NVIDIA GT200 Rumours & Speculation Thread

[jimmyjames123]

From those quotes by JHH, it sure seems that NVIDIA is working on something big!

I've always gotten the feeling that the April 1, 2008 launch of the 9800 GTX was really meant to be a sort of April Fool's Joke by NVIDIA. It gives competitors the impression that not much progress is being made from 8800 generation to 9800 generation, but in reality it seems that NV is holding something back on purpose.

Anothing interesting thing to note is that JHH has recently made very kind and respectful comments towards AMD, even though they are represented in graphics by NV's archrival ATI. I gather that the threat of Intel entering the visual computing space is enough for NVIDIA and AMD/ATI to become allies rather than adversaries to some extent.

Quite fascinating stuff, I can't wait to see what comes out of it. Historically NVIDIA has always thrived in the face of controversy or pressure, and it really looks like Intel has lit a proverbial fire underneath their skin.

 

[Sound_Card]

If you ask me, I read a hint of fear in Jen's manner. Pounding his chest.

 

[jimmyjames123]

I don't think so, lol. Fear would be better characterized by an indecisive or unsure tone. Saying that you are about to open up a can of whoop @$$ is a pretty bold and confident statement. JHH doesn't sound scared at all, quite the opposite really.

 

[DegustatoR]

well if it's not that then I think it's some sort of dual GPU design ala R680.

No it's not.
Dual GPU cards are not the way to go for now regardless of what you heard from AMD in the past months.

 

[Ailuros]

those specs contradict pretty much all the rumors we've herd so far. BS IMO. EDIT: I'm pretty positive at this point that GT200 is 2 G92s sandwiched together on one die with performance comparable to G92s in SLI, although probably a little bit faster (+10-20%).

Contradict which rumours so far? Considering the rumours others have heard those sound like damn close to those and rather on the right track.

 

[OICAspork]

From those quotes by JHH, it sure seems that NVIDIA is working on something big!

I've always gotten the feeling that the April 1, 2008 launch of the 9800 GTX was really meant to be a sort of April Fool's Joke by NVIDIA. It gives competitors the impression that not much progress is being made from 8800 generation to 9800 generation, but in reality it seems that NV is holding something back on purpose.

I rather doubt that. I don't see any company "holding something back on purpose" in the way you are suggesting. NVidia kinda dicked over their customers with the BS 9XXX series. It is a marketing generation rather than a technological one. Also as far as cocky quotes go, don't forget this:

"NVIDIA’s own CEO Jen-Hsun Huang recently gave an interview to The Mercury News and to acknowledge that his company will be back on top soon said the following: “Tiger Woods doesn't win every day. We don't deny that ATI has a wonderful product and it took the performance lead from us. But if they think they're going to hold onto it, they're smoking something hallucinogenic.”

Of course, in the long run, that has proven to be a true statement, but it was stated before the GeforceFX's launch... talk about getting fan's hopes up and then crushing them.

Seriously though, I really respect Jen-Hsun Huang's leadership. As I understand it, after the disaster which was NV30, Haung and the other execs at NVidia tightened their belts and took the brunt of the financial difficulties at the time, rather than lay offs... and did it without making a big PR event out of it. Think how much more respect and morale the people at AMD would have right now if Hector Ruiz had declined his bonus and cut his salary before the layoffs... It isn't really that altruistic even. Seriously, how many millions of dollars do people need? I'm quite satisfied with a 5 digit annual income!

 

[Sunrise]

those specs contradict pretty much all the rumors we've herd so far. BS IMO.

I´m not sure where exactly you think those specs contradict anything. They sure sound a hell of a lot more doable than some other stuff I´ve read in the past six months and that includes long time members of this board.

 

[Mariner]

I don't think so, lol. Fear would be better characterized by an indecisive or unsure tone. Saying that you are about to open up a can of whoop @$$ is a pretty bold and confident statement. JHH doesn't sound scared at all, quite the opposite really.

Or it could just be bluster. He's well known for 'bigging-up' their products so this quote doesn't really tell us anything.

I'd expect that NV ought to have something impressive in the pipeline though - they must have been doing something since they released G80!

 

[CarstenS]

FWIW - there also was a diagram accompanying the speculations on our website.

here's the direct link - if you're interested.
http://extreme.pcgameshardware.de/attachment.php?attachmentid=12146&d=1207814269

Again, nothing which hasn't been proposed already, if I'm not mistaken.

 

[AnarchX]

Jeff Brown confirmed at a Quadro-event in Munich, that GT-200, this is actually the name of this GPU, will have around 1 billion transistors:
http://www.golem.de/0804/58955.html
... more information from NVs side will come in May, he said.

 

[HAL]

http://www.computerbase.de/news/har...ziell_nvidias_gt200_1_milliarde_transistoren/

 

[nicolasb]

For what it's worth: http://www.fudzilla.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=6786&Itemid=1

Looks that GT200 is also going to be ready for late Q2 launch. We only have some limited data but the chip that we call GT200 is taped out and the prototypes of the card are already up and running.

The device is known as Nvidia GT200-300 and this naming scheme might implicate that this is something that we've seen listed as D10U-30.

We can only speculate is this a 55 or 65nm or if this card has one or two chips but we can confirm that this configuration has 1024MB of memory.

The chip however is called GT200-300. The shocking part is that both R700 and new GT200 might be launched at roughly the same time, or very close to each other.

 

[w0mbat]

Fuso was the first one w/ the right codename, so its more than possible that hes also right on the other GT200 news...

 

[Rangers]

Looks like we'll finally be getting some new cards soon, and plenty!

Time to hold off on upgrading this 9600GT...

 

[Freak'n Big Panda]

Contradict which rumours so far? Considering the rumours others have heard those sound like damn close to those and rather on the right track.

Well in all honesty I don't think we've herd anything concrete on GT200 at all so I can't comment on those specs but when I first opened that link I glanced over the RV770 specs (which are quite clearly off) I just assumed the rest of it was made up as well.

 

[Ailuros]

Well in all honesty I don't think we've herd anything concrete on GT200 at all so I can't comment on those specs but when I first opened that link I glanced over the RV770 specs (which are quite clearly off) I just assumed the rest of it was made up as well.

Depends what you mean with concrete exactly. I can't find the darned link that mentioned over 200SPs and it does make sense to increase the processor amount (I'll just make aaron happy once more) from 16 to 24 per cluster.

Sometimes hints fly around that many don't even notice:

http://forum.beyond3d.com/showpost.php?p=1144057&postcount=369

 

[jimmyjames123]

I rather doubt that. I don't see any company "holding something back on purpose" in the way you are suggesting. NVidia kinda dicked over their customers with the BS 9XXX series. It is a marketing generation rather than a technological one. Also as far as cocky quotes go, don't forget this:

"NVIDIA’s own CEO Jen-Hsun Huang recently gave an interview to The Mercury News and to acknowledge that his company will be back on top soon said the following: “Tiger Woods doesn't win every day. We don't deny that ATI has a wonderful product and it took the performance lead from us. But if they think they're going to hold onto it, they're smoking something hallucinogenic.”

Of course, in the long run, that has proven to be a true statement, but it was stated before the GeforceFX's launch... talk about getting fan's hopes up and then crushing them.

Seriously though, I really respect Jen-Hsun Huang's leadership. As I understand it, after the disaster which was NV30, Haung and the other execs at NVidia tightened their belts and took the brunt of the financial difficulties at the time, rather than lay offs... and did it without making a big PR event out of it. Think how much more respect and morale the people at AMD would have right now if Hector Ruiz had declined his bonus and cut his salary before the layoffs... It isn't really that altruistic even. Seriously, how many millions of dollars do people need? I'm quite satisfied with a 5 digit annual income!

I see your point, but I still do find it interesting that NVIDIA went from 8800 GTX to 9800 GTX while offering very little (at best) performance improvement and no major technological improvement between 8 series and 9 series over a span of 1.5 years. This is in stark contrast to the pattern from 4-->5-->6-->7-->8 series, where each new series had a radically different design from the prior. Only since the days of Geforce 2-->4 did we see relatively little technological leaps, and the main reason for that was lack of strong competition. Certainly the lack of strong competition today is playing a part in the 8-->9 series transition too.

Surely by now, NVIDIA has learned never to underestimate the competition after what happened with the R300/NV30 generation. I can't see them being happy with just "getting by" by being slightly ahead of the competition. The only reasonable conclusion I can come to is that they are holding their best cards closest to their chest in the face of relatively light competition (in the high end market) today. I would be very surprised if GT200 is not a big leap in some areas. As far as I'm concerned, the 9800 is just a placeholder to get by until something much better comes along.

Good point about the NV management style in contrast to the AMD management style. JHH and crew never seem to come across as selfish, and their philosophy makes sense: help my company, then help myself. Ruiz, on the other hand, helps himself to millions in salary/bonuses over the last couple years even though his company is bleeding money.

 

[trinibwoy]

Sometimes hints fly around that many don't even notice:

http://forum.beyond3d.com/showpost.php?p=1144057&postcount=369

600mm^2? Pure insanity

 

[Ailuros]

600mm^2? Pure insanity

PCGH suggests even more than that apparently.

 

[aaronspink]

PCGH suggests even more than that apparently.

really can't be much more or they'll hit the reticle limits, which is kinda bad...

Aaron Spink
speaking for myself inc.