X-bit labs

X-bit Labs CeBIT Hannover 2004 Coverage: Part 1 (page 3)

Category: Editorial

by Anton Shilov

[ 03/21/2004 | 01:50 PM ]

NVIDIA’s NV40 and Low-Cost GeForce PCX 5950

One of the main excitements of the show probably are the new graphics processors by the two leading graphics companies – Santa Clara, California-based NVIDIA Corp. and Markham, Ontario-based ATI Technologies. While sources close to both companies indicated that we should not expect them to formally announce their new graphics chips at CeBIT, but show them to selected partners, analysts and press behind closed doors under non-disclosure agreements, we all are very excited to see what exactly ATI and NVIDIA are showcasing at the European main technology event.

After visiting a booth of a pretty loyal NVIDIA partner I managed to find out that graphics cards based on the highly-anticipated NV40 graphics processors will enter production in May 2004, an interesting piece of information to consider if you are planning to get a high-end graphics card shortly.

Another partner of NVIDIA – LeadTek – is demonstrating new PCI Express graphics cards based on GPUs from NVIDIA, dubbed GeForce PCX.

  

There are basically only a couple of PCI Express cards in Leadtek’s booth: already well-known GeForce FX 5200-based one and a totally new GeForce FX 5950 Ultra with PCI Express interface. In case LeadTek’s claims are right that what we see in the picture is the 5950, then NVIDIA’s high-end offering may become extremely inexpensive, just take a look on its PCB design!

Moreover, it looks like the GeForce PCX graphics cards are nearer than we think they are. According to a LeadTek spokesperson, NVIDIA GeForce PCX graphics cards are in production now and may be launched once there are PCI Express 16-enabled mainboards.

Club 3D and Water-coolers

Club 3D is a company readers of X-bit labs are pretty familiar with. The firm is based in the Netherlands and is pretty well-known all around Europe. The guys are trying to promote their own brand-name and sustain their strategy to offer graphics cards and some other components, such as mainboards, based on chips from different developers, e.g. NVIDIA, ATI, S3.

Right now Club 3D seems to experience pretty promising growth. The company sells graphics cards in huge quantities and also manages to ship some mainboards to its partners. In addition to existing products Club 3D is going to offer an upgrade option for its graphics cards to praise enthusiasts – water-coolers for the RADEON 9600-, RADEON 9800-series as well as next-generation graphics cards.

Club 3D plans to guarantee that warranty will not be voided in case standard cooler is removed in order to substitute it with more advanced water-cooler. Almost certainly there will be a limited quantity of Club 3D high-end graphics cards with water-cooling, but the main idea is to sell such really not very conservative devices as an additional option for hardcore enthusiasts.

Right now Club 3D is demonstrating samples of the new products, therefore, I would suggest that final products may vary from pictured above. Additionally, they display ATI RV380 graphics card with PEG x16 interface – looks like this secret and unannounced solution is not secret and unannounced for anybody except ATI Technologies itself ;)

Despite of not very high performance delivered by S3 DeltaChrome S8 graphics cards, Club 3D has a serious intention to bring them into the market. The firm already have boxes ready, so, if you live in Europe and liked what the new graphics processors from S3 Graphics are capable of offering, then you should probably start watching for them in stores in a number of weeks time.