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X-Box on your PC?
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February 22, 2001: 9:45 a.m. ET
nVidia rolls out its next generation video chip at MacWorld
By Staff Writer Chris Morris
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Microsoft's X-Box won't be on store shelves until the end of this year, but you'll be able to get a taste of the machine's eye-popping graphics within a month.
nVidia, which is supplying the graphics chip for the Seattle company's forthcoming console gaming system, introduced the GeForce 3 video chip at the Macworld expo late Wednesday in Tokyo. The chip is being likened to the "little brother" of the X-Box's graphics engine.
Approximately seven times more powerful than the GeForce 2 Ultra, currently the strongest graphics chip on the market, the GeForce 3 takes electronic gaming a step closer to "Toy Story"-like graphics, offering incredible detail and realistic-looking images. Additionally, the chip handles a sizable percentage of the necessary calculations itself, freeing up the computer's main processor to handle other functions.
"We think the GeForce 3 is going to be a landmark in computer graphics," Apple CEO Steve Jobs said in his keynote speech.
Previously code-named NV20, the GeForce 3 is a slightly less powerful version of the chip that Apple's chief rival, Microsoft, will include in its X-Box. That chip, the NV25, will show a slight graphical improvement and handle a few more calculations per second. The GeForce 3 is noteworthy, however, because it allows computer gamers to experience the graphical excellence that previously was restricted to next-generation console users.
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It wasn't too many years ago when we were lucky to have three triangles for a nose on our characters. Now we've got pores and moles.
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John Carmack
id Software |
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It's also noteworthy because it will make its debut on the Macintosh. Jobs said the chip will be available as an option on the PowerMac G4 in late March. It's not going to be a cheap one, though. Adding the GeForce 3 will increase the price of the PowerMac by $600. PC video cards with the chip, and the retail prices for them, most likely will be announced next week.
Mac and PC gamers probably won't be able immediately to take full advantage of all the GeForce 3's features, though.
The introduction of new video technology is usually a forerunner in the industry. Gaming developers and publishers typically take a year or so to catch up with technology because of the learning curve and the time it takes to create a complete game. It was only late last year when PC games started to take full advantage of the GeForce 2's T&L feature, which allowed for smoother curves, more realistic "skin" on creatures and shadow effects.
The GeForce 3 might not have to wait quite so long for developers to catch up. Because the chip's technology is so closely tied with the X-Box – and because the X-Box is so similar to a PC (developer-wise) – consumers likely will see popular X-Box titles ported over to the PC to boost the bottom line of publishers. As a result, PC gamers might be able to enjoy some of the same titles – and the same graphical clarity - as console gamers.
Those titles still are several months – if not a year or more – down the road, though. Microsoft likely will frown on any X-Box games being ported to the PC until the console has established a strong user-base. But nVidia said the GeForce 3 will enhance the games enthusiasts currently are playing. Using a process called anti-aliasing, the GeForce 3 will make lines appear smoother, reducing or eliminating the jagged edges that remind computer gamers they're only playing a simulation. 3dfx introduced this technology over a year ago to rave reviews, but the company was unable to capitalize on that praise and sold its patents and chip business to nVidia late last year.
Dan Vivoli, nVidia's senior VP of marketing, said the company has shied away from anti-aliasing in the past because it resulted in a lower screen resolution (higher resolution mean crisper graphics). The GeForce 3, he said, solves that problem.
MacWorld attendees did get the chance to see the chip flex its muscles, however, with the surprise appearance of John Carmack, founder and lead programmer of id Software, one of the industry's premiere game development houses. Carmack praised the GeForce 3 and showed off the company's in-development title "Doom III", whose characters were startlingly lifelike.
"It wasn't too many years ago when we were lucky to have three triangles for a nose on our characters," said Carmack. "Now we've got pores and moles."
nVidia also presented a real-time computer animated version of Pixar's first short film, "Luxo Jr." When the film, the first 3-D computer animated film to be nominated for an Academy Award, was made in 1986, it took a Cray supercomputer three hours to do a single frame of the film, Jobs said. nVidia's recreation of the effects was done on the fly.
"Fifteen years ago, what took us 75 hours per second is now being rendered in real time on the GeForce 3," Jobs noted. 
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