Anyone else wondering if 6800 Ultra is really the 6800?

[digitalwanderer]

Just those couple of sentences in Dave's fine review about the device ID and the ID's in the drivers, and the fact that the stats are looking a lot more like the 6800 non-Pro from a couple of weeks ago?

I am NOT trying to diss this new card, I like it and kudos to nVidia on what is looking like a great come-back card...I'm just really wondering now if they didn't rename the 6800 to the 6800 Ultra to meet the release schedule or to hold back an "Ultra Supremo" version should the R420 top the 6800 Ultra.

Just a weird hunch that is now nibbling on the back of my mind, I'm kind of hoping someone will just call me a crazy fanboy so I can just get back to reading reviews and window shopping a viddy card.

 

[plat]

your not the only one

 

[Vegetto-eX]

Just those couple of sentences in Dave's fine review about the device ID and the ID's in the drivers, and the fact that the stats are looking a lot more like the 6800 non-Pro from a couple of weeks ago?

I am NOT trying to diss this new card, I like it and kudos to nVidia on what is looking like a great come-back card...I'm just really wondering now if they didn't rename the 6800 to the 6800 Ultra to meet the release schedule or to hold back an "Ultra Supremo" version should the R420 top the 6800 Ultra.

Just a weird hunch that is now nibbling on the back of my mind, I'm kind of hoping someone will just call me a crazy fanboy so I can just get back to reading reviews and window shopping a viddy card.

That is not so weird, actually I do think that :? only time will tell

 

[Sazar]

from the rumour mill... the clocks on the gfx cards reviewed appear to be about 50 odd mhz lower than they should have been... on the core...

perhaps dave and confirm or dispell this since he is in possession of the card and likely in contact with BB...

-edit-

btw dave's called the review his 6800 ULTRA review so I tend to believe him 8)

 

[nutball]

Well, yeah, I've been wondering it too, but to my mind the thing that backs up this card being the Ultra is the fill-rate measurements, isn't it? (showing it's pretty near certain a 16-pipe card, rather than 12-pipe).

But given the large(-ish) gap in price between the 6800 and 6800U there's a price point ($399) crying out to be filled, so will we see a 6800 Super, as well as 6800 and 6800U?

I bet the marketing people are having wet dreams about the possibilities!

 

[elroy]

What about the 512MB 6800 Ultra coming in June? They could have higher clock/memory speeds by then.

 

[Evildeus]

I don't know. But that could be the case, and only if, the X800XT is really that much better than the 6800U. Otherwise, it's ok, the card is already a great card.

 

[digitalwanderer]

btw dave's called the review his 6800 ULTRA review so I tend to believe him 8)

I'm not questioning that bit, I'm just curious if this Ultra is the same Ultra that nVidia was planning to release two weeks ago. :|

Like I said, it's just one of those things gnawing at the back of my mind. Regardless of if it is or isn't, it's still an impressive beast and currently the best viddy card to date I've ever seen.

 

[Hanners]

I find it interesting to note that some reviewers have 500MHz GDDR-3 clocked at 550MHz on their boards, while others have 600MHz RAM still clocked at 550MHz.

 

[Sazar]

I find it interesting to note that some reviewers have 500MHz GDDR-3 clocked at 550MHz on their boards, while others have 600MHz RAM still clocked at 550MHz.

are they all the same revision boards ?

 

[duncan36]

I think its safe to say that the 6800 non-Ultra will not have a 2 slot cooler to satisfy OEMs.
I'm sure theres some headroom with this card. but regardless why are you underwhelmed? In many non-CPU limited situations it scores over 2x the 9800xt and 5950u in benchmarks.

 

[Nappe1]

I am scarying only one thing... if we see "review card launch" after ATI's launch. I mean a card like 5800Ultra was, a card that practically existed only for reviewers. (or the amount of cards that got to the consumers was rediciously low.)

as seing how hard nVidia had to admit that ATI stole the crown, I really see this as possible and very nasty marketing tactic. based on first comments about how cool Ultra is and these rumour about clock difference, this really gets suspicious. (plus on the slides they stated making NV40 as fastest card available.)

besides, they have ruined competitor launches with "drivers-soon-to-be-available" before, so next logical step would be launching "higher-clocked-card-to-be-soon-available".

in any case, let's see what happens. in any case, if the performance difference is small between the cards, I see some VERY ugly marketing and driver tactics arise in the future.

as a side note, ERP for the ultra has been stated to be $499 in the states, so I can already see that at least here in finland you can reserve at least 650-700 Eur for the card and another 100 Eur for PSU. (and 800 Euros for Graphics card is a bit too much. Heck, you get entry level HT Projector with few hundred euros more.)

 

[surfhurleydude]

I have been thinking that myself because not only the name string, but the clockspeeds...

While I will say that I think fanATIcs claiming the R420 will be 16 pipelines and be close to 600 MHz are living in a fairy tale, I do believe that the R420 will be clocked higher than 400 MHz... In fact, the 400 MHz thing is what puzzles me so much. That is EXTREMELY low. Bandwidth is also very low as well...

550 Mhz? That's only 75 MHz (150 DDR) increase over the NV38.

I think something is going on beneath the surface here. The core and memory speeds both seeming *puzzlingly* low. Perhaps we're looking at a 6900 or 6850 at E3?

If these are final shipping specs, I can see a 550 Mhz, 12 Pipeline, 600 MHz Ram X800 Pro defeating the 6800 Ultra - for 100 bucks less to boot.

 

[radar1200gs]

I think nVidia is merely being conservative/cautious here.

Far better to under estimate your products capabilities in a preview and be able to potentially increase clocks for the shipping product than have to revise clocks downwards after the launch/preview.

There is no funny business going on, that is one lesson nVidia seems to have well and truly learned.

 

[elroy]

Perhaps they are saving faster versions for when PCI Express versions and supporting mobos are released? Maybe they are on the edge of power draw right now, but this will be resolved with the advent of PCI Express?

 

[plat]

the NV40 draws 24 or less(depending on the review) more watts then the NV35. i doubt we will all need to go out and buy new power supplies.

 

[Johnny Rotten]

I wish people would stop looking at clock speeds as some form of performance metric. Why does 400mhz seem low? Because the 5950, a different architecture was clocked higher? You shouldnt care, just look at the benchmarks. Hasn't the current cpu climate taught you anything?

 

[Cyberon]

Afcource; they looked at their numbers and said: hey, this thing is way too fast, lets clock it lower so there's more room for our produkt-range SE/TX/vanilla/Ultra. That and the possibility to counter-attack the upcoming ATi-card.

 

[surfhurleydude]

I wish people would stop looking at clock speeds as some form of performance metric. Why does 400mhz seem low? Because the 5950, a different architecture was clocked higher? You shouldnt care, just look at the benchmarks. Hasn't the current cpu climate taught you anything?

It seems low because R420 clockspeeds are rumored to be AT LEAST 500 MHz, with the same 16 pipe architecture.

 

[digitalwanderer]

Another dumb thought: nVidia is using the "3 of 4 quads" theory for their cards and are planning on having a 12 & 16 pipe variant, right? Well I've always assumed that if 1 of the 4 quads is "bad" it was either a yes/no, work/no-work situation.

Then I remembered I don't know squat about chip manufacturing.

What if that isn't the case? What if sometimes what would be a 3/4 quad card at 500Mhz turns out to be a working 4/4 quad card at 400Mhz?

Wouldn't that signifigantly increase the availability of their "top-end" card and also lower manufacturing prices by increasing the useable yield percentages?

Mebbe it's just a money thing, mebbe they got worried about how much of a loss of profit going with their original Ultra version?

Again, just some online free-association.