NVIDIA's presence at the show was heavy. Not only was Intel using Quadro's in their Willamette demo systems but it seemed as though more often than not an NVIDIA GeForce 256 of some type was responsible for the pixels on any screen showing off DVD and HDTV. The HDTV capabilities of the GeForce 256 were impressive. We were shown a few clips of an HDTV broadcast of a Monday Night Football game on a wide screen SONY W900 monitor (16:9 ratio and 720p). Every face in the crowd was visible instead of the usual blur seen on regular telly. NVIDIA's Oliver Baltuch went on to point out Diane Sawyer's wrinkles during another demo. Amazing. Good enough for set-top boxes? Don't be surprised to see a stripped-down GeForce 256 inside set top boxes in the near future if the word at IDF was any indication.
NV15? Not this time...
Situated next door to NVIDIA (see picture below), ATi's booth could have been mistaken for NVIDIA's. Crisp and almost picture-perfect DVD's were being shown ($10 to those that can spot the difference) as well as the same HDTV demos that were being shown next door. Whilst the GeForce 256 wins hands down in the 3D gaming frame rate races, the ATI Rage 128 and its DVD hardware motion compensation, HDTV and DTV technology is a cut above the rest (more on this another time) when it comes to home entertainment on a PC.
We were also hoping to learn more about ATI's next generation 3D chip, which we first told you about last year but unfortunately that was not to be this time. What little we have heard from other sources have hinted towards its multiple T&L rendering pipelines. We'll keep a close eye on the Rage 6C for you.
Another show and another go on a mobile PC running Quake III: Arena, S3TC and the Mobile Savage MX 3D accelerator. Still no word on availability though. S3 was also showing their "low-profile" Savage 2000-DVI card (see picture above), which will be known in retail as the Diamond Viper II LP-DVI. Those of you waiting for news on the Savage 2000+ will need to hang tight a bit longer. This higher-clocked Savage 2000 won't be making an appearance until Q2. Perhaps the most exciting news gleaned from several sources on the show floor regarding S3 concerned their next generation Savage GX4-C 3D chip, which we touched upon last year. One source stated that the chip will begin sampling in July and is due for release by Q3.