**NVIDIA RELEASING 270,290,GX2********* read :)

HEY! i was doing some research and stuff and i came across an interesting article...

*click the link and read*
http://www.guru3d.com/news/nvidia- [...] -november/

Im currently looking to upgrade my videocard, and im not sure if i should wait till november.....

Has anyone heard anything about this?

I'll agree to that, what a waste of Nvidia's resources, they should be thinking of the next GPU instead of just revisions and money hogs.

I'm pretty sure AIBs would be pretty pissed if nVidia was already trying to replace the 260 core 216 with the 270 as well as trying to drive the price of the 260 down further.

What's wrong with revisions? ATI did that with x800---->x850 and x1800---->x1900---->x1950

Yeah the first time it came out as the InQuirer article ; and while the 55nm transition makes alot of sense the GX2 makes very VERY little sense at all.

It's also going to have issues with cooling a chip that produces that much heat right into the backplate of the card infront of it.

nVidia has to go 55nm to cut costs, but the GX2 seems like a waste of time compared to getting the G200B out there ASAFP to lower costs.
That the 55nm refresh didn't hit before October leads me to believe they had problems in their transition. They definitely need it out there by November to make Xmas sales, but depending on AMD's pricing reaction it may waste alot of it's benefits trying to once again sell below it's best return price. And trying to sell a huge GX2 with 2 PCBs and 2 expensive chips (still much more expensive to make than the RV770) in a time when people are reconsidering their purchases/finances doesn't make much sense. You willing to Pay ~$800 for something that would likely be close to mirroring the performance of 2 GTX280s in SLI? Especially considering that those will drop in price dramatically as the new stuff arrives.

Focusing on the next generation is a good idea, but unless they've abandoned the GTX series as too costly (which would make sense if you're rushing to the next generation) then the 55nm is needed to lower costs per chip. Selling alot of GTX260 and 260+ models still cost as much on the chip level as a GTX280 if you're not just selling castoffs.

At this point a GX2 card sounds similar to the first GX2 card and the GF7800Ultra, essentially just a card to fill a performance hole and retain the PR crown, but at a very high cost, high price, and ultra-low availability. The difference being that nV was making a mint from their other cards when they did that, I think the GX2 would be an uneeded waste of resources compared to the benefits of the 55nm transition (which might have mobile opportunities).

Anywhoo, the only reason you should wait for Novemeber is if you want essentially a 5-10% boost in performance from a 55nm GTX. It's not going to be anything ground breaking.

GT100s will be rbadged GF9 series cards. The midrange will likely keep their GT2xx naming just lower down on the list, and the lack of any buzz about them is not a good thing.

That doesn't make much sense. The 55nm is needed to lower costs of a huge expensive chip. ATi can produce almost triple as many RV770 on single wafer and are also said to have a higher yield rate after that. The G200 is 2.25 times the size, and the RV770 can fit more in the high yield center and even in the spaces around the edges. I think the numbers are 228 : 86 per wafer right now, and the 55nm shrink should make it just under 120 raw G200b die per wafer (a 256bit memory interface might yield about 135/wafer), which still is a long way from the RV770 which would still be near the 2:1 ratio, especially if yields don't improve. Right now supposedly the yields are making it even worse and closer to 4:1 ratio, so they need to improve both dies per wafer and yield ontop of that.

As for 40nm, they can't magically skip to 40nm until it's ready, and until then they have to do something about the large cost of the G200s if they want to keep selling them.
An optical shrink isn't very much, and should be pretty easy (baring unforseen issues like crosstalk, heat, etc), the delay to me implies they went the G92 route again and simplified things while they are at it, and that redesign took a bit of time ontop of the previous August deadlines.

It'll be interesting either way, but I think it's going to struggle to be as profitable as the RV770, while almost definitely being better performing on a 1:1 basis.

Wait till 40nm before upgrading your current high end gpus. Anything from a geforce 8800 or radeon hd3850 is more than enough to last till q3 2009. I wonder if Nvidia or ATI is going to keep using 512 bit memory interface with 40nm? Ive been told you need a big die for enough pins for 512 bit memory.

You're kidding, right?

And on topic, I stated in another thread that I don't think we'll see 512-bit buses mainstream (even in the high end) soon, if ever. GDDR5 is blazing fast, even on a 256-bit bus, and I don't think they're going to slow down on making new memory faster. Buses have issues because of physical pins, something very difficult to overcome, but memory deals with much smaller, more electronic things, rather than pins and making 500 some traces on a PCB.

i'm just waiting for the generation after the next generation to upgrade... the 6870 or the GTX 480 lol

Last night, I was just thinking we could be seeing dual channel buses for video cards. 2x256 bit buses would rock! As for physical pins, im sure they may invent a new way for buses, such as using lasers to transmit data

What a clever name for the card

However doubtful, if that is indeed true then there really is no reason to even sell the card. $20 profit per card dosent even cover the distribution/packaging cost.

you can knock the inquirer but they do get a lot of insider information that a lot of other site's will not publish

You would sell the card simply to keep your name in the running, and to maintain all the other support systems that rely on people buying nV. Also you have the halo effect of a high end part influencing the mid-level buyers, etc.

ATi went through the same problem with their HD2900 where they were coming nowhere near profitabilty, but they needed to sell something.

However also remember that while the G200 may cost about $260 to build and get to market it sells for near that price in a GTX260 but the GTX280 sells for more than that which is the equalizer somewhat.