“People are changing the way they use computers,” stated Dr. Jon Peddie, President of Jon Peddie Research, the leading market research company tracking multimedia and graphics technology. “With the introduction of the new iMac and the Sony Vaio MX – it’s easy to see what consumers want – a flat screen for brighter, sharper graphics; a digital interface to the electronic world of MP3s, DVDs and other consumer electronics; and of course, performance. The new GeForce4 GPUs are the engines of that emerging digital lifestyle.”

This new family of GPUs delivers revolutionary new technologies, including:

• World’s Most Powerful Graphics – Delivering up to four times the performance over previous GeForce generations.
• Accuview Antialiasing(TM) (AA) – New and innovative AA technology provides the best visual quality possible without a performance hit.
• nView(TM) Display Technology – New display technology provides the ultimate in multidisplay flexibility and user control.

“This is the deepest, widest product announcement in NVIDIA history,” said Jen-Hsun Huang, president and CEO at NVIDIA. “Normally we attack one segment of the market at a time, but with the GeForce4, we are launching, for the first time ever, revolutionary new products at every price point of our desktop, mobile and Macintosh product lines.”

“In addition to bringing NVIDIA performance to every market segment, the GeForce4 family is built around one of the most exciting trends in the PC industry--flat panel-based multimedia PCs,” continued Huang. “Whether corporate or consumer, 21st century PCs are now multi-display, multimedia devices, and our Accuview Antialiasing and nView technologies are just two of the GeForce4’s innovative features that will drive this contemporary revolution in PC functionality and performance.”

The new GeForce4 family includes:

• GeForce4 Ti 4600 and 4400 – The GeForce4 Ti GPU is the first consumer GPU capable of driving complex geometries and character animations. With its advanced nfiniteFXÔ Engine, superior Accuview Antialiasing techniques, and flexible nView multidisplay technology, the GeForce4 Ti GPU allows end users to experience radically immersive graphical environments, complete with unique visual effects and the most realistic, life-like images ever.
• GeForce4 MX 460, 440 and 420 – The GeForce4 MX GPU brings new levels of graphics performance and display flexibility to the mainstream desktop PC. By incorporating NVIDIA’s innovative nView multidisplay technology, highly efficient Lightspeed Memory Architecture™ (LMA) II and advanced Accuview Antialiasing techniques, the GeForce4 MX GPU is the most feature-rich, cost-effective, highly integrated GPU available for the mainstream market.
• GeForce4 440 Go and 420 Go – The mobile GeForce4 GPUs integrate innovative power management techniques for unsurpassed battery life, a Video Processing Engine and revolutionary antialiasing technology for superior display quality, and an ultra efficient memory architecture for the fastest computing experience ever realized on a mobile PC platform.

“Video games used to be a kind of step-child to film and live TV,” said David DeMartini, Executive Producer for Golfing Simulations at Electronic Arts. “Today, by delivering high-resolution, high frame-rate, full scene antialiasing in a complete family of GPUs, NVIDIA has provided us with the tools to deliver breakthrough performance and image quality for the gaming industry. This helps Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2002 achieve a level of realism that rivals film and video and gives the player the sense they’re in the game.”

Unmatched Performance
NVIDIA’s GeForce4 family includes Lightspeed Memory Architecture (LMA) II, an advanced 128-bit Double Data Rate (DDR) memory interface, and other sophisticated memory enhancement technologies to double available memory bandwidth and increase overall memory efficiency. LMA II includes NVIDIA’s second-generation Z-occlusion culling, a hardware technique that pre-determines which objects in a scene are visible to the eye, and which objects are hidden by other objects in the scene. By only rendering the parts of the objects that are visible to the eye, Z-occlusion culling maximizes memory bandwidth. LMA II can also compress the values of distances between objects that are stored in the GPU Z-buffer at a ratio of four to one, without any degradation in accuracy. In addition, NVIDIA’s LMA II features four individually dedicated and optimized memory caches, known as Quad CacheÔ, allowing for instant rendering pipeline access, which can be reused and refreshed instantaneously.

Improve Your Image Quality
For the best possible performance, compatibility and visual quality without the “jaggies” associated with objects rendered with pixel based displays, the GeForce4 Ti features NVIDIA’s proprietary Accuview Antialiasing engine, which utilizes hardware-implemented, high-resolution multisampling techniques, including 2x, 4x, Quincunx(TM) and a new 4XS mode. This brand new Accuview Antialiasing engine affords end users the greatest choice in AA modes and performance, delivering up to five times the antialiased performance of previous NVIDIA solutions. With its performance and quality, end users are expected to run applications and games with Accuview Antialiasing technology enabled all the time.

“We were amazed at the new full screen antialiasing of GeForce4,” said Paul Olshen from Novalogic, the creators of Comanche 4. “For the first time ever, there is no perceptible decrease in performance of the game with AA enabled. You get a far better looking experience, especially on today's flat-panel displays.”

Flexible Multidisplay Technology
NVIDIA has applied its unmatched software and hardware expertise to create the most flexible multidisplay technology on the market. Known as nView, NVIDIA’s multidisplay technology supports arrangements of CRTs, televisions, and digital flat panel displays that can be combined to drastically increase a computer’s desktop workspace. More than a multidisplay subsystem, nView incorporates built-in attribute and performance tuning for each of the individual display devices it supports. nView’s smart and flexible interface has built-in usability features to maximize productivity and minimize set-up. Features such as hot key binding, smart Windows management enhancements, and the ability to name and save up to 32 different desktop configurations make nView the most advanced, flexible and user-friendly multidisplay management system available.

Availability
OEM systems featuring GeForce4 MX are already shipping, with retail board availability in the next two weeks. OEM systems featuring GeForce4 Ti will be available in 60 days, with retail boards available in 30 days. GeForce4-based notebook computers will be available in February.