Year 2007 Preview: Predictions and Rumors - Graphic Processing Units
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We already know that the DirectX10 will be released with Vista at the end of January. That means newer video cards are expected to hit the market. Nvidia was first with their GeForce 8 Series: 8800GTS and 8800GTX. Both of them are very powerful video cards. ATI/AMD's DirectX 10 compatible video card will be the R600. According to some engineering sample benchmarks the R600 is capable of outperforming Nvidia's top-end 8800GTX. Check out the following picture... it's the G80 (8800GTX):
Anyway, it's quite true that until the exact moment of the release we can't know anything for sure. Unofficial and re-modded drivers were used for the tests. One thing is crystal clear: there will be two releases of the R600. The first one is expected to hit the market in January with GDDR3. The second version should come out somewhere around March with GDDR4. Their specifications are outrageous. The video card memory capacity is supposed to be up to 1024MB with 512 bit controller. There are a lot of rumors about R600's architecture; some say it's going to be 80nm, others that it's 65nm. It should be easier to move from 90nm to 80nm, but if it is indeed 65nm then all I can is wow. Moving to 65nm is a very hard step.
What should we expect from Nvidia? Well apparently they are going to release newer revisions for the G80 (to compete with R600), then G84/86 and G90s are the next on the list. The G84/86s are going to be very similar to the existing G80s, while the G90 is going to be either on 65nm or 55nm. According to some sources possible mass production on the 55nm will happen in Q1 of 2008. That means engineering samples should spread around the world during Q4 of 2007 if everything goes as expected. Unfortunately G90 is too far away. This is going to be a very hard step for Nvidia due to the architecture change (either 65nm or 55nm... they are very similar but like I said the migration to the 65nm is the big issue).
Anyway, to sum this up: with the release of Windows Vista and DirectX 10, as it was already expected, numerous newer and newer video cards will hit the market. Real native support of the DX10 API will be included in Windows Vista. Now, what I'm curious and anxious to see is: how will two R600s perform in Crossfire versus two G8Xs in SLi? We do know that a single-carded R600 should outperform one single 8800GTX, but what will happen in a 2vs2 benchmarking? We'll find out sooner or later.
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