Electronic Arts, id Software, Epic Games, Sony Online Entertainment, Ubi Soft Entertainment, Konami Corporation and Others to Leverage NVIDIA GeForce FX Graphics Processors to Take Gaming to a New Level

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Carrie Cowan
NVIDIA Corporation
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ccowan@nvidia.com

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FALL COMDEX 2002—LAS VEGAS, NV—NOVEMBER 18, 2002—NVIDIA Corporation (Nasdaq: NVDA), the worldwide leader in visual processing solutions, today announced that the Company’s new GeForce™ FX graphics processing unit (GPU) has garnered the support of some of the best game development talent in the world.  World-renowned game developers such as id Software, Epic Games and Legend, as well as publishing powerhouses including Electronic Arts, Microsoft Game Studios, Konami Corporation and Ubi Soft® Entertainment, to name a few, plan to leverage the power and performance of the NVIDIA® GeForce FX GPU to further bridge the gap between games and Hollywood productions.  Announced earlier today, the GeForce FX GPU is recognized as the industry’s first GPU to enable real-time, cinematic-quality graphics and special effects on desktop PCs.

“By providing the industry’s best game developers with future-generation hardware and software tools, we’re hoping to unleash no-holds-barred creative talent and take 3D games to a whole new level,” said Bill Rehbock, director of developer relations at NVIDIA.  “The game industry has long held NVIDIA in high regard for having the best developer support and GPU quality.  When you add the GeForce FX GPU to the equation, games will be both stunning and stable.  Consumers are the real winner.”

Designed with game developers in mind, the GeForce FX GPU provide higher levels of programmability and performance, allowing stunning 3D worlds and characters to come to life as never before.  For consumers, desktop PCs outfitted with GeForce FX GPUs evolve into the ultimate gaming rigs, with the perfect blend of processing power and feature set for experiencing games the way they are meant to be played.

“The GeForce FX GPU is incredibly fast,” said Gabe Newell, founder and president of Valve Software.  “Over the last few years, NVIDIA has spoiled us with regular performance leaps, but this time we’re talking ridiculously fast.  Game developers are going to have to look to movie quality production values just to absorb all of the horsepower that NVIDIA is giving us.”

“With Command & Conquer Generals we wanted to bring a Hollywood action experience to the real-time strategy genre,” said Mark Skaggs, general manager at EA Pacific.  “NVIDIA’s GeForce FX GPU couldn’t have come along a better time.  We’re looking forward to leveraging the power and features of the GeForce FX GPU to deliver the best possible experience to gamers.”

“The strengths of the GeForce FX GPU will allow gamers to experience Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell exactly the way the designers intended,” said Jay Cohen, vice president of publishing at Ubi Soft Entertainment.  “Gamers will be able to participate in the stealth action by crouching in dynamic, soft shadows and they can use glow effects and thermal vision to carry out their missions undetected.  This kind of technology allows players to become immersed in the gaming experience like never before.”

Stuart Moulder, general manager of Microsoft Games Studios adds:  “Now everybody really needs the best visual effects they can have for their games to really shine, whether it’s a strategy game, or a first-person action game, or a sports title.  You need great lighting effects, you need to be able to make characters look realistic and human, and that’s true for any genre of game now.”

“With the GeForce FX GPU we now have very, very accurate lighting,” said Tim Sweeney of Epic Games, makers of the renowned Unreal Engine.  “You’ll be able to see the shadow of the character’s nose sweep across his face as the light moves around and it’ll be very smooth and realistic.”

“We are deeply impressed by the performance characteristics of the latest NVIDIA GeForce FX GPU.  Its processing power combined with an extremely high visual quality is fantastic,” said Ingo Frick, technical director at Massive Development.  “The high internal precision of the graphics data, as well as the variety of new antialiasing techniques, leaves nothing to be desired. This technology enables us to create an almost cinematic yet also interactive world in our current game, AquaNox2: Revelation.”

“Pixels shaders and vertex shaders I think showed a lot of promise when they came online, but clearly they were limited and it was just kind of a vision of the way things could be,” said Mark Poesch, technical lead at Legend.  “The GeForce FX GPU really is that step where it goes from being a vision of how cool things can be, to being able to actually prove that we can make it real now.”

Over the next few months, NVIDIA expects to announce additional details on games primed for the GeForce FX GPU, in addition to other developer and publisher alliances.

About GeForce FX GPUs
The NVIDIA GeForce FX GPU is the industry’s first GPU to deliver real-time, cinematic quality graphics and special effects on the desktop PC.  Featuring the NVIDIA CineFX™ engine and support for high-level programming languages such as Cg, the GeForce FX GPU delivers visual effects on par with the hottest motion pictures.  Packing nearly twice the number of transistors as previous NVIDIA GPUs, the GeForce FX GPU also utilizes the industry’s most advanced 0.13 micron manufacturing process and incorporates support for the latest high-speed DDR2 memories, AGP 8X, and NVIDIA Intellisample™ technology, enabling developers to create compelling content of unrivaled beauty, running at unmatched speeds.

About NVIDIA
NVIDIA Corporation is a market leader in visual computing technology dedicated to creating products that enhance the interactive experience on consumer and professional computing platforms.  Its graphics and communications processors have broad market reach and are incorporated into a wide variety of computing platforms, including consumer digital-media PCs, enterprise PCs, professional workstations, digital content creation systems, notebook PCs, military navigation systems and video games consoles.  NVIDIA is headquartered in Santa Clara, California and employs more than 1,400 people worldwide.  For more information, visit the company’s Web site at www.nvidia.com.

Certain statements in this press release, including the statements relating to the Company's performance expectations for NVIDIA's family of products and expectations of continued revenue growth, are forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause results to be materially different than expectations.  Such risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, manufacturing and other delays relating to new products, difficulties in the fabrication process and dependence of the Company on third-party manufacturers, general industry trends including
 cyclical trends in the PC and semiconductor industries, the impact of competitive products and pricing alternatives, market acceptance of the Company's new products, and the Company's dependence on third-party developers and publishers.  Investors are advised to read the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, particularly those sections entitled "Certain Business Risks," for a fuller discussion of these and other risks and uncertainties.

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