OTOY, a startup company that overlooks LA from the 16th floor of 1010 Wilshire Blvd released a screenshot that shows the reason why investors believe this company is "it". The company recently released its first official version of the Octane Render (v1.0), a GPU-based Ray-tracing suite for Autodesk 3Ds Max, Maya and recently, for Lightwave.

The results of the ray tracer are, at least according to released screenshots, astonishing. See it for yourself:

First render from Octane Render - photorealistic human head

And there’s a screenshot from nature:

Octane Render - Nature

Can GPU really replace a CPU? That question remains to be answered soon?