...continued
The
Hardware
The GeForce 3
reference board that Nvidia provided us with is a
very well built video card. The board itself is
stiff and solid, and the workmanship appears to be
of a very high quality. Chips are flush-mounted and
smartly placed over the surface of the PCB. The GPU
is located near the center of the card and covered
by a large heat sink and bus-powered fan; the
memory chips have heat-dissipating covers that
ensure the card will not overheat during heavy use.
The back of the card is also fairly clean, with no
signs of last minute wiring modifications or chip
additions. The fact that the back of the card is
fairly flush helps to ensure that it will fit
cleanly into the AGP slot regardless of how close
the CPU and its fan may be.
The image on the
lower left shows the bracket and the various
connectors on the card, including those for the
TV-Out and the Digital Flat Panel display. It also
shows the height of the components on the front
side of the card including the surface mounted
chips and heat dissipating hardware. The fan over
the graphics processor is both wider and taller
than on other cards we have recently tested. The
lower-right image shows the back of the card. The
chips included on the PCB are low profile and
sparse, and as a result, help to ensure that the
card will not get in the way of large CPU's and
their fans.
The
Software
The drivers are
standard Nvidia fare and resemble their Detonator
drivers closely. There is really no need to explain
these screens in detail here, as we have covered
them in previous reviews, so we will not get
long-winded now. Suffice it to say that the drivers
are fairly straightforward, though not as easy to
use as some of the competition. However, with
enough perseverance, one can find most of the key
commands fairly easily.
As with other
Nvidia drivers, some of the advanced functions are
not present by default. In order to activate the
hidden commands, it is necessary to edit the
Windows registry. Since the default configuration
does not include these settings and we strive to
duplicate typical out of the box configurations as
much as possible, we have not activated those
settings for this review. But users should be aware
that these hidden commands can be shown with the
proper configuration codes enabled. We recommend
contacting Nvidia for support with this
procedure.
Conclusions
2D Performance
and Quality: This is the first Nvidia based card
that provides us with high quality 2D images.
Resolutions all the way up to 1600x1200 were crisp
and clear with vibrant, well saturated colors. The
color quality and clarity is right there at the
very top of the heap with ATI and Matrox. Speed is
not as good as we would have liked, but it was
within acceptable ranges.
Direct3D
Performance and Quality: A decidedly mixed bag in
terms of Direct 3D performance. The Unreal engine
still gives Nvidia cards fits -- even though they
have had ample opportunity to correct these flaws
in their drivers. However, in other Direct3D tests,
the GeForce 3 performed well overall; visual
quality was noticeably better with the GeForce 3
reference card than with other Nvidia based cards
we have tested. Color saturation was deep and rich,
and clarity was very good.
OpenGL
Performance and Quality: Surprisingly, the only
areas where the GeForce 3 excelled was in high
resolutions -- particularly in 32-bit color. It
looks as though Nvidia's bandwidth optimizations
have done their job here, as their 1600x1200x32 bit
score is substantially higher than expected. Again,
color quality was very good with this reference
board -- proof that Nvidia can match the
competition when properly configured.
Value Added
Features: Given that this is a reference card,
there are really not many features to take note of
on the software side. The DVI plug is an
appreciated addition, as are the heat sink's on the
memory chips and the large fan on the graphics
processor.
Overall: The
GeForce 3 reference board provided to us by Nvidia
accomplishes some impressive things, but
stunningly, lags in other areas. The 2D and 3D
picture quality is finally in the top tier --
something no other Nvidia card we've tested has
been able to achieve before. The hardware design is
also top notch: The circuit board is stiff and
sturdy, and the layout is clean and efficient. The
new features are certainly forward thinking and
bring the Nvidia line up to snuff with the ATI
Radeon in many areas. The bandwidth conserving
improvements made in their Lightspeed Memory
Architecture, such as the hidden surface removal
and lossless buffer compression are well done and
match Hyper-Z stroke for stroke. The integrated
support for a variety of bump-mapping formats is
also welcome and helps make the GeForce 3 more
competitive yet again.
One standout area
we want to mention is in anti-aliasing. The new
Quincunx algorithm created by Nvidia is impressive
to say the least, and shows that in time, full
screen anti-aliasing will be a very usable feature
even at high resolutions. Beyond that, it is the
programmability of the board that really shines.
The ability to actually program specific
functionality into the graphics processor will be
an incredibly beneficial feature to those seeking
to realize their own dynamic vision on the PC
platform or even port titles from other platforms.
If a key feature is not there, you can add it. The
downside of this programmability is that it will
not benefit the current crop of PC games, but will
require that games be written specifically for it.
Given the number of Xbox titles being developed, we
may see this feature becoming commonly used if
those titles are ported to the PC.
On the downside,
the fact that Nvidia has introduced the GeForce 3
at a speed slower than their Ultra card is somewhat
puzzling. The Xbox specification calls for 250mhz
clock speeds for the NV20 chip, which is the same
as the Ultra, yet the initial PC release is clocked
only at 200mhz, which is the same speed as the Pro.
If you are going to release a card in the
neighborhood of $500, it would seem only logical
that it should perform better than its predecessor
in all key areas: Yet the GeForce 3 bafflingly does
not. If the performance of the GeForce 3 bested the
Pro and Ultra in all areas, it would be a much
easier purchase to justify, but as it is, it is
very hard to recommend the first iteration of this
product. We recommend that Adrenaline Vault readers
hold on for a while; we will be keeping a close eye
on upcoming driver releases for performance
improvements. Hopefully the speed that gamers crave
will not require a hardware refresh.
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