NV31 specs and info.

[Gar]

Just read over at beyond3d (http://www.beyond3d.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3903) that the NV31 samples are available and should be in volume in early March. It was posted by CMKRNL who people say works for TSMC. Anyways, I'll just repost the info. Sounds interesting.

Posted by CMKRNL

NV31 A01 samples available now, A02 samples early February, volume production expected early March.

I noticed some question about NV33/NV34 configuration earlier: it is 4x1.

As expected, next high end part is NV35, next consumer part is NV36.

Specs:
NV31

0.13u
DX9
4x1 pipeline
128 bit memory interface, DDR-1
300Mhz core
Z culling, Z compression, Color compression
HW IDCT, iQuant, MC for DVD
Dual integrated 400Mhz Ramdacs
Integrated TV encoder, TMDS transmitters

You can basically take this as fact considering this guy hasn't been wrong once in his predictions, you can go back and check is prior insider info at beyond3d.

[Joe DeFuria]

NV31 looks remarkably like what I expect the RV-350 to turn out to be.

Which isn't too surprising considering that I expect them to go after the same $150-$250 MSRP price point. (Where the 9500 and 9500 Pro currently are.)

[Gar]

So you don't think they will keep the 256 bit bus with the RV350?

[Joe DeFuria]

Gar,

The RV-350 is not the "successor" to the R-300. The RV-350 is a "value" version of that chip. So no, I don't think the 256 bit bus will make it in that chip because it'll be too expensive.

Note, for example, that the Radeon 9500 and 9500 Pro both lack the 256 bit bus.

Of course, the R-350 will retain the 256 bit bus, as that chip is the successor to the R-300, and will be ATI's next "top of the line" part.

[Bigus Dickus]

I seriously doubt the RV350 will have only 4 pipelines. Despite the "V" for value, look at previous "V" parts:

RV200 was essentially the R100 architecture on a smaller process. It was faster than the R100.

RV250 is the R200 cut down to 1 TMU/pipe, but it is still about the same speed as the R200.

How would a 4 pipe 128 bit version of the R300 be anywhere near the same speed??? You're talking about a 9500 non-pro perhaps clocked a bit faster. :confused:

No, I expect that by the time the RV350 gets here ram in the 800-900 MHz range will be fairly inexpensive. Also, on .13u I expect them to still retain the 8x1 architecture and have a reasonably priced product.

Now, they might do the same thing as the 9500/9500-pro, where RV350 chips that fail on some pipes are respun as a 4x1 product, thereby filling out the bottom end and increasing overall yields.

But if they replace both the 9500 and 9500 pro with a 4x1 version, that's going to leave a huge gap between it and the R350, with only the out-of-production 9700's to fill.

[Dazz]

Dum dum dum......
Hope you like to read :D

The situation around the GeForce FX-based products is finally more or less clear: the first graphics cards should start to appear in February, while in March there will be a lot more of such solutions, as Nvidia’s partners will finally get more cards to sell. Now we should talk a bit about the derivatives from the NV30 architecture, namely the code-named NV31 and NV34 VPUs.

The GeForce FX was quite hard to develop, as it combines a lot of techniques from NVIDIA and 3dfx guys. The result of such collaboration is clear: NVIDIA managed to develop the most feature-rich product, but had to get through various obstacles on the way to build the actual silicon chip working at high frequencies. There is a huge disadvantage in such approach: after a company launches a high-end graphics processor with loads of innovative hardware capabilities, they also have to make a not very expensive mainstream solution, so that the feature-set gained popularity on the market and game developers start to utilise these features. In case there is only one product to support a feature, there will be a very few game developers who will implement this feature in their games, thus, there will be fewer customers to buy the high-end graphics cards.

Apparently, the NV31 and NV34 code-named products reportedly do not support all the features their elder brethren GeForce FX does.

The NV31 is expected to utilise numerous technologies introduced in the GeForce FX VPU and also offer comparable performance to the GeForce4 Ti4600, but with possible improvements in antialiasing and anisotropic filtering speed. The NV31 is here to substitute the GeForce4 Ti4600 from the performance market segment. Generally speaking, the NV31 code-named products will compete with the RADEON 9500 PRO and 9700-based solutions, so, it is very logically for them to be cheap enough.

The NV34 is planned as a next-generation mainstream solution for desktop PCs. The NV34 core will eventually be found in mobile computers and afterwards integrated in the next-generation of nForce core-logic sets.

NVIDIA has not confirmed the information, but said that both VPUs mentioned here derive from the NV3x architecture. I believe that the company will try to embody a number of the GeForce FX features via the software in case they are not supported by hardware, hence, the NV34 and NV31-based solutions will still be able to perform advanced effects, but using the CPU of the system.