GeForce Go 6800 Ultra: Powering the Dell Inspirion XPS Gen 2
by Derek Wilson on February 24, 2005 3:04 PM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
Introduction
Back when we first took a look at the NVIDIA GeForce Go 6800 we mentioned that NVIDIA was able to run their part at much higher 450/600 clock speeds (the part we tested was running at 300/300). It was much easier for OEMs to drop graphics solutions into existing designs DTR designs using the Pentium 4 and GDDR1 RAM for the video card. Using the hot Pentium 4, much of the Thermal Design Power (TDP), the limit on how much power can be dissipated as heat, is taken up by things other than the graphics core. DDR1 also runs hotter than DDR3, and thus memory clocks are also limited by the thermal restrictions.Today, Dell is introducing their Inspirion XPS Gen 2. The DTR notebook features a 2 or 2.13GHz Pentium M and a GeForce Go 6800 Ultra with 450/550 core/memory clocks. Rather than just ship their Go 6800 at the high core speed, NVIDIA has given it the Ultra moniker to differentiate the product.
The "new" GeForce Go 6800 Ultra graphics card is exactly the same as the original Go 6800, except that we are finally seeing it at the high clock speeds NVIDIA originally promised we would see. For an explanation of the differences between NVIDIA's mobile and desktop products, please see our initial review.
Aside from simply exchanging the Pentium 4 setup for a Pentium M, Dell has also invested more time in improving its thermal solution. The result is a thinner (it's still not thin), lighter (still feels like a brick) efficiently cooled desktop-in-a-notebook. NVIDIA informed us that the TDP for the chassis is 65W. This is not something we will see anywhere but the DTR segment. Most of the large TDP is taken up by the graphics solution, as Dothan based Pentium M processors and DDR2 system memory run at comfortable temperatures. The new Inspirion XPS Gen 2 is also Alviso based.
This is a fairly significant design win for NVIDIA as Dell's previous XPS graphics solution was ATI's Mobility Radeon 9800.
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Regs - Thursday, February 24, 2005 - link
If im not mistaken, the only difference between the GT and Ultra are their clock speeds #7. These benchmarks are baffling. I'm having a hard time believing them. How on earth did they pull it out?Is this a prelude to what's to in the next generation of desk top cards? I'm think, if they can make a mobile card this fast, they should surely make a faster desk top counterpart with less heat, space, and power restraints.
Mingon - Thursday, February 24, 2005 - link
Odd how a 12pipe / 5 vs @ 450mhz can out pace a desktop 16pipe 6vs @425. What optimisations have been done? I can understand it beating a 6800gt due to greater vertex/pixel shading power (450 x 5 vs 350 x 6) but it shouldnt beat an ultra.Is the nv41m on 0.13 or 0.11um ? the die seems quite large any idea on transistor count?
pxc - Thursday, February 24, 2005 - link
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1769520,00.as... batterymark 2 hours 13 minutes with the P-M 2.13GHz, WiFi, 1GB and 80GB hard drive.The base price of the computer is $2249 with:
P-M 760 (2GHz)
512MB DDR2 dual channel
17" WUXGA (1920x1200)
256MB go 6800 Ultra
combo CD-RW/DVD-ROM
60GB HD
9 Cell battery (80WHr)
WinXP
etc
http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx...
It's about the cheapest go 6800 laptop, but it includes the fastest version.
total.ownage
bamacre - Thursday, February 24, 2005 - link
You can configure one now. $2745 for a well equiped system. Intenal Audigy, 6800 Go Ultra, 2.0Ghz P4 "760," cdrw/dvd drive, 1GB ddr2. Not bad for what it can do.Icehawk - Thursday, February 24, 2005 - link
Amazing, just a few years ago the idea of gaming on a laptop was laughable. Now you can get a DTR that can pretty much keep up with the latest desktops - wow!Not just battery life... but cost. This has got to be a $3k+ machine :(
seanp789 - Thursday, February 24, 2005 - link
For a laptop to come even come to close to desktop performance is simply amazing. so be on par with? Wow, just wow.they manage to do all this with a laptop battery and cooling?
I would really like to see that go card translate into a desktop part. It would make running SLI a little easier.
DerekWilson - Thursday, February 24, 2005 - link
We would too :-/We just didn't have time to perform any battery life or power tests as we had to spend all the time we had with the system benchmarking games.
dvinnen - Thursday, February 24, 2005 - link
I would love to see the battery life for this thing.