NV40 Rumours

[Cowboy X]

Here is a link to some interesting speculative specs :)

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=14058

Just beware however that similar outrageous things were said of the NV30 . Would be nice though if these are true .

[Sirius]

Here is alittle more for the NV40:
http://www.3dcenter.org/artikel/2004/01-27_a_english.php

[Mr.Guvernment]

i can see it being that much faster then the FX line simply because if they did the core right unlike the FX - it could be that much faster then their current cards.

What has me is shader 3 or what ever - why worry about that if they could not even get 2.0 right!

[Cowboy X]

More rumour links :

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=14373

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=14375

[Cowboy X]

If these rumours are true and the NV40 outguns the R420 I really would like to see if ATI would dedcide to offer low quality driver hacks or even cheat . This would be a good test of charcater .

[blurry]

Too late cause Ati was the first to cheat.

[Cowboy X]

Maybe blurry could educate me on that one ?

[blurry]

Ati lowered image quality (very obvious) on Quake to make their product look competitive on the most-used 3d benchmark.

[Cowboy X]

Not true it was an optimisation ( here that optimisation :) ) which was present on all the other Radeons before it and affected only 5 to 7 textures in 2 to 3 maps when using the 8500 only ! When this bug was 'exposed' there was a fixed driver released within 2 weeks which had 100% of the performance , the perfect image quality and importantly better quality than all competing soloutions other than maybe Matrox ( Matrox was just too slow anyway ) .

The only place ATI could have been faulted is where an executive publically said that they had no game-specific optimisations which was clearly a lie or ignorance .And also their poor PR control of the issue , which to this day allows many people online to still mention the Q3 issue in order to excuse the behaviour of some other company .

[Mr.Guvernment]

^^^ but at least they got a frix out and unlike NVIDIA rand and denied it all!

:D

we know companeis cheta - it is how they deal with the cheating once caught that is the conern for me - ATI dealt with it - NVIDIA did not.

[PreservedSwine]

Originally posted by Cowboy X
Not true it was an optimisation ( here that optimisation :) ) which was present on all the other Radeons before it and affected only 5 to 7 textures in 2 to 3 maps when using the 8500 only ! When this bug was 'exposed' there was a fixed driver released within 2 weeks which had 100% of the performance , the perfect image quality and importantly better quality than all competing soloutions other than maybe Matrox ( Matrox was just too slow anyway ) .

The only place ATI could have been faulted is where an executive publically said that they had no game-specific optimisations which was clearly a lie or ignorance .And also their poor PR control of the issue , which to this day allows many people online to still mention the Q3 issue in order to excuse the behaviour of some other company .

Not to mention, subsequent driver releases improved perfomance even more, with NO IQ degradation....

It is odd that someone thinks a company would purposly lower IQ while keeping speed the same and claim "CHEATERS!!!" when it's obvious it was a bug in the R8500's architecture...

[Mr.Guvernment]

^^^^ usually because the person is a fan boy and does not want to admit their choosen company is doing them wrong.

[Cowboy X]

More rumours and serious too , Nv40 may be scrapped and the NV45 rebadged as NV40 :eek:

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=14749

[Sentential]

Sounds like the ship is sinking!:eek:

Look for the rats abandoning ship. We may see them shortly.

[Mr.Guvernment]

buahhaha

scrap a line !!


like is aid - WHY worry about shader 3.0 when u can't even get 2.0 right!!!


by scarpping this line - if true - they are going to be behind again and liekly by the time they get the 45 line out ATI will already have something else in the works and ready to release around that same time to further keep nvidia down picking up the scraps :D

[Cowboy X]

But that would also mean continued extreme pricing on highend vcards .

[Aslan]

http://www.beyond3d.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10936&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

"Confirmed" Screenshots

http://www.beyond3d.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10946&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

"Confirmed" Specs

I would take all of this with a grain of salt, but Beyond3d has proven itself to be quite reliable, even if this has posted merely on the Beyond3d forums and not the main site itself.

[Evnas]

Screenshots dont work

[Aslan]

Crap.....I guess he took them down then....When I checked last night one was working...sorry :-/


Edit: http://www.beyond3d.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10914&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=20

Not the same thread, but still contains screens from a "Next-Generation" video card, near the bottom of the page.

Another Edit: http://vegetto.vtrbandaancha.net/

Here are the screenshots I mentioned in the previous post.

[Cowboy X]

Wow is all I can say right now .

Edit : Possibly fakes :

http://www.beyond3d.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10936&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=100

[Cowboy X]

Release date = April 13

http://nvidia.com/object/nzone_geforcelanparty_home

[Cowboy X]

The Inquirer claims that they have some contact with an NV40/NV45 :

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=14827

[Tw00sh]

Am I the only one that has noticed the card needs TWO molex connectors and not one. :eek:

That is going to be a hot card and sucking some major juice.

[Evnas]

TWO molex connecters?! A second molex conncetor is 100% usless, unless the core and the memory are sperated and thus need to draw on seperate power sources...but since they are on the same PCB thats obviously not the case (*edit* Maybe one for the card, one for the fan setup? If thats the case...lets hop on and fly to the moon shall we?). One molex connector is enough for a number of devices. I have 4 80mm case fans and a HDD running on a single molex connector (via splitters)

[Tw00sh]

The primary shocker was that the board requires two large 4-pin power connectors as opposed to the single power connector on current high-end products.

Perhaps a lot of end-users who have been thinking that they might wait and upgrade to NV40 when it becomes available, should start saving their sheckles to upgrade to a new power supply unit as well.


http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=14827

[Evnas]

Originally posted by Tw00sh


http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=14827

Already read it after I saw your post and Cowboy already posted the link ;)

Possibly it was a engineering sample and they threw that on their as a "quickfix" for fan power? *shrug*

[Cowboy X]

Pics ? :

http://theinquirer.net/?article=14880

[Cowboy X]

The rumours just don't stop :

http://www.pcinpact.com/actu/news/13588.htm

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=14878

[G-smooth2k]

Korean hardware news wire BodNara (http://www.bodnara.co.kr/bbs/?imode=view&D=6&num=50157&category=33) has managed to discover more findings regarding Nvidia's NV40 GPU, this time catching a few benchmark scores from popular games:


"Halo (no AA, 8x AF) 1600x1200 51.1fps

Far Cry (no AA and no AF) 1600x1200 53.4fps

UT2004 (4xAA, 4xAF) 1600x1200 71.9fps - 1280x960 82.9fps (both botmach)

Star Wars Kotor (4xAA, 8xAF) 1600x1200 49.3fps"


It didn't appear like they had the chance to set up other cards from Nvidia and its rivals for any sort of comparison, so hopefully we will have a better idea of how the NV40 stacks up to the competition in the near future. The site also posted the first NV40 pics on the web, which you can find a link to here (http://www.neoseeker.com/news/story/3233/).

In slightly related news, Beyond3D learns (http://www.beyond3d.com/#news11015) from this press release (http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/040323/sftu074_1.html) that Nvidia has officially confirmed Pixel Shader 3.0 hardware support for their upcoming GPUs, including the NV40.

[G-smooth2k]

NV40 Named GeForce 6800

The Inquirer has posted another quick update regarding Nvidia's NV40 GPU, and this time they learn that the chip has been officially crowned the "GeForce 6800" series. According to the article, while cards based on the GPU will still be available in "Ultra" and "non-Ultra" versions (the difference being performance, naturally), the "FX" moniker that recent Nvidia GPUs have been tagged with may not be around anymore for the 6800 series. Nothing is set in stone at the moment, however. In the meantime it appears this wasn't the first time Nvidia wanted to use 6800 as the series number for their GPUs:


"Geforce 6800 sounds good but then Geforce FX 6800 was the original name for NV35 before Nvidia suddenly changed its mind. Perhaps the NV35 did not perform well enough to deserve that name."

Neoseeker (http://www.neoseeker.com/news/story/3238/)

The Inquirer (http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=14922)

[Cowboy X]

Supply issues ? Or strategy ?

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=14834

[Evnas]

My guess would be supply issues (of those two options). Being shady like that around your corporate partners is bad news, not strategy. Also, I'm sure stock holders are very interested into how the project is moving along, so again thats bad business.

I would think if they had a successful part up and running, they would show it off so as to generate a good buzz around the product. All this does is bring their business ethics into question

[xtrmeocr]

well they are giving away 7 nv40's for the winners at their lan part they are hosting, and i think all 250 computers are going to have n40's in them. so it would seem they are done.

[Cowboy X]

Seven is still a very small number , they must be ready to ship thousands . Once some are finished it shouldn't be difficult to give away 7 , the problem is supplying enough to satisfy the market and board-makers .

[xtrmeocr]

i was only saying since they are giving away 7 to contest winners and will have 250 in the lan party machines that devlopment would be done and the chips already in mass production.

[Cowboy X]

I understand , I'm just clarifying that what they have at the Lanparty doesn't always translate into retail cards . There were LAN parties and various demos with the NV30 Ultra but then look how late it was . Not to mention that shortly thereafter we found out that Nvidia was only making very few of them .

[Cowboy X]

More pipeline rumours :

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=14972

[Cowboy X]

NV40 and Unreal3 ! :

http://www.popcultureshock.com/news.php?id=688

[Cowboy X]

Of slots and cooling :

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=15061

[NO LIFE]

I dont see the price problems with nvidia.....

on newegg the 9800XT is more expensive than the 5950ultra.. o_O

@Evnas......how can you say another molex is useless? Have you ever worked on designing a video card? Seriously.

RUMORED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

wuaaaaaaahhh!

[Cowboy X]

Dustbuster part2 ?!! :eek:

I certainly hope not :

http://theinquirer.net/?article=15115

[Cowboy X]

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=15169

3D Mark 2003 sores !!!

[micamica1217]

Originally posted by Cowboy X
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=15169

3D Mark 2003 sores !!!

Oh, so now the NV40 is not a 8x2/16x0 chip???

look. (http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=14972)

I wish they would make up thier mind as to what the chip is...:rolleyes:

mica

[Cowboy X]

That's the Inquirer for you , hedging their bets , what ever happens , they will say , we told you so .................. mind you they would have also said several totally contradicting things .


Anyway here is more on the naming : http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=15172

[Cowboy X]

Interesting , but frightening if these power requirements are true . Already my Antec has a few fan-only molex connectors , Enermax is putting out a line with a dedicated 12V CPU rail and now we may need vcard rails :eek:

Edit , forgot link :

http://theinquirer.net/?article=15210

[Cowboy X]

More stuff :

http://theinquirer.net/?article=15265

http://theinquirer.net/?article=15260

[Cowboy X]

Pics :

http://theinquirer.net/?article=15269


222 Million transistors ? :eek: :

http://theinquirer.net/?article=15268

[Cowboy X]

More pics in this Beyond3d thread :

http://www.beyond3d.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=11444&start=0

[Cowboy X]

Pricing : http://theinquirer.net/?article=15292

http://www.darkcrow.co.kr/Home/home.asp?idx=#3018

[SimGuy]

*Cough* MaxPC GeForce 6800 Coverage *Cough* :)

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid=27&threadid=1287933

[Droban]

What do I get so that I can read the darkcrow website?

When will the PCI-E version come out?

[SimGuy]

Warp2Search.net Discussion Quoted @ Beyond3D (http://www.beyond3d.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=11458&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=40)

A certain new card we have caused one of our PCs (an Athlon XP) to auto shutdown after 20/25 minutes gaming. This was due to heat build up in the case, the otherwise OK CPU was overheating, it was 10c+ hotter with this card than with a 5950.. The case had 80mm fans front and back.

If you have an already hot/overclocked computer you may not get on with this certain card (that i cant yet mention of course).

:mad: :eek: :mad:

[Cowboy X]

Droban.............I just looked at the pics :) My Korean is a bit rusty . But you can try google's translator function and see if they allow non-european languages or babelfish could help as well .

[Cowboy X]

SimGuy ............... If that zip file is a MaxPC article one of the mods will ask you to move it since it will count as copyright infringement etc etc . Jst letting you know early .

[Droban]

LOL I think he already knew that, the coughs kinda gave me that idea. At least we got to check it out. I have the feeling that Nvidia will be the better choice this round. Of course we will have to wait for real benchmarks to make that decision, but they are offering what looks to be better products at the 300 dollar mark, and the 400 dollar mark...and there is going to be the 500 dollar ATi card which may end up being like the difference between a Pro and a XT today...might not really be worth it. But we have more games to see, and plenty of benches to look forward to.

[SimGuy]

Originally posted by Cowboy X
SimGuy ............... If that zip file is a MaxPC article one of the mods will ask you to move it since it will count as copyright infringement etc etc . Jst letting you know early .

Link changed. :)

Thanks for the warning...

[SimGuy]

GigaByte Jumps The Gun (Compliments of HardOCP.com):

Gigabyte Announces NVIDIA's NV40:

In what can only be a surprise move to NVIDIA, Gigabyte just made their 16 pipeline NV40 video card announcement. Clock speeds of the core and memory were not given. But what is nice to see is the first dual DVI solution in retail on a desktop NVIDIA card.

Taipei, Taiwan, April 2004 – Gigabyte Technology Co. proudly announces the release of the market’s highest speed graphics accelerators, the GV-N68U256VH and GV-N68128D. Powered by NVIDIA’s latest highest-performing GeForce 6800 Ultra/6800 GPU, these cards deliver up to 8x the shading power of previous generation products for screaming gaming performance.

[Droban]

I thought the 6800 ultras and non ultras were both 256mb of ram?

[SimGuy]

http://www.digit-life.com/news.html?103832#103832

Photo of the day: ASUS V9999 on GeForce 6800 Ultra (NV40)

There are just some hours left until the official announcement of NVIDIA's NV40 GPU family. To attenuate your foretaste we offer you the images of a GeForce 6800 Ultra-based solution from ASUS.

Well, it's not a "photo" in the true sense. It lacks connectors and is more of a design concept. Nevertheless, you can already see that the card will occupy a single slot, have a unified GPU/memory heatsink, and feature popular "turbine" design. Nothing monstrous, just the power requirements are not clear yet. Anyway, we'll all get to know it later today. So, for now, take a look at ASUS V9999 images:

Ohh nice cooler :eek: :eek:

[goob]

nice!

[Mr.Guvernment]

now to wait until they actually hit stores and see what ATI counters with.

and needing a 480w!! PSU!!


and is more of a design concept. Nevertheless, you can already see that the card will occupy a single slot,


WRONG - it will occupy 2 slots.

[Nightingale]

yeah it may occupy that second slot. Also who cares about that slot in the first place. For proper cooling its best to leave that slot open so the intake fan can breath fresh air. Plus there is also the usual problem with that pci card slot because of the bus. I would just fill that slot up with one of those accessory bits that the motherboards usually come with ex. the usb adapters that plug into the mobo.

[Droban]

Or the gameport with the audigy 2

[Nightingale]

exactly

[Sentential]

This is getting redicilous!.... They need to focus on effieiency for one:rolleyes:

[Droban]

Performance and power first, we have a while before efficiency becomes a huge roll. Quite a few years.

[Evnas]

Originally posted by Droban
before efficiency becomes a huge roll. Quite a few years.

I disagree. Efficency is always a big part of the picture (or should be) for any company. It cuts costs, and produces a more quality product. ATi has been producing very efficent products since the 8500 and have done quite well performance wise against their target market.

[LtBlue14]

every product's becoming a heatball >.<
and 2 separate power connectors is no thx.

[Cowboy X]

There arte some rumours online that the 6800 Ultras reviewed by the hardware sites are not necessarily the cards we will see in retail ! Some claim that the current stepping seen by reviewrs will be superseded by another which will allow a core speed of 475 rather than 400 . In fact Beyond3d.com is abuzz with some rumours that Albatron is going to announce a part with a 600Mhz core :eek: !!!! Some are wondering if that is why Nvidia reccommends a 480watt power supply and 2 power connectors ; because the release retail will be pulling alot more juice !

I like others thought it strange that they advised 2 connectors and a 480 powersupply but some reviewers got it to perform with even 200W supplies and one connector in use . Hmmmmmmmmmn

I am not sure about that 600 mhz core rumour though , without a Low-K process that will be very very difficult .

[Cowboy X]

NV40 non-ultra's on this site with ETAs in July :

http://www.jscustompcs.com/products.php?parent=Video%20Cards:NVIDIA

[G-smooth2k]

GeForce 6800 Ultra: 400 MHz core clock, 1100 MHz GDDR3, 16 pixel pipelines, US$499

GeForce 6800 Pro: 350 MHz core clock, 1000 MHz GDDR3, 12 pixel pipelines?, US$399?

GeForce 6800: 350 MHz core clock, 700 MHz GDDR, 12 pixel pipelines, US$299

[Cowboy X]

I really wonder if those clockspeeds won't be all bumped up 50mhz .

[Cowboy X]

As suspected :

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=15641

Clock speeds will be bumped up . I hope not to dustbuster levels .

[AC Slater]

I would love to get a 6800 Ultra but $500 is just way too much. Hopefully someone will come out with a 6800 Pro that overclocks like mad for about half the price.

[Cowboy X]

Well hopefully the increased clock speed for the Ultra might mean clock speeds fo the non-ultra being much closer to the reviewed ultra's 400 Mhz speed . Therefore it is possible that the non-ultra will have performance on par with that seen in the reviews so far , and therefore ................ very very good performance , far and away better than any currently released cards . But all things are still relative and we have to see what ATI is going to do .

[Vrykyl]

Ok, you can find leadteks 6800Ultra specs for their release version of the card here - http://www.leadtek.com.tw/3d_graphic/winfast_a400_ultratdh_myvivo_1.shtml
check out the size of that heatsink/fan combo - definately 2slot

Leadtek Specifications for 6800ultra:

NVIDIA GeForce 6800Ultra GPU Superscalar GPU architecture
CineFX 3.0 Engine
Intellisample 3.0 Technology HCT
High-Precision Graphics
nView Multi-display Technology
Digital Vibrance Control (DVC) 3.0
Unified Driver Architecture (UDA)
AGP 8X
0.13 Micron Process Technology
400MHz RAMDACs

Graphics Core: 256-bit

Memory Interface: 256-bit
Memory Bandwidth: 35.2GB/sec
Fill Rate 6.4 billion texels/sec.
Vertices per Second 600 Million
Memory Data Rate 1100 MHz
Pixels per Clock (peak) 16
Textures per Pixel* 16
RAMDACs 400MHz
Architected for Cg
Microsoft® DirectX®9.0 Optimizations and Support

OpenGL®1.5 Optimizations and Support
Video Mixing Renderer (VMR)
High-performance, high-precision 3D rendering engine
On-board DVI support up to 1600x1200 resolution
On-board TV-out support up to 1024x768 resolution
Integrated Full Hardware MPEG-2 Decoder
Vivid NTSC/PAL TV-out support with flicker filter

[Cowboy X]

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=15661

[Cowboy X]

More

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=15659