Posted: October 11, 1999
Written by: Dan "Tweak Monkey" Kennedy

Conclusion

Whether you are a fan of 3dfx, NVIDIA, S3, or {insert name here}, you have to admit that NVIDIA has accomplished something that is revolutionary. Fill rate and other upgraded features aside, the T&L engines alone are enough to make this product drool-worthy. Maybe the screenshots I provided and the information I have here is not enough to convince you, but once you see the GeForce 256 in action, you will be shocked. Games not only run faster than ever before, but they look unbelieveable. Clear and as crisp as only pre-rendered movies could previously offer.

NVIDIA has come a long way. Sure the NV1 wasn't very impressive, but since then they've only gone uphill. Now that they've unleashed the world's first GPU, expect the whole industry to change. As you've learned, nothing before could muster the fill rate or independent T&L engine that makes a GPU. The transform engine allows objects to have extremely fine details due to massive triangle counts, while actually decreasing the CPU load. The lighting engine enables developers to take advantage of real time reflections and bump mapping as well as eight hardware lights for "free". The incredible lighting and triangle count increase due to T&L makes even organic objects and characters look completely real.

The extra features NVIDIA added to spice up the product such as cube environment mapping really make the chip shine as something beyond a speed upgrade. Cube environment mapping will lead to better reflections and lighting with virtually no performance hit since it's all done through hardware.

The huge list of developers that have already committed to the product is impressive. I, for one, am very happy to know that we will actually see these new features be put to work on productive titles such as Messiah (when it comes out...) and Halo, which I actually had a chance to see at NVIDIA. Needless to say, I was impressed.

AGP Fast Writes will help PCs fully take advantage of the massive power, by sending data directly from the CPU to the GPU. The 2D features of the GeForce 256 are also astonishing. From its 350 MHz RAMDAC to its 256-bit 2D rendering pipeline, you can be assured that your desktop and 2D applications will be more shiny and smooth than ever before. Also, the addition of an HDTV processor means you won't have to be weary of poor video playback/performance, even with DVDs and HDTV. As with all other fine products, expect updates, reviews, tweak guides, and information on this product here at Tweak3D. Thanks for reading!

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