NVIDIA GEFORCE 3 - LIVING UP TO THE HYPE
Date: 3/2/01
By: Rice

    One can liken the impact the GeForce 3 will have on the consumer graphics industry as the original 3Dfx Voodoo graphics chip had in the industry at the beginning. That is to say, HUGE. Here are some of the technologies available on the chip, explained in layman's terms:

• The nfiniteFX Engine: Gives the programmer ability to actually tell the GPU (Graphics Processor) what to do with specific pixels, i.e. casting shadows, all without using any extra CPU cycles. This is the realistic, e.g. Toy Story, enhancing aspect of the GeForce 3.
• Lightspeed Memory Architecture: Makes for more efficient memory usage, as well as utilizing tricks like not rendering things blocked behind objects, to maximize available bandwidth. This is the main performance enhancing aspect of the GeForce 3.
• High-Resolution Anti-Aliasing: Utilizes a more efficient method of anti-aliasing (Quincunx) that uses less memory, but yields equal, if not better results than the best of previous generation efforts. This is the feature that any current game can take advantage of.

Click to enlarge. Trust me, you'll want to. Remember, these aren't pre-rendered pics touched up by Photoshop. These are screen captures of REAL TIME rendeirng! Without further ado: