This article is more than 1 year old

Nvidia GeForce 3 Titanium just a hoax?

'Leaks' and links seem to point that way

Is there any truth to the rumours of Nvidia's alleged upcoming next-generation GeForce 3 chips, the GeForce 3 Titanium 500 and the GeForce 3 Titanium 200?

News of the new Nvidia parts - plus a third, the GeForce 2 Titanium, and an as yet unnamed Windows XP-oriented part - broke earlier this week on Web site M3D Zone through what was claimed to be a leaked two-page PDF.

Superficially, the document appears genuine. The text contains all the appropriate trademark signs and appears to be in Nvidia house style. However, the company logo and the contact details at the bottom seem to be taken from crude screen grabs.

Then we received an email suggesting that Microsoft's own Hardware Quality Labs had inadvertently confirmed the existence of the Titanium family.

Suspicious, we had a look. Indeed, if you follow this link, you'll get a Microsoft HQL report for the GeForce 3 Titanium 200. Then again, if you follow this other link, you'll get a read-out for the GeForce 6.

Yes, we made the second one up, by editing the URL. That suggests to us the GeForce 3 Titanium 200 is a fake too - or at the very least sufficiently open to doubt to call into question this so called proof of the new Nvidia product family.

For what it's worth, here is what the PDF - produced, incidentally, by someone called Ahwang using Microsoft Word; is there anyone of that name at Nvidia, we wonder? - says about the chips:

NVIDIA GeForce3 Ti 500
Tagline: Fastest, most feature rich GPU on the planet
Main Messages:

  • Enhanced nFiniteFX Engine
  • Programmable Vertex and Pixel Shaders provide
  • virtually infinite number of special effects
  • New Shadow Buffers produce realistic real-time
    shadows
  • New 3D textures enable volumetric effects
  • High-resolution antialiasing for superior quality
  • Lightspeed Memory Architecture

NVIDIA GeForce3 Ti 200
Tagline: Delivering GeForce3 Features and performance to the masses
Main Messages:

  • Enhanced nFiniteFX Engine
  • Programmable Vertex and Pixel Shaders provide
    virtually infinite number of special effects
  • New Shadow Buffers produce realistic real-time
    shadows
  • New 3D textures enable volumetric effects
  • High-resolution anitaliasing for superior quality
  • Lightspeed Memory Architecture

NVIDIA GeForce2 Ti
Tagline: Redefining mainstream performance
Main Messages:

  • Delivering new levels of performance to the
    mainstream users
  • Award-winning NVIDIA Shading Rasterizer technology
  • Second-generation tranform and lighting engine

NVIDIA Detonator 4 Driver
Tagline: NVIDIA Detonator 4 Driver Unleashes New Features and Performance
Main Messages:

  • Up to 50% performance increases
  • New DirectX 8.1 pipeline
  • New OpenGL 1.3 ICD
  • Full hardware acceleration for Windows XP
  • Enhances 3D glasses, TwinView and Digital Vibrance Control features
  • Support for all NVIDIA GPUs

The Microsoft Windows XP GPU Solution
Main Messages:

  • Fastest Windows XP Solution for Every Platform
  • Fastest 2D performance for Windows XP
  • Fastest 3D performance for Windows XP
  • Full acceleration of all new Windows XP multimedia and user interface
  • Highest quality, most reliable drivers in the industry
  • Custom Windows XP/DirectX 8.1 pipeline

It certainly sounds plausible enough. And we're sure Nvidia is working on updated GeForce chips for DirectX 8.1. It can't, after all, let ATI hog all the DirectX 8.1 limelight with the Radeon 8500, can it? And it's easy to see why some are leaping upon the leak as proof of the existence of GeForce 3 Pro/Ultra (the Ti 500) and GeForce 3 MX (the Ti 200) chips - as if the company isn't working on these parts. But the evidence that emerged this week is shaky.

For now, though, we're sceptical, at least until we get more information - or a better quality leak. Nvidia insiders are, of course, very welcome to drop us a line and put us in the picture. ®

Related Story

Nvidia to launch GeForce 3 MX on Friday?

More about

TIP US OFF

Send us news


Other stories you might like