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Nvidia Geforce 4 (NV25) Information
msolnik writes: "nV News has a
brief article about the long-awaited NV25-based video adapters. These graphics processors have similar capabilities compared to the XGPU, and are a lot more powerful than GeForce3 Ti500. Since they are manufactured using .13 micron technology, they will probably be clocked at very high levels."
In case you miss it 3/4 down the page:
NV25 Information
I was browsing nVidia's forum over @ Fools, and there was a link to Reactor Critical. Here's what they have to say about NV25.
Long-awaited NV25 based adapters. This graphics processor that have similar capabilities compared with XGPU is a lot more powerful than GeForce3 Ti500. Since it is manufactured using 0.13 microns technology, it has a lot of chances to be clocked at the very high levels. The GPU comes in January/February 2002, while professional boards should be available in the second quarter.
ELSA is going to launch two boards based on NV25GL processor, both supports two LCD monitors, though, we do not know whether there are two integrated TMDS transmitters or only one and the second is external.
NV25 that works on 275 MHz. 128 MB DDR SDRAM @ 250 MHz.
NV25 that works on 300 MHz. 128 MB DDR SDRAM @ 330 MHz.
So, this is what a high-end NV25 part *might* look like...
* Rumoured 6 Pixel pipelines .13u Manufacturing process
* Core freq: 300 MHz.
* Memory: 660 MHz. (eff) ~ 10.5 GB/sec BW, assuming they stay with 128-bit data paths.
* Supports TwinView
* Supports (finally) Hardware iDCT
* More powerful T&L unit, to include a second Vertex Shader
* Can't find the link, but there's a rumour stating that we can expect Voodoo5 5500-esque Anti-Aliasing feature. The presumption is that the NV25 will bring a Rotated-Grid AA implementation to the table.
*
It really does sound like a pretty amazing chip. I would be willing to bet we'll be hearing a lot more in the way of rumours as the New Year approaches.
Live to be Moderated
One good reason to improve speed is simply better AA. Bet your card still shows those unsightly jaggies? Textures shimmer as they pass by, moire on the staircase, distant telegraph poles popping in & out of existance? Turn on 4-sample AA. Oh dear, now it's too slow. But not on my GF3, with anisotropic filtering turned up. I just wish I could do more than 4 samples.
Want more realism? Bump mapping everywhere? Gloss maps? More translucent surfaces? Detail & dirt maps? Specular highlights? More objects in the scene (i.e. more overdraw)? Guess you're going to need a lot more fillrate too.
Here's some more reasons, this time for better polygon handling - real-looking trees. Smooth, organic surfaces. Huge, detailed outdoor scenes that aren't always hidden by that strange vertical fog. Realtime, dynamic shadow volumes. And of course, accurate reflections. If you want to see the trees reflecting in the water, you have to render all those polygons twice. To see all the buildings in your nice shiny car, a cubic environment map is a good way, but requires the entire scene to be rendered six times!
And we haven't even started getting to the interesting stuff. Anisotropic pixel shaders, vertex shaders for displacement mapping or nice rippled reflections. Overbright textures for really nice highlights (or for running realtime Renderman shaders :-) Maybe some really computation-heavy stuff - ray traced surfaces, realtime radiosity solutions or global illumination.
Not enough? I'd like that all in stereovision too, please. Better double that workload again. Or perhaps on each wall of an immersive room? 5x more rendering.
DOA3 looks really, really nice on my Xbox, but I can't help thinking how much better it'd be at 1600x1200 with AA. Or with some of the other refinements I've mentioned above. Sadly, the hardware still isn't there yet...
Believe me, the field of 3D has a lot of room to grow yet.
Why would anyone engrave "Elbereth"?
As a linux and open source purist I only play text based games.