First Fermi Working Samples for CES 2010

[zalbard]

Since the Fermi thread got moved from the news section, I have to make a separate one.
Source: http://hardocp.com/

As the Consumer Electronics Show grows near, NVIDIA partners are having to get their ducks in line for the upcoming show in the second week of January. However many are asking, why exactly they should be there spending hard earned money with nothing to show off except rebadged parts from generations past? Certainly the 8800 GTX / GTS 250 has seen many CES presentations before. We have word from several different sources that NVIDIA is doing its best to have "working" Fermi-based video cards to show off for CES. We are unsure as to what level they will be shown working, if at all, but for all you NVIDIA fans, this is certainly something good to hear.

Even given a best case scenario for NVIDIA, we here at HardOCP.com find it hard to believe that NVIDIA will get any "real" amount of product to market by March of next year. Worth mentioning also NVIDIA has yet to speak one word to us about the gaming abilities of the Fermi GPU. It makes us think that NVIDIA does not even know yet.

Bad news if it's true. No Fermi at all in 2009 in this case, at all. And limited availability in Q1 2010...

[Greg83]

Aww, that would means high 5*** prices until next year

[eleeter]

I'd take a bit higher price right now in exchange for actually being able to buy a 5870.

[Utnorris]

I do not think ATI counted on their HD5800's being so popular. Now if could get some thin bezel monitors with both a DP port and DVI port then we would be complete.

[Helloworld_98]

so if this follows everything else that comes out of CES we should see it in June 2010 at the earliest, and more likely August or September.

[zalbard]

I'd take a bit higher price right now in exchange for actually being able to buy a 5870.

http://www.canadacomputers.com/index...id=VDC.243.272
Oh, and a ton more, but I didn't bother to check which ones actually have them in stock: http://www.shopbot.ca/default.asp?kw...osition=search

[Utnorris]

By the way ZipZoomfly has them in stock.

[Glow9]

Maybe this time their demo card won't be as screwy looking like a couple months ago. With vents blocked and wood screws and such.

[zalbard]

Till February (at least) ATI cards will be seriously dominating the sales. In November - January (that's 3 months! or more, if Nvidia doesn't release their card by February, 1st) I don't see Nvidia making many sales at all. What is it that they have to offer? ATI cards are better for each segment atm.
4770 - 5770 - 5870 and many more; low, mid and high end very well covered with 40nm DX10.1 and DX11 chips.

[Serra]

I really hope that isn't true. New architecture competition is what pushes out new products and lower prices. The guys at ATi must be pretty happy though... if true it means that Christmas came about 2 months early for them.

[RaZz!]

Maybe this time their demo card won't be as screwy looking like a couple months ago. With vents blocked and wood screws and such.

a couple months ago? you mean one (1) month ago

[thenrz]

They must actually, for real be having problems. There's been talk of problems, but no one has any real sources...now we hear the first Fermis won't be around until CES 2010? If we aren't looking for volume until I'd guess Q2 2010, what is stopping ATi from having their next uArch ready by Q3 or whatever it was? They've got some catchup to play!

[[XC] gomeler]

Well this is exactly what AMD needs. ATI had better be stupidly profitable 09Q4 and 10Q1. More importantly AMD needs to beat some motivation into whoever is holding up their RV870 production..

[Helloworld_98]

Well this is exactly what AMD needs. ATI had better be stupidly profitable 09Q4 and 10Q1. More importantly AMD needs to beat some motivation into whoever is holding up their RV870 production..

ATi are pretty damn profitable already, they had $128m in profit last quarter iirc.

[trinibwoy]

I hope that number was a typo.

[eric66]

Well this is exactly what AMD needs. ATI had better be stupidly profitable 09Q4 and 10Q1. More importantly AMD needs to beat some motivation into whoever is holding up their RV870 production..

that would be TMSC and i doubt ati can do antyhing about tehre lameness tahts why they need global foundries

[Farinorco]

So it seems that thing of March+ is taking shape...

, it's not like I can't be with the ATI offerings, but I like to choose from various possibilities (in the price range I want to make my purchase, of course). And I like there's competition regardless what I finally buy because of prices.

And that's on higher end. The more affordable Fermi card at launch will probably be the GTX360 (or whatever they want to name it), which probably will compete with HD5870 if things are like the past generation... however, all things considered, it's possible that when those cards come into market AMD can start a bloody war of prices taking advantage of the months that their products have been being sold (they would be for ~6 months on the market...) so pricing could be not so horrible...

At this pace, Fermi based middle and low end is going to end up competing against HD6000 series instead of HD5000.

[K404]

ATI had BETTER NOT screw up this lead. If they haven't learned from AMDs and nVidias mistakes about complacency then the deserve what they get.

[Manicdan]

this is why nvidia need to think about more than just one big card at a time. last years big card should not be this years renamed mainstream card.

when is nvidia going to have a 200$ dx11 card? late spring/early summer?

[tajoh111]

ATi are pretty damn profitable already, they had $128m in profit last quarter iirc.

I really really doubt that, Sales were down 22% percent over last years. And the only thing I see involving AMD and 128M dollars last quarter, is a 128million dollar loss.

I find it hard to believe that AMD graphic division could profit 128 million dollars off of 306 million dollars in revenue.

Considering previous quarter sales have been similar and not been able to generate that much net profit.

This is good news for AMD, bad news for the rest of us, if this turns out to be true. The quicker NV gets a direct x 11 card out, the sooner 5xxx prices will drop if they turn out to be good products. Additionally the sooner directx 11 software support takes off.

[trinibwoy]

Graphics made $8m.

[Sam_oslo]

I don't know if this history is true, I'v heard so much junk that i don't trust anymore ... but can the recent price jump + shortage av 5x-series
indicates that ATI is expecting something like this?.

[003]

so if this follows everything else that comes out of CES we should see it in June 2010 at the earliest, and more likely August or September.

Yeah. No. Fermi should have limited availability by the earliest, February, and a paper launch much earlier, possibly in December.

[Utnorris]

I think that is a dream to think Fermi will even launch on paper in December, maybe, just maybe January/February.

[Periander6]

ATi are pretty damn profitable already, they had $128m in profit last quarter iirc.

Nonsense. AMD's graphics division (ATI) posted an operating income of 8 million on 306 million in revs.

http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix....558&highlight=

Meanwhile Nvidia just announced today profits of 110 million on 903 million in revs. Quadro makes a huge difference for Nvidia, huge.

http://www.reuters.com/article/marke...0091105?rpc=44