The Future of Stereo 3D Part I: Nvidia Geforce 3D Vision

The Good the Bad and the Wish List

As the old saying goes: you have to put your money where your mouth is. Lately, we have seen far too many companies talking up their upcoming technologies without actually making good on promises of widespread availability or delivering a properly functioning product. Nvidia has had their fair share of pet projects over the past few years that have for all intents and gone bust; remember Hybrid SLI and ESA? Neither do I. That is why when Nvidia first briefed me about GeForce 3D Vision, I started setting myself up for a disappointment while a voice in the back of my head screamed: maybe they’re onto something here.

Fast forward to the current timeframe and believe it or not, I find myself really believing in 3D Vision. I want it to succeed for the simple fact that it is trying to expand the way we perceive the games we love. Trying to introduce what used to be a niche product to the masses isn’t going to be easy by any stretch of the imagination, but if there is one company out there who is willing to put their money where their mouths are, it is Nvidia.


The Good

There is so much to like about GeForce 3D Vision but to list it all here is next to impossible. Let’s just say that when a game properly supports it, Nvidia’s product can simply blow your expectations out of the water. To be honest with you, I really wasn’t expecting much so the first time a booted Left 4 Dead in stereo 3D, I was stunned. Before I go on, I do actually have a cautionary note; if you expect to see your favourite game character to dance a jig on your desk, you can forget about it because at this point, out-of-screen effects are virtually nil but according to Nvidia, they are coming. Until then, this system will breath new life into games you had forgotten and new games like Burnout Paradise: The Ultimate Box, Left 4 Dead and Far Cry 2 are worth buying just to see how well they utilize 3D Vision.


Personally, I think that the greatest achievement of GeForce 3D Vision is how easy it is to set up and use right out of the box. This in turn makes it infinitely accessible for people who have never even heard of stereoscopic 3D since it seamlessly integrates itself into the drivers. From the Nvidia Laser Sight to the on-the-fly-adjustments, everything about its software implementation oozes polish. Not once did I experience a driver crash and that is definitely saying a lot for a product that was introduced a few short months ago.

While the whole stereo 3D experience may be a bit too much for you at first, Nvidia has included real-time adjustments for separation (depth) and this is a godsend. At first I wasn’t able to use anything above the bare minimum depth setting but after about a week, I was puttering away at around 20% and have now graduated to 40% in some games. Nvidia’s helping hand in games with their pop-up tips and tricks is also well appreciated since they can be turned off with a quick button press and offer the pointers needed to get 3D Vision functioning at its best.

The products themselves also have a high-end look and feel to them. To begin with, the Samsung 2233RZ is one of the best monitors I have laid my hands on. It has no discernable input lag, ghosting is a thing of the past and its color saturation and contrast is just awe-inspiring. The only thing it really lacks is height / pitch adjustment and VESA mounting holes. The glasses also feel like a well-tailored piece of kit since they fit perfectly on nearly everyone who tried them and are ultra comfortable.