Nvidia going bye bye?

[Alarinn]

I own a bit of nVidia stock and no they aren't going out of business. They will continue to make graphics chips, not boards. They make them and it's up to vendors to use them. The reason nVidia is pushing so hard to put out these chips so quickly is competition. Ati and Matrox are making nVidia release them far quicker than they would want to. Remember, nVidia is the ONLY one that doesn't make the cards, so it takes time to mass produce graphic cards based on a new nVidia chipset. nForce is looking much better as a viable mobo, and I bet it will appear as an equal option as other VIA mobos by year's end AND may even accept Intel in the very near future. That means more capital to put into more R&D. nVidia is already got a Geforce7 in the works, and is almost 3 times faster than the GeForce4. nVidia has positioned themselves to be around for a long time since they don't make the boards, just the chips. That prevents them from being a vertical company, like Ati and Matrox. Much less admin costs and the staff that work there are very loyal.

Patrick

[ReSpAwN DeMoN]

GEFORCE 7!!!!!!!!!? They are so fake.....The geforce 4 and geforce 5 probably aren't really different GPU's just souped up geforce 3's....and I know that for a fact cause geforce 3 technology hasn't been optimized yet.....and now there is a geforce 4? geforce 5? geforce 6? geforce 7?????????? They screwed themselves over BIG TIME!!!....but then again you gotta thing that alot of the unexpierienced out there WILL believe them...and go crazy over a geforce 7. I used to think my gefofce 3 was so powerful and that its getting way behind but really its not...

[Alarinn]

If a geForce4 is so fake, then go try to OC your Ti500 to exceed it. You might exceed the default settings, but that's all. There are many differences in the geForce4 compared to the 3s. Not as many as we are used to (i.e. geForce2 vs geForce 256), but enough. Remember, competition right now is speed. Who gets the fastest card out wins. It used to be who had the best graphics and Matrox won that one. So nVidia is pressured to stay ahead by throwing new versions of the same chipsets with adding functionality like 128MB ram (faster too). Their goal was to wait with the geForce4 and roll out the geForce5 which is a major leap forward in the architechure. If and when the demand for graphics cards based on quality rather than speed, then things will change once again.

Patrick

[ReSpAwN DeMoN]

right........but when you think about it...if all it is, is a speed increase and a memory increase then its not enough to call it a Geforce 4 its not a new GPU just a souped up geforce 3 and I stand on that strongly.....its like a honda civic on steroids....I'm not calling the geforce 3 slow I'm just using that as an analogy...now they could have given it a proper name to follow the geforce 2 series it could have titled the geforce 3 ultra......the difference between the geforce 256 and the geforce 2 was what? speed and memory and alittle bit better graphics architecture. not enough to call it a gefoce 3 but just a better gefoce 2....the geforce 5 I beleive will be a true geforce 4 and what it was supposed to be..

[Alarinn]

Good point, but it still is market pressure that is causing all this. I'd like to see cards getting back to better image quality rather than speed. Most games today still don't use a Geforce2 to its fullest potential, so even our geForce3 cards will take years before we see games on a regular basis that take advantage of what the cards can do.

On a side note:

At 1280X1024, Anarchy Online gets about 28fps on my non-OCed geForce3.

At 1024x968 (the highest setting), Morrowind gets anywhere from 8 to 80 fps. The average in the city is 20fps. Much room for improvement.

I think game developers are sloppy coders. When was the last time a developer actually wrote his own tools? Most games since 1999 have been developed using some 3rd party tool (sometimes built in-house). When in doubt, go back to machine code.

Has anyone been successful with OCing their cards in XP Pro? I haven't since the XP setup for my Leadtek card fails during the install. I guess I need to download NVmax.

Patrick

[ReSpAwN DeMoN]

Wow......that's so true......you practically pulled the words right out of me...I just didn't know how to say them....the geforce 4 is all about speed........I say the most sucessful was the geforce 2....I think I'm using my geforce 3 to its full potential I have 4XAA on during most games....what else can I use to take FULL advantage of the geforce 3....I have a leadtek geforce 3TDH...do you know where to get the latest version of winfox? I'm still runnning version 1.0 which is the version that comes on the cd's heh

[Alarinn]

There are new drivers on Leadtek's site for XP. It even includes nVidia's latest reference drivers. Considering Leadtek's awful initial nVidia drivers, this a good thing for them to do. WinFox is now at 2.0, but it never completes the install without Microsoft's little abend helper popping up and saying "would you like for me to send this error report to Mr. Moneybags?" I installed nVidia's file successfully. That has been one thing nVidia has done that I have been impressed with since the days of the Riva 128 - great drivers.

Patrick

[ReSpAwN DeMoN]

What the detonators? I'm using the 23's. I never had luck with the newer 28's, there extremely unstable....where do I get winfox 2.0 have you tried the compatibility mode?

[Alarinn]

http://www.leadtek.com.tw/www/Web_Leadtek/driver_e.asp

Select Entertainment Graphics and GeForce3(GF3, Ti200, ti500). It's the last file displayed for Windows XP/2000. I haven't tried compatibility mode since I thought it was XP signed.

Patrick

[DarthMildew]

Guys....nice to talk about Nvidia going out of business...I doubt it. But, check out the new Matrox Parhelia. ref http://www.guru3d.com/, down about half way. Also, check out Matrox's website and check out the multi monitor. This thing is evidently going to sell for about the same as the G4Ti, and it outperforms it in a major way. Also, it has the built in 3 monitor support...so no more maxing the PCI bus. Thoughts?

Darth Mildew

[Beefy]

There was a thread around somewhere about the Parhelia. It's looking really nice on paper, but it will be good to finally see some real-world testing, and the many different benchmarking results that sites love to give us.

tri-monitors is a good idea and all, but then again, so is dual, and I don't know many people that use that. So it's probably going to end up another great feature that's not really practical to most people.. :)

[Wiggo]

Yes nothing will be decided until real hardware is compared as paper specs mean nothing in the real world. :smokin:
<center>:cheers:</center>

[Alarinn]

Dual monitors have no use for me. I doubt tri will either. I want performance and graphic quality, which Matrox did have. I stopped using Maxtrox when their G400 cards didn't have great drivers and Maxtrox had zero support. nVidia has done the best job of support, IMO, of any hardware company that I've seen in the past 20 years. Unified drivers that work even on my old TNT and geForce 1 cards. I still have my old Matrox Mistake and can I find drivers? Nope, maybe if I beg to a support group. IF Matrox wants my business, they will have to prove they are willing to actually support their cards. I can come up with demos that would make my TNT2 card run circles around a Voodoo3, so until I see actual 'real-world' reviews, I won't touch a Matrox.

Patrick