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nVidia GeForce 3
...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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