Hints of a 7800 Ultra Emerging??

[Kunaak]

while the 7800 GTX is now called the top 7800 card... I am begining to wonder if this is really gonna remain the case.

see, I have 3 observations here.

1. standard 7800 GTX's come clocked at 430/1200.

but recently, theres alot of companies coming out with much faster versions of this card.

XFX has one that comes at 450/1250.
XFX also has a new one that just came out today, that comes clocked at 490/1300, which is a rather big difference from 430 on the standard GTX.

BFG has a GTX coming at 460/1300.

theres also about 2-3 others I seen, I even heard the Gainward one comes clocked at 520... however I havnet botherd to double check on that yet.
my point is...

these videocards, obviously have alot more to give, and that stock heatsinks can handle. if BFG, XFX and Gainward all sell cards that approach 500 mhz stock, and 1300 for the memory, thier can easily be a bump up on the 7800 with little worry about heat, yeilds, or increased costs.

so the potential is definatly there.

2. the GTX is rumourd to already have a price drop coming within weeks, dipping to 550, then soon after $499, and the 7800 GT soon, even falling to 399.

I've heard this a few times in the last 2 days, and most recently at the Inquirer.

might Nvidia, already be planning to release a better card, just waiting to see what ATI's next card can do, so they know what to do to "one up" it??

3. it's believed that ATI, is gambling on moving to the .09 nm process with thier entire line.
if ATI does indeed do this, Nvidia would almost certainly need something to counter ATI, in which case, a "ultra" version of the 7800 seems more and more likely.

Nvidia has just announced its G70, Geforce 7800GTX card still based on 110 nm design while ATI is taking a risk by moving to a 90 nanometre process. ATI is about to get into production with its 90nm R520, following by the RV530 and RV515, both also 90 nanometre based. It got things right but it was not that easy, it took ATI three tape outs to get there.

Once ATI reveals the R520, Nvidia won't have any other choice than to release a faster clocked version of G70, Geforce 7800 possibly known as Ultra. We learned that this chip will still be based on 110 nanometres as Nvidia is not ready to jump to the 90 naometre yet.

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=24565

7800 "Ultra" coming soon??

maaaaybe.

[charlie]

yeah, I bet you're right. Maybe 550/1400 or something crazy?? 32pipes, lol?? Something to back them up just incase r520 is a badazz.

C

[Flak Monkey]

I assume nvidia has several potential versions of the ultra just waiting to be released. It all depends on how good r520 is. If it's crap, they probably wont release anything. If it's moderately better than the 7800GTX they might release a version will clocks at 550/1400 like was already said. If r520 turns out be be a 32pipe 700mhz beast (or something equally outrageous) I assume that nvidia will wipout a desktop version of the RSX with 32pipes and 90nm process. Personably I hope it's the last one but only time will tell.

[Tom Holck]

I agree with you Kunaak,

btw Gainward GS is clocked 480/1300 default. I have 2 here :D
They are planning the watercooled model with new bios that can handle sub 35 c temp.

My early test so far of the Gainward 7800GTX GS, standard cooling can go 503/1450 SLI
so indeed a lot of potential there.

[krille]

How soon will we be able to watercool our G70 based cards? And wasn't this supposed to be driver issue?

[Tom Holck]

How soon will we be able to watercool our G70 based cards? And wasn't this supposed to be driver issue?

The driver can't handle the bios information. The modded bios turn the temp messuring off. Then it work, and you can go sup 35 C ;)

[krille]

Yes, that's true. But, iirc nVidia was BS-ing something about driver updates. Maybe I'm just hallucinating again.

Again though, how soon will we see new BIOSes for our cards? Could this have something to do with everyone following the reference design, because the BIOSes are not complete yet, and BIOS updating will be easier on the business (with only few minor differences at most between cards)?

[Hicks]

I agree with you Kunaak,

btw Gainward GS is clocked 480/1300 default. I have 2 here :D
They are planning the watercooled model with new bios that can handle sub 35 c temp.

My early test so far of the Gainward 7800GTX GS, standard cooling can go 503/1450 SLI
so indeed a lot of potential there.

Awesome thanks. Ive got a bit confused as Rivatuner and 3dmark have said 520mhz for the core, but i did think it was a bit high.

So am i best clocking it manually in Rivatuner to 480/1300?

And yeah, we'll probably see an Ultra, but it's no surprise is it, there are always revisions of new cards.

Also Rivatuner doesn't seem to fully support the 7800? or is that me? On the top drop down bar thing there is no overclocking option, it's on the 2nd one. On my X800 it was on the top bar.

My Gainward CD also doesn't seem to work at all with this card, so why would they ship the CD? lol.

[alanore]

The new core, the G71 is the G70 on the 90nm process. Its the GPU thats going to be put into the Sony Playstation 3, its the RSX. It will perhaps have more pipelines than the G70 as well to help fight the R520.

[Hicks]

The new core, the G71 is the G70 on the 90nm process. Its the GPU thats going to be put into the Sony Playstation 3, its the RSX. It will perhaps have more pipelines than the G70 as well to help fight the R520.

Hm you sure.

NV40- 6800Ultra, NV45- 6600, etc?
NV30- 5800Ultra, NV32 etc, lower versions?

[krille]

NV45 was 6800Ultra PCI-E. NV43 was 6600.

[Hicks]

NV45 was 6800Ultra PCI-E. NV43 was 6600.

Ok then, yeah, but my point still stands.

[Cooper]

alanore where you found this info ???
Still no one knows what G71 possible could be - it`s just suppositions all over inet.

[[XC] leviathan18]

g71? the 80 bios didnt say g72 that we can asumme is the 7600gt or the ultra why companies loves to keep everything secret :( annoying

[eliminate]

The basic reason is pretty much that no company really knows what they are going to come out with, so they just slap a number to something that they are "working" on. Its like with the R520, it is the next number up. I can really doubt that they have any good production sample ready for it, so they aren't going to call it the x900 or something because they really don't know what it can do, yet. Also, the numbering system confuses their competitors because if you are ATi and you say you are going to be producing this new chip called the R520, then Nvidia and all the other graphics manufacturers are going to be creating their own numbers to try to intimidate the market and ATi themselves from creating a better product than the one they can produce; which means more money overall.

[[XC] leviathan18]

welcome to xs :party: eliminate....


i think we wont see the rsx on desktop any time soon as sony has the rights of the chip and i think is far away to be a finished product...

[Cooper]

I think we won`t need RSX on desktop. PS3 is coming only next year. And by that time we`ll have nice prices for 7800GT/GTX and R520. Plus XFire and SLI (maybe SLI2). Next year we`ll be waiting for new gen of VGAs - and the battle begins again :)

[Turok]

I assume nvidia has several potential versions of the ultra just waiting to be released. It all depends on how good r520 is. If it's crap, they probably wont release anything. If it's moderately better than the 7800GTX they might release a version will clocks at 550/1400 like was already said. If r520 turns out be be a 32pipe 700mhz beast (or something equally outrageous) I assume that nvidia will wipout a desktop version of the RSX with 32pipes and 90nm process. Personably I hope it's the last one but only time will tell.

Why would they do that. If ATI's card ends up being crap, and nVidia has a monster of a card under their sleeves, they may thow it and crush ATI for a wile (especially if the price is about the same) until ATI thinks about a new card faster than ever (like they did with the x800 series that released 3 months afther the 9800).
We could probably see r600 shortly afther that IF ATI is crushed by nVidia

g71? the 80 bios didnt say g72 that we can asumme is the 7600gt or the ultra why companies loves to keep everything secret :( annoying

They do this so information is not lost, and the other companies start to implement their strategy with the strategy they stole to make their product even better. Companies compete and dont want to give valuable information that could cost them millions

An example could be if nVidia had revealed that they were going to put SM3.0 on their 6xxx series, then ATI may of added SM3.0 with a small update like the x850 series (wich was introduced mainly to ease production)

[IYP]

should i get a GTX or wait for the ultra.....dont want to be spending 1100 on a new SLI setup when therl be an ultra out

[Flak Monkey]

Why would they do that. If ATI's card ends up being crap, and nVidia has a monster of a card under their sleeves, they may thow it and crush ATI for a wile (especially if the price is about the same) until ATI thinks about a new card faster than ever (like they did with the x800 series that released 3 months afther the 9800).
We could probably see r600 shortly afther that IF ATI is crushed by nVidia They wouldn't release a new card to because releasing a new card cost money. If you already have a better product than the competition then there is no reason to release something new. These companies don't inovate for the consumers they inovate because they are forced to by the competition. No competition, no new card.

[Afterburner]

Ive got a bit confused as Rivatuner and 3dmark have said 520mhz for the core, but i did think it was a bit high.
Sounds like the Geometry speed @ +40mhz of main core speed.....I have yet to get a GTX so correct me if I am wrong on this........ :p:

[einCe]

if the prices drop to 450 dollars something big will definatley coming

[.sentinel]

I would expect nVidia to have multiple versions like Flak Monkey said. They will probably decidie on one based one price and performance. Sure you might get 20k on 3dmark05 but if it 1000 dollars a card there would be no use. They probably will have a overclocked 6800GT with some more features like faster memory and core speed, more vertex shaders and SM 3.0 or 90nm

[-Acid-]

has there been anymore details leaked out over the R520 I,ve not heard any more details in ages.

[eva2000]

i was told nvidia has higher binned 7800GTX cores that they charge a bit more for and BFG is currently buying those higher binned cores off nvidia hence the higher price.

XFX 7800GTX extreme edition is also using the higher binned cores but apparently is a limited run, so if the extreme edition XFX was to be rma'd there might not be the same core speeds replacements