NVIDIA’s GeForce GF100 Under the Microscope

Dark Void

Dark Void is an upcoming shooter which not only looks great but also takes advantage of some pretty wild PhysX effects. While we will be taking a closer look at this game and its performance at a later date, NVIDIA wanted to show it off in front of journalists prior to its release. For the results you see below, NVIDIA used the built-in benchmark that makes heavy use of in-game physics and the engine’s long draw distances.


This is one test where the GPU compute roots of the GF100 can really come into play by efficiently processing PhysX and rendering the scene at the same time. Performance is once again far beyond anything the GTX 285 can accomplish which should make things interesting come release.

Performance: Early Impressions

While it was good to finally see some concrete results from the GF100 / Fermi architecture, there are a number of questions that are still bouncing around inside our heads. First and foremost, exactly what type of card was within the test systems since when asked, NVIDIA merely stated that it was the card that would be shipping on launch day. If some people are to be believed, due to yield issues the only card we would see on launch day would be a slightly cut-down 448SP version. Our contacts further cemented this by saying that the product which is first available will be largely dictated by the yields coming out of the TSMC foundries.

Naturally the cards we benchmarked weren’t equipped with anything above 512SPs since that is the maximum layout this architecture will allow. If we assume the performance we saw was coming out of the beta, underclocked version of a 512SP GF100 running alpha-stage drivers, this is going to be one hell of a graphics card. On the other hand, if NVIDIA was using 448SP equipped cards for these tests, the true potential of the GF100 is simply mind-boggling. Coupled with robust compute power and an architecture specifically designed for the rigors of a DX11 environment, it could be a gamer’s wet dream come true.

While the glimpse into the GF100’s performance window was narrow, NVIDIA showed enough to get us excited to see the final product. Things in the GPU arena are sure to heat up come spring.