Introduction
Certain computer games can take your breath away. Crysis has heart stopping moments, where you just want to sit back and watch the action unfold. The underpinnings of these breathtaking graphics reside largely with the graphics processing unit (GPU) of the computer. What’s under the hood (so to speak)? When it comes to graphics, NVIDIA has been breaking ground and marking territory with advanced GPUs, since their inception in 1995.
Current NVIDIA GPUs render 3D environments during gaming sessions and also assist with 2D graphics acceleration. NVIDIA produces three distinct lines of GPUs: GeForce (primarily for gaming), Quadro (essentially a powerful workstation GPU), and nForce (an integrated GPU for motherboards).
NVIDIA was cofounded in 1993 by Jen-Hsun Huang, Curtis Priem, and Chris Malachowsky. Jen-Hsun Huang holds the CEO position at the present. NVIDIA maintains its headquarters in Santa Clara, CA, where they strive to compete in the growing GPU market.
NVIDIA covers a large part of the GPU market, only second to Intel, who dominates the integrated market. ATI, the company bought by AMD, competes directly with NVIDIA GPUs in the performance segment. So now that you have a little history of the company, let’s take a look at their current GPUs’ performance and see how well they stack up with competitors. We’ll also take a look at the upcoming deliverables from NVIDIA.
Current NVIDIA GPUs
NVIDIA, as recently as June 2008, unveiled a new high end GPU, the GT200. The GT200 powers the new high powered GTX280 and GTX260 graphics cards. The GT200 processor is the successor of the highly acclaimed G80 GPU that powers NVIDIA’s GeForce 8800 GTX and the dual chip GeForce 9800 GX2 cards.
When looking at a graphics card, it’s important to understand the underpinnings and the technical aspects of the GPU. Let’s dig into the specs of current NVIDIA graphics cards and decipher the meaning behind the numbers.
|
GPU
|
Processor Speed
|
Maximum Resolution
|
Memory Technology
|
Standard Memory
|
|
GeForce GTX 280
|
602MHz
|
2560 X 1600
|
GDDR3 SDRAM
|
1GB
|
|
GeForce GTX 260
|
576MHz
|
2560 X 1600
|
GDDR3 SDRAM
|
1GB
|
|
GeForce 9800 GX2
|
600MHz
|
2560 x 1600
|
GDDR3 SDRAM
|
1GB
|
|
GeForce 8800 GTS
|
678MHz
|
2560 x 1600
|
GDDR3 SDRAM
|
512MB
|
|
GeForce 9600 GT
|
650MHz
|
2560 x 1600
|
GDDR3 SDRAM
|
512MB
|
|
GeForce 8600 GT
|
620MHz
|
2560 x 1600
|
GDDR3 SDRAM
|
256MB
|
|
GeForce 8500 GT
|
500MHz
|
2560 x 1600
|
DDR2 SDRAM
|
512MB
|
|
GeForce 8400 GS
|
450MHz
|
2560 x 1600
|
GDDR2 SDRAM
|
512MB
|
|
Quadro NVS 400
|
400 MHz
|
2048 x 1536
|
DDR2 SDRAM
|
256 MB
|
|
Quadro NVS 290
|
400 MHz
|
2048 x 1536
|
DDR2 SDRAM
|
256 MB
|
|
Quadro NVS 285
|
350MHz
|
2048 x 1536
|
DDR SDRAM
|
128MB
|
As we mentioned earlier, the GeForce graphics cards perform best for gamers, while the Quadros work well for professional workstations, like a graphic designer’s computer, with the nForce coming in as the affordable integrated motherboard solution.
The very latest models have the GTX moniker, while the older generations of GPUs simply carry the GT or GS moniker. The NVIDIA nForce models were made for either AMD or Intel chipsets. The model carries an “a” or “i" at the end of the model number to clarify which chipset it’s designed for.
The newest GeForce cards powered by the GT200 processor obviously perform better than their predecessors. The GT280 has much faster processor speed, along with a multitude of improvements regarding the makeup of the GPU, like more GigaFLOPS, smaller processor architecture, more memory banks, and lower TDP ratings.
NVIDIA also has two distinct technologies that have helped to push their graphics cards to new levels, the HybridPower and GeForce Boost.