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Hardware NVIDIA 7900GTX Details
Sven Olsen (Blog) - February 21, 2006 5:01 PM
Print E-mail del.icio.us 44 comment(s) - last by johnford64.. on Mar 6 at 1:20 PM
NVIDIA documents reveal details about GeForce 7900 GTX such as core speed

We've come across information that confirms NVIDIA's release of its GeForce 7900 GTX, the next flagship for the company. According to NVIDIA documents, the new cards won't be announced until sometime in the beginning of March (the 8th or 9th). The new GPU will be manufactured on 90nm and set to operate at 655MHz. Although this number is still unconfirmed, our sources indicate that this is a final number.

Quick specifications for GeForce 7900 GTX:
  • PCIe native
  • 655MHz core frequency
  • 256-bit memory interface
  • 52GB/sec. memory bandwidth
  • 15B pixels/sec. fill rate
  • 1450M vertices/sec.
  • 24 pixels per cycle
  • Built in twin dual-link DVI support for twin 2560x1600 resolution displays
The documents from NVIDIA also indicate that GeForce 7900 GTX will be "twice as fast as previous generation chipsets" in floating-point performance, but it would be difficult to really consider the 7900 series a next generation component over GeForce 7800. No confirmed board pictures were available at the time of this article but the GeForce 7900 GTX is set to be a dual-slot design. According to the documents, NVIDIA is making sure that the launch of the GeForce 7900 GTX will be a hard launch, indicating that  users can expect products to be available for purchase immediately on the day of the announcement.

NVIDIA does have one trick up its sleeve.  In late March, NVIDIA wil also announce a single slot version of the GeForce 7900 specifically for Quad SLI setups.  Some manufacturers have suggested that Quad SLI may even become available as a discrete solution -- not just Dell's playtoy.

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What happend to 32 pipes?
By tonjohn on 2/21/2006 5:39:02 PM , Rating: 2
This card was supposed to have 32 pipes but now it just has 24... That is rather unfortunate.

I feel sorry for all those guys waiting to get a PS3...




RE: What happend to 32 pipes?
By gersson on 2/21/2006 6:14:42 PM , Rating: 2
I agree. SO, is it faster or slower than an x1900xtx?? Cos if its slower I'll place my order this second. YES I know no one can know for sure but surely some of you nerds (I mean that affectionately) know enough to make an educated guess.


RE: What happend to 32 pipes?
By tonjohn on 2/21/2006 6:19:43 PM , Rating: 2
I'm gonna go with slower, but I bet performance would be pretty similar.


RE: What happend to 32 pipes?
By feraltoad on 2/21/2006 6:58:38 PM , Rating: 2
I would go with faster, but pretty similar. Look at this http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=29229

That is a 7800gtx 512(o/ced i think) and it keeps a little bit ahead of the 1900xtx. I would expect the new 7900 to be 25 to 30 fps over a regular GTX in most things due to that massive clock increase, but I'm just guessing. It does suck that for months now they've been saying 32 pipelines and now its 24. lol just 24 *remembers his 8 pipe 9700 pro*


RE: What happend to 32 pipes?
By crazydingo on 2/21/2006 7:10:45 PM , Rating: 2
25 to 30 fps over a regular GTX is a blanket statement.

~15% faster over 512MB GTX is a better guess.


RE: What happend to 32 pipes?
By Sharky974 on 2/21/2006 9:04:43 PM , Rating: 2
Err no. At your link at higher res with AA and AF 7800 loses almost everty single benchmark to 1900XTX.

Everybody agrees the X1900 is faster. Really what banchmarks in that INQ link are you looking at where 7800 wins?

Now, add another 105mhz, and yeah, 7900 will be more competitive.

Stating 7800 512 beats X1900XTX is simply false, though.


RE: What happend to 32 pipes?
By Sharky974 on 2/21/2006 9:08:49 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
That is a 7800gtx 512(o/ced i think) and it keeps a little bit ahead of the 1900xtx. I would expect the new 7900 to be 25 to 30 fps over a regular GTX in most things due to that massive clock increase, but I'm just guessing. It does suck that for months now they've been saying 32 pipelines and now its 24. lol just 24 *remembers his 8 pipe 9700 pro*
That is a 7800gtx 512(o/ced i think) and it keeps a little bit ahead of the 1900xtx. I would expect the new 7900 to be 25 to 30 fps over a regular GTX in most things due to that massive clock increase, but I'm just guessing. It does suck that for months now they've been saying 32 pipelines and now its 24. lol just 24 *remembers his 8 pipe 9700 pro*

On second thought you dont know what you're talking about clearly.

First, nobody goes to the INQ for reviews.

Second, the 7800 loses all those benchmarks.

25-30 FPS increase? Where'd you pull that number out of?

And massive clock increase for 7900? It's like under 20%.

All this is not to say 7900 wont be a nice card. Just that you're crazy here.


RE: What happend to 32 pipes?
By feraltoad on 2/22/2006 2:34:32 AM , Rating: 2
Whoops, looks like I was looking at the 1800xt. O and u guys R *holes; you can correct or critique w/out being jerks about it. The guy above wanted to know if the 7900gtx would be faster than the 1900xtx and it will be for sure. I only threw my 2cents in to try and help someone and I even said I "EXPECTED" and I was "GUESSING"! Like him I am also waiting w/bated breath to buy one of these cards either the 1900xt or the 7900gtx depending on how the compare to one another. (my 6600gt-agp can't keep up)

Well crazy people like me think a clock speed jump from the 7800gtx-256's 430 to 650 is massive. As far as fps I looked at benchmarks for the difference between stock and o/ced 7800gtxs (unfortunately no one usually posts only core clock benchmarks leaving memory speed stock).

Yeah, yeah now tell me about linearity and AIB partner clocks..yeesh...


RE: What happend to 32 pipes?
By kilkennycat on 2/21/2006 8:16:21 PM , Rating: 2
And what are you smoking in your pipes ? Wait for the full technical analysis of the 7900GTX ( on Anandtech, of course ) before judging whether the pixel-pipe count has any relevance to the overall performance. As ATi has already demonstrated with their unified architecture, there are many ways of 'skinning' the video-card performance 'cat'.


RE: What happend to 32 pipes?
By tonjohn on 2/22/2006 1:01:05 AM , Rating: 2
quote:
As ATi has already demonstrated with their unified architecture


Are you referring to the r500 GPU used in the Xbox360? Because that is the only ATi GPU that uses a unified architecture...


And people were criticizing ATI...
By Shadowmage on 2/21/2006 5:31:55 PM , Rating: 2
Looks like dual slot cooling is back again!




RE: And people were criticizing ATI...
By crazydingo on 2/21/2006 6:01:58 PM , Rating: 2
Back when Nvidia started the dual slot trend, people used to criticize Nvidia.

Hypocrites!


RE: And people were criticizing ATI...
By bob661 on 2/21/2006 7:16:27 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
Back when Nvidia started the dual slot trend, people used to criticize Nvidia.

Yep. Big time hypocites. When ATI did the dual slot thing it was magically ok to use to 2 slots. Wankers.


RE: And people were criticizing ATI...
By nts on 2/21/2006 7:44:26 PM , Rating: 3
ATi's solutions don't sound like a vacume cleaner though :p


RE: And people were criticizing ATI...
By DeathByDuke on 2/21/2006 7:58:15 PM , Rating: 2
and nvidias top cards stayed dual slot for LOOONNNG time, while ATis stayed single slot until the X850XT (though even that can be single slot cooled (the GTO2 anyone?))

its inevitable now that dual slot cooling is needed, with the frequencies cores are getting to.


RE: And people were criticizing ATI...
By Ard on 2/22/2006 2:26:17 PM , Rating: 2
What exactly is a long time? IIRC, NVIDIA had dual-slot cooling on the 5800 Ultra, 5950 Ultra, and 6800 Ultra. ATI has dual-slot cooling on the X850 XT, X1800 XT, and X1900 XTX. Seems about the same to me. Oh, and there were single-slot versions of the Ultra as well. Therefore, I stand by the original statement made.


By johnford64 on 3/6/2006 1:20:18 PM , Rating: 2
but its become accepted now, i personally prefer the 2 slot coolers as they ALLWAYS work better! I dont mind loosing one PCI slot, who does?


By Heatlesssun on 2/21/2006 5:57:04 PM , Rating: 2
Shaders are FP intensive correct? Maybe this is how nVidia will combat ATI's better shader performace.




By OvErHeAtInG on 2/21/2006 6:58:55 PM , Rating: 2
eggs ACT ly.

Everyone's multiplying MHz times pipelines and being all disappointed. Look at the whining in the 7900GT article, WOW. I wish they would just wait a bit and see. What people don't realize is you're almost never fillrate-limited.


By DeathByDuke on 2/21/2006 8:00:00 PM , Rating: 2
yeah, lets wait and see first, instead of bitching that these are just a core bump. its possible theyve done extra optimisations (improved hidden surface culling, FSAA routines etc) to further its performance over a 7800


By Ard on 2/22/2006 2:31:06 PM , Rating: 2
Thank you. Ppl need to stop jumping on unconfirmed information. Just last month the Inq was dead sure G71 was going to have 32 pipes, now they're saying it has 24 but maybe has 32. Truth be told, they don't know and that's all there is to it. For all you know NVIDIA and it's partners are being extremely tight-lipped about what exactly has changed. History suggests that this going to be more than just a bump in clock-speed.