Nvidia 2008 Roadmap

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stefan9

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NVIDIA Roadmap Outline for 1H08

While this is in no way complete, it should help our readers understand the direction NVIDIA is taking their video cards in early 2008. Some of this is sketchy and we will surely have follow up articles on the subject.

While a continued GPU die shrink to 65nm is certainly welcome, many of our readers are going to be disappointed by the fact that no next-gen technology is on the outlook as of yet. It has been over a year since the 8800 family of GPU was launched.

* GeForce 8800 Ultra will be replaced by the GeForce 9800 GX2 in February / March timeframe. More information and pictures are here.

* The GeForce 8800 GTX will be replaced by the GeForce 9800 GTX in February / March timeframe. This card will support Tri-SLI.

* The GeForce 9800 GT should appear in the March / April timeframe. We have limited information on this card currently.

* The recently “released” GeForce 8800 GS will be a limited GPU in terms of production. Do not expect more than 100,000 GPUs to be shipped worldwide, but soon. ASUS will supply Asia, Palit will supply China, EVGA will supply North America, and XFX will supply Europe. The GS is an “inventory solution.” The 8800 GS is 192-bit bus and will ship in 320MB, 512MB, and 640MB versions with a trimmed down number of stream processors as well. Will fall in line below 8800 GT but above the 9600 GT.

* The GeForce 9600 GT will fall in line below the 8800 GT, but give better performance than the GeForce 8600 GTS. The 9600 GT will be a whole new card not based on the 8800 GT PCB. Price point should be at $169 in retail/etail and plans are to carry this GPU throughout 2008.

So as it looks right now, we should not expect anything out of NVIDIA in terms of next-gen technology at least until mid-2008. Don’t be confused by the new “98XX” model numbers as they don’t signify much more than the die shrink to 65nm. You might agree or disagree with this naming scheme, but the entire NVIDIA card market is getting confusing and this might at least help things be a bit not-as-confusing to consumers looking for a newer product, but most likely is being done for the big system builders needing “new” specs for new system builds.

My feeling is that NVIDIA is holding back their true next-gen technology (if they actually have it working now) for the AMD R700 release that we could see around mid-2008, if not sooner.

As for the recent rumors on Intel purchasing or merging with NVIDIA, well, we think that is a bunch of BS.

We do realize this “roadmap” is far from complete. When we have new information we will be sharing it.
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Nvidia roadmap

Looking forward to the specs for the 9800gt and 9800gtx and pricing.
 
* The recently “released” GeForce 8800 GS will be a limited GPU in terms of production. Do not expect more than 100,000 GPUs to be shipped worldwide, but soon. ASUS will supply Asia, Palit will supply China, EVGA will supply North America, and XFX will supply Europe. The GS is an “inventory solution.” The 8800 GS is 192-bit bus and will ship in 320MB, 512MB, and 640MB versions with a trimmed down number of stream processors as well. Will fall in line below 8800 GT but above the 9600 GT.

* The GeForce 9600 GT will fall in line below the 8800 GT, but give better performance than the GeForce 8600 GTS. The 9600 GT will be a whole new card not based on the 8800 GT PCB. Price point should be at $169 in retail/etail and plans are to carry this GPU throughout 2008.
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If anything, that'll increase demand for the 8800 GT.

So as it looks right now, we should not expect anything out of NVIDIA in terms of next-gen technology at least until mid-2008. Don’t be confused by the new “98XX” model numbers as they don’t signify much more than the die shrink to 65nm. You might agree or disagree with this naming scheme, but the entire NVIDIA card market is getting confusing and this might at least help things be a bit not-as-confusing to consumers looking for a newer product, but most likely is being done for the big system builders needing “new” specs for new system builds.
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The 8800 GT uses a 65nm die, so that can't be the reason. Maybe it is just a consolidation move to help system builders. It will appear deceptive to consumers though.

My feeling is that NVIDIA is holding back their true next-gen technology (if they actually have it working now) for the AMD R700 release that we could see around mid-2008, if not sooner.
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I agree with that remark. HW developments are increasingly unfolding like Spy vs Spy.
 
stefan9 said:
Looking forward to the specs for the 9800gt and 9800gtx and pricing.
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Off the topic now, I c u running the G9. Is it any gud? I almost bought the unit but was put off by it's odd shape and strange looks. I have the G11 and G5.... very gud stuff :)
 
xeo57 said:
Off the topic now, I c u running the G9. Is it any gud? I almost bought the unit but was put off by it's odd shape and strange looks. I have the G11 and G5.... very gud stuff :)
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Love the G9 best mouse I have owned. Shape is fine for me. Besides you get two grips with it so if one doesn't work for you you can try the other one. I like the ability to have 3 different profiles on the mouse and then being able to adjust dpi instantly.
 
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9600 gt will be good. They decided to move these onto a 256bit bus which was the major problem with 8600 since they were on a 128bit bus.
 
WKJ?:beanie said:
For one of my other PCs :p Probably replace the 7800GT...
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......:o I was looking at the different brands of HD3850 in China.......Different PCB layout, heatsink, some even used ram that was used only in 8800ultra......Cheapest brand, refereced design after conversion is about the same price of the XFX 8600GT 256mb DDR3 from PCINT........Maybe I should really ask my relatives that side to bring me one:D

Have a look at the 11 different makes of HD3850 http://diy.maddiy.com/vga/pingce/18874(just add '_number' to jump to different pages).html
 
ForSure said:
so 8600gt not a good card anymore ?
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anymore? you make it sound as if it was a good card at some point.

Google and check some reviews where they compare it to the 7 series cards and to the current ATI cards...I was pretty pissed off when I heard about it...especially my DDR2 512mb card that costs more [paid R1900 for the Gigabyte card] than the DDR3 256mb version of the 8600 GT but is a little slower...
 
Im curious about performance though. Ive read on vr-zone forums that the top of the range 9800GX2(or something like that, with 2 G92 GTS's) only has 30% performance above the ultra. So where does that leave the rest of the range if its true.?
 
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