Info History of nVIDIA Graphics cards Vol. 1

[yjfy]

History of nVIDIA Graphics cards Vol. 1
yjfy

nVIDIA was founded on April 5, 1993, by Jensen Huang,Chris Malachowsky and Curtis Priem.

1. NV1

May 22, 1995 nVIDIA Corporation and SGS-THOMSON announced the introduction of the NV1 and STG2000X Multimedia Accelerators.

The NV1 and STG2000X are the first complete Multimedia Accelerators to deliver the power of real-time photorealistic 3D graphics, video based special effects, full-motion video acceleration, and concurrent high-fidelity audio, in a single chip.

1.1 nVIDIA
1.1.1 NV1
1.1.1.1 Chip Evaluation board
Chip Evaluation board of NV1 graphics card.

（From EDGE magazine Februay 1996）

 

[yjfy]

3.10 NEC

G7AGK

The use of extended video memory design is rare.

 

[yjfy]

3.11 I-O DATA

GA-ZXTV8/PCI-1

nVIDIA RIVA 128ZX

 

[yjfy]

3.12 E4/DOOIN

CoolView3D AGP

This card can support dual EPROM, but I don't know what it is for.

 

[yjfy]

4. NV4

July 31, 1998nVIDIA's RIVA TNT 3D PROCESSOR

Riva TNT defeated the incredible 3Dfx Voodoo 2 and became the fastest graphics card of the year, and nVIDIA also noticed the importance of excellent drivers to give full play to the performance of the graphics chip, and wrote a new driver for RIVA TNT and named it As "Detonator"

TNT is the abbreviation of Twin Texel. The core architecture is a rendering system with two 32-bit pixel pipelines, each pixel pipeline has 1 TMU, and two textures are processed in parallel in each clock cycle. In this way, the maximum fill rate of RivaTNT working at 90MHz can reach 180M Texels/sec. At the same time, Riva TNT also has a 24-bit Z buffer (Z-Buffer) and an 8-bit stencil buffer for the first time.

TNT's design goal was to achieve twice the performance of Voodoo2, but because the 0.25 micron process was not perfect at the time, nVIDIA had to use a 0.35 micron process, making RivaTNT only work at 90MHz.

4.1 nVIDIA
4.1.1 Chip Evaluation board



(From anandtech.com)

 

[yjfy]

4.1.2 Product Evaluation board

nVIDIA's Product Evaluation board is the later public version or reference board, and many manufacturers' graphics cards use this layout more or less.



(From PC Mag December 1, 1998)

 

[yjfy]

4.2 Diamond

The NV3 graphics card project finally succeeded, and the Voodoo card supported by Diamond was also successful. Diamond was unable to tilt the NV4 graphics card project. There are only four types of Viper V550 graphics cards.

4.2.1 Viper V550 VIVO AGP/PCI

Although the two versions of Viper V550 graphics cards are VIVO versions, in fact very few have VIVO, most of them are TV-OUT Viper V550 graphics cards.

4.2.1.1 ES

This is the official promotional image of Diamond, which was later printed on the box.



（From assets.hardwarezone.com）

 

[yjfy]

4.2.1.2 PCI

The most common is the TV-out version, but I haven't seen the VIVO version.

 

[yjfy]

4.2.1.3 AGP

The most common is the TV-out version, and the VIVO version is very rare.



（From Amibay.com）

 

[yjfy]

4.2.2 Viper V550 NLX AGP
4.2.2.1 QS

This is the official promotional image of Diamond, which was later printed on the box. Like the official product, it is QS.

（From home.datacomm.ch）

 

[yjfy]

4.2.2.2 Official product

 

[yjfy]

4.2.3 Viper V550 FP AGP

This model is an OEM version.

4.2.3.1 ES

After disassembling the machine, Diamond sends fully functional engineering samples to the manufacturer for use.

Viper V550 FP ES

 

[yjfy]

4.2.3.2 Official product

 

[yjfy]

4.2.4 Riva TNT SDK

nVIDIA and STB graphics cards are optional for this component. I have an empty box to select Diamond. It is estimated that more Diamond graphics cards are used.







nVIDIA also presents engineering sample graphics cards in gift boxes to important customers.

 

[yjfy]

4.3 STB

Velocity 4400

 

[yjfy]

4.4 Visiontek

NVD01.0, this board type is very close to nVIDIA's Product Evaluation board.

 

[yjfy]

4.5 ASUS

AGP-V3400TNT

 

[yjfy]

4.6 Canopus

SPECTRA 5400

 

[yjfy]

4.7.ELSA

VICTORY II-A16


(From Palcal on vgamuseum.info)

 

[yjfy]

4.8 Creative
CT6710


(From Vlask on vgamuseum.info)

 

[yjfy]

4.9 Hercules

Dynamite TNT





(From Palcal on vgamuseum.info)

 

[yjfy]

5. NV5 & NV6

Release Date：Mar 15th, 1999

The nVIDIA TNT2 was the first chipset to offer a 32-bit frame buffer for better quality visuals at higher resolutions, 32-bit color for more realistic colors, and a 32-bit Z/stencil buffer for incredible 3D effects—blazing

The TNT2 family is the first product line to offer "top-to-bottom" chips to satisfy the needs of every computer and user in the spectrum from basic to high-performance desktop PC computing.

The core code of Riva TNT2 is NV5, which is the cornerstone of nVIDIA's graphics dynasty so far. Thanks to the 0.25 micron process, the frequency of the nVIDIA Riva TNT2 Standard Edition has been increased to 125MHz. The frequency increase and the optimization of the core internals, the performance of nVIDIA Riva TNT2 With a big leap, the performance was unmatched at the time. In the later period, nVIDIA Riva TNT2 also uses NV6 with a 0.22 micron process, and the frequency is further improved.

Beginning with nVIDIA Riva TNT2, nVIDIA has marketed its products. At the high, middle and low end, nVIDIA Riva TNT2 chip derives TNT2 Ultra, TNT2 Pro, TNT2 M64, TNT2 Vanta, TNT2 Vanta LT, etc. Different models of products, with different capacities of video memory, the product line covers most of the market.


TNT2

Memory Speed:150 MHz

Pixels Per Second:230 Million

Memory Bandwidth:2.4GB/s



TNT2 Ultra

Memory Speed:183 MHz

Pixels Per Second:300 Million

Memory Bandwidth:2.9GB/s

Later, with the progress of the process, NV6 also used 0.22 micron process, Release Date Oct 12th, 1999, and was named TNT2 PRO, which was also used in some TNT2 Ultra. After using the 0.22 micron process, the power consumption and heat generation of TNT2 PRO have been significantly reduced, the overclocking capability is stronger, and the cost performance is further improved. In addition to the high- and mid-end TNT2 standard version, nVIDIA also uses the 0.22 micron process NV6 chip to launch TNT2 Vanta and TNT2 M64 for low-end users.

The combination of reliability, compatibility, performance, and quality—at a low cost—has made nVIDIA Vanta the product of choice for leading OEMs and system integrators. The nVIDIA Vanta comes in 4-16MB configurations.

TNT2 Pro
Memory Speed:166 MHz
Pixels Per Second:284 Million
Memory Bandwidth:2.65GB/s

TNT2 M64
Memory Speed: 150 MHz
Pixels Per Second:230 Million
Memory Bandwidth:1.2GB/s

Vanta
Graphics Core:128-bit
Pixels per Second:200 Million
Memory Bandwidth:1.0GB/s

Vanta LT
Graphics Core:128-bit
Pixels per Second:160 Million
Memory Bandwidth:800 MB/s

5.1 nVIDIA
5.1.1 ES
5.1.1.1 CHIP EVALUATION board

The PCB date of the graphics card is 9850 weeks, earlier than the release date of Mar 15th, 1999 (9915 weeks).

TNT2 CHIP EVALUATION board

 

[yjfy]

5.1.1.2 PRODUCT EVALUATION board

PCB date 9906 weeks, earlier than the release date Mar 15th, 1999 (9915 weeks).

TNT2 PRODUCT EVALUATION board

 

[yjfy]

5.1.1.3 Reference board

PCB date is 0010 week, and the release date is March 1, 2000 (0010 week).

VANTA LT Reference board



The above graphics card is the public version or reference board often referred to now. The following graphics card is the manufacturer's public graphics card.





(From Palcal on vgamuseum.info)

 

[yjfy]

5.2 Diamond

5.2.1 VIPER V770 ES

 

[yjfy]

5.2.2 VIPER V770

TNT2 chip