More Q&A

Will there be different classes (Ultra) of GeForce256 or clocked up versions? Huang said yes, there would be different classes of GeForce 256 but I asked the question again to Dan Vivoli later and he said that it would be up to the OEMs. Vivoli mentioned that many of them would probably include slider bars with their drivers but that the first batch of chips would all be rated at the same speed. So what's with the discrepancy in answers? It could mean that later on in the product cycle (Christmas?), faster versions of GeForce could be released, like the way 3dfx introduced the 3500 later on. Or perhaps with the different RAM support, the different classes of boards would be represented by RAM type, not clock speed.

What kind of developer support will the GeForce 256 have? Huang mentioned that there would be 15-20 games released by the holiday season which had explicit support for GeForce 256. NVIDIA also had a long list of developers and publishers who are "applications partners" - GT Interactive, Disney, Epic Megagames, Lucasarts, Electronic Arts, Havas Interactive, Infogrames, Origin, Planet Moon, Cavedog, Microsoft, Eidos, Blizzard, Bullfrog, Activision, Acclaim, Rage, Hasbro, Interplay, Attention to Detail, Bungie, Accolade, Codemasters, Valve, Lionhead Studios, Surreal, 989, id software, Raven, Ritual, Nihilistic, 3DO, Ubisoft, Sierra, Lego Media, Monolith, Gas Powered Games.

Is Quake 3 being tweaked for GeForce 256? Dan Vivoli confirmed that a higher detail (more polygons) version of Q3 Arena is in the works.

How is NVIDIA dealing with anti aliasing? Again, we got a not so straightforward answer. Huang mentioned that it is preferable to try and drive everything at 1600x1200 or similar resolution because at that high a resolution, you're not going to see pixels anyway. It will still be possible to use the GeForce 256 to run at lower resolution and anti alias your screen with "super sampling" but Huang kept reiterating that the ability to run at extreme resolutions was much preferable than spending resources on anti aliasing. Huang also alluded to the fact that Hollywood quality film is about 2000 x 2000. In his words, "George Lucas wouldn't go to 640 with anti aliasing."

What kind of DVD support will there be, and what about video outs? As for DVD support, Huang mentioned motion compensation. Regarding the video outs, NVIDIA maintained that this would depend on the OEM, but it's safe to assume that most GeForce 256 cards will come with standard TV out, and many of them with Digital Flat panel support. Nothing quite like Matrox's Dual Head (two monitor support) is in the plans though.

Is there a real time load balancer between the GPU and the CPU like the Savage 2000? Dan Vivoli explained that there isn't one, but there is no point in having one either because the GPU on the GeForce256 can do the transform and lighting operations so much faster than the CPU anyway. It would be pointless to try and implement any kind of load balance because the relative "slowness" of the CPU would bog things down.

Will NVIDIA buyout a board OEM like S3 and 3dfx did? Huang answered this by asking the crowd if they thought it was a good idea, and everyone shook their heads no. There are no plans to buyout a board OEM because NVIDIA feels that no single one has the infrastructure in place to meet the demand. NVIDIA believes it can ship a lot more chips than any one board OEM can process on their own - they need help from several in order to meet the expected demand. Current partners include Creative, Guillemot, ELSA, Leadtek, Asus, and Canopus. Now that Hercules is out of the picture, it would be an opportune time for Canopus to come in and cater to the "hardest of the hardcore" market.