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You've
got to hand it to nVIDIA.
They crank out new technology from a hardware and
software standpoint, at a pace that has the rest
of the competitive field cringing. If nVIDIA
was like a weapon, in this War of 3D Graphics,
they would be an Abrams Tank with a Gatlin Gun
strapped on top, clearing a path of destruction as
they relentlessly rolled
onward. Perhaps that is a little over
the top but it seems as if there is no end to
their arsenal of next generation 3D Graphics
product. At the very least they seem to
execute new product releases almost flawlessly.
Not
more than a quarter ago, the industry was turned
on to the GeForce2 GTS. Shortly there after
in early July, nVIDIA dealt their card in
the "Business/Value Graphics" game with
the GeForce2 MX and its "bang for the buck
quotient" is unmatched. Finally, there
have been various flavors of the Quadro
"professionally enhanced" versions of
these chips rolling out with each new platform
introduction and they have the folks at 3D Labs
and other high end graphics companies nervous, in
a big way. It is as if nVIDIA can
step into any graphics arena they want to and in
many cases, win.
Today,
out of no where comes an unexpected "summer
speed-up" from nVIDIA. We had
heard that the NV20 is due out in the fall time
frame but we were blind sided by this one, the nVIDIA
GeForce2 GTS Ultra and it is here, now.
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| Specifications
and Features of the GeForce2 GTS
Ultra and Det 3 Drivers |
| Cranking
up the hardware AND the software |
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- 250MHz. Core
Clock Speed
- 460MHz DDR
Memory Clock Speed
- 1,000,000,000
pixels per second GPU
- 2,000,000,000
texels per second GPU
- 2X Original
GeForce GTS performance
- Custom Heat
Sinks / Spreaders on memory for better thermal
characteristics
- Digital Flat
Panel and TV Output
- Standard
GeForce2 GTS Features:
- Integrated
Transforms and Lighting
- Per pixel
shading and dual texturing
- Full Scene
hardware anti-aliasing, multi-texturing,
procedural texturing
- Environmental
mapping, bump mapping, shadow stenciling
- Bilinear,
Trilinear and 8-tap anisotropic texture
filtering
- Unified
Driver for entire product line support
- New Detonator
3 Driver Performance Enhancements:
- Enhanced for
the full range of Intel chipsets,
including the i815, i820 and i840
- Takes
advantage of advanced CPU instruction
sets, such as AMD?s 3DNOW! and Intel?sSSE
and SSE2
- Highly
efficient blending modes implemented in
both Direct3D and OpenGL
- Reduced
OpenGL driver call overhead over previous
driver revisions
- Improved
OpenGL asynchronous command processing
- Advanced
vertex buffer support in Direct3D
- Advanced
vertex array support in OpenGL
- Improved
Direct3D texture management
- "DVC"
- Digital Vibrance Control - GeForce2 MX
and Quadro2 MXR Only
- "Twin
View" - Multi-Monitor Support For
Dual Independent Displays - GeForce2 MX
and Quadro2 MXR Only
- Up to 50%
performance increase for all products from
TNT2 through GeForce2 Ultra
As you can see
here, this is a bit of a 1-2 punch from nVIDIA.
First, the obvious ramp up in core clock speed and
the huge ramp up in memory interface speed, should
really get things moving. The Achilles Heel nVIDIA
always had, as was widely published, was memory
bandwidth. The memory bandwidth issue is
almost a non-issue now.
What is more
surprising here is the driver optimization that nVIDIA
has seemingly pulled out of their collective
hats. Not only does this driver enhance the
current GeForce2 architecture but GeForce1 and
TNT2 owners are supposedly going to get a big shot
in the arm in terms of a performance
increase. This says a lot for nVIDIA's
driver team. Most High Tech OEMs have a much
harder time with the software side of things than
the hardware. As a result, Software
Engineers usually out number Hardware Engineers 2
to 1. It seems as if nVIDIA has been
making the investments in all the right
places. The enhancements like the reduction
in OpenGL driver call overhead, can only be gained
by grinding things out in the lab. We'll
take a look at the fruits of that labor in the
following pages.
Drivers,
Settings, and FSAA
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