ALTHOUGH WE KNOW that Nvidia
does not have any plans to continue its own six month cycle we have spotted
some details about an upcoming solution set for spring 2002 known as NV25.
So this year, from high end
Nvidia, we can only expect the overclocked ultra version, according to current
plans. 128 MB of RAM can be expected and heavily clocked versions of both
memory and GPU.
Here is how it may transpire.
NV25 will be technically the
same card as NV20 aka Geforce 3 with an additional Vertex shader. Higher
memory and chip clock may be expected but the only thing that will make
a noticeable difference is the additional vertex shader. This was also easy
to predict since the Xbox chip has two Vertex shaders and that chip can
easily be reworked to be used in a PC.
This seems to lead to the conclusion
that Microsoft helped Nvidia to make the additional PC chip for themselves
at $200 million expense to the Great Satan of Software.
AT this moment all is very cloudy
about Direct X 9 specs which should follow NV25, but sources told that there
is a possibility that the NV25 will be 8.1 aka XP/XBox version of DirectX.
But I seriously suspect DX 9
compatibility and Nurbs, that are partially supported in Geforce 3.
So Nvidia seams to slow a bit
down as it cannot be on a six month product cycle any more because of the
large market they cover now - 3d cards for games, for professionals, chipsets,
consoles etc.
They're silently moving to a
one year cycle we reckon.
"Additional vertex shader will
give more effects for developers to use in future games and will expand
the nFINITE FX engine that should have unlimited effects. "
AT least that's what the marketing
bumpf says. If you have unlimited effects why have two shaders we wonder
then? One vertex shader is limited and two are more powerful that one. Just
like the musketeers. Three are even better, but don't invite D'Artagnan
to the party...
