Nvidia working to cut GeForce GTX 260 production costs

Davros

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And what is a VOLTERA chip ?

According to Expreview, Nvidia is hard at work streamlining its design to keep costs down. The Chinese site says the original GTX 260 Reloaded used a P654 reference design with 14 circuit board layers, an "expensive Volterra chip," and a 65nm graphics processor. The latest design includes the new 55nm GT200b GPU, 10 PCB layers, and no Volterra chip. Expreview claims Nvidia is now prepping a third design refresh - code-named P897 - that will introduce several extra cost-cutting measures: "According to the P897 design plan that NVIDIA sends its partners, it uses 4/6 phase NVVDD power solution ADP4100. It changes FBVDDQ power solution from 2-phase to single phase. And the MOSFET package has been changed from LFPAK to DPAK to save cost. Another noticeable change is the PCB layer decreases from 10 to 8. The length of PCB keeps unchanged, while the height of it is reduced by 1.5cm. In order to cut cost further, they will change DVI connector, crystal and probably change BIOS Rom from 1M to 512K. " These modifications will supposedly trim costs by "$10 to $15," which could allow Nvidia to undercut AMD-if it decides to pass on the savings on to consumers, that is. You can start trying to hunt down P897-based GeForce GTX 260 cards in the third week of this month, if Expreview has its facts straight.

Expreview : http://en.expreview.com/2009/02/07/geforce-gtx260-coming-with-new-pcb-design-to-cut-cost.html
 
And what is a VOLTERA chip?
I think this is a pretty decent description.

mikeyakame said:
Its a Multiphase digital programmable PWM frequency switched Voltage Regulation design for High Power GPUs and Motherboards made by a "Volterra" ;)

Its one of the higher end products on the market, but of course its a sight more expensive than the current Intersil ISL6327CRZ multiphase regulator. Nvidia had no choice with 65nm chips and memory ICs at the time, they had to use the good expensive design because it was necessary to do the job and us the enthusiasts got a high quality reliable design because of it.

Due to the die shrink to 55nm now, and higher capacity memory IC's Nvidia have been able to cut costs on design by using cheaper components because they can now. Less cost is better for their bottom line, it's worse for consumers because we end up with less reliable hardware that may also have a shorter life span.

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showpost.php?p=3636283&postcount=8
 
Can't say as I blame them after their margins tanked in Q4. And that is why margins is relevant in discussions about hardware for enthusiasts.

I wonder if ATI did anything like this with the R600? Although I guess its lifespan was so short they didn't really need to with Rv670 taking it's place.

I'm wondering if this means there isn't going to be a significant refresh to GTX 260 other than the cost reductions on manufacturing.

That would open the door for more pressure from ATI if Rv790 pushes the price of Rv770 further down.

Regards,
SB
 
wow how does that card function? Are there any issues with it? Compared to a regular 4850 it seems to be missing a lot of components.

Perfect!

http://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/h788g/

only thing it's missing is "powerplay" but I guess that rivatuner works out nicely for that.

underclocks to (rivatruner) 315/900 stable and overclock isn't a problem either (700/1025) it's using the same samsung HJ1A 1.0ns memory found on cheaper 4850 and the 4830 (rest uses 0.8) Temperatures are low (35 idle, 55 at load) at a 22degree celcius room temperature.

It's got HDMI out on-board instead of s-video. a bargain really.
 
If I would have a wish, it would be a GT260eco. With a little less clockspeed and just one 6-Pin connector and a shorter PCB.
 
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