NVIDIA's Fermi: Architected for Tesla, 3 Billion Transistors in 2010
by Anand Lal Shimpi on September 30, 2009 12:00 AM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
The graph below is one of transistor count, not die size. Inevitably, on the same manufacturing process, a significantly higher transistor count translates into a larger die size. But for the purposes of this article, all I need to show you is a representation of transistor count.
See that big circle on the right? That's Fermi. NVIDIA's next-generation architecture.
NVIDIA astonished us with GT200 tipping the scales at 1.4 billion transistors. Fermi is more than twice that at 3 billion. And literally, that's what Fermi is - more than twice a GT200.
At the high level the specs are simple. Fermi has a 384-bit GDDR5 memory interface and 512 cores. That's more than twice the processing power of GT200 but, just like RV870 (Cypress), it's not twice the memory bandwidth.
The architecture goes much further than that, but NVIDIA believes that AMD has shown its cards (literally) and is very confident that Fermi will be faster. The questions are at what price and when.
The price is a valid concern. Fermi is a 40nm GPU just like RV870 but it has a 40% higher transistor count. Both are built at TSMC, so you can expect that Fermi will cost NVIDIA more to make than ATI's Radeon HD 5870.
Then timing is just as valid, because while Fermi currently exists on paper, it's not a product yet. Fermi is late. Clock speeds, configurations and price points have yet to be finalized. NVIDIA just recently got working chips back and it's going to be at least two months before I see the first samples. Widespread availability won't be until at least Q1 2010.
I asked two people at NVIDIA why Fermi is late; NVIDIA's VP of Product Marketing, Ujesh Desai and NVIDIA's VP of GPU Engineering, Jonah Alben. Ujesh responded: because designing GPUs this big is "fucking hard".
Jonah elaborated, as I will attempt to do here today.
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AtwaterFS - Wednesday, September 30, 2009 - link
4 reals - this dude is clearly an Nvidia shill.Question is, do you really want to support a company that routinely supports this propaganda blitz on the comments of every Fn GPU article?
It just feels dirty doesn't it?
strikeback03 - Thursday, October 1, 2009 - link
I doubt SiliconDoc is actually paid by nvidia, I've met people like this in real life who just for some reason feel a need to support one company fanatically.Or he just enjoys ticking others off. One of my friends while playing Call of Duty sometimes just runs around trying to tick teammates off and get them to shoot back at him.
SiliconDoc - Thursday, October 1, 2009 - link
If facing the truth and the facts makes you mad, it's your problem, and your fault.I certainly know of people like you describe, and let's face it, it is one of YOUR TEAMMATES---
--
Now, when you collective liars and deniars counter one of my pointed examples, you can claim something. Until then, you've got nothing.
And those last 3 posts, yours included, have nothing, except in your case, it shows what you hang with, and that pretty much describes the lies told by the ati fans, and how they work.
I have no doubt pointing them out "ticks them off".
The simple fix is, stop lying.
Yangorang - Wednesday, September 30, 2009 - link
Honestly all I want to know is:When will it launch? (as in be available for actual purchase)
How much will it cost?
Will this beast even fit into my case...and how much power will it use?
How will it perform? (particularly I'm wondering about DX11 games...as it seems to be very much a big deal for ATI)
but heh none of these questions will be answered for a while I guess....
I'm also kinda wondering about:
How does the GT300 handle tessellation?
Does it feature Angle-Independent Anisotropic Filtering?
I could really couldn't give a crap less about using my GPU for general computing purposes....I just want to play some good looking games without breaking the bank...
haukionkannel - Thursday, October 1, 2009 - link
Well it's going to be DX11 card, so it can handle tessalation. How well? That remains to be seen, but there is enough computing power to do it guite nicely.But the big guestion is not, if the GT300 is faster than 5870 or not, It most propably is, but how much and how much it does cost...
If you can buy two 5870 for the prize of GT300, it has to be really fast!
Interesting release and good article to reveal the architecture behind this chip. I am sure, that we will see more new around the release of Win7, even if the card is not released until 2010. Just to make sure, that not too many "potential" customers does not buy ATI made card by that time.
Allso as someone said before this seams to be guite modular, so it's possible to see some cheaper cut down versions allso. We need competition to low and middle range allso. Can G300 design do it reamains to be seeing.
SiliconDoc - Thursday, October 1, 2009 - link
Well, that brings to mind another anandtech LIE.--
In the 5870 article text post area, the article writer and tester, responded to a query by one of the fans, and claimed the 5870 is "the standard 10.5 " .
Well, it is NOT. It is OVER 11", and it is longer than the 285, by a bit.
So, I just have to shake my head, and no one should have wonder why. Even lying about the length of the ati card. It is nothing short of amazing.
silverblue - Thursday, October 1, 2009 - link
http://vr-zone.com/articles/sapphire-ati-radeon-hd...They say 10.5".
SiliconDoc - Thursday, October 1, 2009 - link
I'm sorry, I realize I left with you in the air, since you're so convinced I don't know what I'm talking about." The card that we will be showing you today is the reference Radeon HD 5870, which is a dual-slot graphics card that measures in at 11.1" in length. "
http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1080/2/">http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1080/2/
I mean really, you should have given up a long time ago.
silverblue - Friday, October 2, 2009 - link
Anand, could you or Ryan come back to us with the exact length of the reference 5870, please? I know Ryan put 10.5" in the review but I'd like to be sure, please.It's best to check with someone who actually has a card to measure.
silverblue - Friday, October 2, 2009 - link
You know something? I'm just going to back down and say you're right. You might just be, but I couldn't give a damn anymore.