Sonntag 19.03.2000

Kyle (HardOCP) hat das Büro von Toms Hardware entdeckt....

19.03 Inside GeForce

Reactor Critical hat einen sehr technisch orientierten Artikel zur Technik des NVIDIA GeForce Chips verfasst:

Too many questions rose lately about the GeForce geometry pipeline performance. Let's investigate what highest performance the GeForce may reach in different situations, and let's figure out the reasons for such behavior of the chip. Another purpose of the article was to find the aspects one should draw his attention to when examining other 3D-accelerators with hardware T&L in future. (...more)

19.03 ASUS NT Treiber

ASUS bietet neue Windows NT4 Treiber v3.68 Beta für die TNT/TNT2 Karten V3400/V3800: ASUS TNT Windows NT Treiber

Samstag 18.03.2000

PC Rave hat NVIDIA´s GeForce mit diversen DVD Playern getestet. Der GeForce Chip unterstützt Motion Compensation in Hardware (Bewegungsanalyse... nur die Elemente die sich ändern werden angezeigt).

It has been over five months and the GeForce 256 has been pratically reviewed to death with comparisons, 5-way shootouts, benchmarks, analysis, and commentary. Nearly every topic has been covered. But in an effort to educate and inform you the reader, I have decided to cover software DVD for the GeForce 256

Der komplette Artikel ist hier zu finden.

18.03 NVIDIA auf der GDC

Auf Computer Games Online gibt es einen Report zur GDC (Game Developers Conference) auf der NVIDIA scheinbar schon erste Details zum NV15 verlauten ließ: (Dank an PlanetGeForce)

NVIDIA had plenty to say and show about their spring product, code-named NV-15. We can't say when it will be available, except to confirm that it will be in their second fiscal quarter and "sooner rather than later." They've obviously had chips back from the fabrication plant for some time already, given that the X-Box demo unit used one. Details of the new chip are under embargo for the time being, but the move to a .18 micron manufacturing process apparently paid off big. NVIDIA was pleasantly surprised to find that the first chips they got back from the lab run quite a bit faster than anticipated. They tell of even clocking one as high as 250MHz! Naturally, it was an exception to the rule and they can't possibly ship parts in quantity at that speed, but a target shipping speed of 180MHz or more isn't at all out of the question. The NV-15 chips draw far less power and run cooler than their NV-10 counterparts as well.

Weiteres:

Those who are expecting the NV-15 to be what the TNT2 was to the TNT (the same thing, only faster) may be in for a surprise. Yes, the feature set of the NV-15 looks a lot like the current NV-10 (GeForce), but the company does have a few surprises in store. The speed and features of the chip will be shown off in a manner very similar to the GeForce—most cards will come with demo disks full of small applications showing what the card can do. (...more)

Demnach läuft der Chip (der sich wohl auch im X-Box Demo System befand) schneller als erwartet. Eine endgültige Taktrate von 180MHz scheint demnach realistisch. Auch von weiteren Überraschungen und neuen Techdemos ist die Rede.

18.03 Forum

Das Forum läuft nun vollständig auf dem neuen Server. Probleme beim Lesen der Beiträge durch Serverüberschneidungen dürften nun nicht mehr vorkommen. Von der Performance her ist das Forum nun deutlich schneller geworden.

Freitag 17.03.2000

Es kann momentan zu Problemen mit dem Forum kommen. Schuld daran ist die schon vorher erwähnte Serverumstellung. Das Forum läuft momentan noch auf dem alten Server. Die Umstellung der DNS Server für die .com Adresse (www.rivastation.com) ist gerade im Gange. Ich werde das Forum nun auf den neuen Server umstellen. Dabei kann es aber noch kurzzeitig zu Überschneidungen kommen, da verschiedene DNS Server noch auf die alte IP zeigen....

17.03 v3.81 Windows 2000 Treiber

Voodooextreme bietet einen neuen NVIDIA Windows 2000 Treiber in der Version v2.81 zum Dowmload. Laut nV News scheint der Treiber stabiler und schneller zu sein:

nVidia's Developer's site has been updated with new Windows 2000 drivers for their GeForce board.  Whoa, I think we popped these bad boys up before they really got around (thanks to my anon. friend for getting these to me).   No word in the readme on what's new with these drivers, but they are now up to version 3.81.  Actually, these aren't just for the GeForce, as mentioned in the readme, they are basically for every nVidia product from the TNT up to the GeForce and Quadro.

Download: NVIDIA W2K v3.81

17.03 V5 Falcon 4 AA Shots

Auf SimHQ gibt es neue Voodoo 4/5 Screenshots zu Falcon 4. Einmal mit und einmal ohne Anti Aliasing:

There's been some buzz about a demonstration done at GDC this past week. 3dfx was showing off the antialiasing capability of its new line of cards, and using Falcon 4.0 as an example. SimHQ.com is pleased to present the first published screenshots of this technology in action in F4, courtesy of 3dfx. Below are four JPG screenshots, two at 0% image compression and two at 10% image compression, showing the same basic scene in F4 with antialiasing on and off. Pay particular attention to the mountains in the background and the detail in the weapons when comparing the two...it's easy to see that there are a lot less "jaggies" in the shots where antialiasing is activated. We've been told that it's hard to do it justice in still shots, but it looks pretty good so far.

Falcon4 V4/5 Screenshots

17.03 V5 Preview Teil 4

Gamefan hat den vierten und letzten Teil des Voodoo 4/5 Previews im Netz: Voodoo 4/5 Preview

17.03 Neue GeForce Karten mit 64MB

Neben der 64MB GeForce Karte von Dell wird auch Hewlett Packard 64MB DDR Versionen in seinen Rechnern anbieten. Das haben NVIDIA und HP in einer Presseerklärung bekanntgegeben. Auch von Absolute Multimedia werden 64MB GeForce Karten erhältlich sein. Planetgeforce berichtet das folgende:

Absolute Multimedia is now launching new products including a GeForce DDR 64MB, a new revised 32MB DDR graphic board solution with "Gaming Fan" allowing better overclockability, better picture quality and a new unique MP3 solution.

Schon auf der CeBit zeigte ASUS eine 64MB Version der V6600 Deluxe. (Auch hier munkelt man von einer 64MB DDR Variante)

17.03 Neue S3 Treiber

Neue w9x Treiber für die S3/Diamond Viper II mit Savage 2000 Chip:

-Driver Version: 4.12.01.9002-9.10.30
-ICT Core Version: 1.07
-ICT Switch Version: 1.00.11-0602

Download: Viper II Treiber

Auch für die Stealth III/Extreme sind neue w9x Treiber erhältlich (v82011):

- Resolves Asheron's Call texturing issues.
- Addresses reported intermittent lockups in Unreal Tournament.
- Resolves issue of disappearing descenders in IE 5 (letters g, q, y, etc.)

Download:
Stealth III Treiber
Stealth III Extreme Treiber

17.03 Webweites

Misc:
3D Prophet Review/ Intel P3 500E - Hardwarefusion

Donnerstag 16.03.2000

Voodooextreme hatte gestern einen Link zu einer Reihe absolut sehenswerter OpenGL Demos gepostet:

- BumpWater is a simple demo that shows water in a pool. The surface of the water dynamically changes. The underwater and the reflected environments are distorted quite realistically. I made this demo to investigate potentiality of hardware-accelerated Environment-Mapped Bump Mapping.

- TLWater is a simple demo that shows water in a pool. The surface of the water dynamically changes. The underwater and the reflected environments are distorted quite realistically. The aim of this demo is to investigate potentiality of hardware-accelerated transform and lighting.

- RigidBody simulates rigid bodies with realistic motion and graphics. The motion of the rigid bodies is calculated by solving Newton's equation of motion and Euler's equation of rotation in discrete time.

- Stained Glass shows stained glass effect that is implemented using Automatic Texture-Coordinate Generation. Projected shadows are also demonstrated.

Zu bekommen sind die Demos hier.

16.03 GeForce DDR Test

Gamecenter hat 4 GeForce DDR Karten getestet (ELSA Erazor X², Hercules 3D Prophet DDR-DVI, Creative 3D Blaster Annihilator Pro, Leadtek WinFast GeForce 256 DDR).

We took a long, hard look at four DDR-equipped gaming graphics cards: Guillemot's Hercules 3D Prophet DDR-DVI, Creative Labs' 3D Blaster Annihilator Pro, ELSA's Erazor X², and Leadtek's WinFast GeForce 256 DDR. All are fitted with Nvidia's GeForce 256 processor and 32MB of blazingly fast DDR memory. Some of the cards have more features than their competitors, and the ELSA card squeezed (barely) past the others in our benchmark test, but they all prove that the new memory technology is more than just another acronym.  (...more)

16.03 Voodoo 4/5 Preview

Gamefan hat den dritten Teil seine Voodoo 4/5 Vorschau Online. Diesmal geht es um die T-Buffer Technologie: Voodoo 4/5 Preview

16.03 NVIDIA Q&A

PCRave hat auf der GDC ein Interview mit NVIDIA´s PR-Manager Derek Perez gemacht. Dabei ging es vor allem um die X-Box... aber auch eine Antwort auf Brian Burke´s (3dfx) kleine Attacke auf die v5.08er NVIDIA Treiber:

Joe: What's the OFFICIAL statement from NVIDIA about the leaked 5.08 drivers that were leaked from mother Russia? What do you think about Brian Burke's comments (from 3dfx) about the sub-standard full screen anti-aliasing support in the drivers?

Derek: Well, seeing that those are leaked drivers - they are not NVIDIA certified and we tell people to use these at their own risk.

As for Brian Burke, he should really focus on 3dfx and the VSA - 100 (does that stand for Very Slow Architecture - 100 MHz?) and leave NVIDIA alone - but of course I think he has what we call GPU envy.

...

Joe: You said earlier that the NV25 will be exclusive to the X-Box. Since the X-Box will use an NV25 chipset, will we not see NV25 on PCs? Will the PC have it earlier than the X-Box next year Spring 2001 or just skip it and go to the next version up - for example NV30?

Derek: No, there is no NV25 - we are calling [it] the X-Box GPU and rest assured, we are not ignoring the desktop market - we are still laser focused on delivering the world's best 3d graphics for the desktop PC

Das komplette Interview ist hier zu finden.

Mittwoch 15.03.2000

3D Workshop nimmt in einer Kolumne einen tiefen Blick in die Glaskugel und vergleicht Voodoo4/5 mit NV 15:

3dfx have been quite liberate with their specifications on the VSA-100 chip. It will have all the features the older Voodoo chips lacked, such as 32bpp rendering, AGP texturing, large texture support, and more. SLI is also maintained, but this time on chip level. The Voodoo5 6000 uses four of the VSA-100 chips, with 128MB memory, clocking in at 1.32 to 1.47 Gigapixels fillrate. It will also need an external power supply do accomodate the four chips and fans. Funny isn't it?

15.03 Neuer AGP Wizard

3D Chipset bietet eine neue Version des Creative Tools AGP Wizard. Mit Hilfe dieses Utilitys können AGP Settings, z.B. Sidebanding, bei Creative Karten einstellen.

This utility :
* Allows you to set the AGP 1X/2X/4X bus data tranfer rate
* Allows you to enable/disable the side-band address mode and Fast-Writes option
* Supports the following AGP graphics card:

• 3D Blaster GeForce Pro
• 3D Blaster GeForce
• 3D Blaster RIVA TNT2 Ultra
• 3D Blaster RIVA TNT2
• 3D Blaster RIVA TNT2 Value
• Graphics Blaster RIVA TNT
• 3D Blaster Savage4 AGP
• Graphics Blaster Exxtreme (AGP)

Download

Dienstag 14.03.2000

IGN bietet neue beeindruckende X-Box Movies: IGN X-Box Demo Movies

14.03 Neues ASUS GeForce Bios

ASUS hat eine neue Biosversion für die GeForce Karten AGP-V6600 und AGP-V6800 veröffentlicht (Pure und Deluxe Versionen). Das neue Bios bietet nun auf Wunsch erstmals AGP-Sidebanding.

Sideband Enabled!

Download:

ASUS AGP-V6600: ftp://ftp.asuscom.de/pub/ASUSCOM/TREIBER/VGA/V6600/Firmware/
ASUS AGP-V6800: ftp://ftp.asuscom.de/pub/ASUSCOM/TREIBER/VGA/V6800/Firmware/

Das Firmwareupdate läuft unter Win9x.

14.03 Serverumstellung

RIVA Station zieht in den kommenden Tagen auf einen neuen Web-Server um. Dabei kann es zeitweise zu Problemen kommen! Sorry schonmal.

14.03 NV15 Info

Die Jungs und Mädels von Björn3D berichten von einer Pressekonferenz bei der Creative erste Details zum NV15 durchblicken ließ:

• 32 Mb DDR memory
• 0.18 micron
• Over 1 GigaTexel fillrate
• 4 dual-texture pipelines
• TV-out via daughter-card (the idea is that you will only ahve to buy the TV-out board once and continue use it on future Creative products. This isn't finalized yet)

...da wird es wieder einige Telefonate geben ;-)

14.03 Voodoo5 Preview

Gamefan hat ein Preview zu 3dfx kommenden Grafikkarten der Voodoo4 und Voodoo 5 Serie gemacht. Mit enthalten ist ein Interview mit 3dfx´s Brian Burke:

GameFan: The buzz on the Internet seems to be centered around Hardware T&L; releases from Nvidia, Matrox, and even ATI are offering support. Currently, no game offers full support, but does 3dfx see any benefit of Hardware T&L in its future technology projects?

BB: We do have a plan for geometry processing. We just think that the problem of FSAA needs to be solved before T&L. Adding more triangles just adds more "jaggies." The benefit of T&L is to allow you to add more triangles and finer details. We think that those details should look right, and not have artifacting that distracts from the playing experience. We know T&L is important, but we do not think that it will matter if the T&L is done by the graphics card or the CPU in the near term. When we have a geometry processor, it will be faster than the geometry available on CPUs.

Das komplette Preview ist hier zu finden.

14.03 NVIDIA zur X-Box

Hardwareguru hat ein Interview mit NVIDIA´s Derek Perez zum NVIDIA Grafikchip X-Chip gemacht der in Microsofts Spielekonsole X-Box Verwendung finden wird:

HARDWAREGURU: Microsoft announced a high performance graphics solution for the X-BOX, beating the current PS2 with the factor 5 in performance. Will that X-Chip be based on any technology we already see or heard of (NV25) and will we see a PC-X-Chip AddOn-Card in the market or will this be a X-BOX only thing ?

Derek Perez/NVIDIA: This is a GPU that will be for X-Box only and it will be the world’s first trillion operations per second (TOPS) processor and featuring a programmable per pixel shading architecture not found in any other product today. In addition to the per pixel shading technology, the GPU will include full support for programmable geometry, hardware accelerated transform and lighting, a variety of compressed texture formats and many other features. With the ability to process over 1 TOPS, the GPU will be several times faster than any current game console.

Das komplette Interview is hier zu finden.

Montag 13.03.2000

Die Version 4.0 von XFree86 ist nun erhältlich. Damit ist nun OpenGL Beschleunigung auch mit GeForce Karten unter Linux möglich:

4.0:

Support (accelerated) for the Riva 128, 128ZX, TNT, TNT2 (Ultra, Vanta, M64), GeForce (DDR) and Quadro is provided by the XF86_SVGA server and the nv driver.

Update: Entgegen der Angabe bietet der Treiber keine 3D Beschleunigung. Der Info-Eintrag wird aktualisiert. Die Treiber beschleunigt nur 2D:

der einzige opengl treiber für nvidia ist für xfree 3.3.x (siehe utah_glx bei www.sourceforge.org) und dieser ist dank mangelnder chipsatz specs ziemlich buggy/langsam

einzig für voodoo3 und banshee ist opengl support momentan integriert in xfree4.0

Download: XFree86 4.0 (Dank an Bernd!)

13.03 Matrox G450 / G800 Infos

3D Chipset berichtet von ersten Technischen Detials zur Matrox G450 und G800:

G450 (Condor I)

- G400 MAX core with integrated RGB, NTSC/PAL and DVI outputs
- 64bit DDR SDRAM
- Support for DDR FCDRAM
- 320 pin PBGA
- 0.18 micron 6 Metal Layer process
- Mass production : Mar. 2000
- 16MB frame buffer version : 2 x (2M x 32 DDR)
- 32MB frame buffer version : 4 x (4M x 16 DDR) or 4 x (2M x 32 DDR)

16MB version of G450 will use 166MHz memory clock (in case of FC DDR, 200MHz is feasible)and uses 64bit dual memory bus.

G800(Condor II)

- Pin compatible with G450
- Double fillrate of G450
- Support for 250MHz DDR FCRAM
- Support for Hardware T&L
- Support for DirectX 8.0 Shader and fully functional DX7
- New DX7, 8 IDC drivers
- Mass production : Sept. 2000

Matrox will show dual chip configured version of G800 in order to meet the higher transformation and fill performance too.

13.03 Virtual AGP

The Register berichtet über eine Technologie genannt Virtual AGP. Wie der Name schon andeutet ermöglicht sie AGP Features wie das Auslagern von Texturen in den Arbeitsspeicher auch auf nicht-AGP Systemen, z.B. auf Rechnern mit Onboard Grafik etc. Auch bei ATi´s neuem Mainboard (ArtX - ATI-S1-370TL) ist von Virtual AGP die Rede:

Virtual AGP is designed for older computer systems without any AGP slot. Specially targeted machines are the many i810 mainboards which do not provide any AGP slots. The i810 chipset just has integrated VGA, with practically no 3D features, as well as many PCI, slots which means that theres no AGP 3D gaming power available.

Besides this, for many i810 and i810e mainboards on market this will be a very useful feature, particularly for Socket 7 which does not have an AGP port. The solution for this problem is a patent from Nvidia called Virtual AGP. It provides high performance AGP style graphical options for Non AGP slot systems. It is based on unique NVIDIA texture management technology – Virtual AGP. Believe it or not, it provides AGP style texturing in standard PCI slot.

The benefits from this technology will mainly be AGP functionality on the PCI bus followed with better performance and higher resolutions. Products based on it will enable very large texture memory support on all systems.

Mehr dazu hier.

Sonntag 12.03.2000

Demonews berichtet über 2 neue Tech-Demos die Environmental Bump Mapping demonstrieren. Die Demos laufen nur auf Matrox Grafikkarten:

• Matrox Funky Bumped Earth
  with source): This sample is a funky twist on the standard DX SDK bumped spinning Earth sample. It now has multi-colored stars orbiting the Earth, which dynamically effect the envmap. You'll need a Matrox card for this demo to work.
  
• Matrox Bumped Flame
  (with source): This sample simulates a flame using EMBM, with bumped water and bumped heat distortion effect. A very cool/simple demo with NO procedural textures and very few polys! You'll need a Matrox card for this demo to work.

Neben Matrox hat ATi Support für Environmental Bump Mapping angekündigt (Charisma Architektur)

12.03 Riva 3D in Deutsch

RIVA 3D will nun erstmals auch Artikel ins Deutsche übersetzen. Dabei wagt man den Einsatz eines automatischen Translators..... wer sich das antun will...   ;-)

Eine Weile habe hinter, ich die ASUS V6600 deluxe Videokarte überprüft. In der Nachprüfung, habe ich der ASUS Karte ein perfektes Spielergebnis von 5 aus 5, und verdientermaßen so gegeben. Das einzige Ding fühle das ich vielleicht besser könnte sein als der V6600 Deluxe war der upcoming V6800 deluxe, der DDR RAM kennzeichnet, aber ein sonst identischer Entwurf und Anordnung zur nicht-DDR V6600.

Der komplette Artikel ist hier zu finden: V6800 Deluxe Review

12.03 5.08 Detonator Report

nV News hat einen Artikel zum 5.08 Detonator Treiber Online:

We've completed an in-depth report on NVIDIA's 5.08 beta Detonator drivers. This report takes a look at texture compression and full scene anti-aliasing and includes lots of benchmarks and screenshots. Here's a snip:

Word on the street was that the leaked Detonators were still in the alpha stage of development, but curiosity got the better of me and I installed them for testing purposes only. Web sites began reporting that these drivers had support for S3's OpenGL texture compression algorithm S3TC.

Der Artikel ist hier zu finden.

12.03 X-Box 3D Details

Heise berichtet im Newsticker über erste details des 3D Chips der in Microsofts X-Box arbeiten wird. Der Chip wird von NVIDIA entwickelt und wird auf einer Next Generation Technologie (man redet von NV25) basieren. Heise spricht erstmals von dem Namen X-Chip. Hier die Specs:

Maximale Auflösung: 1920 x 1080
Taktrate: 300MHz
Poly-Leistung: 300M Polygone/sec (GeForce: 15M!)
4 Texturen pro Takt
Pixel-Fillrate: 4.8 G/s (Anti-Aliased, 2 Texturen)
8:1 Komprimierte Texturen

Wenn diese Fillrate über shared Memory erreicht werden soll, darf man sich schon auf den Speicherbus der X-Box freuen....

News Archiv - weitere März News

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