NEWSPAGE DEUTSCH RIVASTATION - There´s something FISHY when you can read this!

21.01 - 3dfx Interview

Chick´s Hardware made an interview with 3dfx´s Andrew Humber:

Many video card companies complain about bandwidth, limiting their performance. The GeForce has DDR, to support its needs, and Glaze3D and Rendition (if Micron lets them release a card), both have embedded ram. Will, 3dfx, in the future, allow the VSA-100 to support any of these features?
Graphics memory bandwidth often limits fill rate, hence performance. Part of the reason for returning to SLI was to optimize our memory bandwidth to cost ratio. A Voodoo5 5000, with two VSA-100's operating in parallel, has an effective 256-bit memory interface that provides bandwidth equivalent to a 128-bit DDR interface. DDR memory is going to be expensive and scarce in the first half of this year. Embedded memory forces severe compromises in logic cost and complexity since embedded DRAM processes are always a generation behind the mainstream dedicated logic and memory processes. I can't tell you specifics of future plans but our goal is always to provide the highest bandwidth with memory that's readily available and reasonably priced.

Read the whole stuff here.

21.01 - GeForce Reviews

ASUS V6800 vs. ELSA ErazorX² - Gamers Depot
ELSA Erazor X + X² - Hardware One

20.01 - More about 3D Engines

3D Engines List is a huge database in which almost all available 3D engines are listed. 3D Engines List

20.01 - Ford Racing Demo

Ford Racing Demo gives you the chance to race a few laps in a Ford Puma on a city course. The graphics is not so bad at all but the steering reminds me on the first Revolt demo - terrible. The engine sound is also very unrealistic. Conclusion: nice for a short race but really no must-have.


Screenshots, click to enlarge

The shots were made on a ASUS V6800 Deluxe running at 800x600-32Bit. Download: 3DFiles Download page.

20.01 - W2K/hacked DLL Q3 Tests

Firingsquad made some Q3 benchmarks in W98 with the new hacked Q3A DLL´s and on a multiprocessorsystem running Windows 2000. The hacked DLL´s give you a major performance increase in Q3. ID says that the interpreter of the Q3 VM (Virtual Machine) that´s used by the game slows down a timedemo by up to 20%. With the DLL´s the game no longer uses the VM and loads the data directly from the DLL´s. But ID warns you not to use these DLL´s....

More about that in the Firingsquad article.

20.01 - ASUS V6600 Pure review

Anandtech reviewed the ASUS V6600 Pure:

Naturally, with such high levels of quality control, the V6600 Pure is a very solid card. The GeForce processor itself is cooled with a low profile heat sink that is attached to the processor via a very thoroughly applied layer of thermal grease. It is exactly the type of cooling setup that we wish more manufacturers could achieve. The card, as tested, was outfitted with 32 MB of EliteMT 5.5 ns (183 MHz) SDRAM, accomplished by strategically placing sixteen 2MB SDRAM chips around the front and back of the board. While many of the GeForce based cards are now using 5 ns RAM, the 5.5 ns EliteMT RAM has been a common RAM choice for venders since the release of the TNT2 Ultra, however 5 ns SDRAM chips would have resulted in even more overclocking potential.

Read the whole stuff here.

20.01 - New ASUS drivers

ASUS released new w9x drivers for the V3400/3800/6x00: ASUS w9x v3.68 Beta2

19.01 - New Erazor II drivers

ELSA released new drivers for the TNT card Erazor II:

Special features of this driver:

based on NVIDIA reference driver 369
complete DirectX 7 compatible - please install DirectX 7 before you install this display driver!
includes optimizations for AMD K6-2/-III, AMD Athlon and Intel Pentium III processors.
Direct3D support for ELSA 3D REVELATOR
updated driver tools

Download: ELSA Erazor II drivers

(ThanX to Kai!!)

19.01 - 3D Engines

Voodooextreme´s techguru Ga´ash made an article about how 3D Engines work. Take a look if you ever wanted to know how this stuff works:

So far, we have covered some basic math elements of 3D Engines, vectors, matrices, and operations using them. In part 2, we covered triangles and plane orientation. Here we will talk more about the matrices introduced in part 1. They will be used with linear transformations. Among these type of transformations are rotations and projections, both can be done with matrices, and both are required by 3D engines. Rotations and translations will be discussed here, projections in the next section.

The article can be found here.

19.01 - NVIDIA and Linux

NVIDIA made a pressrelease where they announced the availability of full OpenGL on Linux:

SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 18, 2000-- NVIDIA(TM) Corporation (Nasdaq:NVDA - news), SGI (NYSE:SGI - news) and VA Linux Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq:LNUX - news) today announced their collaboration on the industry's first professional-level OpenGL® graphics sub-system for workstations running Linux.

This planned platform would be the first 100% OpenGL 1.2-conformant hardware-accelerated graphics solution to bring professional workstation graphics standards to the Linux market. Developers using Linux desktop systems equipped with the new graphics sub-system will be able to utilize the depth of the OpenGL graphics application programming interface (API) to create professional quality 2D and 3D graphics applications. The first public demonstration of the collaborative effort will be shown during LinuxWorld, February 2-4, 2000, in New York City.

The triad's unique technology will bring to Linux desktops many of the capabilities typically associated with UNIX® systems. This technology will enable Linux systems to process rich graphics as fast, or faster, than their Microsoft® Windows®-based counterparts. The solution leverages SGI's extensive 3D graphics and OpenGL expertise, VA Linux Systems' 2D graphics and multi-monitor work and NVIDIA's proven 3D graphics hardware and software architectures. The resulting NVIDIA-based desktops will be the first to provide hardware 3D transform and lighting, hardware 2D and video acceleration, video overlay, multi-monitor capability and full native OpenGL conformance under Linux. The project will give Linux developers the ability to seamlessly integrate their applications with the industry-leading OpenGL graphics API. This graphics processing power and compatibility is a fundamental step in enabling the development of professional Linux applications such as those for manufacturing, digital content creation, electronic business, education and entertainment.

More about that in the pressrelease.

19.01 - GeForce Overclocking

Planetgeforce give you an introduction of how to overclock a GeForce DDR (yes.... again with RAM cooling <eg>).

What you need to get started

1 Socket 370 fan and heatsink combo:
$10
Cost of 8 Radio Shack part 276-1368 heatsinks:
$24
Cost of 1 package Loctite 384 thermally conductive adhesive:
$35
The look on your best friend's face when he/she sees your machine:
Priceless.

More about that here: GeForce DDR Overclocking

17.01 - ASUS o plenty

The hungarian website ASPECT benchmarked almost the whole ASUS VGA series: AGP-V3000, AGP-V3000ZX, AGP-V3400 TV, AGP-V3800 Combat, AGP-V3800 Magic, AGP-V3800 TVR, AGP-V3800 Ultra Deluxe, AGP-V6600 Pure. The results can be seen here.

17.01 - DCC Test 2.0

Entechtaiwan released a new version of its monitor tools DCC Test:

DDCTest (136kb) - a free little DDC diagnostic and PnP monitor information utility for Windows 95/98 - has been updated to Version 2.0, with support for an expanded list of monitor manufacturers and extended EDID data structures.

17.01 - Good old TNT

HardOCP gave a good old Viper 550 a second chance in a system with a PIII 600 running at 807MHz. What you get with that combo......? see yourself :-)

15.01 - Windows 2000 vs. Win98SE

Windows 2000 gets more and more popular. But what about gaming performance? Is it an alternative for gamers? Here a few benchmarks:

System: Intel Pentium III 700E (Coppermine), Tekram P6BX-A, 196MB RAM, ASUS V6800 DDR Deluxe. Drivers: W2k: v3.69 - W98: v3.68 Referenz.

		Windows 2000	Windows 98 SE
Quake3	Normal	87,5	95,2
	High Quality	68,8	84,4
	Normal 1024	68,2	81,5
	High Q. 1024	46,0	57,6

Incoming	1024x768-16	73,93	156,57
Incoming	1024x768-32	69,81	121,05

I also wanted to run some benches with GL Q1 (as a peak bench) and with 3DMark2000. But Q1 is runing in slow motion in W2K and 3DMark2000 always crashes during the game benchmarks. You can´t disable Direct3D V-Sync in Windows 2000 - so you have pretty slow results in Incoming.

Summary: Windows 2000 is not a good OS for gamers currently. No matter if it´s because of Beta graphics drivers or on the OS. It still needs a lot optimizations! And you should not forget: W2k uses a lot more RAM by default than W98!

Update:

To get 3DMark 2000 to work with Windows 2000 you have to copy the files Mfc42.dll, Msvcirt.dll and Msvcp60.dll from winnt\system32 to your 3DMark 2000 folder and overwrite the original files. ThanX to Michels for the hint!!

3dm_w2000_vs_w98se.gif (26518 bytes)

Again, the results are pretty low with Windows 2000. People asked me about the AGP support: DXDiag and Powerstrip tell me that AGP is working. But are still massive (driver!?) problems - as you can see on the AGP values and the 64MB test.

15.01 - GeForce Reviews:

ELSA ErazorX - 3D Hardware
ELSA ErazorX vs. ASUS V6600 - 3D Wards
Hercules 3D Prophet DDR-DVI - CGO

15.01 - New Windows 2000 drivers

Reactor Critical got hands on new Windows 2000 drivers version v3.69 - As always: it´s an inofficial beta release. Download: Reactor Critical

15.01 - VSA-100 in Silicon

Reverend's Pulpit received an E-Mail from 3dfx's Brian Burke where he reports that 3dfx´s new Voodoo4/5 Chip VSA-100 is available in silicon now:

At Fall COMDEX, 3dfx stated that the VSA-100 based products would be available in our fiscal Q1. We have successfully taped out the processor and have received silicon back from our fab. We expect products to become available in the previously announced timeframe, with volume production in Spring 2000.

13.01 - NVIDIA Referencedrivers v3.68

NVIDIA released new W9x/NT4Detonator reference drivers (jeah.. this is an official version!) for TNT, Vanta TNT2 and GeForce. The new drivers are Version v3.68

Download: NVIDIA Treiberseite

13.01 - Creative v3.62 Beta

Creative released new v3.62 Beta drivers for their GeForce cards Annihilator and Annihilator Pro:

Latest BETA built of GeForce Windows 95/98 driver.

This beta build optimizes the system settings to improve compatibility between AMD 750 System Core Chipset
[mainboards with Athlon processors] and 3DBlaster GeForce/GeForce Pro.

Please note that this is only a BETA version and that no technical support is available.

Download: Creative Annihilator v3.62 Beta drivers

13.01 - Inofficial referencedrivers v3.69

Reactor Critical got hands on inofficial NVIDIA refrencedrivers v3.69. As always: There´s no support! Use them on your own risk!

13.01 - NV 11/NV 15 - The new upcoming generation from NVIDIA

NVIDIA told me today that these informations were top secret and not ready for publishing. They asked me to remove the link to the site! So it´s gone :)