‘G-Star 2017 (The Game Show and Trade, All Round 2017)’, an international game exhibition hosted by Korea Association of Game Industry (K-GAMES) and co-hosted by the G-Star Organizing Committee and Busan IT Industry Promotion Agency, was held at BEXCO located in Haeundae-gu, Busan.

NVIDIA participated in G-STAR 2017, the largest game show in BEXCO from November 16th to 19th, and introduced the latest GeForce GTX 10 series on the theme of “Game Ready”. It also prepared PUBG (Playerunknown’s: Battleground) game match, ShadowPlay Highlights zone, Ansel Capture & View zone, GeForce GTX Gaming PC & Notebook zone, and custom PC zone.

Acrofan interviewed Jeffrey Yen, NVIDIA director of technical marketing, APAC. Based on the move to continuously develop new and interesting technologies and functions, such as GeForce GTX updates, Shadowplay, and Ancel, for a better gaming experience from the past to the present, he introduced what technology is for NVIDIA's game experience currently focused and deeply covered, and what the future technology for the game industry is.


Q1 ) What is NVIDIA's expectation of future gaming?

In fact, the current game has been much more sophisticated, nice-looking and well expressed as if it is actually physically moving compared to five years ago. People might think that it is nearing the limit, but I think there is still room for further development. In the future, I think that it will go to the level of touching the boundary between human and robot. When thinking about what the game will be like in the future, I believe that the framework of the genre may change fundamentally as well as more realistic and sophisticated expression. Things that cannot be imagined with the present physics engine can be newly appeared.

Q2 ) NVIDIA has traditionally been at the forefront of gaming graphics. From this perspective, how do you expect the future gaming display environment to evolve?

NVIDIA is already doing a lot of work in VR. In fact, while NVIDIA is widely recognized as a visual-related company, there are a number of technologies for complicated physics engines and scientific calculations behind the beautiful and sophisticated visuals. Of course, the graphics will continue to evolve, but there are many considerations such as various technologies, increasing realism and surrealism, making simulations in different spaces, different display layers and shapes, high refresh rates and frame rates. In addition, we are pursuing various technologies at the same time. AI games are also an important part of the game, so I think we should touch this part as well.

Q3 ) Previously, NVIDIA had a lot of influence in the actual implementation of technology at the latest DirectX standard. Does NVIDIA satisfy with DirectX 12, which is the foundation of the current games, in aspects of functions and performance?

I cannot assure that we are actually satisfied. NVIDIA is still developing, using, advancing, and making various efforts. We are working closely with Microsoft in this area and I think we are in a relationship.

Q4 ) GPUs are now widely used across the industry. But for PCs, the potential of gaming GPUs is not as diverse as the industry. How are you going to expand the use of this area in the future?

In addition to games, GPUs are extensively used and are also actively used in AI, autonomous vehicles, and cloud computing. It has been used in a number of ways, including simulation with NASA and computing in the medical sector. On PC, it can be useful for rendering, productivity, work related, etc. Moreover, even at the PC level, the AI-related use of GPUs has significant meaning. That is, the presence of PCs with high-performance gaming GPUs can drastically lower entry barriers to easily start small-scale GPU-based AIs in the early stages of development. In fact, this was an unexpected move for us.

Q5 ) The features of GeForce Experience have been continually expanded to extend the gaming experience for gamers. In what direction do you expect to be reinforced in the future?

The new features of GeForce Experience will continue to emerge, so I cannot say for sure yet, but look forward to it. Personally, although the expectations are higher since we are accessing the latest technology at the development stage, it would be better to have a higher level of graphics than the specification of the general public.

Q6 ) In recent years, GPU has been actively used in connection with cryptocurrency mining in Korea, and consequently there has been confusion in the external graphics card market where gaming has become mainstream. What position does NVIDIA, which might be a stakeholder, have about it?

In fact, GPU products have been sold well for this reason, so we are aware that we are the beneficiaries, and paying attention to it. While mining users are also using our products, it is also important that gamers are able to make purchases for their gaming experience, and I think we should balance this part. While there may be a constant demand for mining, we think that it is important to provide a satisfying gaming experience.

Q7 ) From the user's point of view, the size of the latest GeForce drivers continues to grow, making it a burden to download in a single package. So, I would like to hear if there is a capacity optimization plan in the future.

The current package supports products that are based on the 'Fermi' architecture a few generations ago, as well as the latest products. As a result, the driver package has become inevitably enlarged. The GeForce Experience package also has increased capacity as features are added. But I think it is not right to stop supporting drivers for older products that are still available. Also, I do not think it is burdened in Korea because the internet speed is fast enough. However, we are aware that the package size is large, and are trying various ways to reduce it while maintaining convenience.