Is NVIDIA Marketing Pushing GeForce 3D Vision Too Hard?

NVIDIA’s claims about game compatibility are completely false

Shortly after I wrote my article about the NVIDIA GeForce 3D Vision Bundle came the usual small flood reader of e-mails asking detailed questions about the product or what my experience was like in specific games and lighting conditions. One of the e-mails came from Neil Schneider who runs a web site called Meant to be Seen (mtbs3D.com) that is basically a stereoscopic 3D certification and advocacy group. The e-mail by Mr. Schneider stood out since he critizied my review and went on to say things like NVIDIA’s claims about game compatibility are completely false. Before we dive into this deeper let’s take a look at what he said to me in the e-mail that I received.

Dear Nathan,

My name is Neil Schneider, and I run Meant to be Seen (mtbs3D.com). We are a stereoscopic 3D certification and advocacy group which means we work very hard to make stereoscopic 3D successful in the consumer markets.

I’m responding to your NVIDIA GeForce 3D Vision review dated February 6th, 2009.

I think it is very helpful that you reviewed this solution, and gave it a positive review. Our industry has been working hard to earn media attention so gamers can get a better experience. However, I am deeply troubled by the way your article was concluded. In particular, you allowed the following NVIDIA commentary to be printed verbatim in your review without question:

“Unlike some other stereoscopic 3D solutions which rely upon a driver wrapper which can dramatically decrease performance and adversely affect compatibility, GeForce 3D Vision makes use of NVIDIAs own graphics driver. In doing so, NVIDIA is able to leverage the same resources and relationships from The Way Its Meant to be Played program to ensure the best possible stereoscopic 3D gaming experience.

As an organization focused on making the stereoscopic 3D industry succeed, it didn’t seem right to us to print this remark in your review without testing it firsthand.

For example, the FPS ratings you demonstrated for NVIDIA with a 60% reduction in performance is not representative of a performance benefit in NVIDIA’s favor – which is what NVIDIA is claiming on your behalf. Furthermore, NVIDIA’s claims about game compatibility are completely false. This has nothing to do with whether or not a driver is a hook.

NVIDIA has the benefit of complete access to their GPU architecture, and this has given them access to technologies like SLI for their S-3D drivers – though feedback on actual compatibility is somewhat mixed. On paper, they should perform somewhat better than their counterparts, but anything within the 40% to 50% performance range compared to 2D is the industry norm.

As for compatibility, it was iZ3D and DDD that were first to the market with full eye candy support for stereoscopic 3D games, not NVIDIA. It is only with NVIDIA’s latest driver set that they have started to properly support technologies like HDR lighting, bloom, blur, and full shader support. The original innovators were based on “hook” technologies, and this was almost two years ago.

What it comes down to is NVIDIA has both a viable and promising product, and we do expect large strides from them in the near future that will meet up with their statements more accurately. However, there are additional stereoscopic 3D solutions that are equally viable that support both NVIDIA and ATI GPUs, and have been in the market much longer than NVIDIA’s branded shutter glasses. To have a basis to compare to, it is important to review iZ3D, the Vuzix VR920, DLP HDTVs, and more.

MTBS does not do hardware reviews because we want the industry to succeed as a whole, and it would undermine our efforts to pick favorites. However, as an outsider looking in, the article as printed is an incomplete and inaccurate representation of what our industry has to offer.

I think your review would have come across much better had you limited the commentary to your own remarks, and not those from the product representatives you were reviewing. That said, I think your intentions were very positive, and I am looking forward to further product reviews in this area.

Regards,

Neil Schneider, President & CEO

For starters let me clear the air and explain that I include direct quotes from the companies we work to give our readers an idea of what is being said by marketing departments. A number of GeForce 3D Vision reviews that I have had the pleasure of reading online have basically copied the entire NVIDIA reviewers guide and calimed it as there own text. To me that is wrong and merely giving quoted text of a company is added material for consumers to look over. The other claims that Neil makes about GeForce 3D Vision need to be answered by NVIDIA, so I asked them to clear the air on the situation. Before we get to what NVIDIA said let’s go a little deeper with Neil and see if we can get him to go into more detail for us.