GeForce 9800 GX2 nabbedKeeping roadmaps under wraps is [H]ardBy Wily Ferret: Friday, 04 January 2008, 2:35 PMTHE GREEN TEAM is usually pretty good at keeping its future graphics plans under wraps. Usually it shares them only with selected websites and "partners" who are NDA'd up to the eyeballs to avoid the information leaking onto the web.But the straight-up folks at HardOCP have posted fresh pictures and information about Nvidia's roadmap today, including a look at the dual-GPU beast which will be known as the 9800 GX2.The card is similar to the 7950 GX2, with two 8800 GPUs on separate PCBs, slammed together and running in SLI. It is due to launch at the end of February or early March, the site reckons, and will take over the crown of fastest card from the 8800 Ultra - at least in games that support SLI.Heat should be less of a problem than in existing SLI setups, as the new 8800 GPUs are die-shrunk to 65nm.The rest of the roadmap takes a decidedly unwelcome skew, as Nvidia adopts DAAMIT's tactics of rebranding current-gen products with a new name. The 9800 series will be a small revamp of the 8800, with support for Tri-SLI and some tweaked clocks and specs. The 9600 will do the typical trick of being a new mid-range card that doesn't perform as fast as well, bang for buck, as previous generation cards.It seems that we won't have anything genuinely new from Nvidia for quite a while - it's possible that we won't see a truly next-gen graphics architecture for another nine months. If R700 continues to see delays, there will be little incentive for Nvidia to push out anything sooner.You can read some more details over a HardOCP here and here.
Almost all NVIDIA’s upcoming products will be delay to March, according to our sources.Delayed new products including 780a, 750a, 790i, 790i Ultra, and 9800 GX2. All these products should be announced in Feb, 2008. Sources did not mention the reason why NV hold the upcoming releases. And we guess that’s because of factories are running into Chinese new year holiday.The delay will push back the war between GeForce 9800GX2 and Radeon HD 3870 X2. And that means HD 3870 X2 will be the absolutely highest product in the market, continue eating NVIDIA’s share for one extra month.And 790i and 790i Ultra’s delay will make them directly face Intel’s X48. Also, in NVIDIA’s February product line, only GeForce 8200 will still stick on NV’s roadmap, to be released in Feb. But GeForce 8200’s rival, AMD’s 780G have been released in China few days ago.We’ve also reported 9600GT suffering a week’s delay from Feb 14 to Feb 21, and its enemy, Radeon HD 3600 series already began selling from Jan 23.
9600GT recalled, 9800X2 delayedMore Nvidian release woesBy Charlie Demerjian: Monday, 18 February 2008, 4:13 PMIT LOOKS LIKE Nvidia is firing on no cylinders lately. The firm can't seem to get a product out on time. There is one bright spot: the count on the 9600GT delays has gone up by 50 per cent.That may not be a bright spot, but the so far twice delayed 9600GT, (specs here) appears to have been recalled. Some OEMs are getting the call to yank them, others not yet, or not at the time they talked to us. What this means is more and more delay, this time we are not sure how much though. An educated guess would be CeBIT, because what else are they going to launch there?Oh yes, we probably should mention that the 9800X2, or whatever they call it, has also moved from CeBIT to the end of March, for now. Before you get all hot and bothered, this is basically a couple of downclocked G92s on 2 PCBs.It will be decently fast, but it will also be expensive. The cheapest we can find a G92 based GT with 512MB memory is about $210, and a GTS for about $260. That compares to $185 and $210 for the ATI 3850 and 3870 respectively. This means that he NV cards have a premium over the ATI cards at all points.Toss in that NV can't make them on one PCB, duals are expensive, as are board cut-outs, and you have a huge price premium over the 3870X2. Add in that OEMs hate dual PCB boards, and you are looking at another losing streak in the making. Are we staring down the barrel of another 7950? NV could not show working boards at CES, so, like Hybrid, things are looking grim.There is a bit of good news though, the 8800GT is going to have a price drop in short order, as sill most of the lower line (8600 and down). We are not sure how much, but look for $10-20.
Its not so much wanting next gen to play Crysis better. Yeah thats a part of it but just a small part. The real scene is to have and to hold a new part to test and look at.
