NV48 Made it to Market?

[JoshMST]

Apparently some folks over at Guru3D are reporting that they have NV48 based 6800's.

Last I heard NVIDIA decided they didn't need this part, but apparently it is making it out into public.

One thing I am not sure of is if NV48 was going to be a IBM or TSMC product?

http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?threadid=141559

Edit: I realize that NV48 was the code for the 512 MB 6800 U's, but these guys are showing regular 6800's and GT's, as well as Ultras.

 

[Geo]

For those of us who are code-name impaired, this means what? 110nm and possiblity a much nicer OCable beastie? And what is it's G name?

Edit: And, oh yeah, I suppose also an indication that they just extended its life in their product line for another 6months to a year, or why bother?

 

[Dave Baumann]

The main point of NV48 would be to reduce the costs of the die, which 110nm would be the best candidate to do it with which would point to TSMC (and probably with greater availability than IBM's line).

 

[JoshMST]

Something else to chew on...

Just talked to a friend of mine who works at a board supplier, and he laughed at my suggestion of a "new" NV48. His understanding of NV48 is that it is simply a NV45, but is able to reliably handle the higher memory densities. It could just be that some of these NV48's are being used as binned down chips for other products.

If this is the case, then it certainly seems a bit more plausible than NVIDIA actually going with a new 110 nm design. Then again...

Now if only those folks with the NV48's would take off their heatsinks and take a picture!

 

[Geo]

Umm, but that wouldn't explain why RivaTuner wasn't able to read it, would it? (referring to the thread you provided). I'm assuming it has been able to read the 512MB versions before now.

 

[BOOMEXPLODE]

IIRC when NV40 launched they had both the 6600 and the 6800 available initially, with the low end 6200 available not long after (right?). When can we expect a Geforce 7600 and a Geforce 7200? I guess the 6600 and 6200 will continue to adress that market segment for now, but it would be nice to have a 7200 out there by Christmas...

 

[^eMpTy^]

I thought nv48 was just the 512MB version of nv40...there was an article on the inq about it a while back...

 

[Martin Eddy]

IIRC when NV40 launched they had both the 6600 and the 6800 available initially, with the low end 6200 available not long after (right?). When can we expect a Geforce 7600 and a Geforce 7200? I guess the 6600 and 6200 will continue to adress that market segment for now, but it would be nice to have a 7200 out there by Christmas...

I don't think they're going to do a 7200 or 7600. AFAIK the 7800GTX is just an addition to the existing line up. NVIDIA have stated the they intend to keep their existing line up except for the 6800 ULTRA.

 

[AlexV]

It would also be a bit pointless to do 7600 and 7200, as there is no need to refresh their lineup there, as there is no competition.OTOH, what fragment/ROP arrangement could those have to have comparable prices and higher performance in order to warrant the upgrade?

 

[Rys]

You can bet there are new SKUs based on G70 just waiting for release, depending on market conditions and the competition. It'd be absolutely mad not to be working on them, knowing that ATI have new low-end and mid-range SKUs in preparation.

Common sense tells you NVIDIA are just waiting for the right time to release them, based on current sales of 6600 and 6200 parts and ATI's release schedule. To say they'll never appear is to misunderstand what's going on.

 

[Geo]

You can bet there are new SKUs based on G70 just waiting for release, depending on market conditions and the competition. It'd be absolutely mad not to be working on them, knowing that ATI have new low-end and mid-range SKUs in preparation.

Common sense tells you NVIDIA are just waiting for the right time to release them, based on current sales of 6600 and 6200 parts and ATI's release schedule. To say they'll never appear is to misunderstand what's going on.

Are you expecting the mid-range G7x to be 90nm at introduction? That would be one answer to Morgoth's point above --higher clocks, better yields (i.e. lower costs) to go with the beefed up ALU compared to G6.

Edit: Tho looking at the ratio of ps to rops on 6600 vs 7800, might suggest they need more rops for 7600 rather than a die-shrink with beefed up alu. . .

 

[Carl B]

I think we will definitely be seeing additional 7000-series skus coming. Just because they will continue to sell the 6000-series doesn't mean that 7000 won't have mid-tier cards; afterall, look how long the NV30 parts clung on to life after NV40 parts were released.

 

[Rys]

Are you expecting the mid-range G7x to be 90nm at introduction? That would be one answer to Morgoth's point above --higher clocks, better yields (i.e. lower costs) to go with the beefed up ALU compared to G6.

Edit: Tho looking at the ratio of ps to rops on 6600 vs 7800, might suggest they need more rops for 7600 rather than a die-shrink with beefed up alu. . .

I'd expect them (or at least the mid-range SKU) to be 110nm at introduction, rather than 90nm, personally. There's headroom on that process for a 500MHz 4/8/4 part (7600 GT if you will, and SKUs binned lower with that configuration) and there's less cost to be sucked up by process R&D. If anything, something like G7 Go would be the first 90nm test-the-water part I'd expect from NVIDIA. It'd be a decent volume part to see what yeilds are really like, before comitting a bunch of chips to the process. I'm guessing though.

I don't expect the '7600 GT' esqu part to keep the same fragment/ROP ratio that 7800 GTX has either. To keep the same ratio (or as close as possible) would mean 6 ROPs on a 8 fragment unit part. Can't see that. You'd be more likely to see return to 1:1, depending on die space considerations, imho.

Regardless, we'll see in the next few months

 

[Geo]

8/12/6 makes a nice plot from 6600-->7600 compared to 6800-->7800.

Jes sayin'.

 

[Blazkowicz]

I'd love that, a 500MHz 8 ROPs / 12 pipes / 6 vertex (that's what you mean?) G7x with 256bits would be nice against ATI's X800XL.

NV could stop making their higher cost NV40/45/48, and there'd still be room for the NV43.
Likewise I'd expect ATI to stop making R480 when R520 is out.