No GK106 for Nvidia's 600 series lineup?

[Silverforce11]

I saw some rumours here at AT I believe saying the 8970 will have a bigger die than 7970, not much, believe it was about 20-25% ?

That's a big deal when your die size is already quite large, that would put it well into the >400mm2 range. Add extra ROPs and clock speed, wouldn't be suprised if its 50% faster than a 7970 (low default clocks).

 

[imported_someonesomewhere]

I'm waiting for this artificial* midrange-only lineup to change before I open my wallet. Midrange chips should sell for midrange prices.

*because of the skip of the 32nm node

 

[_Rick_]

I'm waiting for this artificial* midrange-only lineup to change before I open my wallet. Midrange chips should sell for midrange prices.

*because of the skip of the 32nm node

32nm is a half-node for the GPU processes.


I don't think we'll see an HD8 series before early next year.
The 7990 hasn't even launched yet.
Plus, 20nm still looks a bit off.
So it would be another "lets fix the bugs of the first gen" iteration. Could be a possibility, but I'm not too enthused about it.

 

[tviceman]

how are they sandbagging the 600 series bandwidth when they are running the fastest memory available(in volume) and running it at its full rated speed?

Well they didn't sandbag on the 680 and 670, but I think they realize the performance limitation with a 256-bit bus, and the easiest way to alleviate that would be with faster ram. 7ghz gram might not be in high volume as of now, but I am guessing the technical capacity to produce it is there.

If the 660ti really is 192-bit, then I think they are purposely creating an easy way for Nvidia to release the 700 series refresh with significantly more performance with little to no tweaks in the chip.

 

[Silverforce11]

Isnt it a better explaination to figure why they would put 192 bus on the "mid-range" the obvious one? NV don't want another gtx670 competing vs gtx680 situation. Gtx660ti is not going to overcome the decficit just by OC since its crippled where its important, bandwidth and ROPs, and not simple clock speeds.

Product differentiation.

 

[tviceman]

Isnt it a better explaination to figure why they would put 192 bus on the "mid-range" the obvious one? NV don't want another gtx670 competing vs gtx680 situation. Gtx660ti is not going to overcome the decficit just by OC since its crippled where its important, bandwidth and ROPs, and not simple clock speeds.

Product differentiation.

The drop from 1152 to cores from 13xx whatever the gtx670 has would be more noticeable than the drop from the gtx680 to gtx670. Relative to a gtx680, comiing from 8/8 SMX's to 7/8 yields a 12.% decrease in shaders. Relative to a gtx670, moving down 1 more smx would yield a 14% decrease, and furthermore memory bandwidth would likely play a much less prominent role in the chip's performance. They could have slapped some less expensive ram as well (for more of your product differentiation) and still could have come out with a more rounded product than a 192-bit GK104 gtx660ti.

 

[Silverforce11]

If you have 1152 cores and 256 bus with 32 rops, u could simply OC the core by 20% and get ~= gtx670 speeds.

I dont think they want that, since its all the same gk104 if gtx660ti is such a competitive product, demand would be high, they would a) be sell out all the time and lose potential buyers etc or b) forced to devote more gk104 dies to a crippled low profit product when they can sell it as gtx670 or 680 etc.

 

[tviceman]

If you have 1152 cores and 256 bus with 32 rops, u could simply OC the core by 20% and get ~= gtx670 speeds.

I dont think they want that, since its all the same gk104 if gtx660ti is such a competitive product, demand would be high, they would a) be sell out all the time and lose potential buyers etc or b) forced to devote more gk104 dies to a crippled low profit product when they can sell it as gtx670 or 680 etc.

You didn't read what I said. If functional units + memory bandwidth is less, product differentiation is made. Slower vram and less cores creates that without sacrificing large performance hits when enabling quality AA. Simply overclocking the core won't get back to gtx670 speeds, because the product would have slower vram.

 

[RussianSensation]

You didn't read what I said. If functional units + memory bandwidth is less, product differentiation is made. Slower vram and less cores creates that without sacrificing large performance hits when enabling quality AA. Simply overclocking the core won't get back to gtx670 speeds, because the product would have slower vram.

I thought the specs are pretty much 1344 SP, 24 ROP, 192-bit bus. Are you still thinking it'll be 1152, 32 / 256?

 

[tviceman]

I thought the specs are pretty much 1344 SP, 24 ROP, 192-bit bus. Are you still thinking it'll be 1152, 32 / 256?

I'm saying it would been a better compromise on performance being 1152, 32 rop, 256-bus gtx660ti with a vanilla being 1152, 24, 192-bus.

 

[coffeejunkee]

This is my own speculation, but if there is a GK106 chip, the only name left for it would be gtx (or gts) 655. And between GK104, even if it's cut down to 1152 shaders, and a GK107 (even if clocked higher than the 640 is and paired with GDDR5 ram), that leaves a really, really big gap in performance in their 600 series lineup.

Latest word is that there will be a GK107 GTX650 which is basically a GT640 but with GDDR5 and a GK106 GTX650Ti with 960 cuda cores. So big difference between those two GTX650 cards...normal one will likely suck, Ti version might be pretty interesting but depending on price as well.

Will take some time though, expected Q4.

 

[tviceman]

Latest word is that there will be a GK107 GTX650 which is basically a GT640 but with GDDR5 and a GK106 GTX650Ti with 960 cuda cores. So big difference between those two GTX650 cards...normal one will likely suck, Ti version might be pretty interesting but depending on price as well.

Will take some time though, expected Q4.

It sounds like Nvidia is just making a mess of their product names again.

 

[coffeejunkee]

It sounds like Nvidia is just making a mess of their product names again.

It's what they do best 😉

(relax fanboys, notice the smiley indicating i'm not completely serious)