Adam Foat, European Product PR Manager for NVIDIA, takes some time out to talk to Games Fusion about their latest addition to the GeForce franchise, the GeForce 6.

Q. At the release period of the GeForce FX, NVIDIA had claimed that their card would be the fasted thing to hit the gaming market, instead ATI managed to produce a very close competition with their Radeon 9800, in what is otherwise an older generation chipset. It seems clearly apparent that the terms “fastest” and “highest performing” are terms, which can easily be unjustified in the graphics card industry. What measures have you taken to ensure that the GeForce 6 series really is the ‘fastest’ card on the market? And do you anticipate that ATI’s forth coming next-generation card will outperform the GeForce 6?

A. GeForce 6800 Ultra is the largest generation-to-generation performance leap in company history. We have so far seen twice the performance over the previous generation with early BETA drivers. We expect to see more with more mature driver releases. The reviews will speak for themselves. As for our main competitor, we will have to see if the special edition product comes to market in volume.

Q. Why have you decided to keep with the GeForce franchise name? Isn’t it time to move off the name and produce a new identity?

A. Why change something that works? GeForce is an internationally recognised brand that consumers have come to associate with quality, reliability and stability. When they see that name on the box of our partner’s graphics cards, they are guaranteed a great user experience.

Q. What effect will Microsoft’s DirectX 9.0 Shader Model 3.0 technology have on titles, such as Doom 3, which is heavily reliant on shadows to create the atmosphere in the game?

A. Doom3 is OpenGL, not DirectX. But SM 3.0 titles will appear very quickly, unlike previous games using newer shader models. SM 3.0 can be added to an existing SM 2.0 game very easily. In fact you can now get a patch to enable a game to use the new features. The developers of Far Cry will make a patch available in the next few weeks demonstrating exactly that. We are expecting many other titles to follow suit, Painkiller and Tiger Woods to name two.

Q. The GeForce 6 6800 Ultra comes with Dual DVI connections, an otherwise excellent edition for those users using two LCD monitors. What challenges did you have to confront to bring this feature to the card? And will there be an alternate version, featuring Analogue connection, for those who do not sport a screen with a DVI connection?

A. We have always supported dual DVI since GeForce4 days. It is down to our individual partners as to whether they include dual DVI, dual VGA or VGA/DVI on their boards.

Q. The PCI Express interface is a technology, which will bring improved bandwidth capabilities to graphics cards, such as the GeForce 6. However, the PCI Express interface is yet to make an impression upon PC users. How long do you anticipate it will be before the technology kicks off? And how much of a performance advantage will it truly mean?

A. We are already sampling PCI Express cards to our key partners. We enjoy a close working relationship with Intel and our schedules are perfectly aligned with them. We will have PCI Express graphics cards available as soon as they launch. Current date for that is Mid Q2. Performance will vary depending on what application is being used. The software will have to make use of the extra bandwidth.

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