NVIDIA's GeForce3: "NV20" Revealed

The Card & Final Words

NVIDIA's GeForce3 will be only available in 64MB configurations, with no initial support for 32MB OEM models. The chance of seeing 128MB boards is very rare currently since the extremely fast DDR SDRAM that is used on the GeForce3 boards would actually cause the cost of a 128MB GeForce3 board to be twice of that of a 64MB GeForce3 and there is definitely very little support for a $1000 graphics card with a 128MB frame buffer.

Interestingly enough, the GeForce3 will not support TwinView, making it very clear that only the MX line of cards from NVIDIA will be TwinView capable. It looks like we'll have to wait another year before we'll see a GeForce3 class product with TwinView when the GeForce3 MX hits the streets.

In spite of the incredible size of the GeForce3 GPU, the 144 mm^2 core will draw no more power than the original GeForce 256 core did. While the original GeForce 256 did run fairly hot, there were very few issues that we ran into with heat or power consumption.

Click here to enlarge.

The GeForce3 will be available within a matter of weeks, however NVIDIA is caught in a very interesting predicament. There are currently no DirectX 8 titles available that can truly show off the power of the GeForce3. In DirectX 7 titles, the GeForce3 is actually very similar to the GeForce2 Ultra because its programmable nature is not being harnessed in which case it is nothing more than a GeForce2 Ultra. This is actually why NVIDIA is refraining from pushing forward with review samples of the GeForce3, since any review that would be published would generally paint the picture of the GeForce3 being no faster than the GeForce2 Ultra except in regards to FSAA performance.

NVIDIA is actually in the same position Intel was with the Pentium 4. They have a technology that is definitely paving the way for the future, however the performance gains are simply not going to be there for the current crop of applications and in this case, games. While we will reserve final judgment until the actual benchmarks go up, you shouldn't expect to see too much from the GeForce3 in terms of performance in current games. This is truly a next-generation part, and it needs the next-generation of games to be fully utilized.

Unfortunately the next-generation of games will probably be here around the latter half of this year making a $500 investment in the GeForce3 at this point one that should be reserved for those that were already going to buy an Ultra.

The one thing to keep in mind is that the technology that NVIDIA is introducing here will be the foundation for the Xbox; meaning that consoles will finally get antialiasing as a standard.

The other thing to remember is that since the programmable vertex and pixel shaders are a part of Microsoft's DirectX 8 specification, you can almost guarantee that ATI's Radeon2 (or whatever they call the successor to the Radeon) will be much like the GeForce3 except with ATI's own unique twists including a more advanced HyperZ subsystem.

In spite of the decrease of competition in the graphics market, the sector is truly starting to get interesting. Then again, the desktop CPU market really only has two major competitors and look at how much fun we have with it? The more you think about it, the more the 3D graphics market is mirroring the desktop CPU industry. Scary isn't it…

For a performance evaluation of the GeForce3 please read our NVIDIA GeForce3 Review.