Marvell has announced volume production of it's new TopDog chip for wireless LANs, for use in Netgear routers.
While the 802.11n standard is still in draft status, most companies are already providing compatible solutions. The standard is said to improve range and performance will be boosted to 300Mbps, while Marvell has managed to increase that to a maximum of 600Mbps:
"Marvell TopDog WLAN products deliver data rates between 300 to 600 Mbps and ethernet connectivity from 100Mbps to 1 Gbps."
I'm looking forward to this new 802.11 standard, as it looks poised to replace cabled LANs as the home and small/medium office networking standard. Even though the early high price that will hamper it's market performance, it will eventually become affordable in a reasonable amount of time. Also, some new computers still feature only 10/100Mbps ethernet connections, making them target to replace cabled LANs even in those environments that require some performance. For now wireless networks won't be able to compete with Gigabit LAN, but those aren't really widespread networks and are more commonly reserved for enterprise usage.
Keywords: Marvell TopDog 802.11n draft 600Mbps Netgear
Networking
Motherboards
680i from Asus and DFI get 'Yorkfiled' support
NordicHardware reports.
Good news for owners of either the DFI NF680iSLI-T2R or the Asus Striker Extreme, the two boards graced with Quad-Core Penryn support, previously thought not possible. The BIOSes are still beta only and not for all of Asus's 680i boards but, since they share design with the Striker Extreme, it should only be a matter of time until the others also get support.
Support on these boards is possible because, contrary to what was previously reported, the incompatibility problems are due to the boards layout and not the chipset itself. Asus and DFI both used custom layouts, so they were able to provide support.
Keywords: Nvidia 680i Penryn Yorkfield support DFI Asus
Good news for owners of either the DFI NF680iSLI-T2R or the Asus Striker Extreme, the two boards graced with Quad-Core Penryn support, previously thought not possible. The BIOSes are still beta only and not for all of Asus's 680i boards but, since they share design with the Striker Extreme, it should only be a matter of time until the others also get support.
Support on these boards is possible because, contrary to what was previously reported, the incompatibility problems are due to the boards layout and not the chipset itself. Asus and DFI both used custom layouts, so they were able to provide support.
Keywords: Nvidia 680i Penryn Yorkfield support DFI Asus
Graphics Cards
More GeForce 9800GX2 pictures surface
This is more like it.
The SLi bridge is indeed there, as are backplate airducts, HDMI and SPDIF outputs, hence the unusual positioning of the DVI outputs. Quad-SLi is a go, Triple/Hexa-SLi fortunately isn't, there's already enough of marketing crap.
The cards are rumored to make it's debut in the same day as the 9600GT - February 14th. That's two weeks after the debut of ATI's HD3870X2, in January 28th, but not enough time so it could capitalize on the performance-champ title. It will all come down to availability and the Quad-SLi or Crossfire driver performance.
Estimated price is of $449.
Keywords: Nvidia GeForce 9800GX2 G92 9600GT price release date
Laptops, Storage
Hitachi announces 500GB 2.5" laptop HDD
Engadget reports that Hitachi has developed a new 500GB 2.5" hard disk that will allow for more beefed up laptops.
The downside is they had to add an additional plate to achieve that, resulting in an increase in drive thickness from 9.5mm to 12.5mm.
This is still a smart move, they wouldn't develop it without demand for such a product, and it's still far way from the bulkiness of a desktop drive.
The models are the 5K500 and the E5K500 and will be used in Asus M50 and M70 laptops, which will also allow for the use of two drives, breaking the magical 1TB barrier in laptops.
Keywords: Hitachi 500GB 2.5" HDD Asus 1TB laptop
Graphics Cards
Nvidia GeForce 9800GTX, 9800GT and 9600GT availability and specs
Current reports from the web are claiming that we will see a similar move from Nvidia like we already saw with ATI and it's HD3800 series.
That is saying that they will rebrand the 8800GTS as the 9800GTX and the 8800GT as the 9800GT. What is unknown is if they will beef up the clocks and memory size compared to the 8800 series. This stems from the expected hardware capabilities of the 9800GX2, that doesn't allow them to place the G100 as the 9800GTX even if they could deliver it in time for the supposed launch date for these cards.
Conveniently, from a marketing viewpoint, they also place some extra motivation for unaware buyers, since they now have also something "new" from Nvidia, that competes more favorably with AMD/ATI. They have recently launched the HD3800 series of cards, which are, performance-wise, no more than softly tweaked HD2900s with DX10.1 and PCIe 2.0; the G92 chip doesn't even pack the DX10.1 capabilities though.
Expected availability is February or March for the 9800GTX and March or April for the 9800GT. The 9600GT will come in the previously disclosed date of February 14th and will fit between the 8600GTS and 8800GT in performance and price.
The 9800GX2 is expected to arrive by the same time the 9800GTX does.
Tags: Nvidia GeForce 9800GTX 9800GT 9600GT 9800GX2 G92 G96
That is saying that they will rebrand the 8800GTS as the 9800GTX and the 8800GT as the 9800GT. What is unknown is if they will beef up the clocks and memory size compared to the 8800 series. This stems from the expected hardware capabilities of the 9800GX2, that doesn't allow them to place the G100 as the 9800GTX even if they could deliver it in time for the supposed launch date for these cards.
Conveniently, from a marketing viewpoint, they also place some extra motivation for unaware buyers, since they now have also something "new" from Nvidia, that competes more favorably with AMD/ATI. They have recently launched the HD3800 series of cards, which are, performance-wise, no more than softly tweaked HD2900s with DX10.1 and PCIe 2.0; the G92 chip doesn't even pack the DX10.1 capabilities though.
Expected availability is February or March for the 9800GTX and March or April for the 9800GT. The 9600GT will come in the previously disclosed date of February 14th and will fit between the 8600GTS and 8800GT in performance and price.
The 9800GX2 is expected to arrive by the same time the 9800GTX does.
Tags: Nvidia GeForce 9800GTX 9800GT 9600GT 9800GX2 G92 G96
Cooling
Thermaltake DuOrb CPU preview
Thermaltake has taken it's DuOrb concept to the next level.
They're building a CPU version that looks very promising and even good looking.
It will probably have problems with compatibility but will carry some serious cooling power. One of the strong points is definitely the ability of cooling both the RAM area and the CPU power regulation circuitry, a known weakness of most heatpipe-tower coolers. Some of them pack modified fins to assure airflow to the voltage regulation area, but it's insufficient most of the time and the motherboard suffers because of it.
As far as super-cooler status, we have to wait for a review, but the design seems well thought out. The main problem is it will come against coolers like the Tuniq Tower, Ultra-120 Extreme and even Thermaltake's Big Typhoon and Sonic Tower.
Release date and estimated pricing weren't available at publishing time.
Keywords: Thermaltake DuOrb CPU AM2 LGA775
They're building a CPU version that looks very promising and even good looking.
It will probably have problems with compatibility but will carry some serious cooling power. One of the strong points is definitely the ability of cooling both the RAM area and the CPU power regulation circuitry, a known weakness of most heatpipe-tower coolers. Some of them pack modified fins to assure airflow to the voltage regulation area, but it's insufficient most of the time and the motherboard suffers because of it.
As far as super-cooler status, we have to wait for a review, but the design seems well thought out. The main problem is it will come against coolers like the Tuniq Tower, Ultra-120 Extreme and even Thermaltake's Big Typhoon and Sonic Tower.
Release date and estimated pricing weren't available at publishing time.
Keywords: Thermaltake DuOrb CPU AM2 LGA775
Graphics Cards
Nvidia 9800GX2 first pictures, more details
HardOCP has managed to catch exclusive pictures of the upcoming 9800GX2 from Nvidia.
The other picture shows more clearly a black PCB, tough the SLi connector isn't clearly visible, it seems to be a slot for it, if you look carefully at this one.
The design is obviously reminiscent of the 7950GX2, with the following specs:
- 1GB Frame Buffer
- Two PCBs
- Two 65nm GPUs Total
- 256 Stream Processors Total (2xG92)
The card will use SLi to balance performance of the two GPU's and should carry two G92 carefully binned for low power consumption, almost certainly at a lower clock than the 650MHz that the 8800GTS carries.
Each of the GPUs will have 512MB at their disposal and Quad-SLI support seems certain, as much of the work was already done previously. One can wonder if they will come up with Hexa-SLi, the hardware infrastructure is there, but that would certainly bring some diminishing returns and power supply requirements would beat all previous records.
The cooling seems rather beefy for a retail card and will probably be replaced for another solution. Also no other video outputs besides the two DVI connectors, placed in such an unusual way, indicate that this should be only a prototype and not the actual form of the retail card.
Keywords: Nvidia 9800GX2 1GB 1024MB SLi G92
Graphics Cards
Nvidia 8800GT - 256, 512 or 1024MB?
Expreview has cooked an extensive collection of benchmarks with these three cards, very welcomed help for undecided or confused buyers.
For the most part, even the 256MB performs very well, though it hurts a bit in games like Crysis, it is not the worst case of memory bandwidth starvation, and without AA or AF it actually doesn't show many differences in performance.
The worst example is World In Conflict, shown below. More benchmarks here.
Keywords: Nvidia 8800GT 256MB 512MB 1024MB 1GB review crysis
For the most part, even the 256MB performs very well, though it hurts a bit in games like Crysis, it is not the worst case of memory bandwidth starvation, and without AA or AF it actually doesn't show many differences in performance.
The worst example is World In Conflict, shown below. More benchmarks here.
Keywords: Nvidia 8800GT 256MB 512MB 1024MB 1GB review crysis
Cooling
Thermaltake BigWater 760i - To watercool or not to watercool?
These are the results that XbitLabs got out of the new BigWater 760i watercooler from the chaps at Thermaltake. Not the best of coolers, even worse when we consider it's running on water. It lost to Thermaltake's own Big Typhoon in all grounds and it's about four times more expensive. Surely not a good buy.
It's not that watercooling is not worth it, because it is, but today's aircoolers have evolved a lot after the introduction of heatpipes, putting stress on the watercooling to keep up in efficiency, if an advantage is to be maintained. Nowadays watercooling may be only useful for very specific applications like overclocking, where it shines if you use a proper watercooling kit built with components from the likes of Swiftech, Alphacool, Danger Den, etc and not from Thermaltake, who for long have tried and accomplished very little in this camp. The kit isn't even sub $100, like they used to price.
Keywords: Thermaltake BigWater 760i Review
Graphics Cards, Motherboards, Processors
Today's hardware reviews digest
Graphics cards:
Sapphire HD3850 Ultimate Edition @ Tweaktown
Sapphire Atomic HD3870 512MB @ DriverHeaven
PNY XLR8 8800GTS @ I4U
Palit 8800GT 512MB @ Overclocker's Club
XFX 8800GTS 512MB Alpha Dog Edition @ GamePyre
Motherboards:
DFI LanParty UT 790FX @ Ninjalane
Gigabyte 790FX and Phenom on Linux @ Phoronix
Intel DX38BT "BoneTrail" @ TrustedReviews
Other:
Phenom X4 9600 Black Edition @ Bjorn3D
Shuttle SN68PTG5 XPC @ BitTech
I would like to point out the review of the Palit 8800GT, a very interesting card that should be superior in build quality to most 8800GTs on the market, with it's custom GPU, VRM and RAM cooling and also the 3+1 phases PWM. The only downsides are the stock clocks and taking up an extra expansion slot - most similar competing solutions are factory overclocked.
Sapphire HD3850 Ultimate Edition @ Tweaktown
Sapphire Atomic HD3870 512MB @ DriverHeaven
PNY XLR8 8800GTS @ I4U
Palit 8800GT 512MB @ Overclocker's Club
XFX 8800GTS 512MB Alpha Dog Edition @ GamePyre
Motherboards:
DFI LanParty UT 790FX @ Ninjalane
Gigabyte 790FX and Phenom on Linux @ Phoronix
Intel DX38BT "BoneTrail" @ TrustedReviews
Other:
Phenom X4 9600 Black Edition @ Bjorn3D
Shuttle SN68PTG5 XPC @ BitTech
I would like to point out the review of the Palit 8800GT, a very interesting card that should be superior in build quality to most 8800GTs on the market, with it's custom GPU, VRM and RAM cooling and also the 3+1 phases PWM. The only downsides are the stock clocks and taking up an extra expansion slot - most similar competing solutions are factory overclocked.
Multimedia
Dell's Crystal LCD monitor
Dell has launched what is probably the most beautiful computer monitor ever built and one of the most expensive. Called simply Dell Crystal, it is a 22" monitor and has the following features:
- WSXGA+ 1680 x 1050 resolution
- TrueColor Technology with 98 percent color gamut (typical)
- 2ms typical response time (grey to grey)
- 2000:1 dynamic contrast ratio (typical)
- HD connectivity with DVI / HDMI with HDCP, sub-woofer out, USB
- 2.0 megapixel webcam with microphe"
The frame is built of glass and not some cheap plastic, hence the exclusivity.
It is quite expensive also - at $1199 - but damn if this isn't a well built monitor. They even provide a sub-woofer output to complement the embedded speakers. HDCP is supported as is a extraordinary color gamut for an LCD monitor, without sacrificing contrast or response time.
More information is available on Dell's site.
Keywords: Dell Crystal LCD Glass frame monitor
Motherboards
Asus M3A32-MVP Deluxe review
TechSpot has a review on this new motherboard for the AM2+ socket from Asus.
The board performs very well, with the only problem not being a problem of it's own - the lack of performance of AMD's Phenom.
For more details, check this earlier post or the above cited review.
Keywords: Asus M3A32-MVP Deluxe review 790FX chipset Phenom
Industry
Midway and Eidos to merge
In older times they were two of the most important companies in the videogaming industry, by their own merit, now they are both facing problems.
The companies are now in negotiations to merge.
A merger was in the talks in 2003 but didn't occur, both companies think it will benefit both of them, so they are trying again, this time with more interest than back then.
Midway is famous for Mortal Kombat, among others, and has been the publisher of Unreal games for some time, while Eidos gained notoriety for the Tomb Raider and Hitman series.
Midway currently has a 233 million dollars market value while Eidos/SCi is valued at 166 million dollars.
Industry, Motherboards
Gigabyte goes green - Dynamic PWM for everyone
Gigabyte has announced that all of it's new motherboards for 2008 will feature the dynamic PWM, feature that was reported a while ago to be in the GA-X48T-DQ6 motherboard.
This will, according to Gigabyte, allow for energy savings of 20%. It seems a bit on the high side but should only be relative to the power wasted by the motherboard's PWM circuitry.
Adoption of this technology in all of the motherboards is a very impressive move, as it will allow for cooler running components, further increasing the reliability of their line of motherboards. What's left to see is if the technology works well enough to the point of having no drawbacks compared to current solutions.
The full press report is here.
Keywords: Gigabyte dynamic PWM power regulation X48
This will, according to Gigabyte, allow for energy savings of 20%. It seems a bit on the high side but should only be relative to the power wasted by the motherboard's PWM circuitry.
Adoption of this technology in all of the motherboards is a very impressive move, as it will allow for cooler running components, further increasing the reliability of their line of motherboards. What's left to see is if the technology works well enough to the point of having no drawbacks compared to current solutions.
The full press report is here.
Keywords: Gigabyte dynamic PWM power regulation X48
Graphics Cards
More 9600GT details
More details about Nvidia's upcoming mainstream card were released today.
ChileHardware has some slides. It needs 400W from the power supply and the 6-pin power supply is mandatory.
Dailytech has a more extensive news report where they announce that the card will feature the same 256bit memory interface reported earlier but using 1800MHz RAM with the shaders at 1625MHz and the core at some comfortable 650MHz, like I had posted earlier.
Support for DirectX 10.1 features is still somewhat obscure. From DailyTech:
"NVIDIA publicly confirmed other details of D9M: DirectX 10.1 support, Shader Model 4.0, OpenGL 2.1 and PCIe 2.0 support just to name a few."
If it supports DirectX 10.1 features it has to have shader model 4.1 compliance, so until further disclosure from Nvidia, don't take anything for certain. Conflicting reports also exist for the codename, some claim D9M others D9P.
I don't think they will manage to fit DX10.1 compliance just yet, since the neither the G92 and also doesn't feature it, that should be reserved for the G100 series chips.
The card is expected to see release in March with a $150 price tag, give or take, and compete with the HD3850 256MB but while having 512MB of RAM as a strong selling point.
Keywords: Nvidia 9600GT 512MB specifications G96
ChileHardware has some slides. It needs 400W from the power supply and the 6-pin power supply is mandatory.
Dailytech has a more extensive news report where they announce that the card will feature the same 256bit memory interface reported earlier but using 1800MHz RAM with the shaders at 1625MHz and the core at some comfortable 650MHz, like I had posted earlier.
Support for DirectX 10.1 features is still somewhat obscure. From DailyTech:
"NVIDIA publicly confirmed other details of D9M: DirectX 10.1 support, Shader Model 4.0, OpenGL 2.1 and PCIe 2.0 support just to name a few."
If it supports DirectX 10.1 features it has to have shader model 4.1 compliance, so until further disclosure from Nvidia, don't take anything for certain. Conflicting reports also exist for the codename, some claim D9M others D9P.
I don't think they will manage to fit DX10.1 compliance just yet, since the neither the G92 and also doesn't feature it, that should be reserved for the G100 series chips.
The card is expected to see release in March with a $150 price tag, give or take, and compete with the HD3850 256MB but while having 512MB of RAM as a strong selling point.
Keywords: Nvidia 9600GT 512MB specifications G96
Graphics Cards
Sparkle 8800GT with DisplayPort
Sparkle has released the first graphics card with DisplayPort, a royalty free display interconnect that is set to replace DVI and HDMI in computer hardware. This is important for reasons already discussed.
The card is a custom built 8800GT featuring also DVI and S-Video ports, as seen above, and a non-standard cooler built by Sparkle.
Other features, amount of ram and clock speeds were not yet disclosed.
The press release is here.
Keywords: Sparkle 8800GT DisplayPort DVI S-Video
Motherboards
ASRock 4Core1600P35-Wifi+ overclocking
OCWorkbench has a first look on the overclocking abilities of the new motherboard from ASRock.
Not bad for a P35 chipset, it's actually very good, but I hesitate about ASRock motherboards and overclocking - and reliability.
Not a long time ago there was a BIOS for an ASRock based on SiS748 that did the same "reset and loose your overclock" behavior that Anandtech reported on the new X48 based Gigabyte board. Recently things haven't got any better, lots of ASRock motherboards have been in my hands and, the only ones that were good, started malfunctioning in less than 2 years. This new approach of using all solid capacitors should help with that particular problem though.
This may turn out to be a good product, but be on the look out for problems. OCWorkbench doesn't have the habit of thoroughly testing the overclocking, like the folks at Anandtech or Xbitlabs do, so even if this kind of overclocking was stable, I wouldn't be confident it was going to be reliable 24/7 until I had a board in my hands for a few weeks. Quad-core overclocking was not disclosed at publishing time.
On the plus side ASRock seems to have spent some considerable engineering on this board and wants to grab the mainstream market, so we could be in for a surprise.
Rumors also state that ASRock may soon be releasing boards based on the new nForce 680i and 650i revisions.
I leave you with yet another version of this board, it's exactly the same, but doesn't have Firewire support and it's called the 4Core1600P35-Wifi.
Keywords: 4Core1600P35-Wifi+ overclocking Intel P35
Laptops
Asus EeePC to feature WiMAX support in the future
Asus, together with Intel and Sprint, is hosting an event about WiMAX next monday.
From the site:
"Join ASUS, Intel and Sprint to learn about the state of WiMAX technology, preview next-generation mobile solutions (including the next generation EeePC)"
Intel will be releasing a new WiFi and WiMAX chipset codenamed "Echo Peak" during this year, in an effort to push WiMAX into the mainstream, and since the EeePC uses Intel components it is obvious that Asus will be using Intel parts to provide WiMAX support.
This will be a very important addition to UMPC devices like the Eee PC, increasing even further it's mobility compared to most laptops. "Echo peak" isn't supposed to be introduced as standard for the next Intel mobile platform, but as an option.
WiMAX typically provides speeds of 10Mbit in a 10Km range, allowing for better coverage than current 3G networks and is expected to replace them soon.
Keywords: WiMAX Asus EeePC Echo Peak Intel Sprint
Motherboards
abit AX78 supports Crossfire - Kind of
Abit has managed to get Crossfire working on the AMD 770 based board, though AMD doesn't grant official support. They used the same method already used on other chipsets, like the P35, which consists in using a full x16 slot running at only the x4 lanes that the chipset supports. This way we have less bandwidth available to the second card and a small loss in performance, but Crossfire works.
In this case the chipset supports PCI-Express 2.0 lanes, so the x4 slot has the same bandwidth as an x8 PCIe 1.0 slot, provided that you use PCIe 2.0 graphics cards. This way, and while graphics cards don't get bandwidth hungry again, the performance drop should be less noticeable than with the old 1.0 version.
Suggested pricing for the board is expected around €75.
Keywords: abit AX78 AMD 770 Crossfire
Graphics Cards
Nvidia 8800GS - in 384MB and 768MB varieties
More details emerge as the release of the 8800GS approaches.
This time, besides the already expected 384MB version, Nvidia's partners will also be releasing a card with 768MB.
The card was planned to fill the gap between the 8600GTS and the 8800GT in the OEM market only, while the 9600GT wasn't launched. The situation has changed and Nvidia's partners are now also planning to bring it to the retail market. A needed move for the green team since the HD3850 is now all alone at it's price point.
Specifications are the same reported a while ago. As expected the card lacks two memory chips per PCB side than the 8800GT 512MB and 1GB parts.
Keywords: 8800GS 384MB 768MB 9600GT OEM
This time, besides the already expected 384MB version, Nvidia's partners will also be releasing a card with 768MB.
The card was planned to fill the gap between the 8600GTS and the 8800GT in the OEM market only, while the 9600GT wasn't launched. The situation has changed and Nvidia's partners are now also planning to bring it to the retail market. A needed move for the green team since the HD3850 is now all alone at it's price point.
Specifications are the same reported a while ago. As expected the card lacks two memory chips per PCB side than the 8800GT 512MB and 1GB parts.
Keywords: 8800GS 384MB 768MB 9600GT OEM
Graphics Cards
20 graphics cards in 20 games
Hardspell has taken 20 of the most recent graphics cards, thrown in 20 games to the mix and came up with performance measurements.
A very good read for someone on the market for a new card or that just wants to check who has the upper hand right now - ATI or Nvidia?
Keywords: 8800GT GTS HD3870 3850 performance in games
A very good read for someone on the market for a new card or that just wants to check who has the upper hand right now - ATI or Nvidia?
Keywords: 8800GT GTS HD3870 3850 performance in games
Motherboards
Gigabyte GA-X48T-DQ6 review
Anandtech has a review on the new Gigabyte GA-X48T-DQ6 motherboard, the same I already introduced to you a short while ago.
Has they state, it is a very well built motherboard on the hardware side but the BIOS leaves much to be desired. It has a reboot and loose your BIOS settings bug, making overclocking a pain. For enthusiasts that don't overclock it can be a good option.
The BIOS can still mature until it's time for launch at retail, so let's hold on judgment for this one. Gigabyte is currently known for making excellent boards for overclocking and this one should end up no different.
Keywords: Gigabyte GA-X48T-DQ6 X48 review BIOS
Has they state, it is a very well built motherboard on the hardware side but the BIOS leaves much to be desired. It has a reboot and loose your BIOS settings bug, making overclocking a pain. For enthusiasts that don't overclock it can be a good option.
The BIOS can still mature until it's time for launch at retail, so let's hold on judgment for this one. Gigabyte is currently known for making excellent boards for overclocking and this one should end up no different.
Keywords: Gigabyte GA-X48T-DQ6 X48 review BIOS
Graphics Cards
Vvivkoo 8800GT MAX 1GB - Zalman cooled
Vvikoo is a relatively new company established in Paris, who has recently entered the graphics cards business, selling both ATI and Nvidia based cards.
While previously they bought their cards from other manufacturers and rebranded them, they have designed this 8800GT themselves and the PCB seems really well built, with a purple "love it or hate it" color.
They use the Zalman VF1000 cooler, complemented by ramsinks on both sides of the card. This, according to company internal testing, provides 16ºC less in idle and 35ºC while in load.
This cooler could provide better clocks but, sadly, this card uses the stock 8800GT 512MB clocks. This makes it hard for them to compete with other companies that offer overclocked cards along with the better cooling. The price should be lower though, as the card doesn't need be retested for ability to withstand the higher clocks.
Suggested pricing hasn't been disclosed at publishing time.
Keywords: Vvikoo 8800GT MAX 1GB Zalman VF1000
Graphics Cards
Nvidia G100 - 9800GTX rumored specs
Well, these are the rumored 9800GTX specifications:
- Codenamed G100
- 65nm process
- 256 shader processors
- 780MHz core clock
- 3200MHz memory clock
- 512-bit memory width
- 2048MB (256X8) GDDR5 chips
- GDDR5 @ 0.25-0.5ns
- Dual DVI-out
- Supports DX 10.1, VP3
- 15-25% lower TDP than 8800GTS
The G100 seems worthy of a follow up to the G80, though we are still far from knowing if there are any improvements on the architecture that will yield any additional performance, with 256 shader units armed with an 512bit memory interface producing 204.8GB/s, it will at least ensure double the performance of the 8800Ultra. After all it has two times the shader units and double the bandwidth. Add the more than 20% increase in core speed and we have a very high performing chip here.
Not bad, I'd say, but I'm holding my excitement till I see a decent presentation on the chip's architecture improvements, you never know when they might end up pulling another NV30 on us.
As always, this is only a rumor for now, the chip probably is really the G100, but the card may end up not being called 9800GTX. There are many conflicting reports on the web, some claiming the 9800GX2 is the dual G92 card, while sometime ago a leaked presentation claimed that the G92 was the first billion transistors chip from Nvidia, which ended up not being true. The specs however seem to fit the G100 and talk about an eDRAM die, like used in the Xbox 360. That would be a very nice addition to the specs listed above and something to really be excited about.
Personally, due to the lack of info and leaks on the dual-chip card, I think Nvidia may be planning to skip it in the favor of the G100. The 256 shader units are what you should get from the dual G92 card, but on a single board and, if true, lower power consumption.
It is good to know that the card won't break any power consumption records, though it doesn't refer to which version of the 8800GTS they are comparing, probably it is the G80 card, as they would have to cut on core clocks to achieve that kind of power savings on such a big chip - they aren't, they're improving them compared to the G92 and it's still on 65nm.
We could still have a dual G92 9800GX2, but then what would they sell as the 9800? The G100 would have to be called 9900GTX. Not likely, but considering the specs of the 9600GT they could end up doing like ATI with the RV670 - rebrand the G92 cards as the 9800.
I came up with a post claiming the G100 would be called the X1800GTX, but that seems even less likely. They would be skipping the X series and using a numbering scheme like ATI used a while ago.
Keywords: Nvidia G100 9800GX2 9800GTX 9600GT 9900GTX X1800GTX
- Codenamed G100
- 65nm process
- 256 shader processors
- 780MHz core clock
- 3200MHz memory clock
- 512-bit memory width
- 2048MB (256X8) GDDR5 chips
- GDDR5 @ 0.25-0.5ns
- Dual DVI-out
- Supports DX 10.1, VP3
- 15-25% lower TDP than 8800GTS
The G100 seems worthy of a follow up to the G80, though we are still far from knowing if there are any improvements on the architecture that will yield any additional performance, with 256 shader units armed with an 512bit memory interface producing 204.8GB/s, it will at least ensure double the performance of the 8800Ultra. After all it has two times the shader units and double the bandwidth. Add the more than 20% increase in core speed and we have a very high performing chip here.
Not bad, I'd say, but I'm holding my excitement till I see a decent presentation on the chip's architecture improvements, you never know when they might end up pulling another NV30 on us.
As always, this is only a rumor for now, the chip probably is really the G100, but the card may end up not being called 9800GTX. There are many conflicting reports on the web, some claiming the 9800GX2 is the dual G92 card, while sometime ago a leaked presentation claimed that the G92 was the first billion transistors chip from Nvidia, which ended up not being true. The specs however seem to fit the G100 and talk about an eDRAM die, like used in the Xbox 360. That would be a very nice addition to the specs listed above and something to really be excited about.
Personally, due to the lack of info and leaks on the dual-chip card, I think Nvidia may be planning to skip it in the favor of the G100. The 256 shader units are what you should get from the dual G92 card, but on a single board and, if true, lower power consumption.
It is good to know that the card won't break any power consumption records, though it doesn't refer to which version of the 8800GTS they are comparing, probably it is the G80 card, as they would have to cut on core clocks to achieve that kind of power savings on such a big chip - they aren't, they're improving them compared to the G92 and it's still on 65nm.
We could still have a dual G92 9800GX2, but then what would they sell as the 9800? The G100 would have to be called 9900GTX. Not likely, but considering the specs of the 9600GT they could end up doing like ATI with the RV670 - rebrand the G92 cards as the 9800.
I came up with a post claiming the G100 would be called the X1800GTX, but that seems even less likely. They would be skipping the X series and using a numbering scheme like ATI used a while ago.
Keywords: Nvidia G100 9800GX2 9800GTX 9600GT 9900GTX X1800GTX