Visiontek's GeForce3


Visiontek's GeForce3 - Page 2

The Visiontek GeForce3
Powered by NVIDIA and made in the USA

By Dave Altavilla
5/24/2001

 
Along with a solid hardware redesign, typically comes a software overhaul as well.  Although the latest revision of the nVidia Detonator drivers look somewhat familiar, there are few new features to play with.  We were using the 11.01 Detonator drivers, as suggested by nVidia, while evaluating their new product.

Drivers, Features Screen Shots and Demos
nVidia's GeForce3 comes to life

Click images for full view
    

 

As you'll note, there is a more simplified Anti-Ailiasing control panel with this version of the Detonator drivers.  Here you can select between the different 2 and 4X modes and also the new Quincunx mode.  Quincunx mode is a new "Multi-Sampling" versus legacy "Super-Sampling", method of AA and the result is near 4X AA quality at close to 2X AA speed.  Our man Marco went into some detail here on the subject, if you would like more info.

Here are some screen-shots which should give you a good idea of the quality in each mode.

 

Click images - All shots 32bit color
Set desktop color depth to 32bit to avoid banding

NoAA                                      2X AA
 

Quincunx AA                              4X AA 
 

 

 

Anti-Ailiasing, as the saying goes, is in the eye of the beholder. In our opinion, 2X AA in this Space/Flight Sim hybrid game "Echelon", does a nice job of cleaning things up.  However, you can notice things do look a little smoother in the Quincunx and 4X shots.  We also noticed that Quincunx mode does blur textures slightly.  Again however, you make the call here.

 

Skipping back for a moment to driver functionality, with the GeForce3 you get Digital Vibrance Control as an added feature.  Historically, this was only available on GeForce2 MX cards but now makes an appearance for the GeForce3.  DVC actually turns up the color saturation on your desktop and within games.  If you want things bright but not washed out, this just may do the trick for you.

 

Finally, we'll throw in some shots from Aquanox a new next generation game that takes advantage of the GeForce3's new features like pixel shading etc.

 

Click images - All shots 32bit color
Set desktop color depth to 32bit to avoid banding

   

 

 

Perhaps even more impressive is Inevitable's "Evolution" demo that was developed specifically to show off the power and features of the GeForce3.  We were absolutely stunned when we saw this.

 

Click images - All shots 32bit color
Set desktop color depth to 32bit to avoid banding

   

 

What you are looking at here folks, is the future of 3D Gaming.  Console fans have something to envy here for sure.  This is a rolling demo and you should see it live.  It is simply amazing and the frame rate is silky smooth.

 

Speaking of frame rates, why don't we get to some testing here

3DMark 2001, Quake 3, FSAA, Aquanox and Dronez Testing

 

Tags:  GeForce, E3, VISION, force, visiontek, K

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