no 6800ultra Extreme, still the same 6800ultra

[ultragpu]

i dont know if you hav all read this :

“There is lots of confusion going on. NVIDIA is not launching anything new. NVIDIA does not have a product called the “GeForce 6800 Ultra Extreme,â€￾ an NVIDIA spokesman told X-bit labs on Thursday.

“However some of our partners are discovering that a percentage of the parts we are shipping will run faster than this, 450MHz, for example. So there will only be a GeForce 6800 Ultra that can run faster but it is the same part and will have the same name,â€￾ the representative of the Santa Clara, California-based graphics company explained

http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/video/display/20040506035620.html

 

[KimB]

In other words, this is the same situation we've had in the past. Some companies elect to launch "golden sample" parts of nVidia's lineup.

 

[Rys]

The SKU does exist and NVIDIA are actively selling it to partners as such.

They're having a nice time trying to cover it up though. NVIDIA have never shipped reference boards based on 'Golden Sample' chips and they're not about to start now.

It's a last minute SKU (for obvious reasons) and partner press info on it is laughable. NVIDIA and their partners aren't in sync on it and it's supposedly shipping "real soon now".

Rys

 

[AlphaWolf]

This is kinda of a tough situation for nvidia. They are either hand picking gpu's as JHH said they would never do, or they shipped the 450mhz UE as a reaction to a faster competitor product.

I think they would have done better with the 'golden samples' if they hadn't shipped them to reviewers and just suggested it to a few choice AiB's with some hand picked boards. I guess the downside to that is we don't know when they would be available.

 

[Rys]

Agreed. They'd have been better leaving the 450MHz part to AIBs, then they wouldn't be in the PR mess they are just now.

Rys

 

[martrox]

The whole thing smacks of desperation...... and the sad fact is that there was absolutely no need for it. The 6800 can stand on it's own. The problem is that nVidia has this speed complex that says it absolutely need to be the fastest. It's a loser mentality....... And it kind of sets up a new round of "optimisations" in order to get that "brass ring".....

 

[Bjorn]

The whole thing smacks of desperation...... and the sad fact is that there was absolutely no need for it. The 6800 can stand on it's own. The problem is that nVidia has this speed complex that says it absolutely need to be the fastest. It's a loser mentality....... And it kind of sets up a new round of "optimisations" in order to get that "brass ring".....

The problem isn't necessarily that NVidia has a "it absolutely need to be fastest" issue. It's that a whole lot of people/reviewers has that problem and declares the winner solely based on framerates.

 

[PatrickL]

Maybe because nvidia evangelized them to do so in gf3 gf4 era ?

 

[BetrayerX]

I'll go back to the GF2 era.

 

[Tic_Tac]

The whole thing smacks of desperation...... and the sad fact is that there was absolutely no need for it. The 6800 can stand on it's own. The problem is that nVidia has this speed complex that says it absolutely need to be the fastest. It's a loser mentality....... And it kind of sets up a new round of "optimisations" in order to get that "brass ring".....

The problem isn't necessarily that NVidia has a "it absolutely need to be fastest" issue. It's that a whole lot of people/reviewers has that problem and declares the winner solely based on framerates.

We are talking about graphic "accelerators".

Speed is paramount.

It's big kudos in this game and fastest man on the block sells.

When the output of these chips is essentially the same with the current and the rest of the year's software, what do you have left?

In fact, its evidence enough that Nvidia, after spending many engineering hours on SM3.0, still bring out and need that 450Mhz part to drive the rest of the line.

 

[Ollo]

No no, we are talking about "graphic" accelerators.

 

[Florin]

-nm-

 

[hstewarth]

Maybe the benchmarks and specs for Ultra Extreme that we have been seeing is actually for shipping 6800 Ultra's. I guess we find out at end of month.

 

[digitalwanderer]

The SKU does exist and NVIDIA are actively selling it to partners as such.

They're having a nice time trying to cover it up though. NVIDIA have never shipped reference boards based on 'Golden Sample' chips and they're not about to start now.

It's a last minute SKU (for obvious reasons) and partner press info on it is laughable. NVIDIA and their partners aren't in sync on it and it's supposedly shipping "real soon now".

Rys

Where is that info from Rys? Is it reliable?

I'm a little miffed if the Ultra Extreme Presto-Deluxo 6800 doesn't come out from nVidia, it'll mean they used me to perpetrate their FUD so I'm hoping you're right.

 

[Stryyder]

The SKU does exist and NVIDIA are actively selling it to partners as such.

They're having a nice time trying to cover it up though. NVIDIA have never shipped reference boards based on 'Golden Sample' chips and they're not about to start now.

It's a last minute SKU (for obvious reasons) and partner press info on it is laughable. NVIDIA and their partners aren't in sync on it and it's supposedly shipping "real soon now".

Rys

Where is that info from Rys? Is it reliable?

I'm a little miffed if the Ultra Extreme Presto-Deluxo 6800 doesn't come out from nVidia, it'll mean they used me to perpetrate their FUD so I'm hoping you're right.

I am more interested in the 6800 GT pricing and availability anyone have the skinny on that info??

 

[KimB]

Maybe because nvidia evangelized them to do so in gf3 gf4 era ?

No. Reviewers looked almost solely at framerates before nVidia "made it big," so to speak. The "speed is king" methodology was born with 3dfx.

 

[digitalwanderer]

I dunno, I always felt that "speed is king" was a pretty good goal for a while in video cards...at least until they got fast enough to run everything smoothly.

Now that video cards are now bottlenecked by the fastest CPUs currently available speed kind of becomes secondary to a number of other things.

I think "speed is king" died with the R3xx line, since then eye-candy became just as important. (At least I can't live without AA anymore! )

 

[Joe DeFuria]

Maybe because nvidia evangelized them to do so in gf3 gf4 era ?

No. Reviewers looked almost solely at framerates before nVidia "made it big," so to speak. The "speed is king" methodology was born with 3dfx.

Actually, no. 3dfx gave birth to "60 FPS is king..."

 

[Rys]

The SKU does exist and NVIDIA are actively selling it to partners as such.

They're having a nice time trying to cover it up though. NVIDIA have never shipped reference boards based on 'Golden Sample' chips and they're not about to start now.

It's a last minute SKU (for obvious reasons) and partner press info on it is laughable. NVIDIA and their partners aren't in sync on it and it's supposedly shipping "real soon now".

Rys

Where is that info from Rys? Is it reliable?

I'm a little miffed if the Ultra Extreme Presto-Deluxo 6800 doesn't come out from nVidia, it'll mean they used me to perpetrate their FUD so I'm hoping you're right.

Oh it's coming out all right, just NVIDIA would like you to believe it's only because partners saw that the core clocked nicely and fancied putting out a couple of 'Golden Sample' products.

The reality is that NVIDIA created the SKU at the last minute and are pushing partners to spec it and make boards based on it.

They'll appear in retail, that I'm very sure of. My point is that it's so last minute that partners don't even have proper press art, box detailing and even card names ready yet, for the new SKU.

Rys

 

[KimB]

I think "speed is king" died with the R3xx line, since then eye-candy became just as important. (At least I can't live without AA anymore! )

Nah. I think it's just the most objective thing reviewers can measure, and so they feel more comfortable in awarding prizes based on it.

Anyway, statements like the above are why not many people buy the highest-end versions of these parts.