Full Review NVIDIA's new GeForce256 'GPU'

Before We Look At The Benchmarks

... we should summarize our expectations. GeForce comes with great 3D-enhancements, but those nice features won't be found in any of the current games. In this regard we will again have to wait for the right software to show up, as so often. The high fill rate of GeForce should enhance frame rate in current games though, although the SDR-RAM equipped cards could get a bit touchy at high resolutions, due to the rather limited memory bandwidth of less than a TNT2-Ultra's. What should we expect from the T&L-engine? Well, if all the hype we've heard is true, we should see great frame rates with almost any CPU, even in today's games. I wonder if this will be the case ...

The Benchmark Setup

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Hardware InformationHeader Cell - Column 1
CPUPIII 550
Motherboard (BIOS rev.)ABIT BX6 2.0 (BIOS date 7/13/99)
Memory128 MB Viking PC100 CAS2
NetworkNetgear FA310TX
Driver InformationRow 4 - Cell 1
NVIDIA GeForce 2564.12.01.0347
ATI Rage Fury Pro4.11.6713
NVIDIA TNT2 Series4.11.01.0208
Voodoo3 Series4.11.01.2103.03.0204
Matrox G400 Series4.11.01.1151
Environment SettingsRow 10 - Cell 1
OS VersionWindows 98 SE 4.10.2222 A
DirectX Version7.0
Quake 3 Arenav1.08command line = +set cd_nocd 1 +set s_initsound 0
Shogov2.14Advanced Settings = disable sound, disable music, disable movies, disable joysticks,enable optimized surfaces, enable triple buffering, enable single-pass multi-texturingHigh Detail Settings = enabledFortress Demo
ExpendableDemo VersionSetup = use Triple BufferingAudio = disable sound
Descent IIIRetail versionSettings = -nosound -nomusic -nonetwork -timetest