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Categories:

13 Years of Nvidia Graphics Cards

2:00 AM - July 30, 2008 by Pierre Dandumont
Source: Tom's Hardware – Keywords: nvidia, graphics, cards
Categories: Microsoft Windows 7, Nvidia, Windows Tech Talk

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NV2A: A GeForce In A Console

In 2001, Microsoft introduced its first game console, the Xbox. It was very close to a PC in terms of architecture. It used an x86 processor and ran Windows — and the graphics card was from Nvidia. The NV2A, as it was called, is an intermediate chip between the GeForce 3 and GeForce 4. It was well-optimized in the Xbox and supported DirectX 8.1 (through the console’s NT5 kernel), enabling the console to offer some very graphically impressive games for its time.

Nvidia NV2A (Xbox)
Date released November 2001
Card interface N/A
Fillrate 1864 Mtexels/s
Fillrate 932 Mpixels/s
Rendering pipelines 4
Texture units 8
Vertex units 2
Chip clock frequency 233 MHz
Fabrication process 0.15 µ
Number of transistors 63 million
DirectX version 8.1
Memory Type DDR
Maximum memory 64 MB
Memory clock frequency 200 MHz (x2)
Memory bus 128 bits
Maximum bandwidth 6.4 GB/s

For the Xbox 360, ATI supplied the GPU and Nvidia went over to the enemy with its RSX chip used in the PlayStation 3.
Comments
geckoar 07/30/2008 9:11 AM
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Nice Job with this... Now could we see a look back on ATI and all of their years?

Anonymous 07/30/2008 9:33 AM
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No way will nvidia release a 9800GT or 9800GTS as stated in the article, because there is already a 9800GTX, unless nvidia wants to kill themselves.

shmuls 07/30/2008 9:49 AM
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Here's a fun game for all the family: Can you name all the games pictured by their screenshot and year alone? I got 11 out of 19, can anyone name all 19? I'm sure lots of you can name the more recent ones, but how many hardcore gamers out there can get the earlier ones as well?!

p.s. Great article, now lets see what Nvidia has in store for us in Q3/4!!

giovanni86 07/30/2008 9:55 AM
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Great article. I like how at the end the one selling the most is Intel. Good stuff.

radnor 07/30/2008 11:53 AM
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Not a bad article, but comes with a strange timing behind it. Is Nvidia selling THAT bad ?

To make this a top of the line article, ya should include the Matrox Cards (Excelent in the early days), 3Dfx cards (V3000 and SLI V2 would still eat TNT2 in Image quality and performance), and last but not least (the sole survivor) ATI cards.

Now that would be a sight for sore eyes.

Malovane 07/30/2008 11:55 AM
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So is this a history lesson or a eulogy?

DieselDre2K 07/30/2008 1:36 PM
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awesome trip down memory lane. thanks for the article. was wondering if could u make an ATI article also.


and then maybe an AMD and Intel one too =P

JonnyDough 07/30/2008 1:54 PM
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I would like to see the pictures organized in the order they are here in the slideshow. Also, could you perhaps rename them according to both card AND game so that when I scroll over them I can see what game it is? It would be of interest to me to research and consider purchase or download of an emulator of these old games.

Thanks!

hurbt 07/30/2008 2:21 PM
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My first thought when reading this article was that it's an obituary... lets review the history of Nvidia because ATI is kicking the crap out of them with their 4800 series... I know Nvidia isn't going anywhere, but that was just my first thought...

I owned a TNT back when I first went to college. Descent 2 was so great on it, as was Total Annihilation. Half-life wasn't half bad on it either. It couldn't hold a candle to a couple Voodoo2's in SLI, though :) Too bad I had to return one of them, b/c I couldn't go without beer money. You gotta have your priorities straight in college, or you will get side-tracked...

invlem 07/30/2008 2:49 PM
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My 3D evolution:

Hercules 3d Prophet (2mb!!)
Diamond Voodoo 2 (8mb)
3DFX Voodoo 3 3000 (16mb)
ATi 7500 Pro (64mb)
ATi 9800 Pro (128mb)
eVGA 8800 GT (640mb)

Anonymous 07/30/2008 2:53 PM
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Would be nice to read something like that about ati.

spuddyt 07/30/2008 3:28 PM
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be fair, the 4870x2 was only sent to certain websites, I think they didn't have a choice but to not review it (whether they would have done or not is irrelevant and untested)

theLaminator 07/30/2008 3:43 PM
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I'd like to see an article like this about the history's of AMD, ATI and Intel if thats possible. Great read

harrycat88 07/30/2008 3:44 PM
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My 3D evolution:
Western Digital Paradise MPEG (2MB) PCI - Buggy with IRQ conflicts
STB Voodoo2 (12MB) PCI
Matrox G200 (8MB) AGP - Unstable
TNT2 Ultra (32MB) AGP - What a disappointment, locked up on every game
3DFX Voodoo 4 4500(32MB) AGP
gForce 2 MX200 (32MB) AGP - NV4_display.dll BSOD all the time. JUNK
3DFX Voodoo 5 5500 (64MB) AGP and PCI
gForce 7800GS OC (256MB) AGP - NV4_display.dll BSOD 7 out of 10 times. Handicapped performance and over priced.
ATi X1950PRO (512MB) PCI-E and AGP
Ati HD3850 (512MB) PCI-E and AGP
ATi HD4850 coming soon.
On every Nvidia based card I purchased, I had to turn around and replace it with something else. I've learned my lesson to never purchase another Nvidia based product again.

scooterlibby 07/30/2008 3:53 PM
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Awesome sideshow. I'd love to see one regarding Radeon and including more picture examples from the earlier competitors.

can007 07/30/2008 3:57 PM
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Yeah, even though Intel "GPU" were the most that had been sold. It is still the worst "GPU" ever too.

slayeristight 07/30/2008 4:36 PM
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Very fun to reminisce the old hardware and think about what was going on back then and what games you were playing.

Anonymous 07/30/2008 4:53 PM
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Heh, you should try ATI's history. I believe they go back even further than Nvidia does.

mr roboto 07/30/2008 5:18 PM
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My mom's Dell had a Riva 128 that I used to play Quake on. As far as I remember it was a decent card and never struggled to play the games of the day. I still remember the first time I fragged one of those zombies in Quake. That was something special when you could see the blood spray in the air. New games need to get back to frags. The last good game to have frags was Company of Heroes OF and even then it left something to be desired.

eklipz330 07/30/2008 5:31 PM
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13 years of FAILURE

i joke i kid


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