GeForce

GeForce is a consumer branding of PC graphics chipsets designed by NVIDIA. The first GeForce products were designed and marketed for the high-margin gamer community of computer users, but later product releases expanded the line to cover all tiers of the graphics market, from low-end to high-end. As of 2005, there have been six iterations of the GeForce design.

GeForce card generations in order of launch

• GeForce 256 - Launched in August 1999, the high-end GeForce256 was the most powerful consumer 3D-graphics product of its time. It was the first PC graphics chip with hardware transformation and lighting, although game software utilizing this feature did not appear until later. Initial GeForce256 boards shipped with SDR DRAM memory, and later boards shipped with faster DDR memory.
• GeForce 2 - Launched in April 2000, the first GeForce 2 (GTS) was another high-performance graphics chip. Doubling its predecessor's texture-rendering throughput, the GTS once again established NVIDIA's performance leadership over its competitors - the ATI Radeon and 3dfx Voodoo 5 5500. Later, NVIDIA released the cost-reduced GeForce 2 MX. The MX retained the 3D-rendering feature-set (such as hardware transformation and lighting) of the flagship GTS. Available in several variants, the MX remains one of the best-selling consumer-level cards of all time.

• GeForce 3 - Launched in February 2001, the GeForce 3 introduced programmable pixel-shaders to the GeForce family. Despite good overall performance and shader support, in the eyes of gamers it failed to deliver a compelling mix of pricing and performance. The GPU was sometimes outperformed by GeForce 2 Ultra, due to Ultra having higher core clock. However, the GeForce 3 was able to outperform the Ultra at higher resolutions due to improved and more efficient memory controller. Nevertheless, technology developed for the GeForce 3 later emerged in the Microsoft Xbox game-console.

• GeForce 4 - Launched in February 2002, the high-end GeForce 4 TI was an incremental upgrade GeForce 3. A later family member, the GeForce4 MX, stirred controversy due to the MX's vastly inferior feature-set. Commentators criticized the product's name, as the GeForce 4 MX was much closer functionally to an upgraded GeForce 2 (with improvements in the memory controller and video processing engine.) Regardless, the GeForce 4 MX also sold in huge volumes (probably due to consumer recognition of the "GeForce 4" name.)

• GeForce FX - Officially launched in November 2002, the GeForce FX initially suffered from production problems and did not become widely available until the following year. With a marketing tagline of "the dawn of cinematic rendering", NVIDIA marketed the FX series as a revolutionary part with new cinematic effects. Against ATI's Radeon9700, the FX series performed poorly in DirectX 9 shaders - the crucial element of "cinematic rendering." In many (shader 2.0) synthetic benchmarks, the the fastest FX version trailed far behind (as much as 60-70% slower) equivalent competition from the ATI R300 series. Even after a "refresh" (product redesign) cycle, later FX products (such as the 5700 and 5900) still trailed far behind the R300.

• GeForce 6 - Launched in April 2004, the GeForce 6 is NVIDIA's most recent GeForce architecture. The GeForce 6 implements Vertex Shader 3.0 and Pixel Shader 3.0, corrects the weak shader performance of its predecessor (GeForce FX), and introduces SLI (Scalable Link Interface) capability.

• GeForce 7 - To be launched in June 2005, the GeForce 7 will be a faster version of the GeForce 6, with the feature set remaining generally similar.Template:NVIDIA