Introduction

NVIDIA GeForce 3 Titanium 500 Review

This content was originally featured on Amdmb.com and has been converted to PC Perspective’s website. Some color changes and flaws may appear.

On October 1st NVIDIA released their latest incarnation, the Geforce Titanium 500.

The Ti500 is clocked higher than its older brother with 40 MHz advantage in memory and the GPU core; this doesn’t sound that much but with the added memory bandwidth this equates to 655 MB/ sec. more that the standard Geforce 3.

GeForce3 Ti 500 and the GeForce3 Ti 200 also bring us two new features, the first one is Shadow Buffer Technology and secondly 3D Textures. These new features, combined with the nfiniteFX Engine and the Lightspeed Memory Architecture, deliver the most visually compelling and complete graphics experience available today.

The two new features are not hardware based so any old Geforce 3 with the XP drivers will be able to utilize these features, but Nvidia think that the Ti 500 is the first card that is fast enough to use the shadow buffer & 3D Textures.

NVIDIA GeForce 3 Titanium 500 Review - Graphics Cards 22

Specifications

GeForce 3 Ti 500 GeForce 3 GeForce 3 Ti200
Graphics Core:
Memory Interface:
Fill Rate:
Operations per Second:
Memory Bandwidth:
256-bit
128-bit DDR
3.84 Billion AA Samples/Sec.
960 Billion
8.0GB/Sec.
256-bit
128-bit DDR
3.2 Billion AA Samples/Sec.
800 Billion
7.36GB/Sec.
256-bit
128-bit DDR
2.8 Billion AA Samples/Sec.
700 Billion
6.4GB/Sec.

Features

NVIDIA nfiniteFX Engine
NVIDIA’s programmable Vertex and Pixel Shaders, and 3D textures. The nfiniteFX engine gives developers the freedom to program a virtually infinite number of custom special effects, in order to create true-to-life characters and environments.

3D Textures
Part of the nfiniteFX Engine, 3D textures make hollow objects solid with true three-dimensional material properties such as wood grain or marbling.

Programmable Vertex Shaders
Part of the nfiniteFX engine, Vertex Shaders are used to breathe life and personality into characters and environments. For example, through vertex shading developers can create true-to-life dimples or wrinkles that appear when a character smiles.

Pixel Shaders
Part of the nfiniteFX engine, Pixel Shaders alter lighting and surface effects that replace artificial, computerized looks with materials and surfaces that mimic reality.

Shadow Buffers
Create realistic shadow effects in real time. Shadow buffers enable self-shadowing for characters and objects, and soften the edges of shadows for realistic effects, adding depth to scenes and highlighting spatial relationships between objects.

High-Definition Video Processor (HDVP)
Turns your PC into a fully functional DVD player, and an HDTV player with the purchase of an additional third-party decoder.

High-Resolution Antialiasing (HRAA)
Delivers fluid frame rates of 60 frames per second or more at high resolutions, such as 1024x768x32 or higher, with full-scene antialiasing (FSAA) turned on. Featuring the Quincunx AA mode, HRAA delivers a high level of detail and performance for all applications.

Lightspeed Memory Architecture
NVIDIA memory bandwidth optimizations designed to make complex scenes faster. These optimizations make full-scene antialiasing (FSAA) practical for the first time, enabling users to enjoy high-resolution antialiasing (HRAA).

Unified Driver Architecture (UDA)
Guarantees forward and backward compatibility with software drivers. Simplifies upgrading to a new NVIDIA product because all NVIDIA products work with the same driver software.

Digital Visual Interface (DVI)
NVIDIA GPUs offers broad TMDS transmitter support for maximum flat panel compatibility.

AGP 4X/2X and AGP Texturing Support
Takes advantage of new methods of transferring information more efficiently, and allows content developers to use high-quality, 32-bit color textures and high-polygon-count scenes.

Microsoft DirectX 8.1 and OpenGL 1.3 Optimizations and Support
Delivers the best performance and guarantees compatibility with all current and future 3D applications and games.

TV-Out and Video Modules
Gives end users the option of big-screen gaming, digital timeshifting VCR, and video-editing applications.

8.0GB/sec. Memory bandwidth
With 64MB of 3.8ns DDR Memory (500MHz) an astounding 8 GB per second is achievable, and with the memory subsystem it will ensures peak performance and the smoothest frame rates ever

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