Friday 10th October 2008

Rumour control: 55nm GeForce 200-series GPUs on the way

Posted at: 5:35pm 10th October 2008 by Ben Hardwidge

Nvidia rumoured to be moving GeForce 200-series GPUs to 55nm process, with a new dual-GPU GX2 card in the works

Alleged Nvidia GT206 photo from Beyond3D forum

Nvidia has already dabbled in the world of 55nm transistors with chips such as the GeForce 9800 GTX+, but the word is that the company has plans to shrink its GeForce 200-series GPUs to 55nm and introduce some new chips, including a new GX2 card.

Last month, an apparently leaked roadmap from Nvidia’s board partner, ELSA, showed plans to move to Nvidia's 55nm GT206 core at the beginning of 2009, with a further move to the 40nm GT212 core later on. This was further bolstered with the appearance of some photos of what’s purported to be a new GT200-series chip on the Beyond3D forums (pictured). The die measures 22mm x 22mm in the photos, and the poster (DegustatoR) claims that Nvidia told him it was a GT200-series chip, despite being much smaller than a standard GT200 chip.

Meanwhile, in an unashamed piece of Nvidia bashing, The Inquirer today posted a further rumour about the new 55nm GT206 core, saying that Nvidia is planning to use it for future GeForce GTX 270 and 290 chips, with higher clock speeds than the 260 and 280. The site claims to have got the information from a PNY price list that has since been taken down. The story also speculates that Nvidia could take advantage of the die-shrink to produce a new dual-GPU GX2 card to compete with the Radeon HD 4870 X2.

Of course, this is all very much at the rumour stage, and much of it should be taken with a particularly unhealthy handful of sodium chloride. However, the move would make sense given Nvidia’s lack of a high-end dual-GPU product at the moment.

More images for this article:

Alleged Nvidia GT206 photo from Beyond3D forum

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Comments

I knew it

I wondered if they were saving the 270 name for something, when the 216 core 260 came out. I thought that ought to have the 270 name. Now it all makes sence.

Comment by joeamnesiac at 9:25pm 13th October 2008

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is it me or has that die got a chip on it at the top left lol

Comment by damafia at 6:11pm 13th October 2008

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When do we go to...

0.005nm with a 5000ghz processor outputting at least 13 terabytes of bandwidth? Then i will be excited ;)

Comment by Lightning_Pete at 9:25pm 12th October 2008

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40nm sounds nice :)

Comment by EdArch at 1:55pm 11th October 2008

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@l3v1ck

On the photo it says 2009 Q1, or does it just mean after Q1?

Comment by jonisaksson at 7:53am 11th October 2008

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I'm actually more interested in the move to 40nm. I wonder when that will happen.

Comment by l3v1ck at 1:37am 11th October 2008

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GX2

i think nvidia are looking to pair up 55nm GT260 216SP cards for a GX2. even a die shrunk GT280 GX2 would really be a step too far, power consumption would be 450w plus and heat incredible. certainly a GT260 216 GX2 with GDDR5 memory would beat out ATI's 4870 X2, as usual nvidia bashing on the inquirer makes it more likely nvidia will make the quick comeback a certain charlie demerjian doesnt want. a die shrunk GT260 216 with slightly bumped clocks makes it faster than the 4870, and a revised GT280 would put it perfectly between the 4870 and the 4870 X2. the pricepoint at the moment sugggests nvidia are making a swift return. good for competition, nvidia need parity on 55nm

Comment by vulcanproject at 10:51pm 10th October 2008

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Maybe it will debut on the GTX350?

Do we have any further info on the GTX350 as I'm sure it's only popped up on some Australian website. SLi works just as good as Crossfire. It's the developers who need to enhance their product to support SLi and Crapfire.

Comment by crazyceo at 8:54pm 10th October 2008

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GX2

Given that the 4870X2 and the GTX-280 are similar now, I wonder how well a GX2-280 will do? Will Nvidia get the SLi to work well? If not, I can't see many people paying out for it.