Nvidia to have two high end chips in 09

Nvidia to have two high end chips in 09

CES 2009: DirectX 10, 40nm and DX11


We've learned that Nvidia plans two chips for its high end roadmap of 2009. The first one is 40nm GT200 derived chip and the big rumour surrounding it is that this chip will be sort of an optical shrink of the existing GT200.

This would mean that the spec would not change, but that the transistors would get smaller, and so would the TDP and the chip itself, but at the same time 40nm is not an optical shrink process. Nvidia has to develop the chip for it, not just optically shrink it, which dramatically complicates things.

We expect that the new GT200 derived 40nm product will have at least a few more clusters, shaders, TMUs and ROPs, naturally all at higher clocks.

The second chip that should be with us in late 2009 is a DirectX 11 part. Nvidia needs it more than ATI, as it decided to skip DirectX 10.1 and all of its advantages. This chip is rumoured to be based on a new architecture that some call GT300, and we decide to call it Geforce 11, but we have only a few sketchy details about it, DirectX 11 support being the major one.

I don't believe ATI has any cards comeing out this year to beat it.

ATI doesn’t have GTX295 dual answer

We expect ATI will drop the price of Radeon HD 4870 X2 cards soon , as Nvidia will launch Geforce GTX 295. Until it releases a chip that will replace RV770 ATI doesn’t really have any products to fight Nvidia’s latest update.

The 40nm chips are going to launch toward the middle of the year, at least the performance part will and you do know that R700, Radeon HD 4870 X2 actually has two of RV770 chips. Once ATI releases a 40nm successor to the chip, you can expect a new dual chip card.

The price drop is imminent they simply have to do it and this will put some additional pressure on the already shaken Nvidia. 2009 is expected to be a rough year and ATI will certainly not give out without a decent fight, it just doesn’t have the right chips to fight back.