Tom's Hardware > All Reviews > Special > Miscellaneous > CeBIT 2004 Day 3: Graphics, Cases, Coolers and More

CeBIT 2004 Day 3: Graphics, Cases, Coolers and More

06:00 - Thursday 25 March 2004 by THG Reporting Team

1. Graphics Cards Generate Great Expectations
2. PowerColor Is Now TUL
3. XFX
4. Cases And Cooling
5. Global Win's Water Cooling For Barebones
6. Sirtec: Fan Control And Monitoring In 5.25 Inch Format
7. MA*Labs: Memory Cooling With Lighting Effects
8. Cases From Superpower, Chieftech, Casetek And More, Continued
9. Cases From Superpower, Chieftech, Casetek And More, Continued
10. Corsair Loses Its Water-cooling System To Thieves
11. Coolermaster's Water Cooling System And Hyper 6
12. Coolermaster's Water Cooling System And Hyper 6, Continued

13. Enlight's BTX PC Case
14. Notebooks
15. Gigabyte With Centrino Technology, Continued
16. Lenovo Legend With A New Name And Products
17. Dothan's FIC MD02 notebook
18. Motherboards And Memory
19. PNY
20. ULi / ALi
21. Elitegroup Computer Systems (ECS)
22. Albatron's Wireless Audio Streaming Device
23. Waitec
24. Pinnacle: New Products For USB 2.0
25. Twinhan/VisionPlus: Specialist For Digital Television

The graphics card section at CeBIT generated a similar level of excitement compared to that of a Formula 1 qualifying round. While worth checking out, the event really gets interesting only after the race begins. In the case of graphics cards, the race won't begin until April, when NVIDIA and ATi introduce their new products.

NVIDIA privately demonstrated pre-launch demos of their NV40 cards, on which we were not yet allowed to report. We can say, however, that NVIDIA exuded enormous optimism, which parlayed over to its partners. No sign of the uneasiness that could be felt before the launch of NV30, alias GeForce FX 5800.

There was nothing at all to be seen of ATi's new graphics processor, which is to be presented sometime after NVIDIA's chip. The rumors are wild, as one might expect, and often totally false. Whether ATi is being modest or actually has some problems remains to be seen. ATi's next generation product already looks good on paper. We can look forward to an exciting race between ATi and NVIDIA for the pole position.

The old guard represented most of CeBIT's graphics card presence. For example, there was still more or less the same crew of NVIDIA partners who showed up. PCX cards with PCI Express were to be seen everywhere.

ATi card suppliers likewise showed PCI Express demo systems, but only in the form of the Radeon 9600 Version RV380. Many manufacturers will produce this card by themselves for the first time, which gives us hope for new designs and expansion options for ATi cards in the future.

All that remains to be discussed is PCI Express, or, to be more precise, where this standard actually stands. PCIE systems were to be seen at CeBIT everywhere. What is missing is a definitive starting date from Intel. VIA is seemingly still much in the game with its PT890 chipset, but probably doesn't dare jump in front of the Intel. Starting in May or June, the first motherboards with Intel's Grantsdale chipset are to be presented. Having said that, the hype has already begun.