More GeForce 4 specs

tigerwoods99tigerwoods99
Posted:
in Future Apple Hardware edited January 2014
Check it out:



<a href="http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1103-817473.html"; target="_blank">http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1103-817473.html</a>;





Febuary 5th launch date.





This card will be coming to the Mac. Will the new PowerMacs back them up?

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 8
    matsumatsu Posts: 6,558member
    There's a couple of reasons why this is interesting. One, AFAIK there isn't a GeForce 3MX. Sure there are different levels of Geforce 3 hardware, but none was concieved as a budget solution from the start. Two, if Geforce4 launches with MX (value) and Ti (performance) lines simultaneously, it might be that the new PowerMacs skip standard Geforce3 altogether and go straight to Geforce4 MX cards standard. From some of the other articles out there I gathered that a new buget chipset from nVidia (which may be this 4MX) was designed to be both better performing yet cheaper than current Geforce3. It's not inpossible if the chip is designed to do things smarter than the older generation chipset, which, I think, has gotten much of its speed boost (in the Ti line) from using some very fast & pricy RAM/bus combinations. A better design could best the performance while using cheaper parts. Furthermore, it puts even greater pressure on competitors by attacking both ends of the market with one major release.



    This is supposed to be the chipset that gives just a little bit more than the x-Box chipset, which has been likened to a GeForce 3.5 by some industry people.



    I've always been a fan of ATI (heck they're Canadian) but nVidia really seems to be surging right now. They always seem to have a newer faster version ready to go.
  • Reply 2 of 8
    programmerprogrammer Posts: 3,458member
    [quote]Originally posted by Matsu:

    <strong>I've always been a fan of ATI (heck they're Canadian) but nVidia really seems to be surging right now. They always seem to have a newer faster version ready to go.</strong><hr></blockquote>



    You obviously haven't been paying attention -- nVidia has been leading the graphics chip industry on the desktop for a couple of years now, ever since the TNT chipset. Their Riva128 boards got them established, and the TNT put them out front. Ever since then they've been widening the gap. ATI is about their only surviving competitor, but they are about 6-9 months behind (which they are trying to fix, but it remains to be seen if they can pull it off).



    I hope you're right about the 4MX low-cost concept. It makes sense.
  • Reply 3 of 8
    ryanthegreatryanthegreat Posts: 359member
    hmmm... that GeForce 2 MX in the new iMacs doesnt look too good right now. <img src="graemlins/hmmm.gif" border="0" alt="[Hmmm]" />
  • Reply 4 of 8
    nostradamusnostradamus Posts: 397member
    [quote]Originally posted by RyanTheGreat:

    <strong>hmmm... that GeForce 2 MX in the new iMacs doesnt look too good right now. <img src="graemlins/hmmm.gif" border="0" alt="[Hmmm]" /> </strong><hr></blockquote>



    Sure, in comparison to a GeForce4 it looks feeble, but a typical iMac buyer will probably never utilize its potential. It's a very capable chipset and is able to run almost all 3D applications and games on the market acceptably.
  • Reply 5 of 8
    gigawiregigawire Posts: 196member
    [quote]but they are about 6-9 months behind<hr></blockquote>



    Hardly. 3dfx was a company that was 6-9 months "behind". ATI is right on par with nVidia right now. All they need to take a greater market share are the drivers. nvidia is winning because it sticks to its new product cycles, whereas ATI sort of comes close.
  • Reply 6 of 8
    matsumatsu Posts: 6,558member
    Well, they do leap frog each other a bit, but yeah, for the last year and a half to two years nVidia seems to jump further ahead whereas ATI's product releases are now more of a catch-up step than a jump ahead.



    Funny thing about that Geforce4MX: there are not one but three budget variants. And, I think, only two performance (Ti) variants. Three is a lot of budget variants to release all at once. Value, Cheap, Embedded ??? hmmm... MX460 - fast clock and bus. MX440 - a little slower core and moderately slower bus. MX420 - slowest core clock and much slower memory bus.



    It definitely looks like at least one of the MX chips is low power enough to sit on an embedded MoBo. We also know that 2MX is a newer design than the original Geforce3, it could be that 4MX(250/166) is meant to take the place of 2MX, perhaps with a similar pin-out and power requirement. Apple did put a slightly beefier 2MX in the iMac (800 vs 700) fill rate. I think that 4MX (on the low end) may be headed to the iMac in 18 months time. And perhaps nVidia plans to do away with all the other lines. If one line can cover most of the price points, it would be cheaper for nVidia to go that route than maintain 3 different chips.
  • Reply 7 of 8
    programmerprogrammer Posts: 3,458member
    [quote]Originally posted by Gigawire:

    <strong>Hardly. 3dfx was a company that was 6-9 months "behind". ATI is right on par with nVidia right now. All they need to take a greater market share are the drivers. nvidia is winning because it sticks to its new product cycles, whereas ATI sort of comes close.</strong><hr></blockquote>



    ATI just shipped the 8500 recently, despite talking about it since August. It is roughly equivalent to the geForce3 which arrived in about March. The geForce4 will be arriving by March of this year. That sounds like 6 months to me.



    Having said that, ATI has gained a lot of ground since the Rage128. Radeon was a big jump forward, and I look forward to their next product.
  • Reply 7 of 8
    tigerwoods99tigerwoods99 Posts: 2,633member
    I've also heard that there may be some compatibility issues with the AGP8x standard.
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