NVIDIA Introduces GeForce2 Ultra GPU; New GPU Breaks One Billion Pixels Per Second Barrier

SANTA CLARA, Calif., Aug. 14, 2000 -- NVIDIA Corporation (Nasdaq:NVDA) announced today their most powerful 3D graphics processing unit (GPU) yet produced, the GeForce2 Ultra. The previous leader was NVIDIA's GeForce2 GTS.

"NVIDIA's core strategy is to deliver a breakthrough product every six months, doubling performance with each generation at a rate of essentially Moore's Law cubed," said Jen-Hsun Huang, president and CEO of NVIDIA. "Our unique ability to innovate at this staggering pace is one of the key elements of our competitive advantage. Our consistency has made it possible for our partners to rely on our architecture and roadmap. GeForce2 Ultra exemplifies our commitment to help our partners build innovative and winning products."

"We are pleased to be joining NVIDIA as the launch partner for GeForce2 Ultra," said Steven Mosher, vice president of Creative Labs. "Creative expects to be the first to provide this groundbreaking technology to users worldwide."

The GeForce2 Ultra has been in volume production for over 30 days. The first GeForce2 Ultra-based add-in cards will be available from Creative Labs in September. Other companies shipping GeForce2 Ultra-based boards include: ELSA, Guillemot, and Hercules, with more add-in-card manufacturers and tier one OEM announcements to come soon.

Raw Graphics Horsepower
The GeForce2 Ultra's transform and lighting engines provide over 31 million sustained triangles per second. Its advanced rendering subsystem provides a fill rate of up to one billion pixels per second, and two billion texels per second -- two to three times the pixel processing power of any graphics processor at any price. The GeForce2 Ultra renders sharp, clear 2D graphics, even at resolutions as high as 2048 x 1536, in 32-bit color.

GeForce2 Ultra is the first product to ship with 230 MHz (460 MHz effective) DDR memories, producing 7.36 GB per second of bandwidth.

GeForce2 Ultra takes full advantage of NVIDIA's Detonator 3 (D3) unified driver architecture (UDA). The D3 driver is backward and forward compatible with past, present, and future NVIDIA GPUs, as well as top-to-bottom compatible with all currently manufactured versions of NVIDIA's graphics processors. This greatly simplifies system administration. For example, you could remove an NVIDIA TNT2 from a system and replace it with a GeForce2 Ultra without changing the graphics software driver.

Significant 3D features of the GeForce2 Ultra include:


--	Second generation transform and lighting engines
--	NVIDIA Shading Rasterizer (NSR) multi-operation per-pixel rendering engine
--	64MB of ultra-high-speed (460 MHz) double data rate frame buffer memory
--	AGP 4X with Fast Writes support
--	Full support for Microsoft DirectX and SGI OpenGL
--	Optimal performance for current and future CPUs from Intel and AMD

The GeForce2 Ultra includes the NVIDIA Shading Rasterizer (NSR), a technology that enables advanced per-pixel shading capabilities. The NSR allows per-pixel control of color, shadow, light, reflectivity, emissivity, specularity, gloss, dirt, and other visual and material components used to create realistic objects and environments.

Another key feature of GeForce2 Ultra is its High-Definition Video Processor (HDVP), which enables a variety of crystal-clear HDTV solutions when combined with a mainstream CPU and a low-cost DTV receiver. The HDVP allows mainstream high-performance processors to support all 18 Advanced Television Standards Committee (ATSC) formats with a simple, cost-effective DTV receiver card.

Several highly anticipated titles that are available now or within the next 30 to 45 days take advantage of the breakthrough features and performance of GeForce2 Ultra, including:

Title                             Developer                  Publisher

RealMyst                     Cyan                         Mattel
Pac-Man 3D                 Creative Asylum         Hasbro
Sacrifice                      Shiny                        Interplay
Black & White              Lionhead                   Electronic Arts
Colin McRae Rally 2      Codemasters            Codemasters
Sydney 2000                Attention to Detail      Eidos
Giants                         Planet Moon              Interplay
Rune                           Human Head              G.O.D.
Q3A -- Team Arena       id Software                Activision
Far Gate                     Thrushwave                 Microids
Warbirds III                  iEntertainment            iEntertainment
MDK2                         Bioware                      Interplay

All of these titles take full advantage of the transform and lighting engines found in all NVIDIA GPUs -- from the original GeForce 256 through the GeForce2 Ultra.

NVIDIA Products
NVIDIA gives developers the advantage of a unified driver architecture across all implementations. NVIDIA's single-chip GPUs enable high-frame-rate 3D graphics, benchmark-winning 2D graphics, and high-definition digital video processing for visual realism and real-time interactivity. Optimized for both Microsoft Direct3D and OpenGL APIs, the NVIDIA product line currently includes:


--	NVIDIA Quadro2 Pro and Quadro2 MXR for the professional workstation, digital content creation, and MCAD markets.
--	NVIDIA GeForce2 Ultra, GeForce2 GTS, and GeForce 256 graphics processing units (GPUs) for the PC enthusiast market.
--	NVIDIA GeForce2 MX GPU for the corporate desktop market.
--	NVIDIA TNT2 Pro for the performance PC market.
--	NVIDIA Vanta, Vanta LT, and TNT2 M64 for the commercial and corporate mainstream PC markets.
--	Aladdin TNT2 for the sub-$1000 PC market.

About NVIDIA
NVIDIA is a global leader in advanced graphics processing technology. The breadth of the NVIDIA product family enables multimedia experiences for the entire desktop computer market from workstations to internet-enabled appliances. NVIDIA GPUs are used by large corporations, small- to medium-sized businesses, and home-based consumers. For more information, please visit the Company's web site at http://www.nvidia.com.