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NVIDIA is at it again. Just when we were all
getting used to the idea of a new chipset standard
from the 3D graphics giant, we're thrown the
proverbial curve ball. The timing couldn't be
any better. ATi, NVIDIA's main competitor,
is about to ship their next generation product
and what better way to steal ATi's thunder, than to
release a new product of their own? Better
yet, how about a whole new line of products?
Just about this time in 2000, NVIDIA not only
unveiled the GeForce 2 Ultra but also a new set
of drivers that promised to increase performance
for all NVIDIA 3D chipsets. Well, a little
over a year later we find ourselves in the same
situation. Not only does NVIDIA have new
hardware on the horizon but just a few weeks ago,
NVIDIA's "Detonator XP" drivers were released,
with that same promise of increased performance.
These new drivers coupled with the "new" hardware
comprise the Titanium (Ti) line of products.
CLICK ANY IMAGE FOR AN
ENLARGED VIEW
The Titanium line
consists of three new products, the GeForce 2 Ti
(left), the GeForce 3 Ti 200 (middle) and the
flagship GeForce 3 Ti 500 (right). Below we
have some shots of the backs of the GeForce 2 Ti
and GeForce 3 Ti 500 respectively.
The GeForce 2 Ti is
NVIDIA's new "mainstream" product, clocked at
250MHz. Core / 400MHz. (200MHz. DDR) memory and
priced in line with current GeForce 2 Pro cards
(approximately $150).
The GeForce 3 Ti 200 should offer performance
similar to current GeForce 3s, at about half the
price. GeForce 3 Ti 200s should be priced in
the $200 range. We don't actually have a card to
verify this but it should ship with a core clockspeed of 175MHz. and a 400MHz. (200MHz. DDR)
memory subsystem. For now, let's get a little more
detailed with the GeForce 3 Ti 500's
(MSRP $350) specifications.
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| Specifications
and Features of the GeForce 3 Ti 500 |
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New hardware AND new software |
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- Core (GPU)
Clock Frequency -
240MHz.
- DDR Memory
Frequency - 500MHz.
(250MHz. DDR)
- Manufactured
with an Enhanced .15
TSMC process
- nFiniteFX
engine for full programmability
- Lightspeed
Memory Architecture for unmatched
performance
- Surface
engine for high-order surfaces and patches
- Programmable
Vertex Shader
- Procedural
deformations
- Programmable
matrix palette skinning
- Keyframe
animation interpolation
- Morphing
- Fog effects
(Radial, Elevation, Non-linear)
- Lens effects
(Fish eye, Wide angle, Fresnel effects,
Water refraction)
- Programmable
Pixel Shader
- Phong-style
lighting for per-pixel accuracy
- Dot3 bump
mapping
-
Environmental bump mapping (EMBM)
- Procedural
textures
- Per-pixel
reflections
- HRAA?high-resolution
antialiasing (Featuring Quincunx AA mode) up
to 16 AA samples per clock
- Integrated
hardware transform engine
- Integrated
hardware lighting engine
- DirectX and
S3TC texture compression
- Reflection
maps
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- Dual cube
environment mapping capability
- Accurate,
real-time environment reflections
- Hardware
accelerated real-time shadows
- True,
reflective bump mapping
- Z-correct
bump mapping
- Phong-style
lighting effects on bump maps with
reflections
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High-performance 2D rendering engine
- Optimized
for 32-, 24-, 16-, 15- and 8-bpp modes
- True-color
hardware cursor with alpha
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Multi-buffering (double, triple or quad) for
smooth animation and video playback
- High-quality
HDTV/DVD playback
-
High-definition video processor (HDVP) for
full-screen, full-frame video playback of
HDTV and DVD content
- Independent
hardware color controls for video overlay
- Hardware
color-space conversion (YUV 4:2:2 and 4:2:0)
- Motion
compensation
- 5-tap
horizontal by 3-tap vertical filtering
- 8:1 up/down
scaling
- Per-pixel
color keying
- Multiple
video windows supported for CSC and
filtering
- DVD
sub-picture alpha-blended compositing
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For more detailed explanations of
the GeForce 3's features,
take a look at one of our earlier reviews.
If you take a close look at the cards themselves,
you won't notice much of a difference between the
Titanium (Ti) line and a standard GeForce 2 Pro or
GeForce 3.
Everything from
cooling to the board layout is similar to current
GeForce 2s and 3's. In fact, with the
exception of a small jumper on the back of our
GeForce 3 Ti 500 (visible in the shot at the top
of the page), there was virtually no physical
differences between it and a Visiontek GeForce 3.
While speaking on a
conference call with Geoff Ballew, Product Line
Manager for
NVIDIA and Brian Burke Senior PR Manager, we were
informed that due to refinements to
the manufacturing process, they were able to
achieve higher clock speeds with this new GeForce3
core (240MHz.), while generating less heat. The
memory installed on the Ti 500 is clocked at
500MHz. (250MHz. DDR). We weren't told the
speed bin rating of the DRAM but we assume they
are just "hand picked" 3.8ns parts,
similar to what you'd find on current GeForce 3s, guaranteed to run at this high clock speed.
The
Drivers and Image Quality
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