Because inquiring minds want to know: The GeForce 3 Ultra: 128mb of DDR or something different?

[MichaelD]

Well, in keeping with NVidia's tradition, if there an "X card" there's gotta be an "Ultra X card" to follow. Do you think the GF3 Ultra (or whatever it's called) will have 128mb of DDR memory or will it have something else.

I'm really looking forward to seeing the GF3 Ultra debut at $450 (give or take $50) so they'll lower the price on the GF3 to $250 and I can afford one! Opinions please.

 

[MCS]

Let me just dust off my crystal ball and take a look for you...Hmmm.

Yes there will be

 

[MichaelD]

MCS, how 'ya doing? Cute answer; "yes". I've a much better grasp now! Thanks. Later bud.

 

[gunf1ghter]

Q. Will Texture intensive games benefit from increased memory?

A. Yes

Q. Is RAM cheap

A. Yes, by buttloads.

Q. Will the Ultra have 128 MEG?

A. At least.

 

[jeffoxiam]

There was a rumor on xbitlabs a while ago saying that Hercules would releasea a 128mb geforce 3

I could only guess that it would be a geforce3 ultra

 

[MichaelD]

Gonna bump this because I'm interested in everyone's responses. Thanks.

 

[Rand]

Well Hercules is already rumored to be considering a 128MB GeForce3 that is not an "Ultra", so I very much doubt an "Ultra" would be nothing more then a GF3 w/more RAM. Especially since a 128MB GF3 wouldnt likely be very popular because as even at 1600x1200x32bpp few games are showing a significant dofferent between 32MB and 64MB.... and very few people play at resolutions like 1600x1200 and they gains will be even less at lower resolutions.


My guess is a GF3 "Ultra" will be nothing more then a regular GF3 on a tweaked .15 or .13u process to enable higher clockspeeds. That along with the RAM being clocked at 266/533MHz DDR is my guess.

I personally don't think they will make any actual modifications to the core in the "Ultra".

 

[kuk]

Well, don't forget that while regular dimm prices might be cheap, 500mhz-DDR mem chips (or whatever the GF3 Ultra might come with) would still be pretty expensive.

 

[Phuz]

exactly.
They are usuing like 3.5/3.2ns ram, its godly expensive.

 

[Rand]

500MHz DDR is extremely expensive of course, but the GF3 Ultra would be pretty damn expensive anway, so I suspect they would have room in the profit margin to add in a little better RAM.

As is the RAM on most GF3's is already rated to be capable of running at 533MHz, though they are only actually clocked at 466MHz. That is most of the reason why I think it likely that they will bump the RAM speed up to 533MHz.

 

[MichaelD]

Good logic, Rand. I guess they made the GF3 right off the bat "crippled" (Ha...) so later they could "unlock it" and sell it as an UltraSuperDuper GF3...for $200 more. Cha-ching.

 

[MichaelD]

Oh really R122384? Would you care to explain that statement please?

 

[LukFilm]

I guess because it would cost less and offer the same performance.

 

[MichaelD]

Luk,

96mb offering the same performance as 128mb? I respectfully disagree. Yeah, we are talking about the BigMutha GF3 here and we all know it's got performance to spare, but 128 is 32 more than 96. That's 32mbDDR more. My current vidcard is 32mb. I think (know) it's a pretty good card. I'm not as technically well-versed as some folks on this forum, but going by your (and R123456-whatever) statements, that would be like saying that a 32mbDDR vidcard performs just as well as a 64mbDDR vidcard. Definitely not the case. Can you see where I'm coming from?

 

[TunaBoo]

<< Luk,

96mb offering the same performance as 128mb? I respectfully disagree. Yeah, we are talking about the BigMutha GF3 here and we all know it's got performance to spare, but 128 is 32 more than 96. That's 32mbDDR more. My current vidcard is 32mb. I think (know) it's a pretty good card. I'm not as technically well-versed as some folks on this forum, but going by your (and R123456-whatever) statements, that would be like saying that a 32mbDDR vidcard performs just as well as a 64mbDDR vidcard. Definitely not the case. Can you see where I'm coming from? >>



But how many games/at what resultions can you use all 64 ram of a 64meg card? Now 96? Now 128? I bet very few games will imprrove from 64 to 96, but even less would from 96 to 128. Ya know, diminishing returns and all that?

And kyro3 is gonna be 128, so geforce will definately have a 128 meg card soon.

 

[MichaelD]

Hi TunaBoo,

I don't know the exact answer to your ?, but I can tell you that a buddy of mine has a similar system as mine, except he has a GF Ultra. I can see the difference on his pc. Starting at about another 25FPS in most games that I play. It's noticeable to me and I'm sure that upcoming games will utilize most of not all memory on the vidcard. Like I said earlier, I can't get too technical about vidcards, but I equate vidcard memory to either audio amplifier power or car engine power; the more watts/horsepower you have on tap, the more headroom you have. The amp/car will perform better at a given output/speed than a lesser-equiped model because it has to work less hard in order to put out that same output/speed as the lesser equipped model. Hopefully i'm making some sense. I'm just excited about the prospect of a 128mbDDR vidcard.

 

[Insane3D]

&quot;They are usuing like 3.5/3.2ns ram, its godly expensive.&quot;

Most GF3's use 3.8ns DDR, and some of the early cards use 4ns, which is what the GF2 Ultra uses. I believe the fastest ram on any GF3 right now is 3.8ns.

 

[LukFilm]

Exactly, diminishing returns. Your comparison was not right. Going from 32MB to 64MB is an increase of 100% whereas going for 64MB to 96MB is only 50%. And this 50% increase will yield a small increase in performance. How many games can you run higher than 1600x1200x32bit? Exactly. Therefore those extra 32MB will be a bit useful (not much), but 128MB won't be used at all.

 

[Syborg1211]

Twice the ram most likely twice the price

 

[Def]

Just to dispel some false info here, there would be next to NO GAIN in today's real life situations when going from 64MB onboard memory to 128MB.

Evidence:

I have a 32MB GF2 GTS. My friend has a 64MB GF2 GTS. Our framerates are EXACTLY the same!!! Sure, maybe he has 0.00000031% more performance when my memory gets used up, but small variations in all of your components could easily make that much difference.

Maybe in about two years you will actually start seeing 64MB on video cards becoming a bottleneck, but by then we'll have the GeForce6 Ultra Pro QuadRupleVIEW with 256MB of onboard memory. So it will be a moot point.

But of course, numbers, hype and shiny packaging sell. So if you'll buy it, they'll make it.

 

[TunaBoo]

We sold a computer with a AGP 16 meg video card, some type of ATI or something, not sure. The customer came back made that our sign said integrated 32 megs of video. Okay blah. Take out agp card, enabled onboard video, set shared memory to 32 megs, and said enjoy

geesh, some people.

 

[MCS]

<< MCS, how 'ya doing? >>

- Good thanks MD, yourself?

To address the issue of extra video memory. I can only go on my personal experience, but when I had a 32MB UT would not even run at 1600x1200x32. I changed to a 64MB, it would. Same story with 3DMark. So it has its merits. Same kind of story with FSAA too. You can have more at higher resolutions. There is definitely less texture swapping too (depending on the game). Now I don't know how much difference 128MB will make over 64MB, but I can remember the same debate happening when 64MB card first appeared. One day, the extra 64MB will become useful, just as the extra 32MB is useful now.

 

[MichaelD]

Good responses, everyone. Thanks for keeping the thread intelligent! I just can't wait for the next version of the GF3 to come out...so I can get the &quot;old&quot; GF3 at a highly reduced price! I go to BestBuy about 2x/week. There it sits, in it's shiny, purplish VisionTek packaging: The GeForce3.....as I drool on my shoes. But, cooler heads prevail and I walk away.

When I get the urge to pick it up and run to the checkout line, I just fondly recall (not) how I paid $245 for my GF2 GTS (32mb) and now it's $120. Grrrrrr.:frown: Fall will be here soon. Have a great day.

 

[Whitewolf]

<< I'm just excited about the prospect of a 128mbDDR vidcard. >>



You won't be so excited when you hear the price

 

[Ponyboy25]

Do you guys really think the &quot;newer&quot; geforce 3 will be that much, about $450?? According to Anandtech's article, the updated version will be faster and cheaper. By cheaper, do they mean the price it will debut at as opposed to the original geforce 3 and the price tag it had. BTW, what was the price of the current geforce 3 when it came out? I was going to pick up the current one, but figured I'd take the advice of the article and wait for the improved version which would be slightly better, and not be that much more. Should I join the clans and wait for the newer version to come out, and purchase the current card when the price is driven down????

Of course, I understand that the newer card would not be cheaper than the current card.