Article History of nVIDIA Graphics cards Vol. 2 GPU competition

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History of nVIDIA Graphics cards Vol. 2 GPU competition

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On August 31, 1999, nVIDIA announced the integrATion of hardware T&L (Transform and Lighting) into the graphics core, the first GeForce (Geometry Force) product-GeForce 256 graphics card, which pioneered the concept of GPU (Graphics Processing Unit). The GPU originally referred to display chips that support hardware T&L, but today, all display chips are collectively referred to as GPUs.
The GeForce 256 graphics card uses the T&L engine to share the processor computing load. For video games that support the T&L engine, the performance of the GeForce 256 can be fully utilized, bringing a revolution in 3D graphics performance.In fact, Geforce 256 won the title of "The world's first GPU" is very difficult, because there are two opponents in front of it.

GeForce 256 Engineering sample



May 11, 1999 ,3Dlabs announced the Oxygen GVX1, workstation graphics card.The GVX1 does not take nVIDIA's more cost-effective route of integrating hardware T&L support into the core.this using GLINT R3(Permedia 3) and one external chip ,this chip is GLINT Gamma G1, Geometry Processor.The GLINT Gamma G1 is capable of processing 4.75 million triangles per second.Although Oxygen GVX1 is a hardware T & L graphics card before Geforce 256, but they were not integrated into the graphics core.

The gaming performance of Oxygen GVX1 is only slightly better than TNT, and the professional 3D performance is only about half of Quadro 256. It is not difficult to understand why 3Dlabs has stopped selling chips since Permedia 3, and focused on mid-to-high-end professional graphic cards. As a result, 3Dlabs has missed a large number of entry-level professional graphics card users who can do professional work and meet general entertainment needs. Even if 3Dlabs acquired Intense3D in July 2000 and released the Wildcat II Series graphics card, it still could not escape the fate of being acquired by Creative Technology in June 2002.
Oxygen GVX1 Engineering sample


The strongest rival of GeForce 256 is undoubtedly Savage 2000, which was announced by S3 the day before. S3 had high hopes for Savage 2000. On June 22, 1999, it made a desperate acquisition of Diamond, turning a chip manufacturer into a graphics card manufacturer. In November, it released the Viper II Z200 graphics card based on the Savage 2000 chip.

Savage 2000 hardware supports S3TL similar to hardware T&L, but the initial driver is based on DirectX 6 (DirectX 7 is the first version to support hardware T&L), resulting in S3TL not working at all and it is not a real GPU. The 3D performance is only 80% of the GeForce 256 graphics card, so S3 lost the title of "The world's first GPU". The miserable ending was acquired by VIA on August 5, 2000, and it exited the GPU competition early.
Viper II Z200 QualificATion sample




On the same day that nVIDIA announced the GeForce 256 graphics card, Videologic announced that the only Neon 250 graphics card using the PowerVR 250 chip will be sold in the UK.PowerVR 250 (PowerVR second generation) is a PC ported version of the Sega game console version PVR250DC jointly launched by Videologic and NEC on December 2, 1998.Compared with PVR250DC, the performance of PowerVR 250 has shrunk a lot, and the performance is still close to TNT2.This is because the PowerVR 250 display chip integrates unique TBR technology, which effectively reduces the burden on the CPU, but it is much inferior to the Geforce 256 graphics card that supports T&L with hardware.

Neon 250



The GeForce 256 graphics card is too powerful, and even the Rage Fury Maxx graphics card with dual RAGE 128 Pro cores on November 7, 1999 could not be matched by ATi. Rage Fury Maxx graphics cards are priced higher than GeForce 256 graphics cards, and their 3D performance is only about 80%, which is slightly weaker than Savage 2000 graphics cards.

Rage Fury Maxx



Even the well-known 3dfx Voodoo3 graphics card (April 3, 1999) in the same period can hardly conceal its brilliance, and the 3D performance is only about 70% of the GeForce 256 graphics card. In 1999, nVIDIA surpassed 3dfx for the first time with a shipment of 10 million pieces.

Voodoo3 Engineering sample



Since then, nVIDIA's Geforce series has established GPU dominance in one fell swoop, gradually letting out competitors one by one.
GeForce 256 series products include GeForce 256 and GeForce 256 DDR. The professional version is called Quadro and is based on GeForce 256.

 

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1.GeForce 256 （NV10）series
The GeForce 256 core has four rendering pipelines, each of which includes four pixel units, a material unit, and provides two different graphics memory configurATion options, SDRAM and DDR SDRAM. The GeForce 256 chip supports DirectX 7.0, T&L, and OpenGL 1.2 at the same time. And other advanced graphics technology. It became the product with the longest life cycle at that time.

1.1 GeForce 256
In the article "History of nVIDIA Graphics cards Vol. 1", the PCB Code of nVIDIA's engineering sample graphics cards are: S/N EVAL-???- (note: EvaluATion board), S/N BRD-???- (note : Reference board).
Entering the Geforce era, nVIDIA’s engineering sample graphics cards began to cancel the “S/N” label, and enable PCB Code starting with “180”. Commonly used are reference boards with the letter “P” in the PCB Code, and evaluATion boards with the letter “E” are rare. , The letter "A" is the Apple MAC version. The number of engineering samples with the letter "T" in the PCB Code was the least, and only one Geforce FX5800 graphics card was found.

1.1.1 GeForce 256
Model: P03
PCB Code:180-P0003-0100-D02
The announcement date of Geforce 256 (NV10) was August 31, 1999 (9936 week), and the release date was November 11, 1999 (9946 week).
The date on the PCB of this Geforce 256 graphics card is 9934 weeks, which is equivalent to the time of early September.

Geforce 256 Engineering sample
​

1.1.2 GeForce 256 DDR
Model: P10
PCB Code:180-P0010-0000-B01
The Geforce 256 DDR graphics card was released on February 11, 2000 (0007 weeks).
The date on the PCB of this Geforce 256 DDR Reference board is 9948 weeks, which is earlier than the announcement date in early December 1999 (9949 weeks).

Geforce 256 DDR Engineering sample
​

1.1.3 GeForce 256 DDR 64MB
A 64MB GeForce 256 graphics card is relATively rare. This graphics card comes from a Dell computer with a PCB date of 0020 weeks and uses nVIDIA's reference design.
Model: P11
PCB Code:180-P0011-0100-C05

GeForce 256 DDR 64MB
​

 

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1.2 Quadro

On November 1, 1999 (9945 week), nVIDIA announced the workstATion GPU Quadro. The Quadro core clock is 135MHz, which is an increase of 15MHz over Geforce's 120MHz core clock. The higher core clock increases Quadro's fill rate by 13% to 540 Mpixels/s.

1.2.1 Quadro AGP

Model: E11 A00

PCB Code:S/N BRD-010-E11-A(180-E0011-0000-A00)

The PCB date of this Quadro 256 EvaluATion board is 9946 weeks, one week later than the announced date.

Quadro 256 Engineering sample



1.2.2 Quadro AGP Pro

Model: E11 B00

PCB Code:180-E0011-0000-B00

The B00 PCB date of Quadro 256 AGP Pro EvaluATion board is 9946 weeks, which is one week later than the announced date.

Quadro 256 AGP Pro Engineering sample

 

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1.3 Creative

1.3.1 Geforce 256 (3D Blaster Annihilator)

As an important partner of nVIDIA, Creative first invested in the development of Geforce 256 graphics card. It can be seen from the following version of the 3D Blaster Annihilator graphics card is 009931. Creativeobtained the reference design of Geforce 256 and designed the 009931 version before the 31st week of 1999. The production date of the PCB board is 9932 weeks, that is, the PCB board is produced in the 32nd week of 1999. This date is earlier than the date of first publicATion on August 31, 1999 (9936 weeks). This is because nVIDIA's engineering sample graphics cards are all manufactured by CreATive. In addition, the release date of 3D Blaster Annihilator is October 25, 1999 (9944 weeks), which is earlier than nVIDIA's November 11, 1999 (9946 weeks).

3D Blaster Annihilator Engineering sample



1.3.2 Geforce 256 DDR(3D Blaster Annihilator Pro)

3D Blaster Annihilator Pro Released 12 February 2000 (0007 weeks), just one day later than the release date of Geforce 256 DDR.

This 3D Blaster Annihilator Pro graphics card is also directly used Geforce 256 DDR reference design stereotyped 009942 version, dated 9942 weeks, earlier than the early December 1999 (9949 weeks) Geforce 256 DDR announcement period. The PCB date of this card is 9941 weeks, which is earlier than the final date of 9942 weeks.
3D Blaster Annihilator Pro Qualification sample



1.4 VISIONTEK

VISIONTEK Geforce 256 Engineering sample directly uses nVIDIA's Geforce 256 reference design, with a PCB date of 9949 weeks and later than release date October 11, 1999 (9942 weeks).

VISIONTEK Geforce 256 Engineering sample



1.5 AZtech

The customer sample PCB date of this AZtech Geforce 256 is 9950 weeks, which appears relATively late, and is also a reference design using Geforce 256.

AZtech Geforce 256 Customer Sample

 

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1.6 ELSA

Most manufacturers' graphics cards based on nVIDIA's first-generation GPUs use the nVIDIA reference design directly, and some manufacturers insist on designing themselves. ASUS's V6600 design is progressing quickly, and it is released after innovation; Canopus' SPECTRA 7400 has a special structure; ELSA even designed several very unique first-generation GPU graphics cards.

1.6.1 Erazor X

Erazor X itself adheres to the NLX form factor specification for a peripheral card, which explains its odd shape.

Erazor X



1.6.2 Erazor X PCI

Erazor X PCI is the only PCI interface version of the Geforce 256 graphics card, which was eventually not listed. Perhaps Geforce 256 does not have sufficient support for the PCI interface.

Erazor X PCI Engineering sample



（From CHIP.de）

1.6.3 GLorla II

The Glorla II graphics card PCB date with the "PROTOTYPE" sticker is 0007 weeks.

GLorla II Engineering sample



1.6.4 GLorla II pro

GLorla II pro is the AGP Pro interface version. This version of the AGP Pro interface can be changed to the AGP interface to become GLorla II.

GLorla II pro



In the first generation of GPU, ELSA's huge investment has won many awards, but the benefits are not much. Since the era of Geforce2, ELSA has gone to the other extreme since the era of Geforce2. The mainstream products copy the reference design, and the low-end products are directly OEM.

1.7 SGI

SGI VPRO VR3 Quadro 256 graphics card directly used the board type of the evaluation board, and early even directly used nVIDIA's engineering sample graphics card.

VPRO VR3

 

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2.GeForce 2 （NV15）series

On April 25, 2000, half a year after the introduction of GeForce 256, ATi launched the first generation of faster and more efficient GPU-Radeon 256 (R100 series).

Radeon 256 Engineering sample



Even the GeForce2 GTS announced by nVIDIA the next day could only be evenly matched. Later, the GeForce2 GTS relied on the Detonator III driver to successfully counterattack. The architecture of the GeForce2 GTS is similar to that of the previous GeForce 256, with the addition of a second TMU. Due to the use of a more advanced 180nm process, the core frequency has almost doubled (to 200Mhz). However, the video memory bandwidth is slightly insufficient, and the performance of Direct3D games is not as good as OpenGL.

GeForce2 GTS Engineering sample


On June 5, 2000, Imagination Technologies, which spun off from VideoLogic, announced that Kyro (the third generation of PowerVR) was manufactured by its strategic partner ST Microelectronics. Kyro core codenamed STG 4000X, adopts 0.25 micron technology, 12 million transistors, display core and video memory are both 125Mhz, 128bit 32/64MB SDRAM video memory. The unique TBR technology is difficult to overcome the weakness of not supporting hardware T&L, and the flaws of the dual-pipeline single-texture unit cause the performance to be inferior to the GeForce 256, let alone the GeForce2 GTS of the same period. However, Kyro's core size is small, heat generation is small, and the number of transistors is also significantly lower than that of nVidia's products at the same time, which has a higher cost performance. In addition, ST Microelectronics has led many manufacturers such as Hercules to join, and graphics cards based on Kyro chips have finally taken a place in the market.

Hercules 3D PROPHET 4000XT PCI



On June 22, 2000, 3dfx released the Voodoo5 5500 graphics card with dual VSA-100 chips, which was comparable in performance to GeForce2 GTS.

Voodoo5 5500 Engineering sample



3dfx knows that the VSA-100 chip does not support hardware T&L and cannot compete with contemporary GPUs, so it has no choice but to adopt a multi-core solution. The actual performance of the Voodoo5 6000 graphics card with four VSA-100 chips is only comparable to that of GeForce2 Ultra. The efficiency is low, the design is difficult, and it takes nearly a year to still be in the engineering sample stage, and it also seriously affects the development of the Rampage graphics card that supports hardware T&L. As a result, 3dfx was acquired by nVIDIA on December 15, 2000, prematurely exiting the GPU hegemony. The Voodoo5 6000 graphics card is undoubtedly the craziest design in history, and it is worthy of being a classic handed down. Especially the tragic color of the ups and downs, only 84 survived and became the bellwether of the graphics card collection.

Voodoo5 6000 Engineering sample



On December 11, 2000, SiS released the first-generation GPU graphics card SiS315. Because it provides 3D acceleration performance equivalent to GeForce2 MX at a relatively low price, and has excellent video playback effects, it has also achieved a small amount of market sales.

SiS315 Engineering sample

（From www.hwsw.hu）​

The GeForce2 series products are mainly divided into the high-end GeForce2 GTS/GeForce2 Ultra, the low-end GeForce 2 MX series and the first mobile GeForce2 GO series. Starting from this generation, the GeForce series has been divided into a variety of models with a clearer level ladder, so as to better meet the consumer groups at all levels. GeForce2 is also the first nVIDIA series to support multiple display configurations. The GeForce2 series of professional editions have Quadro2 PRO based on GeForce2 GTS and Quadro2 MXR based on GeForce2 MX, as well as the mobile version of the first generation GPU--Quadro2 Go.

 

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2.1 GeForce2 GTS

The GeForce2 GTS release date is April 26, 2000 (0018weeks).


2.1.1 P20

PCB Code:180-P0020-0000-D01

The PCB date of this card is 0011week, before the release date. 32MB DDR SGRAM.

GeForce2 GTS Engineering sample

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2.1.2 P30 A00

PCB Code:180-P0030-0000-A00

The PCB date of this card is 0013 weeks. 64MB DDR.

GeForce2 GTS Engineering sample

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2.1.3 P30 B00

PCB Code:180-P0030-0000-B00

The PCB date of this card is 0018 weeks. 64MB DDR.

GeForce2 GTS Engineering sample

​

Compared with GeForce2 GTS, the GeForce2 GTS Pro (GeForce2 Pro) graphics card launched on December 5, 2000, mainly has the memory clock increased from 166MHz to 200MHz, and the graphics card form factor has not changed.

 

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2.2 GeForce2 Ultra

Released on August 14, 2000 (0034 week).

Model: P32

GeForce2 Ultra has the same form factor as Quadro2 Pro. It just shows that the core is different.

GeForce2 Ultra Engineering sample​

2.3 GeForce2 Ti

On October 1, 2001 (0140 week), GeForce2 Ti (Ie "titanium, using the 0.15 process") was released, and its performance is between the GTS and Ultra versions.

2.3.1 P23

PCB Code:180-10023-0000-A01

Chip date 0129weeks, PCB date 0135weeks.

GeForce2 Ti Engineering sample​

2.3.2 P30

PCB Code:180-P0030-0000-C00

PCB date is 0129 weeks.

GeForce2 Ti Engineering sample

​

 

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2.4 Geforce2 MX

Released on June 28, 2000 (0027weeks). The MX version is adjusted on the basis of the GTS version. The first is to remove the rendering pipeline while retaining the original architecture. The second is to adjust the video memory type and bit width, because the performance and price of GeForce2 MX are very suitable for general consumers. The demand has continued to the GeForce4 MX version.
On March 3, 2001, Geforce2 MX200 and Geforce2 MX400 were released.2.4.1 P38

PCB Code:180-P0038-0000-C00

Chip model:NV11ES

The chip date is 0023 weeks, and the PCB date is 0026 weeks.

GeForce2 MX Engineering sample​

2.4.2 P39

PCB Code:180-P0039-0100-C02

Chip model:GeForce2 MX200

GeForce2 MX200 Engineering sample​

2.4.3 P44

PCB Code:180-P0044-0100-A04

Chip model:GF2MX

GeForce2 MX Engineering sample​

2.4.4 P55

PCB Code:180-P0055-0000-01

Chip model:GF2MX

GeForce2 MX​

There are also versions such as P36.

 

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2.5 Geforce2 Go

On November 11, 2000 (week 0047), nVIDIA released the world's first mobile GPU Geforce2 Go at COMDEX / Fall 2000. Geforce2 Go is based on Geforce2 MX core.

2.5.1 E46

PCB Code:180-E0046-0000-B00

The chip date of the Geforce2 Go Evaluation board below is 0045 weeks earlier than the release date of 0047 weeks. The PCB date is 0050 weeks.

Geforce2 Go Engineering sample



2.5.2 P38

PCB Code:180-P0038-0000-C01

The chip date of the Geforce2 Go Reference board below is 0045 weeks, and the PCB date is 0033 weeks, using the Geforce2 MX Reference board.

Geforce2 Go Engineering sample

 

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2.6 Quadro2 Pro

Released on July 25, 2000 (0031weeks). There are four products in the Quadro2 series, namely Quadro2 Pro, Quadro2 EX, Quadro2 MXR and a mobile version of Quadro 2 Go. Quadro2 Pro is based on GeForce2 Ultra core, Quadro2 EX is based on GeForce2 MX 200, Quadro2 MXR is based on GeForce2 MX 400, and Quadro2 Go is based on GeFroce2 Go.

Model: P32

PCB Code:180-10032-0000-A02

PCB date is 0033 weeks, chip date is 0024 weeks.

Quadro2 Pro Engineering sample

​

2.7 Quadro2 MXR

Released on July 25, 2000 (0031weeks).

Model: P55

PCB Code:180-P0055-0000-A03

Chip date is 0106 weeks, PCB date is 0117 weeks.

Quadro2 MXR Engineering sample

​

There are also P38 P39 board types. The low-frequency version of Quadro2 MXR Quadro2 MXR EX uses P39 board type.

2.8 Quadro2 Go

Model:E46

PCB Code:180-E0046-0000-B00

Quadro2 Go is based on the core of Quadro2, a high-frequency version of Quadro256, and is a mobile version. Release date August 14, 2001 (0133 week). The chip date of the Quadro2 Go Evaluation board below is 0116 weeks, and the PCB date is 0124 weeks.

Quadro2 Go Engineering sample

​

 

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2.9 nFroce

At the beginning of 1996, SiS launched the SiS5596 chipset with built-in graphics accelerator and VGA controller. This is the earliest integrated graphics chip for desktop computers; on February 20, 1997, Cyrix launched the IT industry’s first chip integration solution (All in One). Media GX chip, in addition to integrating S3 ViRGE/DX, it also integrates Cyrix Cx5x86 CPU and audio; on November 21, 1998, VIA announced the launch of the Apollo MVP4 chipset integrated with Triden Blande 3D; on April 26, 1999, Intel released the integrated i740 display core The i810 chipset has achieved unprecedented success in the market and has made a great contribution to the popularization of integrated chipsets; on November 8, 1999, ALi announced the launch of Aladdin 7 chipsets with integrated ArtX video chips.

Motherboard integrated display already has a large market. As the GPU overlord, nVIDIA is naturally unwilling to be lonely. On Computex2001 on June 4, 2001, nVIDIA released the first-generation motherboard chipset nForce, code-named Crush 12. The nForce chipset is composed of the north bridge chip IGP (Integrated Graphics Processor) and the south bridge chip MCP (Media and Communications Processor) that integrate GeForce2 MX.

nVIDIA involves the field of motherboard chipsets, starting with the XBOX project in cooperation with Microsoft. February 14, 2001-nVIDIA released the graphics processing unit (XGPU) and media communication processor (MCPX) for the Xbox video game console. Taking this opportunity, nVIDIA uses many advanced technologies from the XBOX project to develop its first PC chipset product-nForce. Seeing that nVIDIA launched the nForce series, ATi also released the integrated graphics chip Radeon IGP in 2002, which is equivalent to the level of Radeon VE.

nForce Engineering sample



（From anandtech.com）

2.10 Creative

GB0030 uses the P44 reference board, the finalization date is 0033 weeks, and the PCB date is 0034 weeks.

GB0030 Engineering sample





2.11 ELSA

The Geforce2 MX400 graphics card below is a foundry made by a Taiwanese manufacturer and was tested and verified by ELSA with the "PROTOTYPE" label. ELSA, which has always liked to show its strong R&D heritage, began to abandon the path of self-research.

ELSA Geforce2 MX400 Engineering sample

 

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3. GeForce 3（NV20） series

In view of the progress made by the GeForce2 series, nVIDIA released the first GeForce3 graphics card supporting DirectX 8 on February 27, 2001. In terms of hardware specifications, GeForce3 does not have a big gap with GeForce2 GTS, and all the advantages are now in DirectX 8's advanced API technology. In addition, GeForce3 supports a programmable T&L engine and is the industry's first programmable GPU.

GeForce3 Engineering sample


​

On March 12, 2001, Kyro II was launched. The core code is STG4500. It adopts 0.18 micron process, 15 million transistors, core and video memory frequency is increased to 175Mhz, 128bit 32/64MB SDRAM video memory, dual pipeline single texture unit. Although Kyro II was known as the MX400 killer in the European market at the time, its performance was weaker than GeForce2 GTS and only half of its rival GeForce3 in the same period. The problem with Kyro II is that the rendering pipeline is too small, the fill rate is limited, and the video memory bandwidth provided by the outdated SDR video memory limits the performance. What is particularly serious is that Kyro II still fails to support hardware T&L, and relying on a part of software T&L to try to gain a foothold in the GPU competition has become an impossible task.

Vivid!XS Qualification Sample



On June 18, 2001, Trident released the first-generation GPU: Blade XP. The performance was so weak that it was only equivalent to the TNT2 level, and was eventually ignored by the market. The mobile version of Blade XP is called Cyberblade XP.

Cyberblade XP Engineering sample​

On August 14, 2001, ATi launched Radeon 8500 (R200 series). In its battle with GeForce3 Ti500, even if the Radeon 8500 graphics card has a higher theoretical performance, the GeForce3 Ti500 still has a great advantage thanks to the excellent support of the detonator driver.

Radeon 8500 DV Engineering

​

nVIDIA returned to the home gaming console market again in 2001, becoming an important part of Microsoft's original Xbox. The onboard graphics card comes from nVIDIA's NV2A, which is an adjusted GeForce3 with performance close to that of GeForce3 Ti500.
The three models of the GeForce3 series products are all mid-to-high-end, and there is no low-end series and mobile platform series. The professional version is called Quadro DCC.

 

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3.1 GeForce3

Released on February 27, 2001 (0109 week).

3.3.1 P50

PCB Code:180-10050-0000-A05

Chip date is 0104 weeks, PCB date is 0104 weeks.

GeForce3 Engineering sample



3.1.2 P51 MAC版

On February 22, 2001, this card was announced for Apple’s Power Mac G4, which was the first cooperation between nVIDIA and Apple. Prior to this, Apple and ATi had close cooperation.

GeForce3 Ti500 Mac Engineering sample



（From anandtech.com）

3.2 GeForce3 Ti200

Model: P50

PCB Code:180-10050-0000-A05

Released on October 18, 2001 (0142 week). Chip date is 0131 weeks, PCB date is 0134 weeks.

GeForce3 Ti200 Engineering sample



3.3 GeForce3 Ti500

Model: P50

PCB Code:180-10050-0000-C00

Released on October 18, 2001 (0142 week).

GeForce3 Ti500 Engineering sample



(From ixbt.com)

3.4 Quadro DCC

Model: P50

PCB Code:180-10050-0000-A09

Quadro DCC is essentially the standard version of GeForce3. nVIDIA authorized the GLoria DCC product exclusively launched by Elsa. All three GeForce3 models can be turned into a professional Quadro DCC by simply changing the resistance, which is even faster, which makes ELSA a big blow.

GeForce3 Engineering sample

 

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4. GeForce 4（NV25）系列


The successor to GeForce3 was released on February 6, 2002 and was called GeForce4 Ti. Its architecture is similar to NV20 (GeForce3), but NV25 is significantly faster due to its 150nm process. By increasing the clock frequency and doubling the number of ALUs, nVIDIA provided GeForce4 Ti with approximately three times the vertex shading capability of GeForce3, and easily eliminated Radeon 8500.

GeForce4 Ti4600 Engineering sample


On March 13, 2002, at CeBIT 2002, PowerVR Technologies of Imagination Technologies announced KyroII SE, the core code name STG4800. According to published information, compared with Kyro II, its core and memory frequency have been increased to 200Mhz, and EnT&L was created. It has achieved the performance of GeForce2 GTS and the same period GeForce4 MX 420.Only Imagination’s Vivid! XS Elite and Hercules’ 3D Prophet 4800 were announced to use KyroII SE chip graphics cards, and they were not sold.Hercules sent out some boxed 3D Prophet 4800 graphics cards for evaluation. The core and video memory frequency is 200Mhz by default.The graphics card core and memory frequency of this 3D Prophet 4800 engineering sample (Chip date and PCB date is 0216 weeks) is 175Mhz by default.It can be seen that Kyro II SE is the overclocked version of Kyro II, but it has been simply revised with software T&L support.On the same day and at the same place, PowerVR Technologies also demonstrated the PowerVR MBX core for embedded graphics applications. It is easy to understand that the Kyro II SE project was abandoned, and the Kyro III project was suspended. The main reason was that in the GPU competition, PowerVR Technologies could not solve the hardware T&L for a while, so it was unable to gain a foothold and had to focus on the handheld graphics market.
　
3D Prophet 4800 Engineering sample



On May 14, 2002, Matrox released its first generation GPU-Parhelia 512. Although it got rid of the embarrassing situation of using G450 and G550 without hardware T&L against the GeForce series. However, the Parhelia 512 graphics card, which was introduced to the market after a long R&D process, its 3D performance is not great, only comparable to GeForce4 Ti4200. Matrox had to give up support for 3D games, quit the GPU hegemony, and became a professional 2D graphics card manufacturer.

Parhelia 512 Qualification sample



On June 3, 2002 (week 0223), S3 merged into VIA and released the first generation GPU: Savage XP. Savage XP is fundamentally "only" a revised version of Savage2000. Although it supports hardware T&L, its performance is still at a low level, only at the Geforce256 level. Savage XP, also known as Alpha Chrome, is the first of VIA's Chrome product line, with a small number of applications on the mobile platform.

Savage XP Engineering sample



On March 12, 2002, SiS announced the Xabre series of graphics cards, namely Xabre 80, Xabre 200, Xabre 400, and the updated Xabre 600 with higher frequency. The performance of Xabre series graphics cards is not fully utilized due to driver compatibility issues. The performance of Xabre 400 graphics cards is comparable to that of GeForce4 MX440. The highlight is the first graphics card that supports AGP 8X.

Xabre 400 Engineering sample



In April 2002, at the WinHEC conference, Trident announced the development of XP4 graphics cards. The XP4 prototype card was tested in August and the result was only 60% of the GeForce4 Ti 4200. On January 24, 2003, Trident said that because UMC's .13um process capacity was too low, the mass production of the XP4 graphics chip was postponed. In fact, Trident is already in trouble and is seeking to sell the graphics department to SiS. As a result, the XP4 graphics card has not been sold. The mobile version of Cyber XP4 was only sold after Trident sold. XP5 is XP4 that supports AGP 8x, and the development is almost completed in April, while the development of XP8 that supports DirectX 9 has been discontinued.

XP5 Engineering sample



On July 18, 2002, ATi released the Radeon 9700 PRO (R300 series) graphics card. It is the world's first display chip that fully supports DirectX 9. The floating-point high-precision and high-performance texture effects brought by DirectX 9.0 are very shocking to the dramatic changes in the game screen. It allowed ATi to outperform nVIDIA's flagship graphics card GeForce4 Ti4600 in performance for the first time in the GPU competition since 1999 by more than 50%. Since 2002, ATi began to fight against nVIDIA, becoming the two dominant players in the graphics card market.

Radeon 9700 PRO Engineering sample



（From anandtech.com）

GeForce4 series products are mainly divided into high-end Ti, low-end MX, and GeForce4 Go for mobile computers. There is also a PCX 4300 that supports the PCI-E interface through the HSI bridge chip. The professional version has the Quadro4 series.

 

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4.1 GeForce4 Ti4600

Model: P83

PCB Code:180-10083-0000-A01

Chip model:NV25-A2

Released on February 6, 2002. Chip date is 0152 weeks, PCB date is 0150 weeks.

GeForce4 Ti4600 Engineering sample



4.2 GeForce4 Ti4400

Model: P80

Chip model:NV25 A1C8

PCB Code:180-10080-0000-A01

Released on February 6, 2002. Chip date is 0140 weeks, PCB date is 0140 weeks.

GeForce4 Ti4400 Engineering sample



The AGP 8X version of NV25 is GeForce4 Ti4800 SE.

4.3 GeForce4 Ti4200

Model: P85

Chip model:NV25-A2-V

PCB Code:180-10085-0000-A01

Released on February 6, 2002. Chip date is 0152 weeks, PCB date is 0208 weeks.

GeForce4 Ti4200 Engineering sample





4.4 GeForce4 Ti4600 MAC Edition

Model:A84

PCB Code:180-10084-0000-A00

Chip model:NV25 Ultra A3
Mac Edition. Chip date is 0202 weeks, PCB date is 0202 weeks.

GeForce4 Ti4600 MAC Edition Engineering sample



4.5 GeForce4 Ti4800

Model: P152

PCB Code:180-10152-0000-A02

Chip model:GeForce4 Ti-8X A1

Released on September 25, 2002. Chip date is 0247 weeks, PCB date is 0243 weeks.

GeForce4 Ti4800 Engineering sample

 

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4.6 GeForce4 MX 420

Model: P71

Chip model:NV17-A28

PCB Code:180-10071-0000-A00

Released on February 6, 2002. Chip date is 0141 weeks, PCB date is 0146 weeks.

GeForce4 MX 420 Engineering sample



4.7 GeForce4 MX 440

Released on February 6, 2002.

4.7.1 E63

Chip model:NV17 A58

PCB Code:180-10063-0000-A01

The chip date is 0205 weeks, and the PCB date is 0212 weeks.

GeForce4 MX 440 Engineering sample



4.7.2 P70

PCB Code:180-10070-0000-A03

Chip model:NV17 A3

Chip date is 0148 weeks.

GeForce4 MX 440 Engineering sample



4.7.3 P112

PCB Code:180-10112-0000-A00

Chip model:NV18-A1

AGP 8X, chip date is 0224 weeks, PCB date is 0227 weeks.

GeForce4 MX 440 Engineering sample



4.7.4 P118

PCB Code:180-10118-0000-A00

Chip model:NV18B-L A3

AGP 8X, chip date 0239 weeks, PCB date 0243 weeks.

GeForce4 MX 440 Engineering sample

 

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4.8 GeForce4 MX 460

Model: P75

PCB Code:180-P0075-0000-A00

Chip model:NV17 A2

Released on February 6, 2002. Chip date is 0143 weeks, PCB date is 0144 weeks.

GeForce4 MX 460 Engineering sample



4.9 Geforce PCX 4300

Model: P241

Chip model:Geforce MX4000 C1

PCB Code:180-10241-0000-A01

2Released on February 17, 004. Chip date is 0350 weeks, PCB date is 0402 weeks.

Geforce PCX 4300 Engineering sample

 

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4.10 Personal cinema MX420

Model: P79

PCB Code:180-10079-0000-A01

Chip model:MX420-A5

A product launched in response to ati’s All in Wonder graphics card. Chip date 0211 weeks, PCB DATE 0214Weeks.

Personal cinema MX420 Engineering sample



4.11 Personal cinema MX440-8X

Model: P104

PCB Code:180-10104-0000-A01

Chip model:MX440-8X A2

Chip date 0234 weeks, PCB DATE 0242Weeks.

Personal cinema MX440-8X Engineering sample



4.12 NVTV

Model: P309

PCB Code:180-10309-0000-A00

For Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition (MCE)

In response to the product launched by ati's TV Wonder, the PCB date is 0425 weeks.Later, DualTV MCE was also launched.

NVTV Engineering sample

 

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4.13 Geforce4 410 Go MCM

nVIDIA uses MCM technology to package the Geforce4 410 Go core and 2 or 4 memory particles on a substrate. At that time, the MCM packaged display chip was aimed at mobile devices.

Model:E93

PCB Code:180-10093-0000-A06

Chip model:Geforce4 410 Go A5

16MB

Chip date is 0222 weeks, PCB DATE is 0225 weeks.

Geforce4 410 Go Engineering sample



4.14 Geforce4 420 Go

4.14.1 E64

Chip model:SQ17 A4

PCB Code:180-10064-0000-A00

Chip date is 0150 weeks, PCB date is 0204 weeks.

Geforce4 420 Go Engineering sample



4.14.2 P71

Chip model:NV17LT A4

PCB Code:180-10071-0000-A03

Chip date is 0201 weeks, PCB date is 0202 weeks.

Geforce4 420 Go Engineering sample



4.14.3 E93

Geforce4 420 Go MCM

PCB Code:180-10093-0000-A06

Chip model:GF4 420Go A5

The chip date is 0222 weeks, and the PCB date is 0225 weeks.

Geforce4 420 Go Engineering sample

 

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4.15 Geforce4 440 Go

4.15.1 E63

PCB Code:180-10063-0000-A00

Chip model:NV17M A4

Chip date is 0150 weeks, PCB date is 0202 weeks.

Geforce4 440 Go Engineering sample



4.15.2 E93

Geforce4 440 Go MCM

PCB Code:180-10093-0000-A06

Chip model:GF4 440Go

Chip date is 0225 week, PCB date is 0228 week.

Geforce4 440 Go Engineering sample



4.16 Geforce4 460 Go

Model:E63

Chip model:Geforce4 460Go A5

PCB Code:180-10063-0000-A02

Chip date is 0216 week, PCB date is 0232 week.

Geforce4 460 Go Engineering sample



4.17 Geforce4 488 Go

Model:E133

PCB Code:180-10133-0000-A00

Chip model:GF4 488Go A3

Chip date 0251 weeks, PCB date 0252 weeks.

Geforce4 488 Go Engineering sample



The mobile series also has Geforce4 4200 Go (NV28M).

 

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4.18 Quadro4 NVS 200

NVS is Professional Business Graphic.The nVIDIA Quadro NVS desktop solutions enable multi-display graphics.

Model: P155

PCB Code:180-10155-0000-A01

Chip model:Quadro4 NVS200 A5

Chip date is 0218 weeks, PCB date is 0240 weeks.

Quadro4 NVS 200 Engineering sample



There are also Quadro4 NVS100 (NV17 P150 is similar to P71) and Quadro4 NVS50 (NV18).

4.19 Quadro4 NVS 400

Model: P77

Quadro4 NVS 400 64MB PCI(Dual NV17 chip).

Quadro4 NVS 400 Engineering sample

 

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4.20 Quadro4 750 XGL

Model: P80

Chip model:NV25GL-A18

PCB Code:180-10080-0000-A02

Released on February 19, 2002. Chip date is 0141 weeks, PCB date is 0142 weeks.

Quadro4 750 XGL Engineering sample



And Quadro4 700 XGL uses P80 form factor, Quadro4 900 XGL uses P83 form factor, Quadro4 550 XGL uses similar form factor to P71, but uses different video memory. AGP 4X.

4.21 Quadro4 380 XGL

Model: P112

PCB Code:180-10112-0000-A01

Chip model:NV18GL-A1

Released on November 12, 2002. Chip date is 0227 weeks, PCB date is 0229 weeks.

Quadro4 380 XGL Engineering sample



There is also Quadro4 580XGL, which is P115 board type and AGP 8X.

4.22 Quadro4 980XGL

AGP 8X

4.22.1 E153

PCB Code:180-1-153-0000-A00

Chip model:Quadro 4 XGL A2

Released on November 12, 2002. Chip date is 0240 weeks, PCB date is 0245 weeks.

Quadro4 980 XGL Engineering sample



4.22.2 P152

Chip model:NV28GL A1M8

PCB Code:180-10152-0000-A01

The chip date is 0231 weeks, and the PCB date is 0232 weeks.

Quadro4 980 XGL Engineering sample

 

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4.23 Quadro4 500Go GL

Model:E63

PCB Code:180-10063-0000-A00

Chip model:NV17GLM A4

The mobile Edition was released on April 23, 2002. Chip date is 0201 weeks, PCB date is 0202 weeks.

Quadro4 500Go GL Engineering sample



There is also Quadro4 700Go GL (NV28 GLM).

4.24 nFroce2

On July 16, 2002, the nForce2 motherboard chipset nForce2 chipset was launched. The nForce2 chip integrates GeForce4 MX.

nFroce2 Engineering sample



(From deruberhanyok)

 

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4.25 VISIONTEK

GeForce 4 Ti 4600 Mac Edition。

GeForce 4 Ti 4600 Mac Edition Engineering sample



4.26 Sparkle

SP7300M4-64MB/DV will directly label the engineering sample of nVIDIA Personal cinema MX420-8X as a commodity, which may be displayed as a sample.

SP7300M4-64MB/DV Engineering sample