NVIDIA 7900GTX Details

[coldpower27]

Originally posted by: Pete
These specs are curious. They work out to 625MHz for the pixel shaders and either 725MHz or 580MHz for the vertex shaders, depending on whether there are 8 or 10. 655MHz doesn't match up with either the fillrate or vertex rate.

I have to tell ya, I'm almost still expecting 32 pipes given all the talk. But then we should've heard about 28 pipe GTs, not 24. And 24 pipes for the top end kinda matches with 12 pipes for the 7600.

The specs make more sense coem to think of it at 24 Pipes at for both 7900 GT and GTX if the 7900 GT did indeed have 28 Pipeline, and 32 pIpe for 7900 GTX, the difference at these clock rate would be ~ 60% performance vs 100% performance, as opposed to the ~ 70% to 100% ratio we have now. I am not sure if I like a difference of 30% though, seems a bit much. unless 7900 GT is 399US vs 7900 GTX 599US.

If those die pictures are indeed correct, there is no way the G71 GPU has enough room for the enhanced transistor count need to support an additional 8 Pixel Shaders/8TMU and what not.

Also not only do pipelines match up in a 2:1 ratio for Enthusiast to mid range bracket bu the ROP count should be 2:1 as well as I have heard 8 ROP G73 Core.

I expect those MV/s are correct as Nvidia has the ability to do geometry clock independent of core clock, remember the clock domain thing of 430MHZ/470MHZ for 7800 GTX, the same thing could be occuring here. I think Nvidia kept 8 VS if the 24 Pipe Rumors are valid, and it would jive with the 3D Mark 2005 Score of 13000 do to high geometry clock of 725MHZ on the 7900 GTX.

I also feel Nvidia shuold do a 7800 GTX 512 replacement with a 7900 GTX 256 at 550MHZ/1450MHZ, would be cheaper for Nvidia to make, and offer almost the same performance and be readily available.

 

[440sixpack]

Originally posted by: Matt2
It's disappointing because last July Nvidia seemed so far ahead of the competition.

From July until now, all we have gained is a die shrink and a speed bump. Nvidia became complacent and now we are stuck with the exact same card as we were before, albeit a little faster.

No pipe increases, probably no overhaul to the subpar AA algorithm and we're still probably gonna have to sit here and hear about texture shimmering.

It's a shame that GTX 512 wasn't G71 and G71 isnt G80. If we were looking at a G80 type option here, then I wouldnt be disappointed, but $599 for a card that I basically already have?

I think I'll pass, thanks.

Anyone remember this from last July?

G80 design is completed and waiting for ATI R580 when the time comes.

and this?

Two months back, we reported that NVIDIA G80 is ready and waiting for R580 to come along. In 2006, we will see both architectures start appearing.

I'd like to know where that came from! Kind of odd as almost all of the recent speculation has been G80 vs. R600. I guess it makes sense if you assume the G80 will be out first, and thus competing with the R580. Still, I find it hard to believe the G80 has been sitting around done for over 6 months.

 

[nRollo]

Originally posted by: 5150Joker

Originally posted by: RobertR1
People had way too high of hopes for this card. A 650mhz 24pipe 7800GTX will do quite well.

At $500 and being faster than the XTX in most non-shader intensive games should make it quite competitive against ATi's offerings. The problem of course is that according to the info. we have right now, it won't offer anything new - just the same old G70 tech. Expect Rollo and other shills to start spinning this as something positive: "ok so we bs'd ya, it wasn't 32 pipes after all but imagine teh SLI, teh SLI!!! $1000 and you will have teh fastest SLI in teh planet, it is much better than teh dongles!!"

No real man aspires to hold the dongle 5150.

Hey I didn't say it would be 32 pipes, I was believing XBit over the Inquirer, which seems reasonable to me. If the VRZone rumors prove true, I guess Xbit was wrong.

 

[Keysplayr]

Originally posted by: M0RPH
To all of you that insisted this was going to be a 32-pipe GPU, sorry but I just have to say it. TOLD YA SO!

Moral of the story, don't put so much faith in rumors and wishful thinking. It's going to be a good card but it's not going to be the monster 1900XTX killer that many of you were counting on and telling everyone to wait for.

Now that we "possibly" know what the 7900GTX is, don't you think people can now make an "informed" decision on their purchase? I mean, those people waited a whole 3 weeks to find out what it "might" be. I would still wait the additional 2 weeks just to see what it can do. Then buy what you want.

 

[CP5670]

Looks like this new GTX is set to be a big disappointment over what the earlier rumors had suggested. I may still consider it though if it's aggressively priced compared to the X1900 cards.

 

[M0RPH]

Originally posted by: Rollo

Hey I didn't say it would be 32 pipes, I was believing XBit over the Inquirer, which seems reasonable to me. If the VRZone rumors prove true, I guess Xbit was wrong.

Oh you didn't?

Originally posted by: Rollo
It's still my impression the 7900GTX will be 32 pipes, but time will tell soon enough.

As seen in another thread. They really don't keep you marketing people in the loop much, do they?

 

[Ronin]

And they apparently keep taking the white jacket off you.

 

[otispunkmeyer]

Originally posted by: the Chase
Well a little disappointing if this is correct- it will still be an awesome card though and if the pricing rumors are true at $499 MSRP for this is a great deal. I think ATI has more room to tweak more performance over time with their programable memory controller and the extra shader power- Of course I don't know the specific changes but this card looks like just a die shrink and speed bump so driver improvements over time won't be as dramatic. Can't wait for some benchies!!

i think that price will be likely now, it looks like nothing more than a die shrink...which in the end makes the gpus cheaper to make,

 

[otispunkmeyer]

Originally posted by: Crescent13
You guys say this is dissapointing??? The 512MB 7800GTX was like what 530MHz, and you say 655MHz is DISSAPOINTING???

EDIT: And it's quad SLI'able too!!! Hey wait a minute, I have a Quad SLI ready mobo. Woohoo!!! Now I just need a 1000W+ PSU, enough money to pay for the cards, and a couple tanks of liquid nitrogen to keep the house cool.

i bet we see factory overclocks too......these things may hit 700

 

[fierydemise]

Originally posted by: otispunkmeyer
i think that price will be likely now, it looks like nothing more than a die shrink...which in the end makes the gpus cheaper to make,

But a low price erodes profits, I expect a card with a $549 MSAP that drops quickly to a very good deal and pulls the X1900 down with it

 

[otispunkmeyer]

Originally posted by: Matt2
It's disappointing because last July Nvidia seemed so far ahead of the competition.

From July until now, all we have gained is a die shrink and a speed bump. Nvidia became complacent and now we are stuck with the exact same card as we were before, albeit a little faster.

No pipe increases, probably no overhaul to the subpar AA algorithm and we're still probably gonna have to sit here and hear about texture shimmering.

It's a shame that GTX 512 wasn't G71 and G71 isnt G80. If we were looking at a G80 type option here, then I wouldnt be disappointed, but $599 for a card that I basically already have?

I think I'll pass, thanks.

the only significant thing i see about this is the memory bandwidth, i think the GTX was robbed abit from bandwidth and really could of used some more. thats why the 7800GTX 512 was so much better its memory was insanely fast

 

[otispunkmeyer]

Originally posted by: Rollo

Originally posted by: M0RPH
To all of you that insisted this was going to be a 32-pipe GPU, sorry but I just have to say it. TOLD YA SO!

Moral of the story, don't put so much faith in rumors and wishful thinking. It's going to be a good card but it's not going to be the monster 1900XTX killer that many of you were counting on and telling everyone to wait for.

Errr, this is just another rumor on a different website?



Ever think of that MORPH? Until it actually launches, all we have are several rumors, all different.

I think we'll need to see some benches, price, availability before we can pass any judgement on this card?

Or should we just keep flip flopping opinions on it based on pre-NDA rumors until we know the truth?

you know its perfectly fine for M0RPH to base everying on a rumour, as long as it favours ATI, and for it to be legit.....com'on rollo get with the programme

 

[otispunkmeyer]

Originally posted by: fierydemise

Originally posted by: otispunkmeyer
i think that price will be likely now, it looks like nothing more than a die shrink...which in the end makes the gpus cheaper to make,

But a low price erodes profits, I expect a card with a $549 MSAP that drops quickly to a very good deal and pulls the X1900 down with it

theres simply nothing new in the G71....as far as we know, it better not be that expensive

 

[moonboy403]

disappointing indeed if it's the truth

 

[nib95]

Originally posted by: otispunkmeyer

Originally posted by: fierydemise

Originally posted by: otispunkmeyer
i think that price will be likely now, it looks like nothing more than a die shrink...which in the end makes the gpus cheaper to make,

But a low price erodes profits, I expect a card with a $549 MSAP that drops quickly to a very good deal and pulls the X1900 down with it

theres simply nothing new in the G71....as far as we know, it better not be that expensive

I actually intended to sell my XTX and buy the 7900 GTX, but so far based on these specs I doubt i'll be doing that. fair enough the GTX might beat the XTX on most benchies now (maybe?) but I'm not so sure with upcoming games such as Oblivian. The X1900 with its 48 shader pixel peipes could really kick some serious 7900 GTX ass in shader heavy games, now and in future.

The XTX just seems more future proof based on these specs alone, but I guess we'll have to see.

 

[M0RPH]

Originally posted by: otispunkmeyer

you know its perfectly fine for M0RPH to base everying on a rumour, as long as it favours ATI, and for it to be legit.....com'on rollo get with the programme

This is news from DailyTech, which is much more reliable than a story from the Inquirer or what some guy said on a message forum. And it's pretty much confirmed by the pictures of the new die, where you can deduce from the size that 8 pipes have not been added. So while it may still be a rumor, at this point it's a pretty solid rumor, whereas the 32-pipe rumors were of the wild, unsubstantiated variety.

 

[Cookie Monster]

From NV
GeForce 7800 (GTX)
Graphics Bus Technology PCI Express
Memory 512MB
Memory Interface 256-bit
Memory Bandwidth (GB/sec) 54.4
Fill Rate (Billion pixels/sec) 13.2
Vertices/Second (Millions) 1100
Pixels per clock (peak) 24
RAMDACs (MHz) 400

Quick specifications for GeForce 7900 GTX:

* PCIe native
* 655MHz core frequency
* 256-bit memory interface
* 52GB/sec. memory bandwidth
* 15B pixels/sec. fill rate
* 1450M vertices/sec.
* 24 pixels per cycle
* Built in twin dual-link DVI support for twin 2560x1600 resolution displays

Look closer, the G71 is a beast for sure.
Roughly, it looks like the ROPs is increased. (The 7800 GTX has 16 ROPs, hence it really should have 8800 MP/s while the 7900GTX looks like it has 24ROPs, hence 655x24=15700~MP/s) Also to mention is that vertex shaders could have been increased to 9 or 10 judging by the specs. The pipe count however im not too sure, but quoting from daily tech, "twice as fast in floating point performace" could suggest it might end up having 32 pipelines.

This is my take so far.

Increasin the ROPs wont help much on the AA front, but it might to when HDR is enabled. Comparing it to the X1900XTX which has 10.4B MP/s (NOT 31200 MP/s as someone else suggested, dont confuse Pixel Shaders with ROPs) while the 7900GTX will have 15B MP/s. IF you look at this optimistically, NV just might allow HDR plus AA. Well technically HDR plus SSAA, and with 24 ROPs, im sure it will help.

Secondly, whoever said ATi has efficent shaders are dead wrong. They have good shaders but NV still has the edge as shown by numerous benchs. (For example F.E.A.R. The R580 has 48 pixel shaders vs 7800GTXs 24 and STILL in 16x12 0xAA0xAF as appropriate to show shader performance shows you that the GTX is 1~2 fps of the XTX. This shows jsut how efficent NV shaders are. Dont get mixed up with AA efficency.) NV has more efficent shaders while ATi has more efficent AA. So i think that NV may have tweaked to make AA more efficent, since NV loses the lead as soon as AA is applied.

Thirdly, 24 pipe is more realistic. But daily tech mentions this card will have double the floating point performance from the previous "gen". I would like the card to be 32 pipe as do many others wish. 24 pipe isnt too bad, as it will compete well with the XTX. But i do think its 32 pipes while the GT is 24 pipes. Sites like Xbit, Vr-zone, daily tech seems to think it is but lets wait and see.

Im sure NV has something up its sleeve, but my expectations arent high. I just want tomorrow to be march 9th and benchs on my firefox ready to be read in the morning with a cup of coffee.

edit-
7900GT = 450mhz 24 pipe, MSRP $399 (Competes against X1900XL)
7900GTX = 550~650mhz 24 pipe, MSRP $549 or lower (Competes against X1900XT)
7900GTX 512mb = 655mhz 32 pipe, MSRP $699 (Competes against X1900XTX)

 

[Sunrise089]

Cookie - your three card idea is interesting, but it would be kind of crazy. The performance between the 32 pipe and 24 pipe card would be huge, more than the difference between the 7900GT and 7900GTX. Plus you would end up with the 7900 32 pipe card destroying the X1900XTX, but the more popular $500 point would be much less competitive. If nVidia can really release a 32 pipe card, and I don't think they will, I think they will make all of their top cards (GTXs) 32 pipes, to justify their cost over the 7900GT. When is the last time nVidia released a top part with more pipes than its slightly slower equally named part? 6800GT and Ultra were same pipes. 7800GTX 256 and 512 were same pipes. I think if there are two 7900GTXs, and i don't think there will be, they will have the same numbers of pipes.

Unless Cookie is right this is very disappointing for nVidia. For the first time in a long time they are not clearly faster than ATI coming off their new parts.
9800pro/XT -> 6800 series = much faster
X850XT -> 7800 series = much faster
X1900XT -> 7900 series = probably not much faster.

To me this looks performance wise a LOT like R520, where the X1800XT didn't lack in performance really, but it tried to answer a question nobody asked: "who needs another more expensive 7800GTX several months after launch?".

7900GTX introduction press conference:

"Hi, I'm the 7900GTX at 24pipes. Who needs a green colored X1900XT for more money six weeks after the XT was available? Anybody? Surely somebody needs a green card to match their case? Please?....Ok fine, Rollo, take me home."

 

[Pete]

Originally posted by: M0RPH
This is news from DailyTech, which is much more reliable than a story from the Inquirer or what some guy said on a message forum. And it's pretty much confirmed by the pictures of the new die, where you can deduce from the size that 8 pipes have not been added. So while it may still be a rumor, at this point it's a pretty solid rumor, whereas the 32-pipe rumors were of the wild, unsubstantiated variety.

I don't want to knock Kris & the gang this early, as they've a right to get up to speed, but the few GPU tidbits I've read have had some eyebrow-raising discrepancies (e.g., R590 going into X1800GTOs when it's more likely they'd go into an X1900XYZ, or a supposed 7900GT pic that seems to feature a 7600 die package laying on what may be a 7900 PCB). In this case, the listed 655MHz core doesn't quite mesh with the given fillrate, tho this is a minor discrepancy (so, eyebrows stay level).

In many cases it's precisely the guy on a forum who's posted the juiciest (correct) tidbit.

Anyway, even a 650MHz 24-pipe 7900 would make for good competition. A 650Mhz 32-pipe probably would've completely embarassed ATI, at least on the non-AA tests (so, reminiscent of GTX-512 vs. X1800XT). Right now it doesn't seem like we'll see a blowout.

Cookie, if we go by NV's #s for the GTX-512 it looks like they're using shader pipes for their fillrate and peak pixel #s, not ROPs. I don't think we can infer anything about G71 ROP count from this latest leak.

I'm also not quite sure how more ROPs would help (FP16) HDR if they won't help AA, as I think bandwidth is the key constraint for both. I may be wrong.

I'm with Sven when he says:

The documents from NVIDIA also indicate that GeForce 7900 GTX will be "twice as fast as previous generation chipsets" in floating-point performance, but it would be difficult to really consider the 7900 series a next generation component over GeForce 7800.

I don't expect any major changes to the pipes or the ROPs, except #s and clocks. 32 pipes @ 650MHz vs. 24@430 is close to double, but this "confirmed" rumor is just 24@650, so "twice as fast" may still refer to the GF6. Or maybe they're talking about the ROPs and it's 24@650 vs. 16@430 and they have the bandwidth to offer twice the FP16 HDR performance.

 

[Cookie Monster]

Nvidia's specs on there website are often misleading. Specualation maybe fun, but the case with G71 is that it has too many possiblities to be this or that. We have zero concrete info about it apart from G71 being on 90nm lowk. Maybe its time for NV to just give us a little bit of the real specs. Save us specualators times, and effort

 

[yacoub]

Cookie : twice as fast as the best 6800 series card. notice the twice as fast is "as the previous generation". The 7800 series isn't a generation old; it's the same generation as the 7900 series. I don't see ANY hint at 32 pipes, and it makes sense considering this is a refresh lineup, not a new generation of cards where they will actually reengineer or mess with the actual core's pipelines and whatnot. The 200Mhz clock increase, double amount of RAM, and faster RAM that the GTX sports over the GT will be what gives it its justification to be $100-150 higher priced than the 7900GT.

Also, for a refresh this is not disappointing at all. In fact, it's par for the course. I think the 7900GT is the card to get if one doesn't already own a 7800GTX or X1900XT/XTX. It will be the best 256MB DX9 card out there until/unless an X1900XL comes out that offers 256MB but all or most of the boosted math processing of the X1900XT.

In fact, it's likely that after the X1900XL is officially announced I'll know if I'm picking up a 7900GT or an X1900XL and that will be my last GPU until I go Vista and DX10 sometime next year.

 

[crazydingo]

Originally posted by: fierydemise

Originally posted by: otispunkmeyer
i think that price will be likely now, it looks like nothing more than a die shrink...which in the end makes the gpus cheaper to make,

But a low price erodes profits, I expect a card with a $549 MSAP that drops quickly to a very good deal and pulls the X1900 down with it

The msrp is going to be $599, confirmed by Inquirer recently.

Originally posted by: Cookie Monster
Increasin the ROPs wont help much on the AA front, but it might to when HDR is enabled. Comparing it to the X1900XTX which has 10.4B MP/s (NOT 31200 MP/s as someone else suggested, dont confuse Pixel Shaders with ROPs) while the 7900GTX will have 15B MP/s. IF you look at this optimistically, NV just might allow HDR plus AA. Well technically HDR plus SSAA, and with 24 ROPs, im sure it will help.

The AEG gang was dispatched an email confirming the opposite. Notice how Nvidia keeps lowering the expectations from G71 piece by piece .. Nice damage control, huh?

(Or we are in for a big surprise )

 

[Munky]

Meh... no big, bad 32 pipe 700+mhz Nv g71 coming out in March? What a surprise. :roll:

 

[five40]

Originally posted by: M0RPH

Originally posted by: Rollo

Hey I didn't say it would be 32 pipes, I was believing XBit over the Inquirer, which seems reasonable to me. If the VRZone rumors prove true, I guess Xbit was wrong.

Oh you didn't?

Originally posted by: Rollo
It's still my impression the 7900GTX will be 32 pipes, but time will tell soon enough.

As seen in another thread. They really don't keep you marketing people in the loop much, do they?

Hehe.

 

[otispunkmeyer]

hopefully this GTX will out perform my SLI, i think i need to move back to 1 card because after some intense gaming my case gets hot....its not that the cards get especially hot,.....they load out at 60 degrees, but theres two of them doing that. my cpu n especially my ram which is 4x512 (and hence doesnt get alot of airflow) sometimes dont like it.

plus the chipset HSF is like right inbetween the the two PCI-E slots.....WhoTF bright idea was it to put it in the exhaust of 2 graphics cards?

if the 7900GTX beats the X1900 by a good margin and is priced nice, i may go for it. if its just to say beats the X1900, and inevitably will cost more....ill get a x1900