Nvidia Corp., the largest supplier of standalone graphics processing units (GPUs), is set to release a new graphics card that promises to offer boosted performance compared to existing high-end offerings, but also come at a higher price. The new GeForce 8800 Ultra is projected to be released earlier than ATI’s first lineup of DirectX 10-compatible graphics cards.
Current Flagship Receives Nitro Boost
The new high-end graphics card from Nvidia is projected to be based on the overclocked version of the GeForce 8800 GTX, the currently shipping flagship offering from the company. The new GeForce 8800 Ultra will still have 128 stream processors, 32 texture mapping units, 24 raster operation units and 384-bit memory bus, however, its clock-speeds will see a boost: the clock-speed of the processor will be 612MHz, while its unified shader processors will operate at 1500MHz, according to some sources. Memory frequency of the product is 2160MHz, which is 360MHz higher compared to the typical 8800 GTX. The new GeForce 8800 Ultra product is fully compatible with DirectX 10 and features the same list of capabilities as other GeForce 8800-series graphics cards.
This is not the first time when Nvidia releases higher-clocked flagship offering instead of releasing a new GPU as its top-of-the-range product half a year after the launch of contemporary lineup. The Santa Clara, California-based company did that in the year 2000 with the GeForce 2 Ultra, in 2001 with the GeForce 3 Titanium 500, in 2003 with the GeForce FX 5950 Ultra and in 2005 with the launch of the GeForce 7800 GTX 512. In all the cases except the last one this strategy allowed the firm to flood the market with new higher-performance products without spending additional money on taping out a brand-new graphics processor.
Clock-Speed Peculiarities
Nvidia’s recent GeForce 7800-series and 8800-series graphics processors’ feature different clock-speeds for different parts of the chip, which ensures balanced performance and maximizes yields. However, this also means some peculiarities when it comes to overclocking, as clock-speeds are increased in different manner than traditionally.
The GeForce 8800 GTX graphics chip’s unified shader processors always operate at about 2.3 times higher clock-speed compared to the basic clock-speed, however, the frequency of shader processors is always changed with a step of 54MHz, whereas clock-speed of other parts of the chip can be altered with 9, 18 or 27MHz steps. On the GeForce 8800 Ultra the clock-speed ratio seems to have been changed to about 2.4 and now that whole chip operates at 612MHz, whereas unified shader processors work at 1.5GHz. Besides, the new GeForce 8800 Ultra 768MB sports a new bigger cooling system, which should ensure quiet operation amid high performance.
Even though those, who already have the GeForce 8800 GTX 768MB will not be able to overclock their graphics cards exactly to frequencies of the GeForce 8800 Ultra 768MB due to different clock-speed ratio, it is highly likely that quite a number of GeForce 8800 GTX 768MB will be able to work at 612MHz/1458MHz for the GPU.
Still, 2160MHz memory frequency may not be easy to achieve, as the GeForce 8800 Ultra uses Samsung K4J52324QE-BJ1A GDDR3 memory chips (and may start to use 0.8ns chips too), while the vast majority of the GeForce 8800 GTX use Samsung K4J52324QC-BJ11 memory with 0.1ns higher access time. Even though OCZ’s GeForce 8800 GTX uses memory chips with 1.0ns access time, X-bit labs’ specialists did not manage to overclock them higher than to 2050MHz, which implies that Nvidia had to tweak BIOS of the GeForce 8800 Ultra product to achieve exceptionally high frequencies for GDDR3 chips.
Impressive Performance?
X-bit labs decided to find out how fast Nvidia’s new graphics card would be and ran several benchmarks of Asus EN8800 GTX 768MB graphics card overclocked to 612MHz/1458MHz for the chip and 2160MHz for the memory. Benchmark results of such an accelerator should be extremely close to performance of the GeForce 8800 Ultra 768MB, still the actual board can be 1% - 2% faster due to 3% higher frequency of the unified shader processors.
*Asus GeForce 8800 GTX 768MB operating at 612MHz/1458MHz/2160MHz clock-speeds.
**Asus GeForce 8800 GTX 768MB operating at 648MHz/1512MHz/2160MHz clock-speeds.
Nvidia GeForce 8800 Ultra 768MB operates at 612MHz/1500MHz/2160MHz clock-speeds.
*Asus GeForce 8800 GTX 768MB operating at 612MHz/1458MHz/2160MHz clock-speeds.
Nvidia GeForce 8800 Ultra 768MB operates at 612MHz/1500MHz/2160MHz clock-speeds.
*Asus GeForce 8800 GTX 768MB operating at 612MHz/1458MHz/2160MHz clock-speeds.
Nvidia GeForce 8800 Ultra 768MB operates at 612MHz/1500MHz/2160MHz clock-speeds.
Based on the numbers obtained on our AMD Athlon 64 FX-60-based system with 2GB of PC3200 memory and ForceWare 158.19 drivers under Windows XP, the GeForce 8800 Ultra is not really substantially faster compared to the GeForce 8800 GTX. The most noticeable achievements of the "emulated" GeForce 8800 Ultra 768MB are:
- 8.5% performance improvement over predecessor in 1920x1440 resolution in Battlefield 2142 . Increase in other resolutions varies 2% - 5%.
- 10% - 13.5% performance gain over predecessor across the board in Company of Heroes .
- 4% - 7% additional speed over predecessor in Call of Juarez .
- Minor (about 2%) performance improvements in S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl . But we have to admit: our microprocessor limits performance of the GeForce 8800 GTX in this game.
- Minor (about 2% - 3%) performance improvements in Splinter Cell: Double Agent .
- Insignificant (about 2% - 3%) performance improvement in 3DMark06.
*Asus GeForce 8800 GTX 768MB operating at 612MHz/1458MHz/2160MHz clock-speeds.
Nvidia GeForce 8800 Ultra 768MB operates at 612MHz/1500MHz/2160MHz clock-speeds.
*Asus GeForce 8800 GTX 768MB operating at 612MHz/1458MHz/2160MHz clock-speeds.
Nvidia GeForce 8800 Ultra 768MB operates at 612MHz/1500MHz/2160MHz clock-speeds.
*Asus GeForce 8800 GTX 768MB operating at 612MHz/1458MHz/2160MHz clock-speeds.
Nvidia GeForce 8800 Ultra 768MB operates at 612MHz/1500MHz/2160MHz clock-speeds.
Nvidia GeForce 8800 Ultra is projected to be available in mid-May, which about the timeframe when ATI, graphics product group of Advanced Micro Devices, is expected to release its highly-anticipated code-named R600 product. Pricing and bundling of the new GeForce 8800 Ultra graphics card is still not completely clear with various sources pointing towards $650 - $999 gap.
The exceptionally high price gap of the GeForce 8800 Ultra implies that either Nvidia is confident that it would be the fastest product on the market when it is released, or the quantities of its shipments will be limited and people will be willing to pay premium for an exclusive device.
Comments currently:
24
Discussion started: 04/30/07 06:30:54 PM
Latest comment: 12/31/07 07:35:29 PM
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[1-14]
1.
Nice!
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Posted by: LoLo
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Date: 04/30/07 06:30:54 PM]
+ expand thread (4 answers)
- collapse thread
I for once think of buying a HD 2900XT as my first ATi graphics card.
Of course it may not be an optimal solution, but I just can't bare the possible loss of a strong competitor to Nvidia…
Sure ATi may have screwed up with the R600, but as long as the price is right (equal or better lower than 8800 GTS) I'm sold.
Also there are still a lot of doubts about the R600 left. By the time it's available in stores (some sources indicate middle of June) Nvidia may slash the prices of the 320MB 8800 GTS to the level of 8600GTS, then ATi is in for some serious trouble, but as they say time will tell.
P.S. For all those thinking of buying a GPU any time soon, my advice would be:
wait for the availability of the ATi HD 2900XT, and if it turns out to be faster than the Nvidia 640MB 8800GTS with a similar price, I would encourage you to buy it. The same applies to the HD 2600 XT vs 8600 GTS.
I personally am willing to support ATi this time round, because sometimes it is better to pay a little bit more for less, so that you could pay less for a lot more in the future...
/4th generation Nvidia user
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Posted by: Masterrer
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Date: 05/02/07 05:31:15 AM]
Well, I must say that Masterrers somment does make sense.
This coming from a hardcore Nvidia user
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Posted by: Nvidia_fan
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Date: 05/02/07 05:34:40 AM]
or "nice thoughts materrer", whoever posted the first comment.
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Posted by: silviu
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Date: 09/09/07 07:45:16 AM]
nice thoughts Lolo, I think you have just changed my mind. anyway, you're right. it would seem a wise decision to support now ati. and the 2900xt card really is a good choice, because with it's shader performance (which is above the one from 8800gtx) it could prove a wiser solution for the future, for those who buy a card with a 3-4 years period in mind. although the 8800gts is more quiet and consumes less power, 2900xt sometimes proves to be as fast as the gtx version. hell yeah, 2900xt, here I come!
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Posted by: silviu
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Date: 09/09/07 07:38:54 AM]
2.
$1000 dolar crap... 7800GTX 512mb all over again.
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Posted by: Panzer_V
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Date: 04/30/07 07:45:48 PM]
3.
Yep this card screams "not worth the price" loud and clear. Everyone is going to see this as another 7800 512 again. Thanks for the early update :) on performance, but I could tell this was coming.
Even for those of us who could afford it, it's still a dumb way to spend the money. I'm sure someone will buy one somewhere, but not me.
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Posted by: FXi
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Date: 05/01/07 04:23:48 AM]
4.
I really dont understand why nVIDIA is releasing the 8800 Ultra given the fact that the 8800 GTX is already 30-50% faster than the R600 Radeon HD 2900 XT..NVIDIA has the performance crown already with the 8800GTX so releasing another GPU in the form of an "ULTRA" version is not needed..specially when the performance improvemnet from such an "ULTRA" is so small over previous GTX..
The price tag of the 8800 Ultra is just insane..NO sane person is gonna pay 999USD for an "Ultra" when it offers only 3-10% improvement over previous high end offering....for 999USD you can almost get two 8800 GTXs that will give you TWICE the performance of an 8800 Ultra..so do a simple math..I think nVIDIA needs to release an 80nm G80 based high-end chip in the form of the 8900 series in order to make some good performance,low power consumption and best price/performance ratio and performance per wat and performance per squre milimiter
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Posted by: Erik Larsson
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Date: 05/01/07 04:28:12 AM]
+ expand thread (6 answers)
- collapse thread
It's XT vs GT and XTX vs GTX.
Besides, I believe that the drivers haven't been optimized yet. Product feels rushed. Didn't NVIDIA have similar issues with the 8800 when it was new?
Wait and see if it's the driver or the hardware that's letting us down.
/NVIDIA user
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Posted by: I\\\\\\\'m n00b
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Date: 05/01/07 08:50:02 AM]
You're totlay wrong about the XT vs GTS and XTX vs GTX thing..First of all there's not much of a peformance improvement from going from XT to XTX version in the HD 2900 series..the performance diffrence is meaningless between those two ATI high-end cards..XT will be clocked at 750MHz core while the XTX will be at 800MHz core making the peformance improvement ~7% over the XT version which is'nt enough to fight 8800GTX given that the 8800GTX is already about 30-50% faster in shader intensive titles..ATI has lost any chanse of stealing the performance crown back from NVIDIA in this generation of GPUs-at least with the R600..The ATI R600 GPU was in full development since late 2004 and it was meant to be ATI's first Unified DX10 GPU..Since ATI saw back in last November that their R600 GPU will NOT be able to compete with the 8800 GTX's performance they change their mind and said "No R600 XT was meant to compete with the 8800 GTS 640MB"....ATI just couldn't admit that it lost the battle since the HD 2900 XT was the REAL XTX..but simply couldn't compete with NVIDIA's superiour architecture...NOT only that ATI is late to the party but it also having a slower performing product..SHAME ON THEM..and please dont blame AMD in ATI's flaws since the merger was taken palce AFTER the R600 was done and ready..NVIDIA G80 is a simply superiour architecture to R600..G80 is better almost in every fashion...G80 has 100% efficient scalar design Vs R600's Vector and fake scalar design..G80 has a better implemintation of the unified shader architecture than R600..G80 has REAL stream processors and stream processing architecture unlike ATI's fake design. and it seems that 512-bit bus does NOT help the R600 at all when the buttleneck is shader and texturing performance.....NVIDIA owns ATi big time....VERY GOOD NVIDIA..WELL DONE ,CONTINURE SCREWING ATI TO DEATH..
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Posted by: Erik Larsson
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Date: 05/01/07 09:50:35 AM]
You are one sick fanboy period
Wishing any companies death is beyond me…
Good luck paying 1000$ for a crappy GPU and another 1000$ for a crappy CPU after ATI/AMD death
[
Posted by: Masterrer
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Date: 05/02/07 04:57:53 AM]
Erik,
Wasn't it you who promised us the GeForce 8950 GX2 (two GeForce 8800 GTS at 575MHz, 1280MB of memory at 2.0GHz) for $649 and GeForce 8800 Ultra (650MHz/1.80GHz/2.2GHz) for $549 and in mid-April? Did you also promise that the GeForce 8600 GTS will be 50% faster than the Radeon X1950 XTX 512MB? :)
Looks like: http://www.xbitlabs.com/discussion/3800.html
What we have now is G80-450 revision A3 at over $650 price-point in mid-May, GeForce 8600 GTS slower than the Radeon X1950 Pro in the vast majority of cases for $229 and... and that's it.
Claiming that GeForce 8800 Ultra is so fast that it will leave the Radeon HD 2900 XT in the dust is strange too: you don't have reliable HD 2900 XT benchmarks at hand, you don't know its pricing... Imagine that the board may be speedy enough to leave the 8800 GTS behind and compete against the 8800 GTX in some cases and has recommended pricing similar to the 8800 GTS, which means that two of such products will cost like one 8800 Ultra. Which will be faster in that case? Two GeForce 8800 Ultra cards will cost over $1000 and I don't know a lot of people who are willing to pay that sum for a graphics sub-system.
[
Posted by: Anton
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Date: 05/02/07 05:36:38 AM]
DEAR ANTON...My cusin is an NVIDIA engineer..(and I'll be too in 3 months) and he provided me with the data regarding the 8950GX2 and 8800 Ultra..since then final specs have CHANGED!!
NVIDIA is now working at full speed to release additional members in the GeForce 8 family of products..It is not up to me..I'm just sharing what I'm given..sorry
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Posted by: Erik Larsson
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Date: 05/02/07 09:02:02 AM]
Specs have changed?
Scrapped dual-chip GeForce 8950 GX2 board, slowed down GeForce 8800 Ultra with 33% higher price than expected is now called "changed"? :)
Additional members? They won't be released earlier than towards BTS season.
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Posted by: Anton
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Date: 05/02/07 11:18:09 AM]
5.
Sources???
[
Posted by: boner
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Date: 05/01/07 05:47:49 AM]
6.
You're totlay wrong about the XT vs GTS and XTX vs GTX thing..First of all there's not much of a peformance improvement from going from XT to XTX version in the HD 2900 series..the performance diffrence is meaningless between those two ATI high-end cards..XT will be clocked at 750MHz core while the XTX will be at 800MHz core making the peformance improvement ~7% over the XT version which is'nt enough to fight 8800GTX given that the 8800GTX is already about 30-50% faster in shader intensive titles..ATI has lost any chanse of stealing the performance crown back from NVIDIA in this generation of GPUs-at least with the R600..The ATI R600 GPU was in full development since late 2004 and it was meant to be ATI's first Unified DX10 GPU..Since ATI saw back in last November that their R600 GPU will NOT be able to compete with the 8800 GTX's performance they change their mind and said "No R600 XT was meant to compete with the 8800 GTS 640MB"....ATI just couldn't admit that it lost the battle since the HD 2900 XT was the REAL XTX..but simply couldn't compete with NVIDIA's superiour architecture...NOT only that ATI is late to the party but it also having a slower performing product..SHAME ON THEM..and please dont blame AMD in ATI's flaws since the merger was taken palce AFTER the R600 was done and ready..NVIDIA G80 is a simply superiour architecture to R600..G80 is better almost in every fashion...G80 has 100% efficient scalar design Vs R600's Vector and fake scalar design..G80 has a better implemintation of the unified shader architecture than R600..G80 has REAL stream processors and stream processing architecture unlike ATI's fake design. and it seems that 512-bit bus does NOT help the R600 at all when the buttleneck is shader and texturing performance.....NVIDIA owns ATi big time....VERY GOOD NVIDIA..WELL DONE ,CONTINURE SCREWING ATI TO DEATH..
[
Posted by: Erik Larsson
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Date: 05/01/07 09:51:25 AM]
7.
ATOM KING!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Csak igy tovább!!!
NVIDIA FOREVER!!!!!!!!!!!!
[
Posted by: SoldierSDR
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Date: 05/01/07 01:06:25 PM]
8.
Anyone who would pay $999 for a card rthat wouls only give you maybe 10% more in performace would be a fool. You can hit that mark by overclocking your 8800GTX.I have both ofmine running stable at 650 core 1000 memory.Its time for people to wake up,as longas we give them our cash,they will just keep raising their prices.
[
Posted by: doctor_death
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Date: 05/01/07 03:42:52 PM]
9.
I agree to doctor death Nvidia will suck all your money and 3 month later on they come out the new one that have similiar performance or mybe abit high wih low price ....hope ATI will bring some decent card that can give some pressure to reduce the price.
[
Posted by: Gunter
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Date: 05/01/07 05:12:38 PM]
10.
Too much money, not worth it.
[
Posted by: kiev
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Date: 05/01/07 07:50:52 PM]
11.
DEAR ANTON...My cusin is an NVIDIA engineer (and I'll be too in 3 months) and he provided me with the data regarding the 8950GX2 and 8800 Ultra..since then final specs & pricing have CHANGED due to yield issues!!
Even at NVIDIA you can never know the product specs until very late development stages..they are trying work on low profile.
NVIDIA is now working at full speed to release additional members in the GeForce 8 family of products..It is not up to me..I'm just sharing what I'm given..sorry..info has to be updated from time to time...AS for the HD 2900 XT performance it was ATI who admited that it wont be able to compete with the 8800 GTX..and have peformance on par with the 8800 GTS..Look at Fudzilla.com for that scoop!! also the benches at DailyTech an others seem to prove it !!! 8800 GTX is from 30-50% faster then HD 2900 XT-period!! and even the 2900 XTX wont save the day for AMD/ATI..Get Updated..sorry..and one last thing .Why do you think ATI is releasing the 2900 XT at 399 USD!? because it is on the looser side..and yes I'm an nVIDIA fan..Because My family has stocks at nVIDIA..and I have family members working in NVIDIA as engineers and I'm going to be an NVIDIA engineer aswell in 3 months from now..good day..
[
Posted by: Erik Larsson
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Date: 05/02/07 09:15:42 AM]
12.
dude the 2900xt beats the 8800gtx in some games(x3reunion) and beats the 8800gts(640mg) in more than half the tests. Its just louder that the 8800 and uses more power. But hey, remember the time of the 9700. They were the best, give ati a chance
[
Posted by: timer
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Date: 06/10/07 05:46:37 AM]
13.
This is rediculus. All the benchmark tests are out now and prove very much so that the HD 2900XT honestly and sadly dont compare to the 8800GTX however... If you send an email out to ati and ask why... They will send you an email stating "We have used our best technology and skill into the HD 2900XT and were very happy with the outcome though we didnt compare to the upper 8800 Series. We are very happy with our product." It's only the benchmarks telling us the hd 2900XT isn't as good as the upper 8800 series... doesn't make it a bad card, it just wasn't built to compete with Nvidia's newer G80 series cards. It was built to kick ass, and play games and etc. Furthermore get business off it.. (money) By making the price as low as they did when it came out they stole lots of business away from the Nvidia fans. including me :) and we all got something great and fast. Most of us already know we didnt get it because we thought it was faster. We know it's not. Its a great card indeed. And if anyone on here knows what their talking about then you will understand that there will ALWAYS be something the ATI will be better at then Nvidia, and something that Nvidia will always be better at than Ati.... Thats what makes the 2 company's great! Its all about choice, Brand, and your Style, I like to think of it like this. Are you on the Dark Side (Ati) of the Path of the Good Side (Nvidia). Both are very powerfull sides, but you have to choose. And in a few months... maybe even a year if we are lucky then next best cards will be out and you will look back at this and think, shit I cannot believe I actually argued over this old crap. Haha. Time to upgrade!
[
Posted by: Chris
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Date: 07/17/07 08:53:10 AM]
14.
I think nvidia wont stop creating graphic cards .
[
Posted by: Gamer cheetah
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Date: 12/31/07 07:35:29 PM]
[1-14]
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