Microsoft set...

Visual magic by Nvidia

Nvidia is soaring high above its competitors after it has been selected by Microsoft to design and manufacture the 3D graphics and multimedia subsystem for the X-Box game console. Microsoft chose to go for Nvidia's track record in graphics technology rather than the start-up Gigapixel. Nvidia will design a proprietary Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) and Multimedia and Communications Processor (MCP) chipset for the X-Box.

Microsoft demonstrated the X-Box prototype box using Nvidia's NV-15 graphics processor. But the X-Box will ship with a graphics chip that will be [approximately] two generations beyond the NV-15 and three generations beyond today's PC-based graphics processors, in terms of technology. Nvidia has a chip, the NV-25 which is capable of a number of rendering and cinematic effects meant to make 3D scenes seem photorealistic as well as motion blur, soft shadows and reflections, and full-scene anti-aliasing.

Whether Nvidia chooses to use the powerful NV-25 remains to be seen but Microsoft intends to ship the X-Box with the ability to process 300M polygons per second with a sustained performance of approximately 100M polygons per second -- nearly five times that of the PlayStation 2. The X-Box will have a quad-pixel pipeline and will be operating at 300MHz internally, giving it a mind-blowing fillrate of 4.8GP/S.

The Nvidia screamer will be proprietary to the X-Box so PC guys, dream on -- you won't get that kind of fillrate on the PC before the first X-Box ships. Of course, 3dfx can take on that challenge.

Will it take off?

We think so. The PC platform has become a frustrating platform for gaming. With game developers pushing the technology further out of reach of gamers with average computing power, PC gaming is fast becoming an expensive hobby for the ordinary gamer. Processor life cycles have shortened dramatically. New 3D accelerator boards are shipped every six months. No one wants to cough out more cash just to come close to the system requirements of the new games.

Sony on the other hand, has pushed the standard for game consoles several notches higher with the Playstation 2. Suddenly, the game console does not appear "childish" at all -- with its powerful 128-bit processor dubbed as the "Emotion engine" and a DVD player capable of playing feature-length movies and compact discs, as well as most of the games designed for the original PlayStation. The Playstation 2 has become a serious gaming platform.

The average gamer will also worry less about hardware as game developers begin to target the console hardware specifically rather than who's got this new 3D graphics card or that sound card. In the game console world, all systems are equal!

The X-Box is scheduled to ship in the second half of 2001. With a price tag that hovers at USD300, we're betting that more PC gamers will give the X-Box or any other console for that matter, a long and hard look as their [once-upon-a-time] hot-rod 'puters start to sputter and eat the dust left behind by 2-gigahertz processors.

By M.B.Reyes