This post over on 3DHardware.net has word that apparently Creative Labs Europe is quite bent out of shape about the benchmarks that surfaced in the 3DHW review of their GeForce256 Annihilator card. Either the benchmarks really are inaccurate, or Creative just doesnt want people to know that the card isnt living up to that "170fps" hype.

Frosty was kind enough to send me 3 (high res) screenshots of the GeForce running Q3Test. Check out [shot1] [shot2] [shot3] or you can grab the zip file which is higher res.

GameCenter has posted the 2nd part of their big NVidia interview with the chief engineer over there.

Another NVidia interview, Fullon3D has gotten permission to post back online their interview which was yanked a little while ago.

3DHardware.net has just revealed their Creative Labs GeForce256 review which features several benchmarks. As some people were speculating earlier from looking at that Korean article, the driver issue at NVidia is not fully resolved, check this:

As the drivers are still in alpha stage, we experienced heavy problems when trying to run simple game benchmarks. Currently, after extensive testing, we found that only Quake III Test seemed to give "accurate" results and it also seems as if nVidia has focused its attention on this particular game.
Quake III Test v.1.08 - Pentium II 450MHz - 128Mb RAM.
High Quality (800x600x32bit) : 58.8FPS
Quake III Test v.1.08 - Pentium III 550MHz - 128 Mb RAM
High Quality (800x600x32bit) : 72.3FPS

For comparison sake, a P3-500 with a Creative TNT2U cranks around 45fps in 800x600 HQ.

Got a literal flood of emails pointing out this Korean website which has published some of the first known benchmarks of the NVidia GeForce256 card running Quake2 and Q3Test as compared to a TNT2 Ultra board. Thanks ThreadZ. The card is showing up as only about 10% faster in 800x600 in Quake2 surprisingly. The GeForce seems to only really make a larger difference at higher resolutions looking at these marks:

GeForce256 800x600 = 58.3fps 1024x768 = 56.0fps
TNT2 Ultra  800x600  = 51.6fps 1024x768 = 38.7fps

GameCenter has posted an interview with the chief scientist of NVidia which is a pretty good read. They of course talk about the GeForce which should be showing up on shelves in a few weeks.

TechZone does their best to overclock a TNT2U further than you would ever expect. Thanks VE

Another NVidia interview for you guys to read. Check out what Derek Perez of NVidia has to say.

SystemLogic has some details on a few of the NVidia GeForce cards getting ready to ramp up production. This is one of the first of many GeForce comparison articles I'm sure you guys will run across. The cards covered in this article are:

- Leadtek WinFast GeForce256
- Elsa Erazor X
- Creative Labs 3D Blaster GeForce256
- Guillemot Maxi Gamer 3D Prophet

A GeForce NVidia interview for you guys to read. 3DGPU has a few words with Richard Huddy from NVidia developer relations.

Creative Labs has released some new TNT2 drivers for their Blaster cards. They are just based on the 2.08 NVidia drivers but with that little extra touch Creative feels they need.

3D Spotlight has snagged everybody some info on Asus' upcoming NV10 graphics board (I'm refusing to call it "GeForce 256, that name is dumb). It will apparently come in two different flavors:

1. AGP-V6600:
GeForce256TM, 32MB SDRAM, VGA.

2. AGP-V6600 Deluxe:
GeForce256TM, 64MB SDRAM, VGA, TV-out, Video-in, VR 3D glasses.

Also, ASUS said that the ASUS AGP-V6600 will differ with other GeForce256 cards, but the info won't be released yet since it's their "secrete weapon"... overclocking with special cooling is what appears on my mind right now, but who knows, we will just have to wait.

3DHardware.net attended Creative Labs' Scandinavian press event and has brought back a report on the new 3DBlaster, based off of NVidia's GeForce256, called the "Annihilator". They go into detail on various subjects, including why such a low clock-rate (of 120MHz) compared to the 183MHz cards we have today. And how will it run Quake?

"Quake3, 1600x1200 32bpp, highest detail setting. 30FPS?"

We expected (and wanted) a quick YES but that was not the case. In fact they said that is has "most probably not going to happen" but quickly added that performance would indeed increase with final drivers and final silicon. So you won't be able to run Quake3 at 1600x1200 resolution, but who cares anyway? They reported that Carmack was working on adding an additional notch to the "detail lever" for GeForce256 owners to enjoy. (*drool* ;)

Quake2 was also under discussion, and here the GeForce256 did much better. Creative reported that they had Quake2 running at 170FPS in 1024x768 16bpp and no AA. Pretty damn impressive.

FPS3D sends word of a technical article they have written up which may help clear up that whole T&L thing that the GeForce256 does.

Looks like Acer Labs and NVIDIA hooked up to bring you fast computers at a really cheap price by merging ALi's Slot 1 and Socket 370 chipsets with a TNT2. Here is it's support list:

• Support for up to 1.5GB of SDRAM, VC-SDRAM or EDO memory
• Enhanced high-bandwidth, internal de-multiplexed AGP bus
• Intelligent Arbiter, low-overhead context switching design for optimal SMA performance
• 128-bit TwiN Texel graphics pipeline - two texture-mapped, lit pixels per clock
• 32-bit color, 32-bit Z/stencil buffer with single-pass multitexturing
• Video in, TV out and TMDS or Digital Flat Panel support up to 1280 x 1024 resolution
• Fully compatible with all WHQL-certified DVD decoder software for RIVA TNT2
• Coupled with ALi's M1535D Southbridge, features integrated super I/O controller, integrated audio, software modem interface, four USB ports and UDMA-66 support

Here's a link for your viewing pleasure.

AGN3D has posted a brief NVidia interview with Nathan Rundle asking about the GeForce256.

NVidia GeForce256 article of the day is over at TechZone. Since the card isnt out or anything it's just an overview of how much the card will kick ass and reasons you should buy that video card instead of those school books next semester.

A bit more hype on the GeForce256 from the ZDNet guys if you're still not sure that the card is hella-fast. Thanks Rick B. for the link.

Remember that M64 TNT2 board that we heard a bit about? Well Dan's Data has gotten a hold of one of the boards and puts it through the paces.