GeForce FX series
 |
|
| Release date | 2003 |
|---|---|
| Codename | NV30, NV31, NV34, NV35, NV36, NV38 |
| Models | GeForce FX Series
|
| Cards | |
| Entry-level | 5200, 5300, 5500 |
| Mid-range | 5600, 5700, 5750 |
| High-end | 5800, 5900, 5950 |
| Enthusiast | 5800 Ultra, 5900 Ultra, 5950 Ultra |
| API support | |
| Direct3D |
Direct3D 9.0a Shader Model 2.0a |
| OpenGL | OpenGL 2.1 |
| History | |
| Predecessor | GeForce 4 series |
| Successor | GeForce 6 series |
The GeForce FX or "GeForce 5" series (codenamed NV30) is a line of graphics processing units from the manufacturer NVIDIA.
NVIDIA's GeForce FX series is the fifth generation of the GeForce line. With GeForce 3, NVIDIA introduced programmable shader functionality into their 3D architecture, in line with the release of Microsoft's DirectX 8.0. The GeForce 4 Ti was an enhancement of the GeForce 3 technology. With real-time 3D graphics technology continually advancing, the release of DirectX 9.0 brought further refinement of programmable pipeline technology with the arrival of Shader Model 2.0. The GeForce FX series is NVIDIA's first generation Direct3D 9-compliant hardware.
The series was manufactured on TSMC's 130 nm fabrication process. It is compliant with Shader Model 2.0/2.0A, allowing more flexibility in complex shader/fragment programs and much higher arithmetic precision. It supports a number of new memory technologies, including DDR2, GDDR2 and GDDR3 and saw NVIDIA's first implementation of a memory data bus wider than 128 bits. The anisotropic filtering implementation has potentially higher quality than previous NVIDIA designs. Anti-aliasing methods have been enhanced and additional modes are available compared to GeForce 4. Memory bandwidth and fill-rate optimization mechanisms have been improved. Some members of the series offer double fill-rate in z-buffer/stencil-only passes.
The series also brought improvements to NVIDIA's video processing hardware, in the form of the Video Processing Engine (VPE), which was first deployed in the GeForce 4 MX. The primary addition, compared to previous NVIDIA video processors, was per-pixel video-deinterlacing.
The initial version of the GeForce FX (the 5800) was one of the first cards to come equipped with a large dual-slot cooling solution. Called "Flow FX", the cooler was very large in comparison to ATI's small, single-slot cooler on the 9700 series. It was jokingly referred to as the "Dustbuster", due to a high level of fan noise.
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