NEWS: 7800 Ultra and Asus PCI-Express Pentium-M board samples spotted

[alexio]

I know from a very reliable source that the 7800 Ultra already exists and test samples have been made. It will have the special heatpipe cooler that we saw already in the Quadro series.

I don't know the specs because this information is under NDA but most likely it will be roughly the same as the 7800GTX with the difference that it has 32 pipes instead of 24 and possible 10 vertexshaders instead of 8 and most likely a clockspeed somewere between 450-525mhz. We will probably see both a 256mb version and a 512mb version of this card.

I also have some news about a new Pentium-M motherboard from asus. Asus has working samples of a Pentium-M board with PCI-Express and al features us enthousiasts need. The board will ship in 1-2 months from now.

Well that was it

[EvlUndrWareNome]

NICE. But can you atleast tell us something about this board? I would like to know something, so I can start dismantling my system to sell it to buy dothan setup =p Only reason I didnt keep mine was that the P4GD1 was too hard to find and I wanted PCI-E.

Are you going to be able to release any information later on this ?

[mrlobber]

I also have some news about a new Pentium-M motherboard from asus. Asus has working samples of a Pentium-M board with PCI-Express and al features us enthousiasts need. The board will ship in 1-2 months from now.

Asus, bring back the days of your glory !

[Vapor]

Sounds like nV is scared of R520....yay for us!

And I second what mrlobber said....

[AgentVX]

Still waiting for the possibility of that heatpipe cooler going retail

[Waus-mod]

Hmm to bad asus started it so late. About a small year we have conroe..,
But he, we need something till that time

[Tim]

I know from a very reliable source that the 7800 Ultra already exists and test samples have been made. It will have the special heatpipe cooler that we saw already in the Quadro series.

I don't know the specs because this information is under NDA but most likely it will be roughly the same as the 7800GTX with the difference that it has 32 pipes instead of 24 and possible 10 vertexshaders instead of 8 and most likely a clockspeed somewere between 450-525mhz. We will probably see both a 256mb version and a 512mb version of this card.

I also have some news about a new Pentium-M motherboard from asus. Asus has working samples of a Pentium-M board with PCI-Express and al features us enthousiasts need. The board will ship in 1-2 months from now.

Well that was it

Hehe thanx for the info...I'm waiting for the Ultra

[Cybercat]

I'd be very surprised if the 7800 Ultra turned out to be any more than a clockspeed bump. That's all refresh parts really amount to. Added pipes are more typically saved for next gen/coming year parts. But of course, it would be a pleasant surprise (although perhaps overkill).

[J-Mag]

I don't know the specs because this information is under NDA but most likely it will be roughly the same as the 7800GTX with the difference that it has 32 pipes instead of 24 and possible 10 vertexshaders instead of 8 and most likely a clockspeed somewere between 450-525mhz. We will probably see both a 256mb version and a 512mb version of this card.

You truely believe that we will see a 32pipe part here?

I HIGHLY doubt that, but I would love to eat my own words of corse, i just don't see it as feasable. I mean JEEZUS did you see the die size of the 7800GTX? It will have to be substantially larger than that if they are still running on the 110nm.
If there is a magic Nvidia Fairy that helped them to 90nm I could see this happening, but so far GPUs don't seem to be yeilding good results on 90nm, just look at what happend to r520.

[Vapor]

I'd be very surprised if the 7800 Ultra turned out to be any more than a clockspeed bump. That's all refresh parts really amount to. Added pipes are more typically saved for next gen/coming year parts. But of course, it would be a pleasant surprise (although perhaps overkill).

Agreed...from a naming standpoint, I don't see the justification to keep 7800 and throw an Ultra on there when you add 33% more pipes and clock it up 10% or so. Bring on the 7900 with 32 pipes though, please!

[alexio]

They already have a bigass cooling solution to keep the 7800 GTX nice and cool so I see no reason to upgrade this solution if only a higher clockspeed is the difference between the 7800GTX and 7800U, I could be wrong however.

If the 7800U has the same amount of pipes and vertexes then it would need to be clocked very high, higher than 490mhz as the Asus 7800GTX already has this clockspeed. I don't see how the G70 can achieve this kind of clockspeed or they have been speedbinning from the beginning and going to sell the 7800U at a rediculous price. Maybe the only diffence is that the Ultra has 512mb GDDR3.

But we should not forget that we have seen the Gainward 6800GT's with a guaranteed overclock to 400mhz. Maybe the Asus 7800GTX TOP is also something like this. But than it's still prized not very high above an avarage 7800 GTX so unless the Ultra has 512mb GDDR3 Nvidia won't be able to sell the 7800U at a much higher prize.

Maybe it will be something like this:

G70 core (no modifications)
24 pipes
8 vs
500mhz core (525-550mhz for the Ultra Extreme)
GDDR1300-1400
512mb only (atleast when the card is launched)

[Cybercat]

I would expect it to be at least 500MHz if it is indeed a clock bump. They can do very close to that already with a relatively low voltage and simple cooler. Combine it with a dual-slot, heatpipe monster cooler and increased VGPU and you have quite the added potential.

Clockspeed would be an ideal persuit for NVIDIA and the G70 right now. Reference clockspeeds were very modest (we can't really talk about factory overclocking as anything official), as was cooling, and power consumption. Really we aren't expecting the R520 to have a distant lead over the G70, and the only thing the G70 would need is a bit of a bump in performance, which wouldn't be hard at all for NVIDIA to do (especially being a few months into its production). You could call it a process of turning the 7800GTX from a consumer's card, to something more of a real enthusiast card, using much more impressive cooling and demanding power consumption truer to that of a flagship that is meant to set records and beat the competition.

Because that's what ATI's main focus is, afterall. They aren't going to clock their card modestly or use a single slot cooler. They're going to pull the absolute best performance they can out of the chip as possible while not becoming a ghost card in the market. Their objective is to win the performance crown, and I don't think NVIDIA would let them get by with that without some proper competition.

[DeltZ]

have to keep up with all this new stuff coming out...new monitors etc etc...annoying.. thinking of making a pentium M computer for my friend when he gets around 700-100 quid...but when to make it? christmas...gah...it's so hard to position yourself so that you're future proof.

[metro.cl]

i just hope for a nice fight so we can gain more performance for less $$$

last gen was not nice in $$ performance

[DilTech]

First, the ultra is on the G71 core, not the G70. For those who don't know, and for some odd reason think it, the 7800gt was ALSO on the g70 core, just a different revision. The g71 is a completely different beast, supposidly 90nm(as was posted on VRzone, I posted the googlecache copy here because VRZone had to take it down for NDA reasons), and fully capable of VERY higher clockspeeds. Also, it is stated to carry 32 pipes, as it IS a completely different core.

[DilTech]

You truely believe that we will see a 32pipe part here?

I HIGHLY doubt that, but I would love to eat my own words of corse, i just don't see it as feasable. I mean JEEZUS did you see the die size of the 7800GTX? It will have to be substantially larger than that if they are still running on the 110nm.
If there is a magic Nvidia Fairy that helped them to 90nm I could see this happening, but so far GPUs don't seem to be yeilding good results on 90nm, just look at what happend to r520.

Not all gpu's aren't. Microsoft is having NO problem pumping out R500's for their X-box360, and they run on the 90nm process as well. It's just that because ATi sold that chip to microsoft, they had to start over again with the R520, and obviously, they started a bit too late to get it done right. ATi was trying to tackle making an enthusiast class chipset, a new videocard arc., a multi-gpu platform, and various otherthings... They simply bit off more than they could chew.

NVidia, on the otherhand, was smart and released a 110nm part first, so as to put the heat on ATi. Meanwhile, with the heat off of them, they had all the time in the world to work on the die shrink, while not being pressured to get something out as they currently have the top performance cards on the market.

It's not 90nm that's the problem, it's the R520 chip that's the problem.

[poiuy223]

if the pipes are true, then its a very good thing that there is finally a difference between different ends in the same model. i find it odd that people would spend $100 more to buy an ultra over a gt just for the extra clock speed and bit higher overclocking headroom. extra pipes makes more sense

[jrw]

Any links?

[freecableguy]

I am so itching to buy a pair of 7800GTX cards but if what you say about the Ultra is true I can wait it out.

[Flak Monkey]

I am so itching to buy a pair of 7800GTX cards but if what you say about the Ultra is true I can wait it out.

Just buy evga cards and if the ultra comes out just use the step-up program.

[[XC] moddolicous]

Does the asus board have DDR-2?? Maybe dothan paired up with DDR-2 will give us some really nice spi results. Cant wait.

[Northwood]

OK the master of speculation is here to tell you how its gonna be...

7800 Ultra (G71) is gonna be a 90nm die shrink of the popular 7800GTX (G70).
Clock speeds, as a result of the die shrink, will range from anywhere between 500Mhz to 550Mhz depending on yield.


This part will be launched shortly after ATI's R520 to re-take the performance crown, meanwhile Nvidia are working away franticly on the G80, which will be a 32 pipe part, to beat to market the R580 ATI have supposedly already taped out.

Unknown to ATI, Nvidia taped out the G80 silicon 3 months before ATI and their R580.

Nvidia are ready to pull the trigger on the 7800 Ultra, just as soon as the official benchmarks come for the R520.

[BitpowerPM]

I also have some news about a new Pentium-M motherboard from asus. Asus has working samples of a Pentium-M board with PCI-Express and al features us enthousiasts need. The board will ship in 1-2 months from now.

More infos?

Chipset? Memory? Pics?

[jrw]

Spill some more, otherwise this isn't news but speculation and groundless roumours...