Strange thought

[DadGT]

As I was waiting for NV30, a strange thought occured to me. What happened with NV18/28? The parts seem rather still born to me. I have no doubt that OEMs will use them and they will be "successful" parts for nVidia. But the launch of them was a total nonissue. Barely any real press.

So that got me to the strange part of my thoughts. Looking at nVidia's past release schedule, fall parts have been refreshes (GF2 Ultra, GF3 Ti) which really appear to be nothing but core speed tweaks. That fits with NV18/28. In that scenario, where does that leave NV30? A spring part. So does that really mean that NV30 is early? Could nVidia have gotten hold of someone's plans and bumped up NV30 in production (and here I mean that about a year ago, nVidia moved up the schedule for NV30 by 3 months or so)? Could this have been the reason why TMSC has had problems transitioning to 0.13um, because nVidia moved their schedule up?

Think about it.

[Uttar]

Hmm, this kinda makes sense.

However, nVidia always said they were on a 18 month cycle ( So yes, this does confirm the NV20 was 6 month late )
So considering the NV20 release date, if it was Spring 2003, it would have been 24 months.

So really, i find this highly unlikely.


Uttar

[jbirney]

Well last year you had the spring release of the GF3 and the fall of the GF3 ti serries which is what nV had done in the past. The reall kicker was the GF4. The GF4 was not their typical spring new product. More of a tweaked refresh of a gf3 ti which was a refresh of the GF3. The GF4 offered no additional featues exepct for x4s AA and brought nV up to match the 8500 Dx 8.1 status. The other things that the GF4 did (improved crossbar, more efficent AA, higher speed) are really not features of the card you can selectively use. IMHO it was a stop gap product ment to hold the lead until the nV30 was close. I guess the difference from the GF4 to GF3 ti500 are close to the diff from a DDR GF to a GF2. But no way was the NV30 early.

[Uttar]

No, jbirney. I got to disagree.
From your "every spring comes good products" theory, two problems arise:
1. The GF3 was delayed ( should have been released 6 months earlier )
2. nVidia publicly said that they're on a 18 month cycle

So, the NV20 architecture, if you forget the initial delay, is a perfect example of what their goal is.

1. Release a new architecture ( Geforce 3 )
2. 6 Months Later: Release a beefed-up revision, with nearly no changes and an evantual driver revision. ( Geforce 3 Ti )
3. 12 Months Later: Release a new revision, with several minor changes. ( Geforce 4 Ti )
4. Evantual release of a beefed-up version of the revision, with few very minor changes. ( Geforce 4 Ti AGP 8X )
5. 18 Months Later: Release a new architecture
6. Evantual release of a beefed-up version of the revision, with few very minor changes ( it's unlikely this will happen with the NV20 architecture )
And so on...


But then you'll likely ask "And is there any example of the 6?"
Well, yes, there is. The Geforce 2 MX.
The Geforce 2 MX was released after the Geforce 3. And the 4 also existed, that's the Geforce 2 Ultra, which only existed because the NV20 was late ( unlikely it would have been released after the NV20 )


Uttar

[kingsna]

here's what i thought when i read your thoughts:

how bored can a person be to be actually thinking of a graphics card maker's plans to releease some product?

i'd say waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay bored!
like bored to death maybe!

come on guys, it's just a damn graphics chip not something that should be obsessed upon like this!

it comes out whenever it comes out and i frankly don't care about what it took to get it out because it's just not worth the thought because i can be making money out of those thoughts instead of wasting my brain power over a non-issue!

and beleive me i know 95% of you people are not going to buy nv30 withing the first 3 months of it's release because it would be too darn expensive and if you do, you're either have money to burn or you're not thinking realistically!

later,
Peace!

[Philibob]

Originally posted by kingsna
and beleive me i know 95% of you people are not going to buy nv30 withing the first 3 months of it's release because it would be too darn expensive and if you do, you're either have money to burn or you're not thinking realistically!
...or if you're still using onboard nForce graphics ;)

[StealthHawk]

Originally posted by Uttar
But then you'll likely ask "And is there any example of the 6?"
Well, yes, there is. The Geforce 2 MX.
The Geforce 2 MX was released after the Geforce 3.
no, the gf2mx was out in 2000, a ~6 months before the GF3.

edit: oh, and the 4xS FSAA mode was available long before the GF4 came out with the GF3 and RT. nvidia just never added it to the GF3's control panel.

[Uttar]

Originally posted by StealthHawk
no, the gf2mx was out in 2000, a ~6 months before the GF3.

edit: oh, and the 4xS FSAA mode was available long before the GF4 came out with the GF3 and RT. nvidia just never added it to the GF3's control panel.

Errr, sorry for not being sufficently clear.
I'm talking about the Geforce 2 MX 200 and the Geforce 2 MX 400

AFAIK, those were released after the NV20. Or am i wrong here?


Uttar

[StealthHawk]

Originally posted by Uttar
Errr, sorry for not being sufficently clear.
I'm talking about the Geforce 2 MX 200 and the Geforce 2 MX 400

AFAIK, those were released after the NV20. Or am i wrong here?


Uttar

in that case call yourself correct. they were released a few months after the GF3(NV20).