Historically, no. New products debuted on new processes, with no refreshes.
You are way wrong on this one.
Speaking strictly on nvidia's last three generations:
7800 GTX ---> 7900 GTX ---> 7950 GTX
8800 GTX ---> 8800 Ultra ---> 9800 GX2
GTX 280 ----> GTX 285 ---> GTX 295
You can get there, but it's a bit of a stretch when compared to Tick Tock in the Intel sense. RV740 was a low-volume part, so it's not like Intel where there is a long period of producing an old design on a new node.tick-tock just means the first GPU product on a new node would not be a brand new architecture but rather a shrink/refresh of a pre-existing architecture.
Like GT200b or RV740.
Then a new architecture (if one is going to be created) would debut at a later date on the same node.
I haven't followed GPU's long enough to know if this is what has been going on, but for 40nm it does appear to be the case.
You are way wrong on this one.
Historically, no. New products debuted on new processes, with no refreshes.
4870 -> 4890 -> 5870
Tick -> tock -> tick
GT8xxx series -> GT9xxx series -> GT2xx series.
Tick -> tock -> again Tock.
Sounds just like the typical driver problems with a new card.. you may or may not have luck with this the next time, from whomever you buy a new card.For me it was not good. It was fast (gaming), was quiet even loaded, but I do more than surf and game. I use professional AV content creation and editing software and the hardware just does not like it. Flickering, toolbars shaking, etc. I just could not deal with it so I gave the card back and put my trusty 2GB 285GTX back in. I do like some of the features in video playback however.
Actually, sounds like what happens if you try to use the firegl driver with ATI cards on Linux. Doesn't matter what generation the card is from, professional, OpenGL and desktop eye candy apps definitely exhibit their share of funk.
Rubycon, you weren't trying to use an ATI card on a Linux workstation were you?
The 7900GTX uses the same manufacturing process as the 7950GTX, the same goes with the 8800 GTX and Ultra versions,
Wasn't 7800 GTX on a larger process than 7900 GTX?
I also think g80 was on a larger process than g92?
Who the hell cares? Sometimes they do, sometimes not. Nvidia since the fx5800 flop has generally avoided introducing a new architecture on a new process, but that's put them at a disadvantage more than once, so it's likely to change in the future. AMD on the other hand has on several occasions done both, with various degrees of success (r520, rv770)