OCZ Titan3 GeForce 3 Review - PAGE 1

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Introduction

Half a year has passed since NVIDIA first revealed the Geforce3 (also known as the NV20) to the world. Not performing as well as was expected on the standard video benchmarks, it first appeared as though this new technology had failed to meet up to the hype. But upon a closer look, it was discovered that the true problem rest in the hands of the reviewers (more specifically the benchmarking software and techniques) and not with the chip itself. The “standard” benchmarks were not optimized to take advantage of the uber-cool new features of the Geforce3.

Why did such a problem exist? Because unlike the brute force approach NVIDIA took with the Geforce2 – that is, pumping up the physical aspects of the original Geforce, such as the clock and memory speeds – the Geforce3 confronts graphic processing in a much more elegant manner (which we will go over more thoroughly in the next section). As well, a large portion of the advancement comes in the form of greatly increased functionality and flexibility which is not readily represented by benchmark numbers.

Now on to the Titan 3’s specifications...

Specs

GPU:	NVIDIA Geforce3 (0.15micron technology)
Core Speed:	215MHz (15MHz above the default speed)
Memory Speed:	515MHz (11MHz below default)
RAM:	64MB (DDR SDRAM)
AGP Mode:	2x/4x (with Fast Writes)
Resolutions:	640x480@150Hz to 2048x1536@75Hz
Other:	- Lightspeed Memory architecture - High-Resolution Anti-Aliasing - nFiniteFX Engine - DVI out - S-Video out - HDTV processor

Starting with the physical aspects, the transistors on the Geforce3 are about 17% smaller, existing on the more advanced 0.15micron process (for reference, the die of the Geforce2 used the 0.18micron process and that of the Geforce 256 was 0.22micron). This will allow the chip’s 57 million transistors run cooler whilst reducing power consumption – a very important aspect of technological growth.

The Titan 3 is shipped with the memory underclocked. This may seem odd at first thought, but OCZ uses memory rated at 263MHz x 2 for 526MHz running at 515MHz. By default, the core of the Geforce3 runs a 200MHz and the memory bus runs at 230MHz. Not surprisingly the card is fitted with a Thermaltake Blue Orb as well as copper heatsinks on the RAM modules to make the overclocked components run as stable as possible. This is one major difference between the Titan 3 and most – if not all – other Geforce3 solutions.