Nvidia's Geforce 7800GTX 512MB

[Fozzik]

563A while back I reported that Nvidia had decided to not release an "Ultra" version of their 7800 series. Nvidia has been sitting comfortably on top of the performance graphics heap for several months now, and with ATI's hardware becoming a final reality, Nvidia knew for sure what their competition would be for this round of the war.

But, as many might expect... Nvidia hasn't been sitting on their hands this entire time waiting for ATI to release the R520. Although it's still only a rumor, The Inquirer (http://www.theinquirer.net/) is reporting that they have confirmed that the 512MB version of the 7800GTX, which is due in a couple weeks, will actually not just be more memory tacked onto the same card.

It looks like Nvidia may have played a bit of a marketing trick on all of us, in order to lull ATI into a false sense of security with the X1800XT. All signs point to the X1800XT being in stores in the next week or so. Current benchmarks show that the XT is somewhat faster than a stock-clocked 7800GTX, especially when anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering are enabled. The X1800XT also will have 512MB of memory...which to this point Nvidia has no answer to in their 7xxx-series lineup. Several weeks ago, Nvidia let slip that they had cancelled work on an "Ultra" version of the 7-series, saying that they didn't think it was really needed. They did mention however (and I've heard several places) that they would release a 512MB version of the GTX to compete with the big dog from ATI.

Most people assumed that a 512MB version of the GTX would be just that, a GTX with extra memory. It appears now that Nvidia never really cancelled the "Ultra"... they just let the name go away and are sneaking out a much more powerful (higher clocked) card. They will just be calling it the Geforce 7800GTX 512MB...but it very well might be a huge storm on ATI's XT parade.

The Inquirer is claiming that the GTX 512MB will have core and clock speeds of 550MHz and 1800MHz respectively...and if it turns out to be true, that will be one monster of a performer...most likely leaving the X1800XT in the dust. Just think about a 24-pipe 7800GTX, with double the memory, 120MHz more core clock, and 300MHz more memory speed (it's DDR, so effectively 600MHz more). That would be scary.

[Orlun]

I had a suspicion that nVidia had something like this planned.

To me, it seems like they've got a three month jump on ATI and are using that to counter every response ATI has had over the past half year. Am I close?

[Fozzik]

I would probably agree. The decision at the heart of this year's graphics war was that ATI decided to make some radical changes to their design, and to drop to a 90nm process (which is not new for CPU's, but had basically not been tried with graphics chips). Also, they let a bug creep into their design...all these things added together (along with some poor marketing decisions) to make for a very bad year. Nvidia on the other hand stuck with the very strong core they had last year and just added on, sticking with the much more tried and true 110nm process.

You might say it goes back farther than that... you could even argue that the real problem is that ATI waited too long to create a new architecture after the Radeon 9700pro... everything since has been basically the same architecture. It was good at the time, but maybe they should have moved on sooner. Nvidia moved to Shader Model 3.0 hardware last year, and ATI stuck with their very solid older chip.

However you look at it, this hasn't been a good year for ATI. There are positive signs from them...we know they can do a unified shader architecture, since it's going into every Xbox360. Also, at long last, they appear to have fixed their OpenGL performance and will soon be very competitive on that side of the market.

ATI is going to have their thunder stolen this month most likely...we'll have to wait and see how they respond. They still need to get Crossfire out there and let it start getting fleshed out, and we know they have the R580 on the roadmaps, which could be a substantially more powerful core. The R520 (X1800) is already running at very high clock speeds, and they probably aren't going to be able to squeeze much more out of it to compete with Nvidia's "Ultra".

[Alodar]

The 580 is on the roadmaps, true. But then, NVidia isn't just sitting pretty. Release 80 of the NVidia Forceware Drivers is out, and in it are some pretty nice things. Namely, the ability to enable/disable SLI on the fly, instead of rebooting every time, and the ability to mix/match cards from different vendors. While this isn't as nice as Crossfire's ability to use totally different cards, it is a large benefit. As long as the NVidia core's for the cards are the same (GTX + GTX) it will work (as opposed to GTX and GT). It also now switches between multi-view and SLI on demand (like movies!) and so you can go into gaming mode with the flick of a setting. How nice is that?

On top of all this...well....Rumors are rumors of course. But the release notes of the new Forceware drivers have a couple interesting notes, namely "Support for the next generation of NVidia GPUs", and "PureVideo support for the next generation of GPUs". Possbility of NVidia using an even NEWER core design, like they made one for the 7800? Or, testing processes of moving to a 90nm process also? Sounds like interesting speculation to me :)

[janelled]

So... Any ideas what the retail price on this monster will be upon release? That will hopefully drive the 7800GTX 256mb's down a bit in price, too!

[Merkeon]

I would gues price would be in the $650-700 range maybe? Since 7800 GTX will handle anything for next couple years it probrably wont be that much more then the little brother.

[Belisarius]

newegg just posted the 1800XT from ATI today http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102624

[Fozzik]

Yep, I saw that... and not at the $550 price that ATI was claiming. No big surprise there. We only have a couple days to wait to see if ATI is going to hold to their promise, and have plenty of availability.

[BuzWeaver]

Back in 2003 when I bought my most recent system I thought I’d give ATI a try and though it plays most games pretty well I think I’m going back to Nvidia on my next Video Card upgrade.

[Blacki]

all I want is a SINGLE card that will pump this game at 60+FPS at FULL options even in a EC/Bazzaar/IF environment, using the PCI-E, Ive been using a x800 ATI but Nvidia/ATI one or the other, the ONLY diffrence Ive seen between the two is a slightly diffrent rendering quality and image.

I was a hard coer Nvida guy for years untill the PCI-E X800, I had the GT6xx series origonialy but it was "Stuttery" playing EQ2, once I swaped to the X800 it was smooth, but STILL couldnt play at the frame rate and detail I wanted, (besides that game was dead end) but man oh man WoW plays at 85+FPS no matter what lol...the ATI 1800 looks interesting but Id go for a 512 12+ pipline, hoepfuly the gurus will have the war worked out befor this game starts... so get cracking :)

anyway, sorry if I rambled, bottom line: Im suprised my system is still very near top o the line 1 year later, but time to upgrade the video card...

[Alodar]

all I want is a SINGLE card that will pump this game at 60+FPS at FULL options even in a EC/Bazzaar/IF environment...

Sorry buddy, but I really doubt this is gonna happen. Even if you got two high end cards, from what I understand about the way the tech is being engineered for this game, there isn't going to be a system out (even at release) that can play with full options. Let alone at 60+ fps. Lots of stuff on, sure. But at 60+? Nah. As for full options, I really think that that's just something the future will have to hold.

[Blacki]

Sorry buddy, but I really doubt this is gonna happen. Even if you got two high end cards, from what I understand about the way the tech is being engineered for this game, there isn't going to be a system out (even at release) that can play with full options. Let alone at 60+ fps. Lots of stuff on, sure. But at 60+? Nah. As for full options, I really think that that's just something the future will have to hold.

In the words of Darth Vader: "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!"

[Spirit]

http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=59593

It seems the supplied drivers aren't 100% compatible -- but then, this card wasn't supposed to be available just yet ;)

[Alodar]

omg I want one of those.......550/1800 core/mem specs?? good freaking lord....

[Fozzik]

It will be the fastest card in the desktop market, for sure. The price is ridiculous at the moment... hopefully it will come down quickly. $800 is beyond expensive.