NVIDIA GeForce GTX 295 Coming in January
by Derek Wilson on December 18, 2008 9:00 AM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
Preliminary Thoughts
With a board power of 289W, this thing isn't going to be cheap to run. Plugging two in a system is going to push the envelope, but 3-way GTX 280 will still consume more power. It is likely that NVIDIA made the changes to memory bandwidth in order to save on a couple hundred megs of RAM that would draw too much more power. Making such a move is definitely sensible, but it is at the highest end (2560x1600 with tons of blur (I mean AA, sorry)) where tons of RAM are needed to push performance.
Of course, with two cards (especially if a game is capable of alternate frame rendering (AFR)), memory limited performance issues will be mitigated quite a bit, and opening up the shader power of two GTX 280 cards in a single slot is big for games that use a lot of compute. The way future games tackle the balance of compute and memory has yet to be seen, but NVIDIA has been saying for years that the future continues to be increasing the compute ratio.
We like hard launches. This isn't one. While that's disappointing, we do really want to get our hands on this hardware. The GTX 295 definitely looks like it will best the Radeon HD 4870 X2 in terms of raw power. Beyond that, it is clear that AMD hasn't taken driver development seriously enough and CrossFire just isn't as robust as SLI. Relying on a CrossFire based solution for their highest end part means it is necessary to provide reliable performance and stability across all games, new and old, and on all platforms. Making user defined profiles that allow the forcing of different CrossFire modes on certain games would go a long way to helping, but the real relief will come when AMD decides to fix their broken driver development model.
As it stands, SLI is a better solution than CrossFire and the GPUs on the GTX 295 will really put the screws to RV770. We will very likely see NVIDIA take back the crown in terms single card performance.
That said, how sad is it that NVIDIA had to go and push this press info out there 3 weeks before availability just to try and slow AMD's momentum during the holiday season.
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derek85 - Thursday, December 18, 2008 - link
I hardly doubt NVidia can go on a price war with AMD given their huge die size and poorer yield.SiliconDoc - Sunday, December 21, 2008 - link
Well how about we all be bright about it, and hope both companies survive and prosper ?Golly, that would actually be the SANE THING to do.
No, no there aren't many sane people around.
I think I'll start a fanboy wars company, and we'll make two teams, and have people sign up for like 5 bucks each, and then they can have their fan wars cheering for their corporate master while they prey for the demise of the disfavored one and argue over it.
Maybe we can get some kind of additional betting company going, like how they bet on whose going to get the political nominations and get elected... and make it a deranged fanboy stock market.
We can even get carbon credit points for the low power user arguable leader of the quarter, and award a carbon credit bundle when one company is destroyed (therefore adding to saving the green earth).
I mean why not ? There's so many loons who want one company or the other to expire, or so their raging argument goes...
I'd like to ask a simple question though.
If your fanoyism company can "gut their price structure" in order to destroy the other company, as so many fanboys claim, doesn't it follow that you've been getting RIPPED OFF by your favorite corporate profiteer ? Doesn't it also follow that the other guy has been getting a much more for his or her money ?
LOL
The answers are YES, and YES.
I bet the corporate pigs love this stuff... "my fan rage company can destroy yours by slashing prices because they have a huge profit margin to work with, while your company has been gouging everyone !" the fanboy shrieked.
Uhhhh... if your company, the very best one, has all the leeway in lowering prices, why then they have been the one raping wallets, not the other guy's company.
So while you're screaming like a 2 year old about how much more moola your bestes company has from every sale, turn around, and keep chasing your own tail, because your wallet has been unfairly emptied - by the very company you claim could wipe the other out with the huge margin they can lower the prices with.
Yeah, you're claiming you got robbed blind, and the sad thing is, if there is so much room, why then they COULD HAVE lowered prices a long time ago and wiped out the competition.
But they didn't, they took that extra money from your fanboy wallet, and you thanked them, then you screamed at the other guy how great it is - and made the empty threat of destruction... and called the enemy the gouger...( when your argument says your company is gouging, with all it's extra profit margin ...)
Oh well.
So much for being sane.
__________________________________________________
Sanity is : hoping both companies survive and prosper.
Razorbladehaze - Sunday, December 21, 2008 - link
This comment is senseless dribble. It is so ambiguous that it doesn't say anything useful. What can be discerned is a very odd hypothetical situation, that turns into venting about something.This comment should be stricken from the record.
SiliconDoc - Saturday, December 27, 2008 - link
Ahh, so you bought the ATI, and now realize that you got "robbed" and they made a big profit screwing you.Sorry about that.
Just stay in denial, it's easier on you that way.
chizow - Thursday, December 18, 2008 - link
They've done a pretty good job of leading price cuts despite the Holiday Inn economics logic employed around various forums. After the initial price cuts in June, GTX 260 has consistently been priced lower than the 512MB 4870 and the GTX 260 c216 has been consistently priced lower than the 1GB 4870. Now that everyone is on a more expensive 55nm process, I'd say any price differences are easily negated by AMD's use of much more expensive GDDR5.SuperGee - Saturday, December 20, 2008 - link
It's about profits.The smaller the Die size the more chips out of a waver. The more chips on a waver bette bin and yield possibility's. Also less waver wast. A wafer is round. chips rectangle shape.
With 55nm equal for both, nV has still a bigger chip. 1,4Transister while RV770 is 950mil. That a 1,5 difference.
RV770 is still cheaper to produce. But GDDR5 is a tad expensive. But that not AMD costs but IHV problem.
SkullOne - Thursday, December 18, 2008 - link
ardOcp has a brief preview of the GTX295 and I don't find it anything terribly exciting. It's nothing but a way to try to get a few more people to hold off buying cards until after the holidays and market Quad-SLI a littl bit more.I do agree with some of the previous comments about how AMD doesn't allow users to create their own AFR profiles. There is a rumor that it is in the works so as a HD4870 Crossfire user I hope it is true and AMD has been very good at listening to their users. The manual fan control is a good example. Then again Crossfire works on all the games I currently play so I don't really have an issue.
magreen - Thursday, December 18, 2008 - link
Do we get nice mesquite bbq flavored char-grilled video?SiliconDoc - Saturday, December 20, 2008 - link
Ok, now you rekeyed my record. What we might get is 2 vidoes side by side, the video on the left has a barbeque, but the coals aren't crackling and popping, and the sauce isn't splashing about, and flame lickage is missing. That's no PhysiX - SUPPOSEDLY.On the right side of the screen is the "wonderful PhysiX display" with flames licking about, sauce drips and coals crackling off PhysiX sparks!
Yes, some things (planned deception) in fact are " not good for end users ".
strikeback03 - Thursday, December 18, 2008 - link
The image at the bottom of the page? I'd guess it is probably a reflection in the back plate, maybe the lens was close to the product when that was shot.Though a video card that could double as a Foreman grill is possible with a 289W TDP.