nVidia are ready to begin their comeback in an attempt to recapture the graphics throne which has been prized from them by Canadian rivals ATI. According to sources close to nVidia the NV35 will appear, for the first time, at E3 to be held in Los Angeles from May 14-16.
The chip will use the same core as nVidia's NV30 (GeForce FX 5800 series) but will deliver much improved performance, according to the same sources. NV35 boards will support the more popular DDR memory standard, rather than the DDRII architecture supported by the NV30.
Manufacturing Company Taiwan Semiconductor(TSMC) will be the sole manufacturer of the NV35 chip, using a 0.13-micron process.
This chip will attempt to end nVidia's woes in the high-end graphics market. For the past few months the company had a shortage of NV30 and NV31 (GeForce FX 5600 series), chips, boosting demand for similar products by ATI. Although ATI did not manage to fully exploit those problems faced by their rivals, they still retain the performance crown.
Widely circulated rumours that the NV35 will simply be a revamped NV30 cannot be accepted at face value since nVidia are bound to pull all the stops in order to claim the prestigious speed crown from their rivals. Whatever the benchmarks will finally say, the launch of yet another high-end product is likely to make those products more accessible to even more gamers and that can only be good.