David Kirk has an insatiable need for power. Graphics rendering power, that is. He’s fond of saying, “Why use a screwdriver when you can use a sledgehammer?” As nVidia’s Chief Scientist, Kirk has overseen development of architectures including the original GeForce, GeForce 2, GeForce 3, GeForce 4, GeForceFX, and most recently, the GeForce 6 series. nVidia has had a very impressive run of successes with its GPUs, though the FX series brought the company some unanticipated headaches. The GeForce 6 series has reestablished the company’s position as a contender for the 3D performance crown, with the new SLI technology cementing its place at the top of the heap.

We put ten questions to Dr. Kirk—all but one asked by ExtremeTech readers. Topics range from HDR to open-source drivers and everything in between, and this array of interesting questions from you the readers drew equally interesting answers from our guest guru. At the end of each question is the forum handle of the questioner. Continued . . .

For ExtremeTech’s primer on 3D graphics, click here.