Does anyone remember the TNT? Remember how everyone thought it would be the Voodoo 2 killer. It’s original specs had to be cut down to release the product in a timely fashion. This is a case where Nvidia can't afford to leave anything out. You think Nvidia is going to crush the competition so easily? Every company is going to release a card that will blow you out of the water. Just remember that. 3dfx is not going to accept 2nd place and get humiliated by NVIDIA this time. Think of the new features that Matrox's next product will have next time. Can you say true 256 or 512-bit bus? Just some food for thought.

While many people think this is Nvidia’s market to win and lose, it may be, but they are going to have good competition making sure that they don’t let up. There are only 3 things that NVIDIA will need to fix for this card to make it huge, and I mean huge. They will need excellent drivers. What is holding their current chipset back? Drivers. It’s as plain and simple as that. No company has ever really developed good enough drivers to fullfill their cards maximum performance. If NV10 is going to be as powerful as you everybody says it is, it will need some high octane drivers.

Issue number 2, they will need a high performance low cost version to seal up the OEM and system integrator market and make bigger retail sales. Those above 2 things shouldn’t be that hard to do. As you can see there isn’t much holding this chipset back is there? Maybe. Some developer complain that T&L forces them to give up some (too much) of the customizability of a game. That may equal very scarce acceptance among developers if NVIDIA fails to resolve this. But, they can, only if they talk to developers before they release it, and make some deals.

What about consumer retail cost? If NVIDIA can make all of the above changes to their chipset, it will rock. They have the power to determine whether this chipset will succeed or fail!

But if they fail to do any of the above, watch out! It will probably still be a success but not nearly as big as it could have been. This fall over ten new gaming arcades are coming near you powered by NV10. As you can see NVIDIA has the game at their on their turf, they got the ball, and all they've got to do is put the finishing touches on, and they will make a mockery of their competition. Hopefully, Nvidia won't make the same mistakes as Nvidia.

by Kevin Perko

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