AnandTech - GeForceFX 5800 Ultra..... Canceled

[Sabastian]

We waited. We waited some more. Another 8 months went by and we were still waiting. Well, we are still technically waiting. NewEgg and ENPC are now taking pre-orders for GeForceFX 5800 cards. As rumor would hold true, it does appear as if the 5800 Ultra has been canceled, but those who already pre-ordered a card will still receive one.

More problems seem to have plagued the card as ridicule and speculation has forced NVIDIA to recall the current 5800 cards from production in order to redesign the fan and packaging on the card. Most sources speculate we will see the card finally available for retail on March 31/April 1st. Hopefully, that is not some kind of cruel April Fool's joke. GeForceFX's strange journey seems almost freakishly akin to the rise and fall of the Voodoo4/5 series video cards.

Also absent are the Ti4600 cards from this week's guide. Unfortunately, it seems like manufacturers are trying their best to dump inventory of these old cards. The cards that were not reliable at Ti4800's or Ti4600-8X have simply been dumped due to lack of demand. Since many Ti4600's still carry near 300USD price tags, its easy to imagine that FX 5800 cards will soon replace them within 2-3 months. Also, with NV31 in development, we can expect the GeForceFX to have a real short product cycle, thus bumping the Ti4600 out of "ultra markup" territory. Yes, NVIDIA's marketing confuses us too.

Furthermore, controversy has spun its web around the upcoming GeForceFX chip as the "4x2" architecture issues continue to surface. For those of you who are not familiar, apparently many sources are claiming that the NV30 chipset contains only 4 rendering pipelines as opposed to the 8 that NVIDIA unveiled at COMDEX. The catch is that each pipeline contains 2 TMUs which should result in the the promised 8 textures per clock, but only when multitexturing.

On an unrelated note longtime NVIDIA partner VisionTek continues their anti-NVIDIA campaign while still lacking any production products. Perhaps Hartford is relying on VisionTek's "good name" in order to build a stronger base of operations before actually releasing cards to the public.

Maybe R350 vs NV31 will be more interesting than the landslide between R300 and NV30. Hopefully we do not have to wait another 9 months to see any developments. Meh.

http://www.anandtech.com/guides/showdoc.html?i=1793&p=5

 

[speng]

Man! I'm hoping for some solid competition, I want price drops

Speng

 

[MuFu]

Maybe R350 vs NV31 will be more interesting...

MuFu.

 

[BRiT]

Maybe R350 vs NV31 will be more interesting...

I hope the peeps at Anandtech aren't that delussional. Even if they meant RV350 vs NV31, that seems to be a very lopsided comparison (and not in Nvidia's favor either).

 

[Hellbinder]

Maybe R350 vs NV31 will be more interesting than the landslide between R300 and NV30. Hopefully we do not have to wait another 9 months to see any developments. Meh.

What is he also running a Meth Lab in his spare time???? :?

Although.. that would be a great contest for Ati Fanboyz everywhere..

 

[Nagorak]

What is this Visiontek anti-Nvidia marketing campaign all about?

 

[MrBond]

What is this Visiontek anti-Nvidia marketing campaign all about?

It seems like bitterness to me

It's also probably trying to get as many eyeballs as they can until they ship those cards.

 

[BRiT]

They've been very vocal about publicising any negative aspects of the GF-FX, including mp3s of the dustbuster, pipelines being 4x2, how it takes up extra slots, etc...

 

[Nagorak]

Well, I notice they are carrying ATI cards... It hardly seems like Nvidia is why they went bankrupt though. Is this the same VisionTek, or did some other company basically buy up their name?

 

[Mulciber]

What is this Visiontek anti-Nvidia marketing campaign all about?

It seems like bitterness to me

It's also probably trying to get as many eyeballs as they can until they ship those cards.

I think VisionTek has always been a little "out there" as far as marketting goes. I always thought that naming an entire line "Xtasy" and covering the box with an acid trip rave seen was a bit odd for a graphics card company, but hey, it worked. they became the best selling retailer for quite some time.

 

[horvendile]

Maybe R350 vs NV31 will be more interesting...

I hope the peeps at Anandtech aren't that delussional. Even if they meant RV350 vs NV31 (...)

Probably, or at least possibly, a typo. It's changed now to RV350.

 

[tamattack]

Well, I notice they are carrying ATI cards... It hardly seems like Nvidia is why they went bankrupt though. Is this the same VisionTek, or did some other company basically buy up their name?

Yes, another company bought them.

 

[lwells]

This sums it up perfectly for me

Meh.

Need one say more? I get the impression that Anand(Tech) is a little annoyed with nvidia as, from previous postings by Anand, I would guess nvidia was in fairly constant contact with Anand suggesting that the NV30 would be there Real Soon Now(TM).

Of course, I could be reading far too much into it

LW.

 

[binmaze]

...

Yeah those last lines sound very sarcastic to me.

 

[epicstruggle]

Man sad times for NV. Hope Ati doesnt rest on their laurels and release as soon as possible R350. Lets remember that these set backs happen to best of companies(ie ATI,...), so if your a fan of NV you just have to hope that NV learned a valueable lesson and releases an actual future product as soon as they can.

later,

 

[Nazgul]

This sums it up perfectly for me

Meh.

Need one say more? I get the impression that Anand(Tech) is a little annoyed with nvidia as, from previous postings by Anand, I would guess nvidia was in fairly constant contact with Anand suggesting that the NV30 would be there Real Soon Now(TM).

Of course, I could be reading far too much into it

LW.

No, I think you're at least partially right. Anandtech was really tooting the NV30 horn before it actually showed up, to the point where many ATI fans were ready to lynch him for a perceived "just you wait, NV30 will 0wn joo!" slant to all his ATI-related articles. I bet Nvidia really had him convinced the NV30 would be the Second Coming, even after thr R300 showed its face and made even the most die-hard NV-fans take notice. And I wouldn't be surprised to learn that he's not the only web-reviewer who feels a little betrayed. The reactions to Nvidia's next major product announcement will be very interesting.

 

[Sabastian]

Yeah but I think he has a real soft spot for nvidia. I think he will forgive and forget rather quickly. Hard too say how disapointed he really is. Considering how undeniably better ATi has become compared to nvidia how many negative things could he say before he starts to look like any other stary eyed nvidia fan? Like you say it will be interesting to read what he has to say with regards to nvidias next offering.

 

[Sabastian]

Well I was goofing around at Rage 3D and found this.
This is what kind of scores the non ultra version of the GeforceFX 5800 makes on 3DMark2003. No wonder nvidia was upset. I don't know the validity of this but methinks they are valid. Looks Radeon 9700 pro owners get to hold on to their braging rights untill the R350 hit the market, which isn't too far down the road.

Mind you the Radeon 9700 in this test is overclocked and the Geforce FX 5800 is running at 400mhz but the GeforceFX is teamed with what looks like an overclocked P4 but still only manages 2760 3D marks compared with the Radeon 9700's 4907 3DMarks nearly double.....no wonder nvidia hates FutureMark now.

EDIT: Also note test one (the test that nvidia was upset that futuremark used single textureing on the sky) is the only strong point of the GeforceFX5800??!!! :?

2nd EDIT: Here is a link to the thread.

http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthr...262&threadid=33668678&perpage=20&pagenumber=1

 

[Tagrineth]

It just occurred to me that while the 9700 Pro is reporting the base clock rate (360.5) for the RAM, the FX is reporting the effective DDR clock rate (799.2).

 

[Dave Baumann]

EDIT: Also note test one (the test that nvidia was upset that futuremark used single textureing on the sky) is the only strong point of the GeforceFX5800??!!!

Trilinear filtering...