Honestly the GeForce 3 didn’t have much of any lifespan, it was manufactured maybe a year?

Pretty much 3 was an intermediate mid to high end GeForce “2” until GeForce 4 came out.

Everything was moving very fast back then, yes. There are entire lines of cards that lasted only 6 months, like HD 2xxxx. Literally didn't have time to hit the market that the 3870 was already released.
That being said, there is a big difference between 2 3 and 4..... they were moving fast and improving fast, a lot!

at least nvidia's product page makes no mention of it, treating the ti in line with the other geforce 2 series cards: https://web.archive.org/web/20011204201753/ht … AGE=geforce2pro however, in their "product overview" PDF they also list a maximum of 32 mb for the GTS which is obviously wrong.

from NV15 images i can find, originally each product had dedicated writing on the chip, but later on things apparently got more unified. these ultra and ti examples look basically identical:
https://www.vgamuseum.info/index.php/cpu/item … -geforce2-ultra
https://www.vgamuseum.info/index.php/cards/it … dia-geforce2-ti

so judging by that, maybe it's the other way around and 150nm parts also wound up on later ultra cards, even before ti was launched? presumably, 150nm would offer better yields in terms of hitting the 250mhz clock. another question is if they used a lower voltage for their assumed 150nm process chips - that could give a hint, for instance comparing a GTS with a ti.

edit: okay, some chips with ti written on them do actually exist: https://thandor.net/object/593

auron wrote on 2024-07-22, 21:27:

at least nvidia's product page makes no mention of it, treating the ti in line with the other geforce 2 series cards: https://we […]
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at least nvidia's product page makes no mention of it, treating the ti in line with the other geforce 2 series cards: https://web.archive.org/web/20011204201753/ht … AGE=geforce2pro however, in their "product overview" they also list a maximum of 32 mb for the GTS which is obviously wrong.

from NV15 images i can find, originally each product had dedicated writing on the chip, but later on things apparently got more unified. these ultra and ti examples look basically identical:
https://www.vgamuseum.info/index.php/cpu/item … -geforce2-ultra
https://www.vgamuseum.info/index.php/cards/it … dia-geforce2-ti

so judging by that, maybe it's the other way around and 150nm parts also wound up on later ultra cards, even before ti was launched? presumably, 150nm would offer better yields in terms of hitting the 250mhz clock. another question is if they used a lower voltage for their assumed 150nm process chips - that could give a hint, for instance comparing a GTS with a ti.

Hard to say without looking under the nvidia lid thingy. Maybe with a thermal camera it would be possible to estimate whether the die is the same or smaller without breaking it open.

Found a reliable source. Answering myself: yes.

NV15 Titanium was shrunk down from a 180nm production process to 150nm.
http://www.yjfy.com/collection/collection-0037.htm