Amidst all the "Blue Flower Dalmatian Power" controversy, we fully expect that many of you may have glossed right over some of the, shall we say, less disturbing surprises that surfaced during Uncle Steve's latest dog and pony show. (Or maybe you were just too confused by his suit and tie to pay close attention. Either way.) If we had to pick a single announcement from MacWEEK's summary to be the most significant-- not counting, of course, the revelation that Apple is now pushing prints over solids-- the winner would be the nVIDIA announcement, hands down.

If you've been following the wacky world of 3D performance on the Mac for any length of time, you know the history already; Apple has relied on ATI for Mac graphics circuitry for years, now, but performance has generally lagged behind 3D technology in the Wintel world, and ATI's poor driver support (not to mention its unfortunate slip of the tongue about top secret Apple gear last summer) prompted Apple to look elsewhere. Enter nVIDIA, widely regarded as the 3D speed champ on the PC side of the fence; at last month's San Francisco Stevenote, Apple announced that most of its new Power Mac G4 systems would ship with nVIDIA's mid-range GeForce2 MX pre-installed. Thus marked the end of ATI's long-held status as Apple's sole graphics supplier.

The thing is, while the Mac folks who craved real 3D speed (gamers, natch) welcomed the arrival of the GeForce2 MX, they mostly regarded it as a promising hint of things to come. Since the MX is a mid-range chip and ATI's RADEON still beats it in some situations, its real value was as evidence that Macs might one day get to use nVIDIA's higher-end gear-- namely, the upcoming GeForce3, code-named NV20, which was expected to blow everything else out of the water. Well, you gamers out there had better start warming up your trigger fingers and hocking your parents' valuables, because as faithful viewer Adam Koppe noted, the pipe dreams have come true: GeForce3 is indeed coming to the Mac. It's available as a build-to-order option in Power Macs right now, though the chip itself won't ship until the end of next month.

Now here's the part that really has us giggling: not only are we going to get this stunning 3D hardware on the Mac, but we're also getting it first. That's right, Apple scored a major coup-- the upcoming graphics technology that hardcore PC gamers have been drooling over for so long is actually going to be available for the Macintosh before it ever graces a Wintel system. Oooh, we can hear the gnashing of teeth already! nVIDIA's home page even includes a big, splashy animation introducing the GeForce3 "for Power Mac," and it prominently features a picture of Apple's tower in all its Graphite glory. This bodes very well for the Apple-nVIDIA relationship, we don't mind saying. It's so rare that Mac users get to enjoy new technologies-- especially game-related technologies-- before the Wintel folks, so enjoy it while it lasts.

By the way, the news reports are echoing what Steve apparently said at the keynote: that the GeForce3 will be a $600 BTO option. (Hey, when we said "high-end," we meant it.) But faithful viewer Ted Slater kindly noted that if you mosey on over to the Apple Store and add a GeForce3 to your basic $1699 Power Mac, you really only pay $450 more. And if you toss one into a top-of-the-line 733 MHz model, the cost is only $350. That's still a hefty chunk of change, sure, but it sure beats $600-- and the serious gamers will care enough to buy the very best.