So here's an interesting nugget I found today...
A group of programmers has claimed to have found a method of rendering 1000 times the level of detail found in PS3 level graphics, all without the use of a graphics card.
Smells like a scam to me, but the logic they provide in their video demonstrations seems to be at least theoretically sound. And just when I thought onlive was going to turn the game industry on its head...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-ATtrImCx4&ttl=1
http://unlimiteddetailtechnology.com/description.html
Scenes like the one above would traditionally require billions and billions of polygons and weeks to render. "Unlimited Detail" renders this in real time. On a one-core processor.