Corsair TWINX4K
Corsair Hydrocool
MSI MEGA 651
MSI FX5900-VTD
RocketRAID 1520
RocketRAID 404
FIC AU13 nF2
LanParty KT400A
AS Ceramiqué

CineFX Architecture

The CineFX architecture is a new concept for nVidia. In a nutshell, it simplifies the creation of shaders for developers by putting shader execution support in hardware. In conjunction with Cg graphics language, it should be a lot easier to bring PC graphics to Toy Story (or better!) levels.

VERTEX SHADERS 2.0+
With the CineFX engine, vertex-processing capabilities are greatly expanded while programming complexity is greatly reduced, giving game developers the power to achieve any effect imaginable. Fully generalized loops and branches can be data-dependent, giving the CineFX engine a much more straightforward programming methodology than previous architectures. One shader can be written to encompass all the skinning methods and operations, and since the shader can branch on a per-vertex basis, it is not required to break up the model. With these advances, the CineFX engine shatters previous vertex shading limitations.

PIXEL SHADERS 2.0+
The NVIDIA CineFX engine raises pixel shading to a first-class programmable citizen of the graphics pipeline, and gives developers a host of new capabilities for controlling pixels and producing effects that are only limited by the imagination.

All of this wouldn't be possible without the engine's ability to render true 128-Bit colour, and the ability to do this quickly. For the colour, the more red, green, blue and alpha values you have, the smoother the colours and graphics will appear. The CineFX engine also supports 1024 instructions in a single rendering pass. Objects such as fur and grass used to require multiple passes to render, but with the GFFX, only one.

Intellisample Technology

Anti-Aliasing has come a long way these past several years, but there are always improvements ready to be made. One problem with a lot of AA effects is images tend to blur, or look unnatural. nVidia improves upon their AA technique with a new 6XS mode. The 4XS worked by taking random spots of a pixel to create a more natural AA. The 6XS, as the name implies, takes 50% more samples and renders the scene.

Antialiasing is the key to smoothing out rough edges, or "jaggies," that often appear on the edges of 3D geometry. The Intellisample technology's intelligent antialiasing captures a higher-resolution version of each image, then resizes and resamples it for output to your screen, smoothing away imperfections. The GeForce FX's new 6XS mode delivers silky-smooth visuals not seen in the current 4X or 4XS modes, calculating 50% more samples. This feature is available through the control panel, so even current games can take advantage of this stunning new level of clarity.

Other improvements are the lossless depth Z-buffer and color compression improvements. nVidia claims improved image quality, through AA, with no performance hit. As you know, high resolutions and high levels of AA are bandwidth killers, so it'll be interesting to see how this turns out.

Final Words

Click to Enlarge

We only provided a general overview of what I felt would matter for most consumers, but there are other features such as nView and Digital Vibrance Control which we didn't really cover, but you can find .

Admittingly, I feel the GeForce FX will be something a lot of people are going to want to have for their "Doom" box. The specifications look impressive, easily better looking and faster than their GeForce 4. Given that it's at least double the Ti4600's speed, it should be 20-30% faster than ATi's best. This is only speculation, and we can only support their claims when we test the GFFX in house.

The questions that then remain are, when, and how much? We're looking at a January 2003 release, and an estimated street price of about 399$, which is standard for all new top end cards. Should ATi sweat right now? Probably not, as their cards are available now, and provide plenty of speed for gamers. They better not rest on their laurals too long though, as the GeForce FX is looking to be a Radeon 9700 killer.

Previous Page - Introduction

Home