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NV40 is out.
Posted: 2004-04-13 10:17pm
by phongn
Holy shit, it's huge!
It looks to be a rather powerful card. ATI's R420 (and later the R423) will be out soon as well.
Re: NV40 is out.
Posted: 2004-04-13 10:59pm
by Gerard_Paloma
phongn wrote:It looks to be a rather powerful card.
So powerful, in fact, it needs 2 power cables.
Posted: 2004-04-14 12:30am
by Alferd Packer
That's no moon. It's a video card!
Do you happen to have a link to a specs sheet?
Posted: 2004-04-14 12:48am
by phongn
Posted: 2004-04-14 01:42am
by Arthur_Tuxedo
I thought the NDA already expired by now? Where the hell are my damn benchmarks?
Posted: 2004-04-14 02:20am
by The Kernel
Not only does it require two power cables, but they are required to be on dedicated power rails! Wow, this thing is a serious beast that will be causing many a power supply upgrade. I used to laugh at people who bought 500W power supplies, but in retrospect they might not be so crazy after all.
The benchmarks for NV40 look good, but I still haven't seen the final benches for the R420, so I guess we'll have to wait until later in the month to see where we stand on ATI.
EDIT: Does anyone else remember when video cards didn't even need heatsinks? Now look at the fucking things...
Posted: 2004-04-14 04:59am
by Shinova
Hmmm.....what does it mean when it needs its own power rail?
Might make upgrading my computer a huge pain in the butt.
Posted: 2004-04-14 09:49am
by The Kernel
Shinova wrote:Hmmm.....what does it mean when it needs its own power rail?
Might make upgrading my computer a huge pain in the butt.
Don't worry, unless you buy the $500 Ultra version, you will only need the single power cable.
And people, is this thing not the fastest fucking thing you've ever seen? Christ, 2x performance in just about everything that isn't CPU bound.
Posted: 2004-04-14 09:58am
by phongn
Shinova wrote:Hmmm.....what does it mean when it needs its own power rail?
Your PSU has various power rails inside of it. For dedicated rails, use two different cable leads, but HardOCP used two connectors on the same cable and it worked fine. They probably had a good-quality PSU, though.
Might make upgrading my computer a huge pain in the butt.
When the NV40 and R420 are easily available, the previous generation will come down in cost -- so an R9600 will become more affordable for you.
Posted: 2004-04-14 04:20pm
by Vertigo1
Folks, look at the other pictures in that directory. The blower on the damn thing nearly takes up two PCI slots... Hell, the damn GPU is *BOLTED* on to the PCB!
$5 says the next line will require watercooling....
Posted: 2004-04-14 06:14pm
by Alferd Packer
Tom's Hardware review.
Those benchmarks are freakin' insane.
Posted: 2004-04-14 07:44pm
by phongn
Yeah, I've been reading various ones from across the net. It's kinda strange that they've been using CPU-limited tests, though, and some places' methedologies are dumb (three different cards and using different settings for each one?).
Still the NV40 looks like it kicks ass. The R420 will be out soon, too.
Posted: 2004-04-15 04:00am
by Shinova
The 6800 Ultra would REQUIRE a 8X AGP, right?
I think I might need a new motherboard......
EDIT: Nevermind, rechecked the site.
Posted: 2004-04-15 10:25am
by Ace Pace
Spent all of school hours reading about this. Holy SHIT! The benchmarks make this seem like R9700P over Geforce 4.
Also it seems Nvidia has managed to fix the IQ problems they had. Probebly the best 3 reviews are at Tomshardware.com\Anandtech.com\Firingsquad.com be warned, they are long, but quite interesting.
Posted: 2004-04-15 11:12am
by Mr Bean
*Dreams of the day the video card is in its own seperate tower
Posted: 2004-04-15 01:20pm
by Ace Pace
Mr Bean wrote:*Dreams of the day the video card is in its own seperate tower
.... and costs 60% of a reguler PC.
Posted: 2004-04-15 03:11pm
by Mr Bean
Ace Pace wrote:Mr Bean wrote:*Dreams of the day the video card is in its own seperate tower
.... and costs 60% of a reguler PC.
Acutaly considering that a decent computer can be had for $1,000 and these puppies will put you back 500$ apeace that day is nearly here!
Posted: 2004-04-15 09:13pm
by SPOOFE
I want to wait for the non-Ultra specs, because the $300 price range is more my thing. Then I wait to see ATI's offerings, and make my decision then...
Posted: 2004-04-15 09:16pm
by phongn
SPOOFE wrote:I want to wait for the non-Ultra specs, because the $300 price range is more my thing. Then I wait to see ATI's offerings, and make my decision then...
The non-Ultra should still be good, but it is "only" 12 pipelines and is clocked somewhat slower.
Posted: 2004-04-15 09:31pm
by Shinova
SPOOFE wrote:I want to wait for the non-Ultra specs, because the $300 price range is more my thing. Then I wait to see ATI's offerings, and make my decision then...
The R420 (?)'s specs are already out in some places.
Posted: 2004-04-15 09:38pm
by phongn
Yeah, but benches aren't out on the R420 yet. They're certain to be excellent performers, but we don't know how they compare to the NV40.
Posted: 2004-04-16 12:32am
by Arthur_Tuxedo
Mr Bean wrote:Ace Pace wrote:Mr Bean wrote:*Dreams of the day the video card is in its own seperate tower
.... and costs 60% of a reguler PC.
Acutaly considering that a decent computer can be had for $1,000 and these puppies will put you back 500$ apeace that day is nearly here!
It's no worse than it used to be. $500 launch price for a flagship card is the norm. When the GeForce 3 first came out it was $600.
Posted: 2004-04-16 12:36am
by phongn
There was also the Voodoo 2 SLI which was rather expensive. The single-board SLI cost even more!
Posted: 2004-04-16 05:30am
by Ace Pace
phongn wrote:SPOOFE wrote:I want to wait for the non-Ultra specs, because the $300 price range is more my thing. Then I wait to see ATI's offerings, and make my decision then...
The non-Ultra should still be good, but it is "only" 12 pipelines and is clocked somewhat slower.
Is it clocked slower? All reviews I read, show that the only differnce is 4 pipes.
I need that thing dammit
Posted: 2004-04-16 10:03am
by phongn
Ace Pace wrote:Is it clocked slower? All reviews I read, show that the only differnce is 4 pipes.
I'm not sure. The non-Ultra version will also have a much smaller cooling fan (one slot rather than two) as well.
I need that thing dammit
Wait for ATI's offerings and then determine your best deal.