NVIDIA GeForce 6800 Ultra: The Next Step Forward
by Derek Wilson on April 14, 2004 8:42 AM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
NV40 Under the Microscope
The NV40 chip itself is massive. Weighing in at a hefty 222 Million transistors, NVIDIA's newest GPU has more than three times the number of transistors as Intel's Northwood P4, and about 33% more transistors than the Pentium 4 EE. This die is droped onto a 40mm x 40mm flipchip BGA package.
NVIDIA doesn't publish their die size information, but we have been able to interpolate a little bit from the data we have available on their process information, and a very useful wafer shot.
As we can see, somewhere around 16 chips fit horizontally on the wafer, while they can squeeze in about 18 chips vertically. We know that NVIDIA uses a 130nm IBM process on 300mm wafers. We also know that the P4 EE is in the neighborhood of 250mm^2 in size. Doing the math indicates that the NV40 GPU is somewhere between 270mm^2 and 305mm^2. It is difficult to get a closer estimate because we don't know how much space is between each chip on the wafer (which also makes it hard to estimate waste per wafer).
Since we don't have information on yields either, it's hard to say how well NVIDIA will be making out on this GPU. Increasing the transistor count and die size will lower yields, and the retail value of cards based on NV40 will have the same price at release as when NV38 was released.
Of course, even if they don't end up making as much money as they want off of this card, throwing down the gauntlet and pushing everything as hard as they can will be worth it. After the GeForce FX series of cards failed to measure up to the hype (and the competition), NVIDIA has needed something to reestablish their position as performance leader in the industry. This industry can be brutal, and falling short twice is well nigh a death sentence.
But, all those transistors on such a big die must draw a lot of power right? Just how much juice do we need to feed this beast ...
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Regs - Wednesday, April 14, 2004 - link
Wow, very impressive. Yet very costly. I'm very displeased with the power requirments however. I'm also hoping newer drivers will boost performance even more in games like Far cry. I was hoping to see at least 60 FPS @ 1280x1024 w/ 4x/8x. Even though it's not really needed for such a game and might be over kill, however It would of knocked me off my feet enough where I could over look the PSU requirement. But ripping my system apart yet again for just a video card seems unreasonable for the asking price of 400-500 dollars.Verdant - Wednesday, April 14, 2004 - link
i don't think the power issue is as big as some make it out to be, some review sites used a 350 W psu, and two connectors on the same lead and had no problems under loaddragonballgtz - Wednesday, April 14, 2004 - link
I can't wait till December when I build me a new computer and use this card. But maybe by then the PCI-E version.DerekWilson - Wednesday, April 14, 2004 - link
#11 you are correct ... i seem to have lost an image somewhere ... i'll try to get that back up. sorry about that.RyanVM - Wednesday, April 14, 2004 - link
Just so you guys know, Damage (Tech Report) actually used a watt meter to determine the power consumption of the 6800. Turns out it's not much higher than a 5950.Also, it makes me cry that my poor 9700Pro is getting more than doubled up in a lot of the benchmarks :(
CrystalBay - Wednesday, April 14, 2004 - link
Hi Derek, What kind of voltage fluctuations were you seeing... just kinda curious about the PSU...PrinceGaz - Wednesday, April 14, 2004 - link
A couple of comments so far...page 6 "Again, the antialiasing done in this unit is rotated grid multisample" - nVidia used an ordered grid before, only ATI previously used the superior rotated grid.
page 8 - both pictures are the same, I think the link for the 4xAA one needs changing :)
Can't wait to get to the rest :)
ZobarStyl - Wednesday, April 14, 2004 - link
dang ive got a 450W...sigh. That power consumption is really gonna kill the upgradability of this card (but then again the x800 is slated for double molex as well). I know it's a bit strange but I'd like to see which of these cards (top end ones) can provide the best dual-screen capability...any GPU worth its salt comes with dual screen capabilities and my dually config needs a new vid card and I dont even know where to look for that...and as for cost...these cards blow away 9800XT's and 5950's...it wont be 3-4 fps above the other that makes me pick between a x800 and a 6800...it will be the price. Jeez, what are they slated to hit the market at, 450?
Icewind - Wednesday, April 14, 2004 - link
Upgrade my PSU? I think not Nvidia! Lets see what you got AtiLoneWolf15 - Wednesday, April 14, 2004 - link
It looks like NVidia has listened to its customer base. I'm particularly interested in the hardware MPEG 1/2/4 encoder/decoder.Even so, I don't run anything that comes close to maxing my Sapphire Radeon 9700, so I don't think I'll buy a new card any time soon. I bought that card as a "future-proof" card like this one is, and guess what? The two games I wanted to play with it have not been released yet (HL2 and Doom3 of course), and who knows when they will be? At the time, Carmack and the programmers for Valve screamed that this would be the card to get for these games. Now they're saying different things. I don't game enough any more to justify top-end cards; frankly, and All-In-Wonder 9600XT would probably be the best current card for me, replacing the 9700 and my TV Wonder PCI.