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

GeForce 3D Vision: The Basics

Before Nvidia made their GeForce 3D Vision announcement a few months ago, many would argue that the market exposure for stereoscopic 3D within the PC gaming market was marginal at best. However, some of us have been watching for the last decade or so as stereo 3D gradually found more and more adherents within gamer circles. Now with a 600lb green gorilla pushing it, it seems like more and more people are suddenly latching onto the idea that they can perceive their games in a whole new way. Believe it or not, due to stereoscopic 3D’s current lack of mainstream acceptance Nvidia’s sudden marketing influx will actually benefit their competitors’ standing as much as their own. While there are busloads of people out there who like to decry everything Nvidia does, even the staunchest of haters will have to admit that their emergence into the true 3D marketplace will be a boon for an industry that wasn’t even on many people’s radars.

So what is GeForce 3D Vision and why the heck should someone like you or I even care about it? First of all you should be aware that Nvidia has long been a pioneer in the stereo 3D playing field but has only begun actively marketing it to the general public very recently. Along with CUDA and PhysX, 3D Vision is another facet of Nvidia’s Graphics Plus strategy that is being used to expand their influence outside of their core business sectors. This strategy has become increasingly important for Nvidia considering the PC gaming market that needs their graphics cards is diminishing and if they don’t adapt they will be left out in the cold. However, 3D Vision isn’t just the progression of an existing technology with a small number of supporting games such as PhysX. What we actually have here is a kit that offers varying degrees of support for over 350 games right out of the box with a ton more on the way. If that isn’t enough to get this show off to a rolling start, I don’t know what is.

One more thing: those of you clinging onto the sinking raft that is Windows XP may as well look the other way because GeForce 3D Vision is Vista-only.


The GeForce 3D Vision Kit


While we will be going over all the details of exactly what you get in the box and which other products are compatible with 3D Vision in a later section, for now let’s concentrate on what is most readily available. The basic kit which is available at Nvidia.com and other select retailers is a combination of a typical 3D Vision kit (which includes a single pair of glasses) and Samsung’s truly awesome 2233RZ 120Hz 22” LCD monitor. This includes everything you need to get started but comes in with an eye-watering price tag of $680CAD / $600USD.

If you can’t afford this, the next step down is to buy the 3D Vision glasses kit for $250CAD and hope to whatever deity you pray to that the prices of the monitors come down. The main issue with this approach is that you will still be missing a 120Hz monitor, 3D Vision-ready DLP TV or projector. As we will see, there are some other options out there for you to choose from but for the short-term it seems that the basic Samsung / Nvidia combo will be the most popular.

Enough about that for now. Onto the technology behind Nvidia's new poster child.