Microsoft is joining the GPGPU bandwagon with the next version of their flagship browser Internet Explorer by moving all of the rendering routines of the future IE9 from the existing GDI systems to Direct2D and DirectWrite, allowing it to take full advantage of the existing GPU.
Although Hachamovitch declined to peg a goal for IE9's hardware-based acceleration, he said early results have been encouraging. “On top of GDI, we were seeing IE render at 5-10 frames per second. Users don't know whether that's [caused by] the network, or a site script, but it just seems kind of slow to them. Using [Direct2D], we're seeing 40, 50 or 60 frames per second. That's game-like responsiveness.”
Of course they won’t be alone, as Opera & Mozilla have announced similar projects to integrate GPGPU acceleration into the browsers, however they will do it in a cross-platform manner.
