Comdex
Report: NVIDIA (1/2)
This is Part II (NVIDIA) of our Comdex
Report - Part I (ATi) can be found here.
Last Sunday, NVIDIA introduced its new mobile
graphics chip, the GeForce2 Go, at the Harley Davidson Café in Las Vegas. What sets this
chip apart from the GeForce 2 MX, upon which it is based, are the many power-saving
features. As its exclusive launch partner, NVIDIA has chosen Toshiba, who will introduce
notebooks using the new chip early next year, around February 2001.
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GeForce 2
GO |
Notebooks and games. Traditionally this has not been
a very successful combination. Until now, games like Solitaire and Minesweeper pretty much
marked the limit of what you could expect to play on a notebook. NVIDIA wants to change
this with the GeForce2 Go. Promising a tenfold increase in 3D performance, NVIDIA wants to
make games like Quake III and Unreal Tournament on a notebook a real possibility.
Of course the target audience for this kind of all-round
chip is rather limited. There's enough people who use notebooks: businesspeople who travel
a lot and need their laptop wherever they go, people who work a lot and take their work
home from the office on their notebook, those who use a use a dockingstation t home....it
would make for a very long list. Obviously there's a market for portable's and notebooks,
as sales figures prove.
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Demo
systems |
But a notebook for gaming? Probably not, since there
are other limitations besides the graphics subsystem that still need to be overcome.
Touchpads and small keyboards just aren't meant for gaming. Not to mention the slow
displays and the high power consumption that would drain your battery before the
deathmatch was over. NVIDIA is aiming the GeForce2 Go more at 3D applications and
presentation software. 3D games are more of a welcome side-effect. Looks like this means
that playing Quake III or UT in an airplane (maybe even via wireless LAN) is going to stay
a dream for a while to come yet.
Let's look at the technology behind the new name. As I
mentioned before, the 2 Go is based o the MX chip, which makes use of 2 render pipelines
capable of rendering 2 pixels each per clockcycle, compared to 4 for the GTS. The memory
comes in many variations: 32 or 64 bit DDR or 64/128bit SDRAM versions are possible, with
memory sizes of 16 or 32 MB. The standard core frequency will be set at 143MHz, with the
memory running at 166MHz. The TwinView feature will also make an appearance in the 2 Go,
making it very flexible indeed. Example: If a notebook comes equipped with a DVD-ROM, it
could be used as a DVD player via the TV-out.
Continue... below on the right side.
Interview:
Interview
mit Alain Tiquet, Marketing Director Europe |
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| Alain Tiquet, Marketing Director Europe |
RS: NVIDIA is very
succesfull in Europe. What are the reasons for that success?
Alain Tiquet: For sure, we want to be the
#1 on the graphics market. I have some Market analysis number from france from September.
It was the fist survey in france on the retail market. NVIDIA has about 52% Market share
in that month. Number 2 is ATI with 23% and 3dfx with 21%. In the UK itīs almost the
same. But we do not have any numbers for germany yet, but it should be the same value. So
we are doing very well in the retail market. The GeForce 2 MX is making a big difference
here because of the good price/performance relation.
RS: What is the difference between the
market in europe and USA?
Alain Tiquet: There are no really
differences. Europe is doing very well. The Mainstream sector is a bit more conservative
so we have to do more work into that market.
RS: The dollar is very high today. Does
this influence your strategies and produkt placement in europe?
Alain Tiquet: No, itīs very difficult but
clear. The whole IT business is done in US Dollars. So if there is a new product, the
problem is the same for everybody on the market. Nobody can escape it. All components come
in US dollars, may it be from Taiwan or from whereelse. There is no interference in price
positioning on the market.
RS: When will we see GF 2 Go Products in
Europe?
Alain Tiquet: Thatīs not up to us. We
start GF2 GO with our exclusive Partner Toshiba. Itīs up to them when they bring their
products to the european market. They say, they will release it in Spring 2001. So
you should ask that question to Toshiba, but I donīt think that there will be a
difference in the release times. Europe is a very strong and important market for
Notebooks manufacturers.
RS: Whatīs the role of GeForce 2 PRO? It
is between GeForce 2 GTS and ULTRA. Is there really a need fo such a solution on the
market?
Alain Tiquet: The GeForce 2 PRO was not
made for the Retail Market. It is trageted to the OEM market. Hercules ans some others
decited to do a PRO for the Retail Market. Itīs their descision. The normal steps are
ULTRA on the Top, followed by GTS which is a lot cheaper and MX for the Mainstream.
Hercules descited to do a GeForce 2 PRO for the retail market. If it makes sense... itīs
up to them. Itīs the same GPU, only the memory is faster. The core is exactly the same
like on a GTS. We provide the techology, but itīs up to our partners what cards they
release finally.
RS: Do we really need solutions like NV20
today? Current solutions like GF2 GTS seem to be fast enough. What benefit will users have
to upgrade to the upcoming NV20?
Alain Tiquet: We speak about future
products when they are there. Our strategy is doubling the performance of our GPU every
six months. One year after the presentation of GeForce 256 we now have more than 40
T&L capable games available. We do a lot of work with the game developers before the
release of a product. So we can be sure that there are games available when the product is
released. So it should work the same with NV20.
RS: Will we see any games in the near that
will really need a GPU to be run?
Alain Tiquet: I think the T&L
architecture is really moving very very well. NVIDIA was the first to launch it and ATI
does now have a T&L capable prodtuct too. The game developer will use the architecture
that is available on the market. 3dfx said, when everbody uses T&L, weīll do it....
so I think they should do it now.
RS: What else will we see from NVIDIA.
Whereīs the future of the PC?
Alain Tiquet: We have a whole line of
graphics cards with TNT2, GeForce, GeForce2 GTS, MX and Ultra. Our first experience with
chipsets was the Alladin- TNT2 we made with ALI. In the X-Box we will also have a chipset,
the MCP-X. A multimedia communication processor. With that approach we will bring it to
the PC market as well. We will provide Chipsets for motherboards with fully integrated
graphics - but still with an standard AGP slot of course. So you have a good 3D
performance from the startup and you can upgrade later if you wish without problems.
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Comdex
Report: NVIDIA
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