Nvidia Launches GeForce 6 Series - Biggest Performance and Feature Leap in Company History

SANTA CLARA, CA—NVIDIA Corporation (Nasdaq: NVDA), theworldwide leader in visual processing solutions, introduced the NVIDIAGeForce 6800 models of graphics processing units (GPUs) forhigh-performance desktop computers. The NVIDIA GeForce 6 Series, whichincludes the flagship GeForce 6800 Ultra and GeForce 6800, is designedto deliver:

Industry-leading 3D performance- new superscalar 16-pipearchitecture delivers more than twice that of current industry leadingNVIDIA GPUs

New features, including Microsoft DirectX 9.0 Shader Model 3.0feature set - for ultra-realistic cinematic effects Unprecedentedon-chip video processing engine - enabling high-definition video andDVD playback

“This is the biggest generation-to-generation performance leapthat we have ever seen with a new GPU,” said Jen-Hsun Huang,president and CEO of NVIDIA. “In addition to the raw performanceincrease, we had two fundamental strategies with the 6800 models. Firstwas to take programmability to the next level with the industry’sonly GPU with Shader Model 3.0. Second was to extend the reach of GPUsto the consumer electronics market with a powerful and fullyprogrammable video processor capable of multiple video formats and‘prosumer’ level image processing.”

“As DOOM 3 development winds to a close, my work has turned todevelopment of the next generation rendering technology. The NV40 is myplatform of choice due to its support of very long fragment programs,generalized floating point blending and filtering, and the extremelyhigh performance,” said John Carmack, president and technicaldirector of id Software

Revolutionary New GeForce 6800 Architecture

The innovative 3D graphics architecture of the GeForce 6800 GPUsintroduces many key new technologies that will drive the image qualityand performance in 3D gaming, including:

Blazingly Fast Graphics Performance: With a revolutionary new 16pipeline superscalar architecture and the world’s fastest GDDR3memory, GeForce 6800 GPUs offer a staggering amount of graphicshorsepower. Gaming performance is super charged with eight times thefloating-point shader power, four times the shadow processing power anddouble the vertex processing power over last generation’s awardwinning GeForce FX architecture.

Revolutionary New Feature Set: Built with full Microsoft DirectX 9.0Shader Model 3.0 support, the GeForce 6 Series was built to deliverultra-realistic next-generation DirectX 9 titles. The GeForce 6800 GPUsgive developer’s unlimited programmability, 32-bit shaderprecision, displacement mapping, geometry instancing and other featuresunique to the GeForce 6 Series. In addition, this new GPU delivers fullfloating point support throughout the entire pipeline, GeForce 6800GPUs vastly improve the quality of images in motion with floating pointfiltering. The new rotated-grid antialiasing feature removes jaggededges for incredible image quality and a new 16x anisotropic filteringmode adds clarity to textures.

“The NVIDIA GeForce 6 Series is a great leap forward in PCgraphics, bringing next-generation Microsoft DirectX 9 renderingperformance to new heights while continuing forward with thehigh-definition floating-point rendering, driver performance, andstability NVIDIA is famous for,” stated Tim Sweeney, Founder EPICGames. “As the first GPU supporting the new Pixel Shader 3.0programming model, the GeForce 6 Series enables games to use entirelynew rendering approaches and obtain higher performance per-pixellighting, shadowing, and special effects than previouslypossible.”

"We appreciate NVIDIA”s continued support of MicrosoftDirectX,” said Chris Donahue, Lead Technical Evangelist of theWindows Graphics and Gaming Team at Microsoft. “We are eager toexperience the hardware implementation NVIDIA GeForce 6 Series promisesto bring to the market.”

World’s first on-chip video processor: GeForce 6800 GPUs havea programmable video processing engine that delivers stunninghigh-definition video playback. Featuring support for MPEG encode anddecode, as well as support for Windows Media Video 9 (WMV9), theGeForce 6800 delivers an amazing video experience when used with theMicrosoft Windows Media Center Edition operating system. The GeForce6800 also enables high-quality video playback on any window size, andhas an integrated TV-encoder for direct-to-TV playback.

“Adobe is very excited about the programmable video featuresin these new NVIDIA GPUs. Many Adobe customers have already beenenjoying the power of NVIDIA GPUs to create sophisticated 3D animationsfor the past year. Our future products will take even more advantage ofthe new capabilities being unveiled in these GPUs,” said DavidTrescot, senior director, Digital Video Products at Adobe.

GeForce 6800 GPUs benefit from the renowned compatibility andreliability of the NVIDIA ForceWare software featuring the NVIDIAUnified Driver Architecture (UDA). In addition NVIDIA ForceWaredelivers industry-leading software features such as custom gameprofiles, HDTV output, overclocking, multi-display support, and muchmore.

Availability

The first GPUs based on the NVIDIA GeForce 6 Series, the GeForce6800 Ultra and GeForce 6800 models, are manufactured using IBM’shigh-volume 0.13-micron process technology and are currently shippingto leading add-in-card partners, OEMs, system builders, and gamedevelopers.

Retail graphics boards based on the GeForce 6800 models are slatedfor release in the next 45 days.

About NVIDIA

NVIDIA Corporation is a market leader in visual computing technologydedicated to creating products that enhance the interactive experienceon consumer and professional computing platforms. Its graphics andcommunications processors have broad market reach and are incorporatedinto a wide variety of computing platforms, including consumerdigital-media PCs, enterprise PCs, professional workstations, digitalcontent creation systems, notebook PCs, military navigation systems andvideo game consoles. NVIDIA is headquartered in Santa Clara, Californiaand employs more than 1,800 people worldwide. For more information,visit the Company’s Web site at www.nvidia.com.