Nvidia GeForce
GeForce (composed of geometry , English for geometry and force , English for strength / force; pun on g force , English for gravitational acceleration ) is a brand name for desktop - graphics processors of the manufacturer Nvidia and successor of the Riva family . The GeForce graphics cards have been on the market since 1999 and mainly compete with the Radeon family of products.
Model family
In addition to the models for desktop use, there are also GeForce cards for notebooks ( GeForce Go or GeForce M ) and models for mobile phones ( GoForce ). NVIDIA graphics cards for professional use are sold under the Quadro name .
history
With the GeForce series from the first to the fourth generation, Nvidia was able to keep the performance leadership and prevail against competitors such as 3dfx , Matrox and ATI Technologies . The fifth generation, designated FX 5xxx , had difficulties from the start and did not achieve the performance of the Radeon 9000 series from competitor ATI Technologies, which put Nvidia in trouble. Since then, ATI, meanwhile taken over by AMD , and Nvidia have been fighting for the "performance crown".
The first representative of the sixth generation, the GeForce 6800 Ultra with the newly developed NV40 chip, has proven to be significantly more powerful than all previous chips in initial tests, but a few days later ATI's competitor X800 XT PE again just outperformed repressed. The two cards are roughly on par in terms of performance and only differ in the technologies used, but ATI's upgraded R480 refresh chip (including X850 XT PE ) was later able to clearly position itself compared to the 6800 Ultra.
The GeForce-FX-5 series uses the Shader model version 2.0a, while the previous models only support version 1.3. Since the GeForce 6 series , Nvidia has been using the shader model version 3.0, which was the first to be supported by the Far Cry game . The main competitor ATI was only able to add a corresponding competitor product with support for the shader model version 3.0 in autumn 2005 with the Radeon X1 series . Since the GeForce 6 series, Nvidia has also been offering the option of allowing graphics cards to work together using Scalable Link Interface technology, or SLI for short. Two identical graphics cards share the computational effort, which leads to a performance increase of a maximum of 80% compared to a single card.
With the introduction of the GeForce 8 series in November 2006, Nvidia was the first company to offer graphics processors with DirectX 10 support. This also includes support for the new shader model version 4.0.
Driver support
The drivers for Nvidia graphics chips are constantly being developed and appear at irregular intervals. In addition to the drivers for Mac OS and Windows , drivers for Linux , FreeBSD and Solaris have also been available for a number of years . Up to version 4x.xx the graphics drivers had the designation "Detonator" (alluding to the name of the Riva TNT series ), from version numbers 5x.xx to 16x.xx these were called "ForceWare" by Nvidia (here, alluded to the name GeForce ). Newer drivers are now sold under the name "GeForce". Most drivers are also WHQL certified.
All known GeForce graphics cards are now also supported under ZETA . The drivers are constantly being developed in the Haiku project. HW-OGL has now also been implemented for all GeForce graphics chips up to NV18 .
Stereo 3D driver
In addition to the actual graphics drivers, there are also stereo 3D drivers for GeForce graphics cards. In combination with a graphics driver of the same version, these enable stereoscopic output of OpenGL or DirectX graphics, which can be used with most 3D applications without any adjustments. In order to create a three-dimensional impression, the driver produces anaglyph images (red / cyan) on an ordinary monitor , which must be viewed through appropriate colored glasses. Alternatively, shutter glasses can be used with a screen with a short afterglow time (most CRTs and special 120 Hz LCDs ) . Recently, however, there have also been screens (including those from Zalman ) that, thanks to clever viewing angle limitation, manage to display a spatial image without glasses.
At the CES 2009 in Las Vegas, Nvidia introduced wireless shutter glasses called "3D Vision". A GeForce graphics card and a display that can be controlled with a refresh rate of at least 100 Hz are required for use. It should be noted that most so-called 100 Hz LCDs, especially televisions, only achieve 100 Hz by displaying images several times and do not support actual image content changes of more than 60 Hz, which is the subject here. They are therefore not suitable for use with the 3D vision glasses. The 3D glasses are currently available in a set with the 3D vision kit. With this kit you can adjust the strength of the 3D effect. You can also activate the red-green system with the included software, the glasses required for this are not included in the set.
Graphics processors
The code names of the graphics processors (GPUs) have an identifier of the form NVxx or Gxx / Cxx. The numbering corresponds to a simple scheme: Whole 10 digits are always the first product in a series / product family and usually also their flagship. With processors with higher numbers, the graphics performance has not necessarily been improved, so the NV20 (GeForce 3 Titanium 200/500) is faster in many areas than the NV34 chipset, which is used in the GeForce FX 5200.
In some cases, different graphics cards are based on the same GPU and are only limited by internal mechanisms. B. Pipelines blocked or the clock frequency reduced (see stepping ). Often times, different GPUs are used for the same model - e.g. B. if a newer revision of the chip is available or has been revised.
It should be noted that all GPUs with a native AGP interface can also be used with PCI graphics cards without any problems. The situation is similar with GPUs with a native PCIe interface ; these can also be used for AGP graphics cards and vice versa by means of a bridge chip ( high-speed interconnect ).
Models
|
GeForce-256-series |
GeForce 100 series (Tesla) |
GeForce 10 series (Pascal) |
Quadro series |
Ranking of the 10xx, 16xx and 20xx generation of graphics cards (Pascal and Turing)
The GT 1030 is the weakest graphics card and the RTX 2080 Ti the most powerful graphics card.
Pascal and Turing are the names of the graphics card generations (Pascal is older than Turing).
Only the gaming graphics cards from Nvidia and AMD are listed here, the Titan graphics cards have been omitted here.
For reference: GTX 1060 <GTX 980 <RX 590 <GTX 1660 <GTX 980 Ti <GTX 1660 Ti
- Red: little power
- Orange: Performance for 1080p @ 60FPS + (At high graphics settings in most video games)
- Green: Performance for 1440p @ 60FPS + (At high graphics settings in most video games)
- White: Performance for 2160p @ ~ 60FPS (At high graphics settings in most video games)
(The colors and the ranking apply in the majority of cases, but even a graphics card with a lower rank can be superior to a graphics card with a higher ranking in some programs and games!)
| 20xx (RTX: Turing) |
16xx (GTX: Turing without RTX features) |
10xx (GTX: Pascal) |
Graphics card name (architecture, memory, year of first release) |
rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2080 Ti | RTX 2080 Ti (Turing, 11gb, 2018) | 1 | ||
| 2080 super | RTX 2080 Super (Turing, 8gb, 2019) | 2 | ||
| 2080 | RTX 2080 (Turing, 8gb, 2018) | 3 | ||
| 1080 Ti | GTX 1080 Ti (Pascal, 11gb, 2017) | 4th | ||
| 2070 super | RTX 2070 Super (Turing, 8gb, 2019) | 5 | ||
| 2070 | RTX 2070 (Turing, 8gb, 2018) | 6th | ||
| 2060 super | RTX 2060 Super (Turing, 8gb, 2019) | 7th | ||
| 1080 | GTX 1080 (Pascal, 8gb, 2016) | 8th | ||
| 2060 | RTX 2060 (Turing, 6gb, 2019) | 9 | ||
| 1070 Ti | GTX 1070Ti (Pascal, 8gb, 2017) | 10 | ||
| 1660 Ti | GTX 1660 Ti (Turing, 6gb, 2019) | 11 | ||
| 1070 | GTX 1070 (Pascal, 8gb, 2016) | 12 | ||
| 1660 super | GTX 1660 Super (Turing, 6gb, 2019) | 13 | ||
| 1660 | GTX 1660 (Turing, 6gb, 2019) | 14th | ||
| 1060 | GTX 1060 (Pascal, 3/5 / 6gb, 2016) | 15th | ||
| 1650 super | GTX 1650 Super (Turing, 4gb, 2019) | 16 | ||
| 1650 | GTX 1650 (Turing, 4gb, 2019) | 17th | ||
| 1050 Ti | GTX 1050 Ti (Pascal, 4gb, 2016) | 18th | ||
| 1050 | GTX 1050 (Pascal, 2 / 3gb, 2016/2018) | 19th | ||
| 1030 | GT 1030 (Pascal, 2gb, 2017) | 20th |
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ nvidia.com Nvidia: 3D stereo driver
- ↑ GPU Performance Hierarchy 2019: Video Cards Ranked. Tom's Hardware, October 12, 2019, accessed October 13, 2019 .
- ↑ Video Card Benchmarks. PassMark® software, accessed on October 13, 2019 (English, sortable list with rank / price and rank / performance values).