Nvidia really gonna obsolete the 6800NU so soon?

[ChrisRay]

NVIDIA WILL INTRODUCE its NV43 mainstream card at the upcoming game convention that will take place in Leipzig, Germany from 19th till 22nd of August.

As we've said many times before, this chip is mainstream part build on 110 nanometer process with eight pipes 256 bit memory interface and it will be clocked at 425 MHz core and 450MHz memory. Not bad for a mainstream part.

We expect 8000 3dmarks from it and eventually you will get very nice performance for its sub $200 price. It might be a very good seller, I predict.

This core is much cheaper to produce than NV40 generation as its die is smaller. A 110 nanometer will still remain more expensive then 130 nanos but this will level up or get cheaper soon. You just have to build up the volumes.

As for shader support, Nvidia is dedicated to go for Shader model 3.0 only with its new chip and put some additional pressure on ATI non Shader model 3.0 company. But eventually ATI Shader model 2.0b will work just fine, you will see when you see the first scores.

Those NV 43 cards are expected in autumn but you never know when they are actually going to be available.

Nvidia has the chance to ship these cards before ATI's RV410, according to the latest forecasts. However, launching it in late August doesn't mean that you will be able to actually buy it then. Let's go and hunt down its name now. µ


http://discuss.futuremark.com/forum/showflat.pl?Cat=&Board=techdisplayadapters&Number=4175809&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=0&fpart=1&vc=1&dbid=1

[ricercar]

My first reaction was that this was a noob being obtuse, but I now see it is not. I have edited my response appropriately to be more respectful.

The word "mainstream" means this NV43 GPU is not in the same marketspace as the "enthusiast" NV40 GPU. However, the target 3DMarks of 8000 do seem to indicate the same performance as the NV40 non-ultra/non-GT.

It would not surprise me to see the 12-pipe NV40 reach EOL, while the 16 pipe GT and Ultra stay the course. Perhaps the NV40 is providing better yields per die than expected, and therefore can be sold in the higher-quality version for more profit.

[ChrisRay]

Oh I get your hint. But look at the suggested memory speeds/core speeds.

We're talken 425 (3400 Fill Rate) Verses 325 (3900) with a 700 mhz verses a 900 mhz memory on the bottom.

[ricercar]

After reading your post more accurately, (see my edits) I agree it's likely NVIDIA will EOL the 6800 plain jane in favor of the NV43 offering 8000 OnionMarks at a lower mainstream price.

[Lezmaka]

The source, which the poster at FM's forums failed to indicate, is The Inq. And while The Inq can get some good information sometimes, I'm not too sure I'd put much faith in their personal expectations of a cards performance. If they had "reported" (no disrespect to real reporters) it will get 8000 onions, then I'd put more weight behind it.

It seems that that NV43 is for the $199 market, and NV41 (12 pipe chip) sliding into the current 6800NU's slot at $299. I'm wondering if it might get a bit crowded on upper half of things. Varying the number of vertex shaders would help differentiate them a little more.

[Draconis]

I hope this is not the oem card id like to get this card.

[ChrisRay]

Ya definately more info needs to be obtained. The 6800NU has 5 vertex shaders and 12 pipes,

To achieve a 6800NU fill rate it would have to be clocked @ like 490 mhz, But the memory bandwith it appears to have is compelling (though I find it a bit unbelievable atm)

Currently I'm not really concerned. I mean 6800NU is flashed to 350/900 atm and doing 4200 fillrate.

[nvnews-reader]

I doubt it will be 8000 3Dmarks. The GT's are only hitting 10,000-11,000 in most cases.

[Dazz]

At the current rate we will be seeing the R520 & NV50 before the NV 40 & 45/ R420, damn they are so damn well rare.

[coldpower27]

I thought all the NV40's has 6 Vertex Pipes???

If this is true and the NV43 is a 8x1 Part with 256Bit Memory Interface, I suspect, that Geforce 6600? Ultra? will only have 4 Vertex Pipes, making this part more powerful then the Geforce FX 5900 Series, we will have to see if it is equipped with 128 or 256Mb of RAM or not.

[AthlonXP1800]

Here will be 2 NV43 models: Geforce 6600 at 300Mhz core clock and Geforce 6600 GT running at 500Mhz core clock. :) The PCI Express versions will have SLI for $199, I think 2 SLI 6600 GT linked will perform much faster than 1 6800 Ultra at the same price.

Geforce 6600 will be launch on 12 August at Quakecon.

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=17706

[ChrisRay]

I expect the 300 mhz variant to be the 200 Dollar priced card, and the 500 mhz variant to be the 299 price card.

[coldpower27]

It doesn't seem likely that the mainstream parts will go to the 299US price point, generally they start at the 199US price point and go down from there.

Though we have had at least "4" high end cores in main stream top levels now:D

Geforce 3 Ti200 MSRP 199US???
Geforce 4 Ti4200 MSRP 199US
Geforce FX 5900 XT MSRP 199US
Geforce 6800 LE MSRP 199US

But back in the Geforce 3 and Geforce 4 Ti there was only high end and budget.... no in between target mainstream so to say really.

[ChrisRay]

You have to compare fillrate/bandwith of the 6600GT

@ 500 mhz core, and 900 + Memory speeds.

It has more fillrate than a 6800NU and superior bandwith, It makes sense this card will take over the 299 price tag.

While the lower priced 6600, With a 300 core and like 600 mhz memory, will take over the mid range price sector.


500 x 8 = 4000 Fill Rate.


325 x 12 = 3900

[Vagrant Zero]

Man SLI can seriously put Nvidia above and beyond everyone else. I mean seriously, 2 660GTs could outperform 1 6800GT, especially if they're softmoddable.

[Draconis]

Can we use this card on agp? If so then it be sweet cause I dont plan on getting a pci-e board anytime soon :(

[MUYA]

SLI is PCI-Express specific only it seems.

[Hallowed]

Chris:

This card has managed to find itself into a few machines in Taiwan.

D-Cross and IIRC GZeasy have both hit the 8K reported by the Inq earlier last week, with 1024x768.

Suggested price was $160 for the 6600 Standard, and $199 for the 6600 GT.

I find this rather surprising, as the GT has a not-trifling 16 GB/s of memory bandwith and quite a bit of fillrate.

With the die size of the 6800 cores, its easily understandable that NV would much rather produce .11µ mainstream products with a smaller die, and I wouldn't discount the notion that a 128-bit memory bus will save on memory and PCB costs.

I do believe this is a paper launch to assuage investors, and not to pique enthusiasts' appetite.

[ChrisRay]

Chris:

This card has managed to find itself into a few machines in Taiwan.

D-Cross and IIRC GZeasy have both hit the 8K reported by the Inq earlier last week, with 1024x768.

Suggested price was $160 for the 6600 Standard, and $199 for the 6600 GT.

I find this rather surprising, as the GT has a not-trifling 16 GB/s of memory bandwith and quite a bit of fillrate.

With the die size of the 6800 cores, its easily understandable that NV would much rather produce .11µ mainstream products with a smaller die, and I wouldn't discount the notion that a 128-bit memory bus will save on memory and PCB costs.

I do believe this is a paper launch to assuage investors, and not to pique enthusiasts' appetite.



Hallowed, This post was made when I still believed the 6600GT was going to have a 256 bit memory bus.