UPDATE: 55nm GT206 GPU powers both GTX290 and Quadro FX 5800

[Mk]

The honor of being the first product powered by 55nm G200-302 chip (a.k.a. GT206/212) went to Quadro FX 4800/5800, products that launched with a lot of fanfare earlier today.

Besides Quadro FX 4800 and 5800, the new 55nm GPU will also power GeForce GTX 270 and 290. Essentially, we’re talking about the same parts. Quadro FX 4800 is nothing more but GTX270 with double the amount of video memory, while Quadro FX 5800 is equal to GTX290, but with four times the video memory. ATI is not sleeping, as the company is preparing an RV790 part , beefed-up version of already existing RV770 chip.

G200-302 Rev A2 begun manufacturing back in September, and the first parts are now finding their way to mass manufacturing. The chip features a die size of 470mm2, 107mm2 less than the original G200 chip. This just goes to show the vast difference between 65nm and 55nm - if Nvidia had the balls to go with 55nm chip back in May, the prices of GTX260/280 parts could have been way cheaper and offer much more flexibility, but we can’t cry over spilt milk. 55nm part is here now, and it will consume much less power than is the case with the 65nm one.

The 55nm GPU consumes roughly 50% less power than it was the case with 65nm one, and this difference is more than massive. When I did quick power checks, the GTX280 at 650/1500/2200 would eat around 266W, while the default clocked GTX280 (600/1300/2200) was specc’ed at 238W.

Well, the 55nm GPU will eat around 170W at 650/1500/2200, meaning that GTX290 just got 100W of power to play with. If you’re into overclocking, you can now start dreaming about clocking those 240 shaders to 1.7-1.8 GHz range (perhaps even 2.0 if water-cooling setup is powerful enough), and achieve massive performance gains, all happening while you’re consuming less power than a stock clocked GTX280.

As far as the naming convention goes, Nvidia calls their chips NVxx (we’re at NV60 right now) or Gxx/Gxxx internally, and partners get the GT200-XXX name. But at the end of the day, the number that matters is the one on the chip.
GTX 260 and 280 both came with G200-200 and G200-300 chips, while GTX270 and 290 will feature G206-202 and G206-302 chips. Essentially, there is no difference between the two, sans the hardwired part that decides how many shaders a certain chip has. If you’re brave enough, you’ll pop the massive HIS and play around with resistors. Who knows, perhaps you can enable 240 shaders on GTX260/270… or maybe not.
In any case, we can’t wait for these new babies to show up. FX4800, FX5800, GTX270 and 290 are all coming to market very, very soon.
My personal take is that Nvidia will try to steal the limelight of official Core i7 launch on 11/17 and ship the GTX270/290 to reviewers, trying to tell them that they’re still on top. All hopes with ATI lie in the form of upcoming 4890. But still, Nvidia does not offer a compelling $199 experience and this is where ATI will take them to the cleaners.

Of course… unless you see a GTX260-216 at a completely new price point, and GTX270 costing just $50 more, dropping to $199 for Christmas. Crazy scenario, but competition brings the best for us, consumers.

UPDATE: Picture that accompanied the story did not feature GT206 chip, thus I removed it. The rest of the info is pretty valid :-)

Source
humm what you guys think?

[DeanZ]

I'll probably be picking up a 260 core 216 or a 270...if the pricing is good...but yeah not a lot of potential as the next step is in August

[dpa]

I want 3 - 290GTX now!! Hmmm, I might want to sell my 280gtx cards...

[Boissez]

Going from 266W to 170W seems very unlikely. That'd mean that GPU consumption would have about halved by going 65->55nm - not likely at all.

[Stukov]

And Nvidia wouldn't laser lock the shaders/cores for what reason?

[Katanai]

Well yeah I guess those people spitting on the 5800 Quadro were not right after all. There was someone on this forum who noticed the power consumption and concluded that it's a 55nm chip. to him!

[zanzabar]

Going from 266W to 170W seems very unlikely. That'd mean that GPU consumption would have about halved by going 65->55nm - not likely at all.

u dont know that, the gpu with a huge die will see large drops in power with a shrink, its not a linear scale. and if they changed the pwm to accommodate a lower watt gpu u can drop alot of wasted consumption

[Boissez]

u dont know that, the gpu with a huge die will see large drops in power with a shrink, its not a linear scale. and if they changed the pwm to accommodate a lower watt gpu u can drop alot of wasted consumption

I know that - however the 55nm 9800GTX hardly saw any power benefits over its' predecessor- but could clock higher within the same TDP as the 9800GTX.
Can't see any reason as to why things should be different with GT206.

[zanzabar]

I know that - however the 55nm 9800GTX hardly saw any power benefits over its' predecessor- but could clock higher within the same TDP as the 9800GTX.
Can't see any reason as to why things should be different with GT206.

the gt200 is more than 2.5x the size of the g92 thats why it would scale in power much better with that. the g92 was already a nice sized chip and wasnt previously limited by heat and power consumption so with a chip thats large and runs hot by taking out heat u can run at lower voltage and by shrinking u can also cut consumption

look at the phenom its the same range it goes from like 120W to sub 80W, this may also be a sign that its paired with gddr4 or 5 since both use much less power than gddr3 and with a 512bit buss thats alot of power given off from the massive ic count

[Macadamia]

the gt200 is more than 2.5x the size of the g92 thats why it would scale in power much better with that. the g92 was already a nice sized chip and wasnt previously limited by heat and power consumption so with a chip thats large and runs hot by taking out heat u can run at lower voltage and by shrinking u can also cut consumption

look at the phenom its the same range it goes from like 120W to sub 80W, this may also be a sign that its paired with gddr4 or 5 since both use much less power than gddr3 and with a 512bit buss thats alot of power given off from the massive ic count

It uses GDDR3.

AMD's 65nm was ed up royallly, and 45nm was slightly better than general expectations due to litho and stressed silicon. That's a special case.

[Stukov]

look at the phenom its the same range it goes from like 120W to sub 80W, this may also be a sign that its paired with gddr4 or 5 since both use much less power than gddr3 and with a 512bit buss thats alot of power given off from the massive ic count

Um, I'm confused, did you really mean the phenom, the CPU?

[zanzabar]

Um, I'm confused, did you really mean the phenom, the CPU?

yes, its the same kind of thing. and im not saying anything over power consumption of large dies

It uses GDDR3.

AMD's 65nm was ed up royallly, and 45nm was slightly better than general expectations due to litho and stressed silicon. That's a special case.

it could have the same sort of gains in efficiency gains


im also saying that new ram would help the card with tdp by alot, even if its still gddr3 it could be a 65 nm build or something new

[Leeghoofd]

Well let's hope she performs as good as told on paper and consumes less it's always a good deal ... hopefully GTX290 will appear on the market at a reasonable price (at current GTX280 level...)

[VOID WARRANTY]

.i been waiting for these cards..i have a feeling these new 55nm are going to overclock a lot better..hoping for a 900mhz core with out a hard mod.....once one of you guys get one and make thread on the card...if like what it the card does then im gona buy one

[LordEC911]

While this is possible, slightly, it seems very unlikely.
Nvidia was having problems and now they hit the jackpot?
30% TDP decrease while bumping clocks? They just broke a WR with a halfnode shrink.

I won't doubt that Nvidia is finally ramping production of 55nm chips, the actual results/numbers aren't going to be that good.

EDIT- I'm thinking they used Nvidia's numbers for the GTX280 TDP and used the actual power consumption numbers for the G200b chips. Actual power consumption, according to AnandTech, for the GTX280 is already ~180-190w.

[mascaras]

from FUD

Nvidia already producing 55nm GT200


Silent hill

Nvidia’s CEO, Jensen said it in the last Q3 conference call, Marvin Burkett the CFO confirmed it, and we still had to go out and try to find if the 55nm production process they mentioned was about G92b or GT200 55nm.

Well now, we can finally say that in Q4 Nvidia plans to ship many GT200 55nm CPUs and it looks like they will silently replace the old 65nm parts.

Most new GTX 260 with 216 Shaders and upcoming GTX 280 will be based on the new 55nm chips but it looks that Nvidia does have a plan to increase the speed on the new products. Retail products based on 55nm chips are yet to be ship but we expect them in early December.

We believe that the new SKUs should overclock much better than the previous ones and with the current prices, they will certainly put a lot of pressure on Radeon HD 4870 X2 and HD 4870 and it looks that Nvidia is not finished yet. What started as an insanely slow Q4 for every market segment is turning in a rather interesting finish.


http://www.fudzilla.com/index.php?op...10473&Itemid=1

[Junos]

theovalich.wordpress.com/2008/11/11/55nm-gt206-gpu-powers-both-gtx290-and-quadro-fx-5800/

And there goes my trust in the "50% less power consumption". 30k+ 3dmark06 with +3ghz phenom, anyone?

[MpG]

It's not impossible that they managed to drop the voltage slightly in the process of going to 55nm, which would obviously help power consumption further. And process-shrink aside, the 5800 isn't a carbon copy of the GTX280, so there might have been a few more watts to saved. But yeah... seems a little too good to be true.

[Sly Fox]

If these cards are just under-volted 55nm respins at the same speed, they'd have to overclock awfully well to be worth it imo.

Hopefully Nvidia can pull through... As much as I respect ATI for pushing the envelope with the 4870X2, I mostly do play older games
lately and when you're not dealing with newer titles it can be a bit buggy from what I've read.

If these cards can really come out and represent a more "matured" design that will run more efficiently, I'm all for it.
Be nice to tide me over until the next batch of "next-gen" cards at least. And give me some confidence back in NV.

[T_Flight]

Never ever underestimate nVidia. That's when things like the 8800GTX comes out. Yes Sir! That one was a real shocker wasn't it. That one lasted a long long time. When you have a Company Master Ninja that is using terms like "Whoop Ass" that is an individual that is determined. Determined individuals will go to great lengths when pushed, and I'd say he's been pretty much pushed. hehe He will get it done. I can feel it.

If they have a 290 coming out, I want it now. I don't just want it now, I need it now. I'm getting ready to buy within a week and will have to buy one or the other. I'd rather not go through having to step up, but will if I have to. AFter that I'll probably stick with what I have, and add another, and may possibly go to Tri SLI, but I suspect SLI is gonna be the sweet spot.

[Sly Fox]

Never ever underestimate nVidia. That's when things like the 8800GTX comes out. Yes Sir! That one was a real shocker wasn't it.

Agreed!

I was still hanging onto my 6800 GT at the time, waiting for something that blew me away. And then it hit. G80 really is still great to this day imo.

G92 and recent $600 launch G200's just left a sour taste in my mouth. Dunno about you guys, but I viewed G92 as nothing more than profit farming. There was no real increase in the top end other then the GX2, and who really wanted that? Great for benching, not so much for real-world games.

But like I said, I'm kinda optimistic about this respin. Logic tells me that the heat dump from being made in 65nm may have crippled G200 a fair bit.

Nice to have some GPU related news after all the Shanghai ruckus though. I swear, CPU arguments bring out the worst in people (myself included).

[Carfax]

Great, as soon as the GTX 290 comes out on market, I'm going to use my step up and upgrade.

Talk about great timing eh?

[LordEC911]

Never ever underestimate nVidia. That's when things like the 8800GTX comes out. Yes Sir! That one was a real shocker wasn't it. That one lasted a long long time. When you have a Company Master Ninja that is using terms like "Whoop Ass" that is an individual that is determined. Determined individuals will go to great lengths when pushed, and I'd say he's been pretty much pushed. hehe He will get it done. I can feel it.

This has nothing to do with underestimating Nvidia, this has to do with breaking the law of Physics as we know it... Die shrinks are usually 10-15% at best, 30-50% is unheard of for an optical shrink.

I am pretty sure that they are comparing using Nvidia's TDP numbers for G200 and then using actual power consumption for the G200b. G200 vs G200b actual power consumption is going to be about the same, within 10-20w.

[T_Flight]

Agreed!

I was still hanging onto my 6800 GT at the time, waiting for something that blew me away. And then it hit. G80 really is still great to this day imo.

G92 and recent $600 launch G200's just left a sour taste in my mouth. Dunno about you guys, but I viewed G92 as nothing more than profit farming. There was no real increase in the top end other then the GX2, and who really wanted that? Great for benching, not so much for real-world games.

But like I said, I'm kinda optimistic about this respin. Logic tells me that the heat dump from being made in 65nm may have crippled G200 a fair bit.

Nice to have some GPU related news after all the Shanghai ruckus though. I swear, CPU arguments bring out the worst in people (myself included).

hehe I still have my 6800GT. See how bad I need the 290 now? It won't be long though.

[icecpu]

bring it on nvidia, I have only 42 days left for the evga stepup program.
no time to waste.