2. Is GeForce4 Go More Than A Mobile Of Version Of The GeForce4 MX?

What is the GeForce4 Go? Answering this question is more challenging than it might appear on the surface. Yes, the GeForce4 Go is built on a highly optimized version of the NV17 core that is found in the GeForce4 MX product line, but it offers a lot more than that. The GeForce4 Go is built on technology that was first introduced with the GeForce4 and its NV17 core. The NV17M core that is found in GeForce4 Go is built on a 0.15 micron process, which is quite a bit more compact than the 0.18 micron process that was used in the GeForce2Go. Of course, by shrinking the GPU with this new process, it was possible to ramp up the clock speed while reducing heat.

A close up look at the GeForce4 Go GPU.

One of the biggest byproducts of moving to the 0.15 micron process is that NVIDIA was able to reduce power consumption. When you combine this with the new PowerMizer dynamic power modulation hardware and software technology, you should be able maximize battery life. One of the major complaints about the GeForce2Go was that it had a tendency to be a little power hungry, by current standards.

The GeForce4 Go 256 bit graphics engine is available in five different flavors. Each of these flavors provides different configurations that OEMs are able to select based on need. These configurations help address the OEMs' need to have a scalable solution for different notebook market segments. Of course, the main differences between these configurations are not only in the packaging, but in the relative performance for each specific market segment. In addition, NVIDIA will continue to market the GeForce2Go to interested OEMs, so don't expect it to go away anytime soon. Here is a breakdown of the different module configurations for the GeForce4 Go.

As you can see from the table above, with a package size of 31MM, the chip is still about the size of a normal desktop GPU. The advantage of this is that it has allowed NVIDIA to integrate the GPU core, frame buffer, and memory into the same package, which they call "MAP" (Mobile AGP Package) technology. By using this MAP technology, they are able to fit the GPU and memory into the space that would have previously been occupied by just the GPU alone.

An up-close look at the GeForce4 Go GPU die.

Depending on the configuration implementation by the OEM, the GPU can be run with a maximum clock speed of 220MHz and supports 32 bit DDR SDRAM with a maximum clock speed of 440MHz. The DDR SDRAM supports NVIDIA's LMA II (Lightspeed Memory Architecture II), which has become one of the big features of the GeForce4 product line. Like most other mobile video solutions, NVIDIA offers AGP 4X with fast write support across the GeForce4 Go product family.

LMA II allows the GeForce4 Go to increase the memory bandwidth between the GPU and memory. Using NVIDIA's vertex shader acceleration and VPE (Video Processing Engine) results in a mobile graphics model that is even closer to desktop performance. With the higher resolutions found in today's notebooks, every attempt to optimize the memory bandwidth should, of course, lead to higher performance gains. Although the version of the LMA II that is found in the GeForce4 Go is a stripped-down version of that found in the higher-end GerForce4 desktop product line, it still does offer some advantages and performance gains over the older LMA technology.