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#Post#: 19--------------------------------------------------
NVIDIA
DIR By: Mr Horse
Date: December 17, 2017, 2:21 pm
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Retro value
GeForce 256 through GeForce FX are fine cards for old games for
a number of reasons. Their DOS game compatibility and GUI
performance are top notch. Their Direct3D driver supports two
critical old features, fog table and 8-bit palettized textures.
OpenGL compatibility and performance are second to none, and
some games utilize proprietary NVIDIA extensions.
One problem with NVIDIA cards prior to GeForce4 is that some
card vendors built their cards too cheaply. The most noticeable
result is poor analog signal quality. It causes problems such as
blurriness, loss of color saturation and color bleed,
particularly at higher resolutions and refresh rates.
Determining which cards are high quality is difficult but the
GeForce4 and newer cards are most likely to be good.
Perhaps the finest choices are the GeForce FX series because
they offer the most refined quality-enhancing features and the
high end models have the performance to use these features at
higher resolutions. GeForce 6 drops support for palettized
textures, which is a problem with a few games, but otherwise
they too are great choices. GeForce 7 drops support for Windows
9x but still supports Windows 2000. Some users, however, have
reportedly gotten GeForce 7800 cards to work under Windows 98
and ME using an unofficial, modified driver (link). This
modified driver does not support Windows 95. The GeForce 7
series is also the last that is supported by NVIDIAs Stereo3D
driver extension for shutter glasses such as ELSA Revelator.
GeForce 8 and above support only XP and newer.
Cards
NV1 / STG2000
NV1
Released in 1995, NVIDIA's first 3D accelerator was an
all-in-one product with audio, GUI, VGA, 3D and Sega Saturn
gamepad support. It uses a type of 3D rendering called quadratic
texture mapping that is not Direct3D or OpenGL compatible so it
is only useful with games that use its proprietary API. It is
the same technology used by Sega Saturn and as such various
games were ported to use the NV1. Its audio consists of
wavetable MIDI and DirectSound support but very little DOS
support. DOS VGA compatibility is limited.
It comes in various memory configurations with up to 4 MB
maximum. The final drivers support Direct3D, but it is a
software-only implementation.
Games with support: Battle Arena Toshinden, Descent: Destination
Saturn, NASCAR Racing, Panzer Dragoon, Virtua Cop, Virtua
Fighter Remix.
NV3 | RIVA 128 & 128 ZX
RIVA 128
The RIVA 128 was released in late 1997 and it is the first
Direct3D compatible GPU from NVIDIA. RIVA stands for Real-time
Interactive Video and Animation and 128 for the internal 128-bit
pipeline and memory interface. It has a 206 MHz RAMDAC and
supports DDC2 and VBE3. RIVA 128 has all the hardware features
required for Direct3D 5 and has also good OpenGL compatibility.
It renders at only 16-bit color depth. The 3D performance is
competitive with Voodoo Graphics (Voodoo1).
The RIVA 128 shows a number of rendering quality compromises. It
has blending issues that introduce dithering patterns/noise. Its
texture mapping does automatic mipmap generation. This combined
with its per-polygon mip mapping causes texture popping and
other quirks. The per-pixel mipmapping in the control panel does
not operate as true per-pixel mipmapping and can cause problems.
It also has some kind of problem maintaining texture alignment
and visible gaps often occur. Finally its bilinear texture
filtering is not as blurring as you may be used to. Sometimes
textures look almost as if they are only point-sampled. Overall
RIVA 128 is an interesting mix of speed and compromise.
A special feature of the PCI version of the card is the ability
to load textures over the PCI bus, which was advertised as AGP
content on PCI. The 2D-features include video scaling and color
conversion capabilities. The chip features also PAL/NTSC output
so many cards were released with TV-out, some even with TV-in.
In early 1998, NVIDIA refreshed the NV3 architecture by
releasing the RIVA 128 ZX. The RIVA 128 ZX is an upgraded chip
that has a 250 MHz RAMDAC and supports up to 8 MB SGRAM. For
texture intense games the increased memory results in higher
performance. Higher resolutions as also supported. The RIVA 128
ZX was also integrated onto Intel's i440BX-based RC440BX
motherboard.
NV4 | RIVA TNT
TNT PCI
TNT AGP
Released in 1998, NVIDIA's RIVA TNT is a drastically improved
Direct3D 6-compliant GPU with much better image quality and
performance compared to its predecessors. It is competitive with
Voodoo2 but with more flexibility such as 32-bit color rendering
and 1024x1024 texture support. It also supports AGP 2x with
execute mode (AGP texturing). 32-bit color rendering comes with
a significant speed loss though and large textures are of very
limited use since the chip lacks any form of texture
compression. 16 MB RAM allows for very high resolutions. Great
OpenGL support. All NVIDIA cards have the advantage of
seperately clocked memory which makes for more flexible
overclocking than with 3dfx cards. Unlike ATI's Rage 128 - one
of its main competitors, the RIVA TNT does not support true
trilinear filtering, but rather, its trilinear filtering is an
approximation implementation. This results in reduced visual
quality when viewing textures / MIP levels at far distances
(which can be best described as a "sanding" or dither-pattern
type effect) when trilinear filtering is enabled, but otherwise
the RIVA TNT's visual quality is great. The RIVA TNT was also
integrated onto Intel's SR440BX and PowerColor's DREAMCODE
motherboards, both of which are based on Intel's i440BX chipset.
NV5-6 | RIVA TNT2 & TNT2 M64 and Vanta
TNT2 M64 16MB PCI (notice the solder dots for the 32MB version)
TNT2 M64 32MB PCI
TNT2 M64 32MB AGP (notice the solder dots for the 16MB version)
TNT2 AGP
TNT2 Ultra AGP
NVIDIA further refined the RIVA TNT architecture in early 1999
with the RIVA TNT2. The RIVA TNT2 is very similar to the
original TNT but adds support for AGP 4x and 2048x2048
resolution texture maps. It also typically has 32 MB of RAM and
it is clocked much higher so performs noticeably better. Some
popular budget variants include Vanta and TNT2 Model 64 (M64).
These budget models use a 64-bit memory interface (rather than
128-bit as opposed to the regular variant), effectively halving
its memory bandwidth. The performance of the M64 model, however,
is faster than the original TNT in some situations.
Acer Laboratories Inc. (ALi) later integrated the RIVA TNT2 core
into the northbridge of their M1631 motherboard chipset,
commonly known as the Aladdin TNT2. The Aladdin TNT2 could also
use shared system memory (up to 32 MB total) in addition its
onboard graphics memory. Most motherboard manufacturers opted to
equip it with 8 MB local memory. The Aladdin TNT2 is on par with
the TNT2 M64 in gaming performance.
The RIVA TNT and TNT2 do not support 8-bit palettized textures.
This is a problem with, for example, Final Fantasy VII. Likewise
with the original TNT, the RIVA TNT2 only supports trilinear
approximation rather than true trilinear filtering. NVIDIA would
not implement true trilinear filtering until the NV1x (GeForce
256 / GeForce2 / GeForce4 MX) architecture.
The TNT2 is also NVIDIA's last chip with Windows 3.1x support.
The TNT/TNT2 Windows 3.1x drivers were only released in beta
form and therefore have stability issues and occasionally
produce screen corruption - for example, video playback is
fickle and will usually crash the system. Furthermore, the same
drivers are locked to 60 Hz refresh rate, making them
undesirable for use with CRT monitors under this OS. The
TNT/TNT2 Windows 3.1x drivers will not work on any GeForce
cards.
NV10 | GeForce 256
GeForce 256 SDR
Released in October 1999, GeForce 256 / NV10 was the first
Direct3D 7-compliant GPU. It was initially released with
standard SDRAM, but a DDR version later followed. The DDR
version is roughly twice as fast as TNT2. It introduced ordered
grid super-sampling anti-aliasing, anisotropic filtering support
(up to 2x level), cubic environment mapping, and support for
hardware dot product bump mapping.
NV11 to NV1A | GeForce 2 / 2 MX / 4 MX
GeForce 2MX 200
GeForce 2MX 200
GeForce 2MX 400
GeForce 2MX 400 PCI
GeForce 2MX 400 PCI
GeForce 2 GTS
GeForce 2 Ti
Geforce 4MX 420
Geforce 4MX 440
Geforce 4MX 460 (without original cooling solution)
The next refinement in the architecture came in April 2000 in
the form of the GeForce 2 / NV15. The GeForce 2 has twice the
texture fillrate per clock compared to NV10 and uses a smaller
manufacturing process allowing higher clock rates while reducing
the power consumption at the same time. The GeForce 2 GTS is
about 40% faster than the GeForce 256. GeForce 2 performance is
mostly limited by memory bandwidth. Some card manufacturer used
a low quality analog circuit design that produces a blurry image
output.
GeForce 2 MX / NV11 is the low end series of the GeForce 2,
released in September 2000. These cards have half of the pixel
pipelines and half the memory interface of the NV15. It is the
first NV chip with two integrated TDMS channels, providing dual
display output (called "TwinView"). It also has "Digital
Vibrance Control" that allows calibration of various image
output aspects. The 3D performance of GeForce 2 MX at 16-bit
color depth is slightly faster than a GeForce 256 SDR. With its
relatively low price and with the performance it offered, it
became a popular card. The GeForce 2 MX core was later
integrated into NVIDIA's nForce IGP motherboard chipset
northbridge.
GeForce 4 MX / NV17 replaced the GeForce 2 series in January
2002. The NV17 core is a hybrid of the NV11 and NV25. The
integration of various efficiency and bandwidth improving
features, combined with significantly higher clock speed than
NV11, allows it to match NV15 performance. These features were
advertised as "Lightspeed Memory Architecture II," which was a
refinement of the Lightspeed Memory Architecture introduced with
the GeForce 3 (NV20). It also gained the "AccuView"
anti-aliasing capabilities which are considerably advanced in
quality and performance over NV11 and NV15. However, the GeForce
4 MX lacks the hardware pixel and vertex shaders support, as
well as environment mapped bump mapping support and higher level
anisotropic filtering support found in the NV2x architecture.
AnandTech: NV17 and NV25 Come to Life
Lightspeed Memory Architecture II
NVIDIA further refreshed the GeForce 4 MX line in late 2002 with
the NV18, which added AGP 8x support. In 2004 the series
received another refresh with PCI Express x16 support via a
bridge chip. The first such product introduced was the GeForce
PCX 4300. The GeForce 4 MX core was also integrated into
NVIDIA's nForce2 IGP motherboard chipset northbridge.
Estimated model performance ranking:
GF2 MX100 < GF2 MX200 < GF2 MX < GF2 MX400 < GF4 MX420 < GF2 GTS
< GF2 Pro < GF2 Ti VX < GF2 Ti < GF2 Ultra < GF4 MX440
NV20 | GeForce 3
GeForce 3 Ti 200
GeForce 3 Ti 200 - Active cooling
Released in March 2001, the GeForce 3 / NV20 is the first
Direct3D 8.0-compliant GPU. It is more efficient than GeForce 2
because of improvements in memory bandwidth utilization and the
addition of hidden surface removal (HSR) functions similar to
those of ATI Radeon. NVIDIA called this "Lightspeed Memory
Architecture". Despite lower fillrate than GeForce 2
Ultra/Pro/Ti, in some cases GeForce 3 can outperform those cards
by up to 50%, namely in situations with anti-aliasing or when
the HSR features save considerable fillrate. However in some
cases it loses to GeForce 2 Ultra. In the latter half of 2001,
NVIDIA released the GeForce 3 Ti 200 and Ti 500. GeForce 3 Ti
200 is clocked lower than the original GeForce 3, while Ti 500
is fastest. The original GeForce 3 and GeForce 3 Ti 500 were
only released in 64 MB configurations, while the GeForce 3 Ti
200 was released in 64 MB and 128 MB configurations. The GeForce
3, however, benefitted very little from 128 MB memory.
GeForce 3 is the first GeForce GPU with environment mapped bump
mapping (EMBM) support, multi-sample anti-aliasing (MSAA) and
complete anisotropic filtering support (up to 8x level). MSAA is
considerably less demanding of fillrate than SSAA. 2X and 4X
MSAA modes are available. There is also an anti-aliasing mode
called "Quincunx" that uses a combination of 2X MSAA and a
RAMDAC-based filter. This mode was intended to allow better
quality anti-aliasing than 2X MSAA/SSAA but without the
performance hit of 4X MSAA/SSAA. Higher anisotropic filtering
levels (4x and 8x), however, incur a heavy performance decrease
(sometimes by as much as 50%). However, compared to its main
competitor, ATI's R200 series, GeForce3's anisotropic filtering
implementation is less angle-dependent and can work
simultaneously with trilinear filtering, yielding better quality
when observed in motion.
NV25 to NV28 | GeForce 4
GeForce 4 Ti4200 64MB
The next evolution in the NV2x architecture came in early 2002
in the form of the NV25 / GeForce 4 Ti series. The GeForce 4 Ti
is quite similar to the GeForce 3 in general. Changes include
higher clock speed, pixel shader 1.3 support, Direct3D 8.1
compliance, an additional vertex processor for better geometry
performance and dual RAM DAC for dual display output. Later in
2002, NVIDIA released the NV28, which added AGP 8x support. With
the NV28 release, the AGP 8x versions of the Ti 4400 and 4600
were respectively rebranded as the Ti 4800 SE and Ti 4800. The
AGP 8x variant of the Ti 4200 was just known as the "Ti 4200
with AGP 8x."
In the GeForce4 Ti line, the Ti 4200 is slowest and the Ti 4800
is fastest.
Review from ixbtlabs GeForce 3 Ti500, Radeon 8500, GeForce 4
Ti
NV3x | GeForce FX
FX 5200 Ultra
FX 5600 256MB
FX 5900 Ultra
These are NVIDIA's first Direct3D 9 GPUs. They have excellent
Direct3D 5-8 compatibility and performance but are of limited
value for Direct3D 9. They are very useful for old games because
they still have support for palettized textures and fog table.
Similar anti-aliasing and anisotropic features, but performance
with these is improved compared to older models. The high
performance models like 5700 Ultra, 5800 Ultra and 59x0 Ultra
allow one to run old games in high-resolution with anti-aliasing
and anisotropic filtering.
Avoid models with 64-bit bus and naming suffixes like LE, XT or
VE because they have been crippled in some way. There were some
PCIe models made, named GeForce PCX 5xxx.
5200 < 5500 < 5200 Ultra < 5600 < 5600 Ultra < 5700 < 5700 Ultra
< 5800 < 5800 Ultra < 59x0 < 59x0 Ultra
NV4x | GeForce 6
Geforce 6600 128MB
Geforce 6800
The GeForce 6 series (NV4x) was released in 2004 and is the
first Direct3D 9.0c-compliant GPU. It introduced support for
Shader Model 3.0 and support for PCI Express x16, though
initially released cards were AGP-only. Compared to the GeForce
FX series, the NV4x had dramatically improved performance
all-around but dropped palettized texture support, so it is
incompatible with some old games (few). This is NVIDIA's final
generation of GPUs with Windows 9x and NT 4.0 support.
Some of the GF 6800s and most of the GF 6600s made use of a PCIe
to AGP bridge chip.
GeForce 7
The Geforce 7 was the last generation of NVidia graphics chips
to support AGP. Ati/AMD continued to offer AGP-compatible
graphics solutions for a while longer till the HD 4670
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