LOSTCIRCUITS

One name in the graphics business is associated with overnight success: nVidia. About two years ago, if anyone had asked, nobody would have known what stands behind it. Almost overnight, however, nVidia has mushroomed into one of the hottest chipset manufacturers for graphics adapters. Behind the, er, hostile takeover of the video market stands a very aggressive and admittedly clever marketing. Still, marketing alone doesn’t cut it anymore, computer awareness is increasing and no longer is it possible to sell any product just on the basis of reputation as some of the giants in the field have rather painfully learned in the most recent past.

What has become more and more important is not only to show face but also to back up the claims with solid numbers that everyone willing and able can reproduce. With the release of the Rage128 Fury, Ati was about to take a similar approach, however, the attempt was doomed because the Rage Demo could only be run on the Rage chipset itself, thus failing to provide the basis for a side by side comparison with the competition. In the Treemark utility, nVidia has, once again, found a different way to frustrate whatever was left, after the world changed with the release of the GeForce. Honestly, though even though Treemark is very beautiful, it is hopelessly optimized for the GeForce and, thus, not a valid criterion for comparison.

The message is very clear: No matter what platform is used in a given system, the availability of custom tailored drivers shows that here is a company that will not stop at throwing specs at the consumer only to later excuse themselves with the lapidary statement "sorry but your system does not conform to Intel’s specifications". There are too many examples for the latter, including my favorite S3 Savage4 but nVidia's bottom line is: "if you build it, our drivers will come".

This is exactly what nVidia has done, with the TNT, and again with the TNT2 and now over again with the GeForce. nVidia itself does not manufacture the cards itself but only provides the chipset and reference design for more manufacturers than one could possibly count. This is done with the insurance that there is a very busy team of software specialists trying to squeeze out the very last drop in performance of a given hardware and that is really the point where the competition loses big time.

Ok, the world has changed by the introduction of the graphics processing unit (GPU) nothing is like it has ever been before and that includes the Athlon. Athlon powered systems, for a few weeks, have been the sore point in the GeForce performance. A few days ago, new drivers have been released, once again demonstrating the efforts of nVidia to attack problems wherever they may arise.

ASUS, the most formidable manufacturer of the undisputedly highest quality mainboards is one of the manufacturers that have reacted to nVidia’s offers and who have created a full line of graphics adapters to compliment their mainboards. Starting with the ASUS V3400 (TNT) and followed by the ASUS V3800 (TNT2) is was a matter of time until ASUS came out with the V6600 (GeForce) which coincided with the long awaited commitment to their highly acclaimed K7M SlotA board.

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