Although Creative and Leadtek are the only manufacturers that have actually stepped forward with an announcement (so far), NVIDIA has also announced ELSA, Guillemot, ASUSTeK and Canopus as partners. The likely candidates to be the first out of the door with GeForce 256 parts are Creative Labs and Guillemot. Currently the only board we have witnessed was a 32MB NVIDIA version but there will also be 64MB versions. The architecture does allow for up to 128MB should any OEM choose to go that high (we're talking add-in boards over $300 here folks). At this time the frequency of the memory hasn't been disclosed.
Just like the Savage 2000/2000+, Double Data Rate (DDR) SGRAM should it become more available, will be implemented. The DDR versions could yield higher frequencies, as DDR RAM is well known for going over the 200MHz barrier where SGRAM generally falls short. 128MB of frame buffer memory. Using DDR RAM will obviously give way to greater amounts of bandwidth (up to 1.6GB/sec).
Expect some design wins for the GeForce 256 and indeed thus far, Dell, Compaq, Gateway, NEC and Micron have all announced that they will have systems shipping with the part.
"The GeForce 256 GPU is being accepted even faster than the RIVA TNT2 was," said Jen-Hsun Huang, president and CEO of NVIDIA Corporation. "We've clearly accelerated our growing lead in the 3D graphics market and, as the first company to deliver an integrated transform and lighting solution, we're securing design wins across the board."
Already, the repercussions seem to have been felt as traditional OEM stalwart, ATI, has announced that their 'deal' with Dell has taken a hit to the tune of $10 million per quarter.
It is not known whether this business has gone to NVIDIA's GeForce 256.
All well and good but how will the GeForce 256 stack up against your trusty TNT2? Read on...
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