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openglvideo-card

How does the support of new openGL versions is provided in old video cards?


How I know, the updating openGL is including some extensions which was defined by vendors and used hardware features. I have geforce 520m( realize in 2010) , but it support openGL 4.4 (realize in 2014). Obviously, it cannot support some hardware features which is needed in openGL 4.4. But it support openGL 4.4.How does the support of new openGL versions is provided in old video cards?


Solution

  • Why do you think that it does not support the HW features? It does. OpenGL is a rendering API specification, not a HW one. The fact that new features were added to GL does not mean that new HW is required to implement them.

    On nvidia, all GPUs since the fermi architecture support OpenGL 4.x as far as it has been specified. That does not guarantee that it will support everything what a future GL4.x version might introduce.

    Currently, the GL major versions can be tied to some major HW generation. GL2.x is the really old stuff. GL 3.x is supported by nvidia since GeForce 8xxx (released in 2006), and fermi/kepler/maxwell support 4.x.