Thursday, July 3rd 2014
Is This the First Picture of GeForce GTX 880?
Chinese tech publication MyDrivers posted what it claims to be a graphics board running NVIDIA's next-generation GM204 graphics chip, which is designed to succeed the GK104, as the company's next workhorse GPU, covering a wide range of price-points. The pre-production graphics board usually has all its components placed (some redundant), to test out the best combination of them on production boards. Right away you see the purported GM204 chip, which looks bigger than the GK104, flanked by eight memory chips on three sides (reinforcing the 256-bit wide memory interface theory). The GM204 silicon is based on NVIDIA's "Maxwell" architecture, and is rumored to feature 3,200 CUDA cores, and about 4 GB of memory across a 256-bit wide memory interface. It is widely rumored to be built on the current 28 nm silicon fab process. NVIDIA could launch the first products running this chip before X'mas.
80 Comments on Is This the First Picture of GeForce GTX 880?
As for the card it is an ES with 8GB, 7GHz RAM. I think the only interesting stuff about this board is that 8GB, because it smells like a 256bit data bus. Also the SLI connectors just say "NO" to XDMA approach from AMD. Other than that, I don't think there is anything else of interest here. Maybe that pixelated black circles could be something more than just fans for the power circuit. ARM cores maybe in that area?
Actually fairly common for prototypes. Nvidia likely wouldn't know exactly how the chip performs or its headroom for both stock clocks and AIB margins. The prototype allows for 2 x 6 pin and alternatively, 1 x 8pin + 1 x 6pin operation. Testing at a range of input power (GPU voltage) would offer a fine tuning capability - the old sliding scale of performance vs power consumption/heat output.
Lastly Nvidia is NOT only gpu maker, so don't like their price, then DON'T BUY THEM and spare us your AMD fanboy crap.
BTW: For those dismayed about the size of the GM 204 die, it seems to scale out at ~430 mm²deducting the die package. Assuming it sits around Hawaii XT performance then it really isn't that bad considering Hawaii itself is 438 mm².
About Volta I don't know but I guess it is not possible to have anything else between Maxwell this year and the projected roadmap with Pascal in 2016.
I pointed out the obvious and I welcome all new tech even in 2015 :p im no OT fan of any of them.
Sorry if I was not excited enough for your liking but im not impressed by random ass silicon in that raw or mysterious a form.
lets see R9 290X = $550? cant be overclocked much because AMD pushed it to the limit already, uses more power.
GTX 780 = $450-550? Overclocked it beats the R9 290X and it matches the 780 ti and in some cases beats it...
R9 280X = slower than the GTX 770 in most cases costs $300-$350 on average depending on model
GTX 770 = Overclocks like a champ, costs $300-400 on average depending on model and ram
both are very close, i dont see where this "huge" price difference is..... That argument is pointless, we can go down, all the way down to the 750 ti, same story..... Not saying one is better than the other, just saying they are close to price/performance.
www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107-4.html
Much more likely is that it is an improvement over Hawaii XT from a performance/die area perspective. However, considering the usual price differential between AMD and NVidia, they probably will both have the same performance/price with the NVidia card having higher performance and a higher price. There's a difference between having the best performance (what the original post you're referring to said) and having the best performance/price, which is what the Tom's hardware article is stating.
Truth is, I think GM 204 is a successor to the GK 104 and GF 104/114 lineage, so ~ 780/780Ti/290/290X performance would be respectable. I'm not certain that comparing the card to a heavily castrated die from the previous generation is overly helpful. The HD 7870XT (Tahiti LE) also a heavily cut part basically sits at the same level of performance as the incoming (Pitcairn-based) R9 270X. Personally it wouldn't surprise me to see the 780/780Ti 3GB phased out and the 6GB cards using B1 (assuming it isn't being further revised) silicon become the norm. If the 880 is 256-bit then it's possible to market that as mainstream, and the 6GB/384-bit for the higher resolution crowd. Will it happen? Who knows? But if both vendors are using the same process, and the same die space - and Maxwell isn't that great an improvement over Kepler so far, how much better than Hawaii do you expect it can be ? Tom's?.....Tom's Hardware? Awesome.
BTW: The pricing that Tom's used looks a little like bait advertising. The card now retails at the same store for $300, which is more in line with other outlets.
280 here costs on average 20 euros less than 760.
There is nothing new from Nvidia to put next to 270X
270 costs a little more than 750Ti and it is way faster
Even 265 that costs the same as 750Ti is faster
260X is faster than 750
260 is cheaper than 750.
250X is faster than Nvidia cards in the same price range.
The same is true for 250
and 240