Kelvin (microarchitecture) explained

Nvidia Kelvin
Created:	2001
D3dversion:	8.0
Predecessor:	Celsius
Successor:	Rankine
Process:	150 nm
Openglversion:	1.2 (1.5)
Architecture:	Kelvin
Date:	2001-2003
Support Status:	Unsupported

Kelvin is the codename for a GPU microarchitecture developed by Nvidia, and released in 2001, as the successor to Celsius^[1] microarchitecture. It was named with reference to William Thomson (Baron Kelvin) and used with the GeForce 3 and 4 series.

Graphics features

• DirectX 8.0 (8.1 in the original Xbox)
• OpenGL 1.2 (1.5;^{[2] [3]} 1.4 in the original Xbox)
• Shader Model 1.3
• Vertex Shader 1.1
• Max VRAM size bumped to 128MB
• New memory controller with Z compression

Chips

• NV20, 57 million transistor
• NV2A (Xbox GPU), 57 million transistor^[4]

• Crush11, 20 million transistor^[5]
• NV17, 29 million transistor^[6]
• NV18, 29 million transistor
• NV25, 63 million transistor
• NV28, 36 million transistor^[7]
• NV2A (Xbox GPU), 57 million transistor

GPU list

GeForce 3 (3xxx) series

Model	Launch	Code name	Fab (nm)	Bus interface	Core clock (MHz)	Memory clock (MHz)	Core config^1	Fillrate				Memory
								MOperations/s	MPixels/s	MTexels/s	MVertices/s	Size (MB)	Bandwidth (GB/s)	Bus type	Bus width (bit)
GeForce3 Ti200	1 October 2001	NV20	TSMC 150 nm	AGP 4×PCI	175	200	4:1:8:4	700	700	1400	42.75	64128	6.4	DDR	128
GeForce3	27 February 2001				200	230		800	800	1600	50	64	7.36
GeForce3 Ti500	1 October 2001				240	250		960	960	1920	60	64128	8

GeForce 4 (4xxx) series

Model	Launch	Code name	Fab (nm)	Bus interface	Core clock (MHz)	Memory clock (MHz)	Core config^1	Fillrate				Memory				Supported API version
								MOperations/s	MPixels/s	MTexels/s	MVertices/s	Size (MB)	Bandwidth (GB/s)	Bus type	Bus width (bit)	Direct3D	OpenGL
GeForce4 MX IGP + nForce2	1 October 2002	NV1F	TSMC 150 nm	FSB	250	133200	2:0:4:2	500	500	1000	0	Up to 128 system RAM	2.1286.4	DDR	64128	7.0	1.2
GeForce4 MX420	6 February 2002	NV17		AGP 4×PCI		166						64	2.656	SDRDDR	128 (SDR)64 (DDR)
GeForce4 MX440 SE	2002											64128	5.312	DDR	128
GeForce MX4000	14 December 2003	NV18B		AGP 8×PCI									2.656		64
GeForce PCX4300	19 February 2004			PCIe ×16								128
GeForce4 MX440	6 February 2002	NV17		AGP 4×PCI	275	200		550	550	1100		64128	6.4		128
GeForce4 MX440 8x	25 September 2002	NV18		AGP 8×PCI		250							8
GeForce4 MX460	6 February 2002	NV17		AGP 4×PCI	300	275		600	600	1200
GeForce4 Ti4200	16 April 2002	NV25		AGP 4×	250	222 (128 MB)250 (64 MB)	4:2:8:4	1000	1000	2000	125		7.104 (128 MB)8 (64 MB)			8.0a	1.3
GeForce4 Ti4200 8x	25 September 2002	NV28		AGP 8×		250						128	8
GeForce4 Ti4400	6 February 2002	NV25		AGP 4×	275	275		1100	1100	2200	137.5		8.8
GeForce4 Ti4400 8x(Ti4800SE^2)	20 January 2003	NV28		AGP 8×
GeForce4 Ti4600	6 February 2002	NV25		AGP 4×	300	325		1200	1200	2400	150		10.4
GeForce4 Ti4600 8x(Ti4800^3)	20 January 2003	NV28		AGP 8×
Model	Launch	Code name	Fab (nm)	Bus interface	Core clock (MHz)	Memory clock (MHz)	Core config^1	Fillrate				Memory				Supported API version
								MOperations/s	MPixels/s	MTexels/s	MVertices/s	Size (MB)	Bandwidth (GB/s)	Bus type	Bus width (bit)	Direct3D	OpenGL

Console GPUs

See also

• List of eponyms of Nvidia GPU microarchitectures
• List of Nvidia graphics processing units
• Qualcomm Adreno
• Scalable Link Interface (SLI)

Notes and References

1. Web site: CodeNames. 2021-02-15. nouveau.freedesktop.org.
2. Web site: GPU chips — envytools git documentation. 2021-02-15. envytools.readthedocs.io.
3. Web site: TechPowerUp. 2021-02-15. TechPowerUp. en.
4. Web site: NVIDIA Xbox GPU Specs. 2021-02-15. TechPowerUp. en.
5. Web site: NVIDIA GeForce2 MX + nForce 220 Specs. 2021-02-15. TechPowerUp. en.
6. Web site: NVIDIA NV17 GPU Specs. 2021-02-15. TechPowerUp. en.
7. Web site: NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 4800 Specs. 2021-02-15. TechPowerUp. en.
8. Web site: Anandtech Microsoft's Xbox . Anandtech.com . 2010-11-11 . https://web.archive.org/web/20101104081735/http://www.anandtech.com/show/853/2 . 2010-11-04 . live .
9. News: Smith . Tony . TSMC starts fabbing Nvidia Xbox chips . 20 November 2019 . . 14 February 2001.