OE
February 9, 2004, 11:11 AM
Cebit is Thursday 18th of March and both Nvidia and ATI will debut their new GPUs. Engineering sample have already been shipped and I have some details on NV40.
Nvidia's next graphics chip, NV40, supports the Shader models 3.0 that Nvidia claims are in DirectX 9.1 and which, in the real world, are in DirectX 9.0c. They're also claiming that the chip have three times the performance and eight times faster shaders than NV38 (Geforce FX 5950 Ultra). I doubt that.
Nvidia also claims that its card will end up four times faster in Doom 3 and seven times faster in Half Life 2. Once again I doubt that. One thing is certian though, NV40 will have much more efficient shaders than NV38 had. NV40 is still AGP but there are rumors their PCI Express chip will be out soon after.
NV40 will use GDDR 2 or 3 memories as its memory controller is capable of both and Nvidia aims to get to 600MHz or 1200MHz effectively. The card will have eight memory chips, 8x32BGA -144 GDDR memory.
There will be two implementations of NV40 chips - as always NV40 U implies Ultra, where Ultra will end up faster. Nvidia calls its NV40 board an "enthusiast" board since it will come at high end price. The card will have two monitor outs with both DVI, VGA and combinations are possible [two DVI, two VGAs, VGA and DVI] and, of course ,TV out.
Availability is April.
Regards,
OE
Nvidia's next graphics chip, NV40, supports the Shader models 3.0 that Nvidia claims are in DirectX 9.1 and which, in the real world, are in DirectX 9.0c. They're also claiming that the chip have three times the performance and eight times faster shaders than NV38 (Geforce FX 5950 Ultra). I doubt that.
Nvidia also claims that its card will end up four times faster in Doom 3 and seven times faster in Half Life 2. Once again I doubt that. One thing is certian though, NV40 will have much more efficient shaders than NV38 had. NV40 is still AGP but there are rumors their PCI Express chip will be out soon after.
NV40 will use GDDR 2 or 3 memories as its memory controller is capable of both and Nvidia aims to get to 600MHz or 1200MHz effectively. The card will have eight memory chips, 8x32BGA -144 GDDR memory.
There will be two implementations of NV40 chips - as always NV40 U implies Ultra, where Ultra will end up faster. Nvidia calls its NV40 board an "enthusiast" board since it will come at high end price. The card will have two monitor outs with both DVI, VGA and combinations are possible [two DVI, two VGAs, VGA and DVI] and, of course ,TV out.
Availability is April.
Regards,
OE