that's not hardware
So let's see if I can sum this up and perhaps make it a little game, too.

1. ______ says that it has a range of advantages over the other guys. In addition to graphics, users can expect much faster video encoding through than they'd get with a CPU alone by using the 2. ______ software package from 3. ______. The speed-ups are amazing. Similar performance gains are possible with GPU acceleration in the fields of high-performance computing, image processing, and distributed computing—including Folding@Home.

Additionally, games can reach new levels of visual fidelity and performance via the 4. ______ API, which is exclusively supported by its GPUs. Many games are already using it now in shipping titles, with even more planned in the next six months to a year. The firm says it has the best approach to GPU accelerated physics, because 5. ______ is the most widely used dev toolkit of its kind. One should note that the Havok demo that was shown running on Radeon hardware at GDC recently will also run on GeForces, because it uses OpenCL. This is a key advantage of the company's standards-based approach to GPU computing.

Speaking of which, Windows 7 is just around the corner, and 1. ______ has worked closely with Microsoft to ensure that the quality and stability of its drivers for this exciting new OS are second to none.

Have it figured out yet? The answers are, alternately, either option one:

1. Nvidia
2. Badaboom
3. Elemental
4. PhysX
5. PhysX

...or option two:

1. AMD
2. Espresso
3. CyberLink
4. DirectX 10.1
5. Havok

Take your pick. I'm not convinced I'd buy one video card over another on the basis of either set of choices, but I will leave that up to you. Just thought you should know.

In addition to the above, Nvidia does have one new trick in its Release 185 driver rev that's worthy of note: an option to enable ambient occlusion via a simple on/off control panel setting. Ambient occlusion is pretty much just what it sounds like: the lighting model will take into account how objects in the world might occlude ambient light. That may sound impossible, but the basic idea is to do less illumination in places where ambient light isn't likely to reach as well, such as in corners where two walls meet.

With the exception of a few titles like Crysis and Stalker: Clear Sky, most current games don't support ambient occlusion natively. Nvidia has elected to support AO in its control panel much like it does SLI, by using game-specific profiles. Among the 22 games supported out of the gate are some big names, including Mirror's Edge, Valve's Source engine games, Call of Duty: World at War, and the biggest PC game ever, World of Warcraft.

Here's a quick example of how ambient occlusion affects Left 4 Dead.

Without ambient occlusion

With ambient occlusion

This isn't a stark, bright scene with lots of ambient light, so the effect is very subtle. (Yeah, my example kinda stinks.) You can probably see the difference, though, if you concentrate on the area beneath the nearest railing, to the right of the left-most water tank (or whatever that is), where the floor meets the top of the brick wall that rises just above the stairwell. Along that intersection, the floor is a little darker.

No, really. Look closer.

Anyhow, I need to play with this feature more to see what I think of it. I've tried it briefly in L4D and Fallout 3, and the visual difference is hard to notice. I expect different games or different levels could yield clearer results (and better example pictures).

You may notice the performance hit more easily, which Nvidia estimates is on the order to 20-40%. Fallout 3 felt sluggish to me with AO enabled, but Left 4 Dead runs so quickly on a GTX 275 that I couldn't perceive any slowdown. I kind of like the idea of using today's apparent surplus of GPU power to deliver higher-quality lighting, so kudos to Nvidia for giving this a shot. I wonder whether AMD will follow suit.