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NVIDIA® FORCEWARE™ RELEASE 70 UNIFIED DRIVER AVAILABLE IMMEDIATELY

Industry’s First WHQL-certified Windows XP 64-bit Graphics Driver Features New PureVideo™ technology and Stunning Gaming Performance Increases

LONDON - MARCH 11TH, 2005 - NVIDIA Corporation (Nasdaq: NVDA), a worldwide leader in graphics and digital media processors, today announced the immediate availability of its new Windows Hardware Qualification Labs (WHQL) certified NVIDIA ForceWare Release 70 graphics driver. This new driver features:

  • The industry's first WHQL-certified Windows XP 64-bit WHQL graphics driver;
  • Performance increases with NVIDIA SLITM multi-GPU and single GPU configurations;
  • SLI Application Profiles for more than 60 of the hottest games;
  • New PureVideo technology features for home theatre and notebook PCs.

In addition the new driver supports more than seven different operating systems and more than 250 NVIDIA products. The NVIDIA ForceWare Release 70 driver is available immediately at www.nvidia.co.uk/drivers.

"NVIDIA prides itself on bringing industry-leading support, unmatched features and breakthrough performance in a single unified driver with each ForceWare release," said Ujesh Desai, general manager of desktop product marketing at NVIDIA. "With 64-bit support, SLI profiles, high definition video features and up to 66% performance increases - it's obvious we've done more than just keep with tradition. With the ForceWare Release 70 driver we've raised the bar when it comes to software technology."

64-bit Leadership

NVIDIA is the first to ship a WHQL Windows XP Professional x64 graphics driver. Using its industry-leading unified driver architecture, ForceWare Release 70 brings 64-bit support to both NVIDIA consumer and workstation product families. By delivering a complete feature set and performance equal to 32-bit drivers, the NVIDIA 64-bit driver architecture leads the way for OEM customers and industry partners to transition into the world of 64-bit computing. NVIDIA has worked closely with key industry partners to enable full hardware support for the latest generation of 64-bit architectures and applications in the ForceWare Release 70 drivers. In addition, 64-bit technology will allow the game developer community more flexibility to add exciting effects with larger bit depth and will offer the professional application developer increased memory space for creating more complex models.

SLI technology

For the gaming enthusiast, NVIDIA has improved its SLI technology support by including more than 60 game profiles. In addition, NVIDIA added a custom SLI applet that will let consumers configure the SLI technology profiles and game set-up to meet their individual needs.

On top of the application profiles, NVIDIA ForceWare Release 70 delivers a free performance upgrade for NVIDIA GPUs, both past and present. Performance gains over the previous NVIDIA ForceWare driver, 66.93, include:

  • Performance boosts in Splinter Cell of over 66% from previous driver in SLI mode;
  • Performance boosts in Half Life 2 of over 11% from previous driver in SLI mode and 13% in single GPU mode;
  • Performance boosts in Far Cry of over 13% from previous driver in SLI mode and 6% in single GPU mode.

New PureVideo Notebook and Home Theatre Features

To enhance the high-definition experience, NVIDIA has included a number of new features in its exciting new PureVideo Technology. NVIDIA has added:

  • LCD panel overdrive, to alleviate panel ghosting artefacts with fast moving video on notebooks displays;
  • Colour temperature correction to better enrich colours for notebook customers;
  • Second generation Consumer Electronic display support (EIA-861b timings), which will enable end-users to connect any NVIDIA GPU to any high definition flat panel display;
  • An easy to use HDTV setup wizard with more options, enabling users to maximise their video quality.

About NVIDIA

NVIDIA Corporation is a worldwide leader in graphics and digital media processors. The Company's products enhance the end-user experience on consumer and professional computing devices. NVIDIA GPUs (graphics processing units), MCPs (media and communications processors) and WMPs (wireless media processors) have broad market reach and are incorporated into a variety of platforms, including consumer and enterprise PCs, notebooks, workstations, PDAs, mobile phones and video game consoles. NVIDIA is headquartered in Santa Clara, California and employs more than 2,000 people worldwide. For more information, visit the Company's Web site at www.nvidia.co.uk.

Certain statements in this press release including, but not limited to, the features, capabilities, benefits and performance of our products and technologies 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, incompatibility of technologies, manufacturing or software defects, general industry trends including cyclical trends in the semiconductor industry, delays in integration of our products, the impact of competitive products and pricing alternatives, changes in industry standards and interfaces, our dependence on third-party developers and publishers and other risks detailed from time to time in the NVIDIA reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission including its Form 10-Q for the quarter ended October 24, 2004. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date hereof. NVIDIA disclaims any obligation to update these forward-looking statements.

Copyright ® 2005 NVIDIA Corporation. All rights reserved. All company and/or product names may be trade names, trademarks and/or registered trademarks of the respective owners with which they are associated. Features, pricing, availability and specifications are subject to change without notice.

Note to editors: If you are interested in viewing additional information on NVIDIA, please visit the NVIDIA Press Room at http://www.nvidia.co.uk/page/press_room.html.

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