GeForce FX canned and ATI R350 just OC'd 300! What!

[Socio]

A couple of tidbits I came across today

No more GeForce FX?

"
GeForce FX canned?
Posted on Wednesday, February 05, 2003
at 12:52 PM by Zardon - View Article Comments

http://warp2search.net/article.php?sid=10405&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0

quote:

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NVIDIA UK HAS REFUSED to comment on a posting on a 3D bulletin board claiming that the GeForce FX is for the chop.According to the rumour, posted at x-3DFX, Nvidia is canning the GeForce FX and has told its foundry, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (TSMC), to stop when 100,000 NV30 are produced. The same posting claimed that Nvidia will now concentrate on NV31, NV34, and NV35.
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ATI R350 is basically an overclocked R300?

ATI's R350 in mass production
Posted on Wednesday, February 05, 2003
at 6:11 AM by ToshiroOC - View Article Comments

http://www.driverheaven.net/index.php?s=#article_955


In the high performance graphics industry, performance must be combined with quality. It is this neverending race which will lead to initial availability of Nvidia's new Geforce FX cards this month.

However, we have learned that ATI's next generation R350 chip which will compete with the Geforce FX is now in mass production, and will definitely be in retail stores in April. It will be officially announced at CeBIT in Hannover, Germany on March 12, 2003.

Many facts are already known. The R300 (sic: R350?) will be built on a 150 nanometer process. It is basically an overclocked R300 with eight rendering pipelines and two texture units per pipeline.

We expect the chip to launch at a core clock of 375MHz. It will incorporate DirectX 9.1 features, which is great if you're going to keep the card for at least two years, but don't expect to see any games written for it released for at least a year.

ATI will brand the chip the Radeon 9900 Pro, and the card will be equipped with 128 MB memory while supporting 256MB configurations for its partners. They will use 10 layer PCBs for the graphics cards. The 128MB variations will be priced around the ?400 mark. Lower bin parts will be sold through ATI's partners at a lower speed for less. A 350W power supply would be recommended if you are using a hyperthreading P4 system

--By Jansen Ng, source: The Inquirer

I dont know who to believe any more!No more GeForce FX?

 

[Rebel7254]

The Inquirer isn't exactly the most reliable hardware news source in the world. They're right about half the time.

 

[Killrose]

I've heard: .15 micron, 8x1 TMU's, 375+MHz, and there will be some internal enhancements to allow the higher clock and some other minor features. But it is definately NOT just an overclocked R300. It will leave no question as to who has the most powerfull GPU when pitted against the FX.

 

[chizow]

Originally posted by: Killrose
I've heard: .15 micron, 8x1 TMU's, 375+MHz, and there will be some internal enhancements to allow the higher clock and some other minor features. But it is definately NOT just an overclocked R300. It will leave no question as to who has the most powerfull GPU when pitted against the FX.

With no DDR-II and the specs you listed, sounds like a an overclocked R300 to me. In fact, I believe you can buy an R350 now, called the Tyan Tachyon

Chiz

 

[Lonyo]

Originally posted by: chizow

Originally posted by: Killrose
I've heard: .15 micron, 8x1 TMU's, 375+MHz, and there will be some internal enhancements to allow the higher clock and some other minor features. But it is definately NOT just an overclocked R300. It will leave no question as to who has the most powerfull GPU when pitted against the FX.

With no DDR-II and the specs you listed, sounds like a an overclocked R300 to me. In fact, I believe you can buy an R350 now, called the Tyan Tachyon

Chiz

I thought it was 8x2 TMU's. Faster core and RAM (overclocked 9700PRO in that respect), and probably other minor performance tweaks.

 

[zephyrprime]

I wouldn't call the R350 just an overclocked R300 but I doubt that it will be largely different than the R300. Here's my bet:

1 texture unit per pipe
370-425 MHz
faster RAM
support for DDRII but no ddrii on pcb as of now.
some HSR and lighting speedups.

I think the FX story is bs.

 

[Killrose]

Originally posted by: zephyrprime
I wouldn't call the R350 just an overclocked R300 but I doubt that it will be largely different than the R300. Here's my bet:

1 texture unit per pipe
370-425 MHz
faster RAM
support for DDRII but no ddrii on pcb as of now.
some HSR and lighting speedups.

I think the FX story is bs.

Agreed

 

[bunnyfubbles]

Would it be such a shocker if the R350 was just an overclocked R300? From what I understand, the 5800 Ultra is essentially an overclocked GeForce FX, what would it hurt ATI to do the same thing? If anything the primary difference probably would be the eight rendering pipelines and two texture units per pipe, which might not even exist on the R350...

 

[Killrose]

I think of all the info I've read on R350, the only thing that all sources agree upon is that the R350 will have some core improvements, which means it is not just an overclocked R300.

 

[KillaBong]

You guys realize the R350 isn't the RV350.

RV350 should be something like 400mhz+ , 256bit DDRII, .13 micron, and $400.

R350 should be about 375mhz, .15 micron, and $250 - $300.

 

[EdipisReks]

Originally posted by: KillaBong
You guys realize the R350 isn't the RV350.

RV350 should be something like 400mhz+ , 256bit DDRII, .13 micron, and $400.

R350 should be about 375mhz, .15 micron, and $250 - $300.

i'm pretty sure that the "V" in "RV" stands for "Value", therefore the high specs on RV350 would be for R350, instead.

 

[KillaBong]

Originally posted by: EdipisReks

Originally posted by: KillaBong
You guys realize the R350 isn't the RV350.

RV350 should be something like 400mhz+ , 256bit DDRII, .13 micron, and $400.

R350 should be about 375mhz, .15 micron, and $250 - $300.

i'm pretty sure that the "V" in "RV" stands for "Value", therefore the high specs on RV350 would be for R350, instead.

If so switch the two names in my post .

 

[Gog]

Well, this isn't a claim that the Inquirer has made, this is just a report from a post in a forum. Which leads to the fact that questioning the accuracy of Inquirer aricles is way old and boring and by doing so you definitely aren't being a 'rebel.' I have found them to be reliable, especially when considering the 'insider' information they present us with. They were one of the first sites out there to give us accurate specs of the NV30 and in addition where right on target last early October when they stated that the FX would only become available after Christmas.

 

[mrman3k]

Well 100,000 high end graphics cards is pretty high. I would say the FX being canned is a little extreme for the situation. Basically to me it sounds like Nvidia doesn't plan on producing a lot of the cards and instead plans on introducing the NV3x very soon to compete with the R350.

 

[Killrose]

NV35 "might" be here by August, untill then the R350 will rule the roost.

 

[tapir]

And R400 is supposed to be paper-launched in August or something. Probably available in September... so unless R400 is much later than expected and NV35 is much earlier than expected, we should have two new cores going head to head around the same time....

that's when i'm going to buy not sure what yet though.

 

[Rand]

8X2 configuration for the R350 is highly unlikely IMHO, mere power/size concerns should kill any such idea. I don't see any fully DX9 compliant graphics card built on a .15u processor with a 8x2 config as being at all likely.

The comments on DX9.1 leaves me baffled.... there is no DX9.1 as yet, and if there ever will be it's a long ways away. My bets are PS/VS 3.0 will be renamed DX9.1 sometime late this year, but there is effectively no chance the R350 will incorporate PS/VS 3.0

I'm configdent the R350 will have some very minor changes, perhaps to allow for longer shaders and slight core enhancements to ensure easier clock scaling but that's about it.
My bet's are 375-400MHz core clock, with 375MHz DDR-I. I don't expect to see ATi EVER use DDR-II. Cost advantages of DDR should ensure they'll stick with it for now as they certainly don't need DDR-II for bandwidth reasons due to the 256bit memory controller.
I'm betting they'll skip DDR-II entirely in favor of GDDR-III in the long term.


100,000 NV30 cores doesnt tell me much, as I've little clue as to what kind of yields nVidia is seeing.
I put precious little faith in Inquirer's claims that the NV30 is on the "chopping block" however.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Originally posted by: tapir
And R400 is supposed to be paper-launched in August or something. Probably available in September... so unless R400 is much later than expected and NV35 is much earlier than expected, we should have two new cores going head to head around the same time....

that's when i'm going to buy not sure what yet though.

then you'll say "OHH NV40 and R450 comming in 6months? MUST WAIT!" bah...just buy something that is fast NOW and play games NOW since UT2003 is plenty fast at 100fps and I don't see 150fps being all that different gameplay wise. Just to note...UT2003 is probably the most widely played game that is used in benchmarking becides Q3 which is really starting to age.

 

[SickBeast]

are there any preliminary benchmarks of the gffx/radeon 9700 using the doom3 leaked alpha? that's the type of performance i'm interested in.

i'm playing the waiting game...hopefully i'll replace my r8500 with something r400-based with 256mb of ram in 8 months or so

 

[KingofFah]

I assume that D3 will be used to benchmark the newer nv and ati cores.
I heard that the D3 alpha sucks (graphics wise and gameplay wise).
Since when did they change the release date from march to july!