To no one’s surprise, Nvidia Corp.’s much vaunted GeForce3 graphics chip will be gobbled up by manufacturers of leading PC-compatible computers and graphics cards. The company has announced a list of manufacturers who will be putting the new graphics technology in their systems. Apple, of course, is leading the pack.
Nvidia says that in the coming weeks, the following computer manufacturers will be offering the new GeForce3 graphics chip in their systems:
Several PC system builders plan to integrate GeForce3 cards into their systems, also, including:
The GeForce3 was first unveiled to the world at Macworld Expo Tokyo last week, and Apple was the first computer maker to make it available for pre-ordering. A card based on the chip design is being offered as a US$350 build-to-order option on Power Mac G4s, with delivery expected to begin in March. In late April, Apple plans to offer the card as an upgrade kit for existing Power Mac G4s.
Known also by its pre-release code-name NV20, the GeForce3 is the latest generation of Nvidia Corp.’s flagship consumer graphics technology. The hardware features the nfiniteFX Engine, which Nvidia promises will provide developers with access to a fully programmable hardware vertex and lighting architecture. The new GeForce3 also sports the Lightspeed Memory Architecture, which enables the chip to outperform other consumer graphics processors, including previous Nvidia graphics chips.
In addition to Nvidia’s newfound status as a supplier of graphics technology to Apple, the company has also been making headlines for its development of graphics technology due to appear later this year in Microsoft’s still-in-development Xbox video game console. The GeForce3 architecture has been selected by Microsoft as the reference platform both for Microsoft’s DirectX 8 application programming interface (API) and the Xbox.