backtop

Print E-mail del.icio.us 33 comment(s) - last by Garreye.. on Nov 15 at 6:33 PM
More NVIDIA products are on the way

Late yesterday, NVIDIA held its Q3'06 investor call.  Although the discussion of the call was mainly financials and recaps of the GeForce 8800 launch, NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang let everyone know the company is ready to play hardball with AMD/ATI.  Specifically, Huang stated that NVIDIA would unveil its first Intel-based integrated graphics chipset early next year.

Outside of Intel-branded chipsets, ATI has traditionally dominated the Intel IGP market.  However, with the shift of allegiances after the AMD acquisition earlier this year, NVIDIA has already set its targets on ATI's old turf.  This past July Jen-Hsun Huang already declared NVIDIA the winner in the GPU market, claiming "I thought it was just impossible to get a gift like this. ATI is basically throwing in the towel, leaving us as the only stand-alone [graphics chip] company in the world."  Huang made similar, less colorful comments about the chipset market before announcing the Intel IGP chipset.

In recent interviews with ATI partners, manufacturers have deemed that RD600 "the last ATI-Intel chipset."  NVIDIA has had a presence in the Intel chipset market since the nForce 4 (or since the original Xbox launch if you look at it that way), but its products have generally been limited to enthusiast motherboards.  ATI, on the other hand, previously manufactured chipsets that were even used in Intel-branded motherboards.

Additionally, during the Q&A section of the investor call, Huang also alluded to the fact that the company would announce no less than nine DirectX 10 graphics cards based on the G80 family of GPUs.  Two G80 products have already been announced, the GeForce 8800 GTX and GTS.  Last week manufacturers filled DailyTech in on the possibility that another G80-derivative product is on the way in February of next year.  In a private briefing, DailyTech was then updated to the fact that there are three distinct products launching in February, each of which will be divided into three sub-products.  NVIDIA's public and private roadmaps appear to coincide.

In March of next year, ATI is expected to launch the R600 graphics core.  ATI's roadmap previously indicated that the RS790 IGP core would compete with Intel's Bearlake IGP chipsets, but there has been no indication that this project still exists since the AMD takeover.

Beyond3D also has more coverage on the subject.

Comments     Threshold


This article is over a month old, voting and posting comments is disabled
hmmm...
By Hyperlite on 11/10/2006 10:10:01 AM , Rating: 3
...Well this is an interesting predicament for ati. They obviously are not going to come to the game with an inferior flagship product. I'm very excited to see how R600 pans out. There will be some great competition in the field in the beginning of 2007!




RE: hmmm...
By RussianSensation on 11/10/2006 10:24:36 AM , Rating: 1
Logically you are right that ATI will not come out with an inferior product. However, I think that was a strong argument for the old ATI. AMD is probably less concerned about ATI's high performance crown since it mostly acquired them for cpu-gpu integration process. So say before ATI would do 2-3 respins to get a proper transistor layout to increase gpu speed (recall X1800 was originally clocked at 500 and then increased to 625 like a month before release). AMD might be less concerned about spending more $ just to have the bragging rights.

Let's hope I am wrong.


RE: hmmm...
By phusg on 11/10/2006 11:30:26 AM , Rating: 1
No, let's hope you're right! ;-)

All this excess for bragging rights is getting out of hand. Especially this stupid arms-race where GPUs are now the single most power hungry component in a games-pc. I for one hope AMD lets the crown go and concentrates on making efficient quality products for the mid-range.


RE: hmmm...
By Murst on 11/10/2006 11:35:21 AM , Rating: 2
You've got to be joking. Improvements in technology benefit everyone, especially the consumer.

The competition between ATI and nVidia has resulted in a massive improvements in graphics cards over the last few years. It is the perfect example of how competition can improve the market.


RE: hmmm...
By othercents on 11/10/2006 11:33:17 AM , Rating: 2
Actually your right. Based on the current direction that AMD is going they are very concerned about taking over the IGP market that Intel currently has wrapped up. AMD wants to hit the sweet spot of the market which are low end PCs for home users and decent IGP desktops and laptops to businesses.

Right now AMD might have a good portion of the home market, but almost none of the business market. If they take just 10% of the business sales then they could double their production. The GPU/CPU chip is going to help them with this. Hopefully that chip will be DX10 compliant to bring the low end systems up to par with the latest games that will be released.

Other


RE: hmmm...
By Pirks on 11/10/2006 12:22:18 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
Hopefully that chip will be DX10 compliant to bring the low end systems up to par with the latest games that will be released.
Crysis slideshow anyone?

Well, OTOH if you bring resolution down to 320x240 you may have a chance.


RE: hmmm...
By Furen on 11/10/2006 1:29:24 PM , Rating: 3
I don't think so. While AMD does indeed want Intel's IGP market (not because of the IGP thing but because it would require companies to buy an AMD CPU/Chipset bundle), it will not forsake ATI's graphics marketshare to accomplish this. A big chunk of ATI's revenues are derived from stand-alone graphics and it would be stupid for AMD to suddenly decide to kill off a huge source of income. AMD does indeed need a high-end part that is comparable to the G80 since performance in the high-end is what convinces many people to pick a brand in the mid/low-end.


RE: hmmm...
By othercents on 11/10/2006 3:19:45 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
it would be stupid for AMD to suddenly decide to kill off a huge source of income.

I never said that AMD was not going to make stand alone video cards however overall AMD will increase their revenue more by focusing on IGP solutions. There is not much more growth in the stand alone solution space. If they where able to take 50% of the IGP solution market they will more than quadruple their revenue of both AMD and ATI combined.

Why would you not focus more on IGP solutions when there is definitely such a high rate of return in that market? Or do you just think AMD purchased ATI just for stand alone video cards and didn't really need or want their chipset and IGP business?

Other


RE: hmmm...
By Heron Kusanagi on 11/11/2006 8:51:08 AM , Rating: 2
AMD needs ATI for their IGP and chipset solutions...but remember, AMD is also looking towards ATI for its 4X4 platform, even though the 1st chipsets are from nVidia and its SLI...if ATI doesn't make good stand alone video cards then why would AMD need ATI's chipsets in the 4X4 platform? Remember that Crossfire and SLI are still at odds with each other.

We need choices in the world. AMD should understand that even in the GPU market, they must provide a second choice just like how it did in the CPU space.


So I'm thinking by February...
By DeathBUA on 11/10/2006 9:25:59 AM , Rating: 2
By February I'll be ready to upgrade my computer again....and with nvidia releasing that many products with ATI not far behind them.....I cant think of a more ideal time!

Price wars does the consumer good!




RE: So I'm thinking by February...
By Murst on 11/10/2006 9:33:50 AM , Rating: 5
If ATI said they're planning on releasing something in the first quarter, you can expect it to be available for online orders sometime in the June / July period.


RE: So I'm thinking by February...
By othercents on 11/10/2006 11:26:10 AM , Rating: 2
This will probably change, but I'm not sure if that will happen for the next ATI launch. However AMD has been really good at keeping their release dates and having enough stock to supply the demand.

Even if ATI does not launch you still get plenty of Nvidia cards to choose from.

Other


RE: So I'm thinking by February...
By Clauzii on 11/11/2006 11:15:33 AM , Rating: 2
Regarding supply, AMD is actually on short at the moment.


RE: So I'm thinking by February...
By Garreye on 11/15/2006 6:33:25 PM , Rating: 2
AMD is short on CPUs at the moment, not GPUs, as they aren't manufacturing the ATI GPUs right now, TSMC is still manufacturing them and will continue to do so in the near future.


By trabpukcip on 11/11/2006 6:18:11 AM , Rating: 1
It's not like nvidia hasn't had delayed launches either *cough*fx series*cough*


Wrote on this at Beyond3D
By Utoryo on 11/10/2006 10:45:15 AM , Rating: 1
Just thought I'd mention I already wrote a piece on this on Beyond3D a couple of hours ago: http://www.beyond3d.com/forum/showthread.php?t=355... - not sure if you got it from us or listened to the conference call yesterday on your own :)

Not a big deal either way, I don't really expect any site who learns public information from another site to link its original source; although it'd be nice if they did, of course.

I think this is pretty interesting stuff anyway, and especially so because I have good reasons to think it's 80nm and G8x-based, with one shader cluster instead of 8. Hopefully I'll be able to confirm that sooner rather than later though, obviously.




RE: Wrote on this at Beyond3D
By KristopherKubicki (blog) on 11/10/2006 10:55:35 AM , Rating: 2
Hey Uttar (I think),

Appreciate the link. Unfortunately, I sat through the conference too yesterday. We held off publishing to get confirmation on the February SKUs. Thanks for the link, I'll add it to the article.

Kristopher


RE: Wrote on this at Beyond3D
By Utoryo on 11/10/2006 11:04:00 AM , Rating: 3
Hey,
Yup, it's Uttar (or Arun Demeure in the Beyond3D articles), I guess the nickname was already taken - ah well.

Your information on there being three products with 3 SKUs each announced in February is interesting. I would assume that to only be 3 codenames though, not nine, so it's only part of the equation. Or maybe 4, depending on how they handle things.

An example of such a situation would be RV530/RV560/RV570; you got only 2 chips with 3 codenames as RV560s are defective RV570s, there is no separate ASIC AFAIK, and both RV530 and RV560 are branded as X1650 products in some cases. Yuck. I've also received hints, as I mentionned in the news post, that notebook chips have separate codenames this time around. I wouldn't be surprised if they had different performance characteristics too, but I'm not sure. Quadros are still the same codenames.

As I'm sure you are aware, there is a 65nm shrink of G72 in the works, so I wouldn't expect these SKUs in February to go down all the way to below $99. One thing at a time, I guess - there's still plenty of mileage in G72 and NV44 left for OEMs interested exclusively in Vista Premium compliance with 512MiB of RAM.

And thanks for the link in the article! :)


By the way
By crystal clear on 11/11/2006 6:08:36 AM , Rating: 2
G8800 series doesnt have a DX10 driver???




RE: By the way
By Warren21 on 11/11/2006 3:23:08 PM , Rating: 2
They (nVIDIA) don't have an official Forceware DX10 driver yet.You can bet they will have one soon, before Vista release that's certain. It doesn't matter though, what are you going to play on DX10 right now anyways?


RE: By the way
By Jkm3141 on 11/12/2006 11:48:56 AM , Rating: 2
only if you are on vista. Remember no DX10 for winXP


Out in February?
By KingofFah on 11/10/2006 4:40:52 PM , Rating: 3
quote:
Last week manufacturers filled DailyTech in on the possibility that another G80-derivative product is on the way in February of this year .


That's incredible...




RE: Out in February?
By poohbear on 11/10/2006 9:48:43 PM , Rating: 2
lol didnt notice that one! god dam it missed out!


I expect that first-half 07 will include...
By yacoub on 11/10/2006 10:29:15 AM , Rating: 2
Higher-clocked "extreme" versions of the GTX from folks like eVGA, XFX, and Gigabyte, possibly including higher RAM count, though the extra RAM may wait until Q3/4 of 08 and maybe be more particular due to the architecture changes and as such be a completely new card and model name.

A GTO model offering fps performance equal or slightly better than the best DX9 card but with all of DX10's features enabled, basically a GTS for the more budget conscious who still want DX10.




By yacoub on 11/10/2006 10:29:56 AM , Rating: 2
oops, I always mistake Gigabyte and BFG in my mind for some reason. I mean BFG.


10 seperate G80 chips...
By kuyaglen on 11/10/2006 12:29:51 PM , Rating: 2
So we got 2 now so I'm assuming its going to be something like:
2 - Enthusiast (8800GTS/X)
2 - Mainstream (8600's???)
2 - Value (8400's)
2 - Mobile 8800 Go
2 - Enthusiast Refresh (8900's)




RE: 10 seperate G80 chips...
By kdog03 on 11/10/06, Rating: -1
RE: 10 seperate G80 chips...
By Aquila76 on 11/10/2006 6:08:17 PM , Rating: 3
I think AGP is finally dead (or at least on the last few breaths from having the plug pulled). No new model motherboard made in the last ~2 years has an AGP slot (except the AsRock AGP/PCIe mobo).
What 'high end' video card are you talking about, the 7800 GS? At ~$220-300 depending on model, it's pretty ludicrously overpriced. You could get a PCIe mobo and better performing 7900GS for most of those prices.


Product Line Introductees
By Xietsu on 11/11/2006 1:20:41 AM , Rating: 3
Will most likely include:

· 2 ver. - 8100
· 2 ver. - 8300
· 2 ver. - 8600

...with an initial outcropping of only 1 type of each of these quality gradients. Later on, I'd bet that some ultra hardcore 8900 cards will make their debut, as well as an earlier arrival (before the release of the 8900 line) of an adapted form for laptops.




By crystal clear on 11/10/2006 10:51:31 AM , Rating: 2
(1 Hidden) RE: More info would be nice
By crystal clear on 11/8/06, Rating: 2
By crystal clear on 11/8/2006 8:03:43 AM , Rating: 2

If you link VISTA -SANTA ROSA platform-Core2DUO(merom)CPU line up(T7300,7500,7700 models)then a matching Graphics card
to complete the link.

So a G80 for laptops/notebooks?

The pairing of Intels Santa Rosa platform with Vista in the 2Q 07 is next big thing for the first tier notebook manufacturers & all they need is a matching G80 for this setup.


Unquote-

You can certainly expect in the G80 series a successor to
the NVIDIA GeForce Go 7950 GTX for notebooks/laptop.




typo
By LuxFestinus on 11/14/2006 6:11:50 AM , Rating: 2
"singce" should be "since". Thanks.




80nm and 8900
By jp7189 on 11/14/2006 10:52:20 AM , Rating: 2
You can bet 80nm production is coming in the spring refresh, and based on early overclocking results it seems there is already enough headroom to release an 8900 series (even without 80nm). Pair that will GDDR4 (which is natively supported on the G80), and there is a ton of potential still left on the table.

That'll be nvidia's ace in the hole to be played depending on how competative R600 is.

-JP




Whee
By InvisibleEcho on 11/14/2006 9:49:07 PM , Rating: 2
Hope ATI's offerings in their upcoming releases spark some more competition between Nvidia and ATI. I'd like to see what ATI's new stuff is going to be like before throwing all my eggs in the Nvidia basket. Don't get me wrong, I love Nvidia, use their cards as well as ATI, but obviously they're going to trash-talk their competition as well as promote their own products and display as much confidence as possible for their consumers and investors.

Still, I really liked using AMD products with Nvidia video cards and chipsets. No doubt the SLI market for AMD is going to dwindle and Crossfire going to expand there. I'm going to miss that.




"I f***ing cannot play Halo 2 multiplayer. I cannot do it." -- Bungie Technical Lead Chris Butcher

DailyTech Poll
Which web browser do you use on your primary personal machine? 






44 Comments









botimage
Copyright 2009 DailyTech LLC. - RSS Feed | Advertise | About Us | Ethics | FAQ | Terms, Conditions & Privacy Information | Kristopher Kubicki