[Rumour] GF104 is 384 SP, GTX 460 crippled to 336 SP

VRNews · Jul 27th, 10, 06:30 PM

It should come as no surprise, and has been rumoured for a while now. The first GF104 cards, the GTX 460s, had 1 full cluster, or 48 shaders disabled. Based on yields, a faster GF104 was speculated, possibly as a replacement for GTX 470. Fudzilla reports that NVIDIA is indeed planning a full 384 SP / 256-bit GF104 based card.

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[Rumour] NVIDIA to replace GTX 470 with fully enabled GF104

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sutyi · Jul 27th, 10, 08:07 PM

Wonder what they'll call it. GTX460+, GTX460-384? Or perhaps a-GTX470, the "a" standing for almost.

Niceone · Jul 27th, 10, 10:15 PM

sutyi:
If they get high enough clocks they can call it GTX 470+

If they'll get 725MHz or higher for core and 1050MHz for memory..then this card should be faster than GTX 470 on games.

power666 · Jul 28th, 10, 04:43 AM

They could simply call it the GTX 475.

The only downside I see is that a full GF104 chip will likely be paired with 1 GB of memory where as the current GTX 470 has 1280 MB.

NextGen_Gamer · Jul 28th, 10, 09:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by power666

They could simply call it the GTX 475.

The only downside I see is that a full GF104 chip will likely be paired with 1 GB of memory where as the current GTX 470 has 1280 MB.

I really hope the high-end variations of AMD's "Southern Islands" video cards come with 2GB of high-speed GDDR5 memory standard. We have been stuck at the 1GB barrier for a while now (not including dual-GPU cards or NVIDIA cards with random 320-bit/384-bit memory interfaces).

As for the high-end fully-enabled GF104 card, I am guessing a clockspeed of 725MHz, 1450MHz SPs, and 1GB of 1100MHz (4400MHz effective) GDDR5 memory. Oh, and it will most definitely be called the GeForce GTX 475, even if it is only 1% faster than the GeForce GTX 470...

power666 · Jul 28th, 10, 10:21 AM

Moving beyond 1 GB is a very difficult right now in the market. 32 bit Windows is still popular and has certain limitations. Normally* 32 bit Windows limits an application to 2 GB of memory with the rest of the 4 GB reserved for system use, including memory mapping for hardware devices. While AMD and nVidia can go to 2 GB, there are going to be compromises on 32 bit systems. Moving beyond 2 GB pretty much requires a 64 bit OS and neither company seem to be eager to cut off 32 bit support in the short term.

The good news is that gamers are moving to 64 bit quicker than the average consumer. So perhaps in 2011 we'll be seeing more 2 GB cards on the high end.

Mind you there is absolutely no hardware reason why AMD and nVidia can't go beyond 2 GB now. They both have workstation class cards using the same chips with up to 4 GB on board today. The workstation market is one area that is heavily dominated already by 64 bit software.

*There are tricks to let applications utilize up to 3 GB under 32 bit Windows. I do believe that this restricts the device mapping to 1 GB as a trade off.

Niceone · Jul 28th, 10, 03:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by power666

The only downside I see is that a full GF104 chip will likely be paired with 1 GB of memory where as the current GTX 470 has 1280 MB.

Or it could very well be like when we first had 8800 GTS 640 and then arrived faster 8800 GTS 512

power666 · Jul 29th, 10, 05:03 AM

Speak of the devil: nVidia launches new Quadros with up to 6 GB of on board memory.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Niceone

Or it could very well be like when we first had 8800 GTS 640 and then arrived faster 8800 GTS 512

For most people the 8800GTS 512 was indeed faster but there was a notable exception that will likely play out again. The 8800GTS 640 MB had an edge at higher resolutions (1920 x 1200 and 2560 x 1200) once AA was turned on. The GTX 470 will probably edge out its GF104 replacement at 2560 x 1600 and higher resolutions with the eye candy turned on due to the greater amount of memory. Though for most people, the GF104 will likely be the better card.