NVIDIA GeForce FX Go Technology Preview March 13, 2003 Brandon Bell

Introduction

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GeForce4 Go: Ti 4200 for notebook

Last year the notebook market took a pretty dramatic step forward with the GeForce4 Go. While its introduction trailed the launch of GeForce4 Ti on the desktop by over six months, it marked the first time in the history of the mobile market that a true desktop performance part had been introduced into a laptop computer. Previous mobile graphics products had been based on desktop parts in the value segment, such as NVIDIA’s GeForce4 MX or ATI’s RADEON 9000. GeForce4 Go’s introduction wasn’t all roses however, as the NV28 core it was based on was designed for desktops, it lacked an integrated TV encoder and LVDS transmitter, features that notebook manufacturers had to implement externally. In addition, its 63 million transistor core drew a lot of power.

NVIDIA tried to get around this by lowering its core and memory clock frequencies, but the chip still drew a considerable amount of power for a mobile part. As a result, battery life became a major limiting factor, ultimately confining GeForce4 Go to the high-end desktop replacement segment of the notebook market. The chip did put NVIDIA back ahead of ATI in performance and features, but its limited availability has always been a bit of a sore spot.

Today NVIDIA is introducing two new successors to its GeForce Go series, and each brings DirectX 9 graphics to the notebook. Replacing the high-end GeForce4 Go is the GeForce FX Go5600, while the GeForce4 440 Go is replaced by the GeForce FX Go5200 for the mainstream segment. If you’re familiar with NVIDIA’s announcements from GDC last week, chances are you recognize these products as the GeForce FX 5600 on the desktop PC (formerly codenamed NV31) and GeForce FX 5200 (internally codenamed NV34).

While previous notebook graphics launches trailed their desktop counterparts by months, with the GeForce FX architecture NVIDIA has stepped up the pace considerably: these chips will being shipping in April, the same timeframe as NVIDIA’s desktop parts!




SIDEBAR:

GeForce FX Go Features

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GeForce FX Go Variants

Feature for feature, the GeForce FX Go5600 and Go5200 match their desktop counterpart. This time around the NV31 and NV34 core were designed to meet the needs of the mobile market, so NVIDIA incorporated features like the TV encoder from the get go. In fact, both of these parts utilize NVIDIA’s G2 footprint, making them completely pin compatible with GeForce4 440/448 Go. All an OEM like Dell or IBM has to do is drop either of these GeForce FX Go chips in their existing designs, decreasing time to market considerably.

Since they’re based on the same cores as their desktop cousins, the same basic design features also hold true for the mobile parts. In the case of GeForce FX Go5600 it’s built on TSMC’s 0.13-micron manufacturing process and contains 80 million transistors. It supports the same 2.0+ pixel and vertex shaders as NVIDIA’s other DirectX 9 graphics accelerators as well as the 128-bit color and floating point pipeline. The key difference between the two Go chips lies in clock speeds as well as the loss of color and z-compression in the GeForce FX Go5200 (which is also built on a 0.15-micron process), just like the desktop part.

In comparison to the desktop chip, the GeForce FX Go5200 runs a little bit lower on the core and memory frequencies, while the desktop variant of the GeForce FX 5200 tops out at 325/650MHz, GeForce FX Go5200 operates at up to 300/600MHz. GeForce FX Go5600 runs at the same 350/700MHz combination as its desktop equivalent, likely due to its smaller 0.13-micron manufacturing process.

Power and Video

As mobile parts, these chips also support NVIDIA’s PowerMizer feature, which can not only adjust the clock frequencies of the chip depending on workload, but can also turn off parts of the chip that aren’t being used (in addition to disabling individual pipelines). As a result, these GeForce FX Go parts consume much less power than their desktop equivalent.

On the video side, one of the biggest improvements is the introduction of a new MPEG2 decoding engine. This offloads the burden of MPEG2 decoding from the host CPU during DVD playback, ensuring longer battery life. NVIDIA has also integrated adaptive de-interlacing, this goes one step beyond the traditional bob and weave technique that is used (which tends to blur text, or introduce feathered, jagged images) by analyzing each scene on a per pixel level essentially optimizing the scene for the particular video you’re watching. The GeForce FX Go series can also output to an HDTV.

Summary

It’s pretty remarkable to see desktop graphics technology make their way to the mobile market so quickly. DirectX 9 was only released late last year and here we are with an entire family of DX9 parts on both the desktop and now laptop. Notebooks featuring GeForce FX Go5200 graphics should start below $1,000, making them perfect for the consumer on a budget. NVIDIA says its OEM partners will have GeForce FX Go5600 products at price points as low as $1,000-$1,400 but we’ll have to wait and see how this plays out next month.

One thing is for sure, we’re very pleased to see this level of power in a notebook, now we just need the content to push these parts to their limits. NVIDIA has inked an exclusive deal with EA, from now on EA will provide full support for mobile users with NVIDIA graphics inside. NVIDIA also has exclusive distribution rights to EA’s current and upcoming titles (including 007 Nightfire), which means that we’ll finally see EA games bundled not only with notebooks, but from video card manufacturers such as ASUS, Gainward, and MSI.





SIDEBAR: Do you game on your notebook, or should PC gaming be left to the desktop? Voice your thoughts in the news comments!