[quote]Nvidia shoots for film with new chip  
 
 
By John G. Spooner  
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
November 18, 2002, 4:28 AM PT
 
 
Graphics chip leader Nvidia is unveiling what will be the fastest graphics processor on the market, with visual capabilities the company hopes will one day rival the big screen.  
As expected, Nvidia will take the wraps off its new GeForce FX chip, once code-named NV30, at a news conference in Las Vegas, just before the Comdex Fall 2002 trade show on Monday.  
 
The new chip, to be shipped in January, will deliver a significant increase in performance thanks to a higher clock speed and greater programmability, company representatives said.  
 
 
 
The GeForce FX will also improve PCs' capabilities to create realistic graphics more quickly, said Dan Vivola, vice president of marketing at Nvidia. The chip can render graphics as much as four times faster than Nvidia's current GeForce4 Ti 4600 processor.  
 
"We're trying to come up with a graphics processor that can create in real time (on a computer)...what happens on the cinema screen," he said. The new GeForce FX is "a step closer to that goal. We're on a collision course toward film such that what you see on a computer and what you see in a film will look the same."  
 
The new GeForce FX will run at 500MHz, faster than the 325MHz Ti 4600 chip. A new feature lets developers program their own shaders, which are what give graphics their unique look. That means game developers can make graphics more realistic. Using Nvidia's CG language, for example, developers can make things such as skin look more like something you could touch, Vivola said.  
 
The first two versions of the new chip, the GeForce FX 5800 and 5800 Ultra are in production. They will be available in January and will be priced between $399 and $499 at retail.
 
Timing is everything
The GeForce FX will outclip rival ATI Technologies' Radeon 9700--the fastest graphics chip available now--by 25 percent to 50 percent in speed. But the Radeon chip, unveiled last July, won the favor of many PC makers and gamers, while the GeForce FX, which had been expected as soon as August was held back. Some analysts have said it will be hard for Nvidia to take back that business.  
 
Nvidia designed the chip using a newer, 130-nanometer manufacturing process. This "put the schedule behind what some people might have expected," Vivola said. But "there wasn't any reason to do it sooner. A (150 nanometer) version wouldn't have been a good enough improvement over the (GeForce4 Ti) 4600."  
 
Nvidia "would have loved to have had it sooner. But we haven't lost a single point in desktop market share in the last three quarters," he added. Nvidia's market share increased to 58 percent during the third quarter, according to a recent report by Mercury Research.

also requires a more expensive flip-chip (FC) packaging process.

New nVidia chip to bring cinema-quality graphics to Sims, EverQuest programs.
 
NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - After a series of frustrating delays, nVidia will officially introduce its next generation graphics chip later Monday. The GeForce FX, said the company, will be the fastest 3D video chip on the market and will take desktop PCs a step closer to delivering cinematic-quality graphics.  
 
That could herald a new look for computer games in the coming years, according to Bill Rehbock, director of developer relations for nVidia.  
 
"Everyone sees 3D graphics as hard core," he said. "We're seeing companies like Sony embrace this technology for 'EverQuest2'. You're going to see this sort of technology get embraced with things like the next generation 'Sims' titles from Electronic Arts."  
 
   
The GeForce FX could bring more lifelike characters, such as this, to computer games.  
The fifth installment in the company's GeForce line of chips won't make it onto most store shelves before the holidays, though. While there will be limited shipments before the end of the year, graphics cards using the GeForce FX aren't expected to be readily available until late January or February.  
 
Approximately three times more powerful than the GeForce Ti4600 (nVidia's current top of the line chip), the GeForce FX is two steps beyond the graphics chip nVidia supplied for the Microsoft (MSFT: Research, Estimates) Xbox. Like its predecessor, it takes over several of the calculations formerly performed by the computer's CPU, letting the machine focus more on game speed.  
 
At the same time, using nVidia's just-released CineFx architecture, the chip can render graphics that are superior to the "Toy Story" movies, moving closer to those in the critically-panned, but technically praised film "Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within".  
 
"We've been talking to companies like Electronic Arts (ERTS: Research, Estimates), who have the "Madden" football games," said Rehbock. "EA has been at the forefront of making a simulation football game that's as realistic as possible. Now, you'll be able to have detail like razor stubble and sweat -- things that will make it look even more realistic."  
 
The GeForce FX represents the largest financial investment in any chip nVidia (NVDA: Research, Estimates) has released. It's also the first chip to combine the efforts of nVidia and former employees of 3dfx. (3dfx was once the king of the graphics hill, but was surpassed -- and eventually bought -- by nVidia.)
 
"The engineering teams sat down and did side-by-side comparisons of the best of what we had and the best of what they had and rolled it all into one killer chip," said Rehbock.  
 
   
Light reflections will appear more realistic.  
But the chip faces strong competition from ATI's Radeon 9700. Because the GeForce FX was delayed by several months, the ATI (ATYT: Research, Estimates) chip (introduced in July) stole the spotlight. Cards using the Radeon 9700 hit store shelves in August. Analysts, in turn, lowered their recommendations on nVidia and the stock slipped.  
 
When cards using the GeForce FX chip do become available at retail, they will likely cost in the $300 to $400 range. That's a typical price -- and it's usually only hardcore gaming enthusiasts who are willing to spend that amount. nVidia is hoping to capture a bigger percentage of the casual gaming market, though, by rolling out slightly less powerful mass market cards (which generally sell for less than $150) sooner than usual.

So what's new? First up, a faster processor: 500MHz v. 325MHz in used in the TI4600. Next, there?s more memory bandwidth 1GHz DDRII DRAM (600MHz DDR1); new anti-aliasing technology, dubbed Intellisample, designed to double the efficiency of memory reads and writes; and AGP 8X bandwidth (double that of AGP 4X). Built using 0.13micron production technology, the GeForce FX also handles eight pixels per clock cycle, against 4 for its immediate predecessor, by definition doubling the theoretical fill rate