Saarland University Professor says 8800GTX might actually Have 160 stream processors!!!!

[josh6079]

Yeah, and I'm sure AMD/ATi doesn't know that old "trick."

If people who use the cards would expect such a tactic, those who *make* the cards know all to well that the other could throw a better performing driver at them.

But I think Gstanfor doesn't want to believe that manufactures actually research and develop drivers. It seems to me that he thinks nVidia makes a card and all of the sudden knows exactly how to make it work beautifully from the begining, and then hold out the drivers and release them in series of "strategic" steps so as to constantly downplay the competition.

Tell me G, do drivers *ever* mature? Or are they deliberately held back from day one and released in broken segments until the product itself is almost useless?

 

[Raider1284]

has no one brought up the fact that if those extra SPs were on those cards that some talented person would have already released a hacked bios to enable them? People hack bioses and drivers all the time, and if a simply driver/bios could enable those SPs I'm sure someone would have released such a bios/driver already.

 

[allies]

Originally posted by: tanishalfelven

Originally posted by: allies

Originally posted by: tanishalfelven

Originally posted by: allies

Originally posted by: tanishalfelven
you guys are all idiots.
IF there are 160 sps on the 8800gts they will NEVER be actuivated in the current cards. NV might just be keeping them locked and will sell 160 sp cards as 8800 ultra or something like that.

Uhm... if there are the extra SP and they AREN'T laser cut... a bios flash would enable them.

what is they are laser cut. genius. you think nvidia is stupid enough to leave them uncut. i remember what happened with the x800gtos. but those were mid-range cards so it wasn't that bad. this is a high end that (if the rumor is true) might even qual the next high end. you think nvidia is gonna allow that.

What if they aren't? It's easy to play that game. What happened with the x800GTOs? What was bad about them? I don't know WTF you're talking about... the fact that they could be unlocked did not hurt ATi in any way, rather helped them.

Since nvidia has gone through a die shrink, they'll be able to have much increased clockspeeds, GDDR4, AND the extra 32 SP (if they are on the die). So even if the currect 8800gtx unlocks, it will still be 10-20% slower. I don't KNOW what nvidia has on its mind, and neither do YOU, so I'm not going to assume anything. It would be fantastic if all 8800gtx owners had the opportunity to see if their theoretical extra SP are functional, and if not, who cares.

Don't act like you're the sh!t and know everything.

oh hush.
you were all debating if nvidia would enable them in a future release. i do know enough to know that IF they're there nobody will ever see them on todays 8800gtxs.

Actually, I think the debate was more along the lines of whether or not the extra SP are actually existent. Hence the OP title : Saarland University Professor says 8800GTX might actually Have 160 stream processors!!!!

 

[allies]

Originally posted by: Raider1284
has no one brought up the fact that if those extra SPs were on those cards that some talented person would have already released a hacked bios to enable them? People hack bioses and drivers all the time, and if a simply driver/bios could enable those SPs I'm sure someone would have released such a bios/driver already.

I would usually agree - but people usually hack BIOSs to take a midrange card to a highend card (both cards are out). Thus, they hackers have something to work with (the highend card's bios). I don't know where they would start if these SP were never enabled, and don't have something to base off of.

 

[terentenet]

Even if there are 160 stream processors on die, I don't think we will ever see them in current 8800GTXs'.
That's 8900GTX or 8800GTX Ultra. And if the extra 32 stream processors were there in the 8800GTX, as soon as the 160SP 8900 or 8800 Ultra comes out, modders will release a bios for 8800GTX to enable them. But they need something to start from; a 160SP BIOS.
Holding back a GPU's performance at launch IS a good ideea IF the lead is allready good. ATI relates R600's performance to the current NVIDIA offering, 8800GTX. If the R600 is not fast enough in their labs compared to the 8800GTX, they can respin and speed bump until they get it to work faster than the GTX.
With more shaders hidden, NVIDIA could totally bust R600's launch by just enabling the extra shaders with a new board revision, or, unlikely, with drivers or bios update.

I doubt it will be possible on 8800GTX though. The chip runs preety hot as it is. Enabling extra horse power would generate more heat and coolers will not be able to handle it. Chips will burn unless they're watercooled.
If they want 160 stream processors enabled, NVIDIA needs a die shrink to 65nm.

 

[Gstanfor]

Originally posted by: josh6079
Yeah, and I'm sure AMD/ATi doesn't know that old "trick."

If people who use the cards would expect such a tactic, those who *make* the cards know all to well that the other could throw a better performing driver at them.

But I think Gstanfor doesn't want to believe that manufactures actually research and develop drivers. It seems to me that he thinks nVidia makes a card and all of the sudden knows exactly how to make it work beautifully from the begining, and then hold out the drivers and release them in series of "strategic" steps so as to constantly downplay the competition.

Tell me G, do drivers *ever* mature? Or are they deliberately held back from day one and released in broken segments until the product itself is almost useless?

They are continuously developed fo the most part.

That is not to say however that parallel driver development does not occur, which is what is happening with G80. The drivers released so far are mostly based on older driver paths (obvious by the bugs and issues in them - some of which have been resolved in other driver revisions already). nvidia is background developing and improving the real G80 drivers and will wheel them out when they can gain maximum strategic and tactical advantage from them (ATI R6xx launch), just like they did with Detonator 4.