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A "refresh" isnt going to suddenly get 256 bit. I've been reading this on a number of forums and it's just wrong.

It would be a whole new chip as the pins would increase as well as the basic architecture of the chip. May as well be a whole new chips for that matter. The only way you might be able to hang a 256-bit label on the NV30 is if they can make a scalable, dual chip model, at which point you'd have 2x128 bit, and might be able to market this as 256 bit, the same way Atari marketed the Jaguar game console as 64 bit.

 

Correctomundo.

nVidia will likely have to sit on the NV30 "Ultra" for the better part of next year, when the NV35 makes it's debut. I expect a 256 bit bus on the NV35, and some other improvements, in time for Christmas.

 

that's disappointing then, if Nvidia is going to be stuck with 128-bit memory bus for the entire NV3X line.

I still hope NV35 is "killer" with 256-bit. but if they can't (or won't) make the move to a wider bus until NV40, which probably wont be seen til 2004, then I might as well get a 9700 or R350.

while memory bus width isn't everything, it is a whole lot.

we could be looking at a period where ATI dominates in sheer performance (with the release of r350 and GDDR-3) while Nvidia has the edge in nearly useless shaders.

not unlike the situation ATI found itself in with R200/8500, sqeezed inbetween NV20 and NV25.

 

Isn't it better to say "while speed isn't everything, it is a whole lot" ?