Whats the deal with the "architectures" in the GPU industry??

[Maximilian]

I really cant differentiate between architectures in the GPU industry, apparently NV40 is just NV30 but fixed a little, and the R420 was just an R3xx core but souped up some more. Are there no names or anything to differentiate between architctures? Are the G70 and R5xx entirely new??

I was just thinking about the power consumption of my X1900XT earlier, yes it uses around 40 watts idle, but under load it draws more than my CPU. It occurred that architectures from AMD and Intel are becoming centred around power consumption and heat dissipation minimilization rather than only performance. Wondered why the GPU industry isnt also doing this, it would be a good idea.

 

[Doom Machine]

from what i've read it takes 5 years to develop new architectures, so its a gradual thing until new architectures are ready, but i dont believe the new cards are entirely new, they just shrink em down so they produce less heat and use less power

 

[Vinnybcfc]

NV40 and NV30 have more major differences between them (SM3 and a different AF filter and various other features) while R4xx and R300 are more similar because R300 was good no need to come up with something new, R520 and R580 are highly different to R4xx

 

[Extelleron]

R4xx is a refresh of R3xx, R520 is a new architecure, R580 is a refresh of R520. R600 should be a completely new architecture.

 

[dguy6789]

As stated above, it depends on the architecture.

R420 is just a slightly modified and improved R300 architecture. R480 is a refresh architecture, basically a newer version of R420 with some very slight changes. R520 is a completely new architecture, while R580 is the refresh of R520.

NV30 and NV40 are completely different. NV30 was a failure, so nVidia dumped it for a brand new architecture, which was NV40. G70 is to NV40 what R420 was to R300; just a slightly improved and modified architecture. G71 is the refresh of G70.

 

[Bull Dog]

Originally posted by: dguy6789
As stated above, it depends on the architecture.

R420 is just a slightly modified and improved R300 architecture. R480 is a refresh architecture, basically a newer version of R420 with some very slight changes. R520 is a completely new architecture, while R580 is the refresh of R520.

NV30 and NV40 are completely different. NV30 was a failure, so nVidia dumped it for a brand new architecture, which was NV40. G70 is to NV40 what R420 was to R300; just a slightly improved and modified architecture. G71 is the refresh of G70.

QFT

Your the first person to get it right.