By my crude measurements, the 55nm die is 15.2mm high, or 231 mm^2 in comparison to the 65nm G92's die area of 324mm^2 - a savings of approximately 40%.
So that seems pretty complete for a pictorial guideline, right? The real question you might be asking is why would NVIDIA NOT want to push the point home about the 9800 GTX+ being a 55nm part? Obviously there are some advantages to it: lower power, less heat, faster clocks (obviously).
My guess is that the marketing team at Big Green didn't want to one-up the recently released GT200 parts - some people might assume that singe it was built on the 65nm process while the new 9800 GTX+ is on the 55nm, that the GT200 would be inferior in some way. As we saw in our performance review of the GeForce GTX 280/260 cards, that's obviously not the case but I can see how some readers might make that conclusion.
From what I heard while at Computex about this part, NVIDIA wasn't sure about releasing it even as late as a couple weeks ago. NVIDIA was probably using the 55nm shrink of the G92 core as a "practice run" of sorts for 55nm production and design but then was impressed with the results they got back from the fab. The, with the help of some pressure from AMD with the HD 4850 and HD 4870 launches next week, NVIDIA decided to pull the trigger on production.
I will be curious to see how the 55nm transition of the GT200 part goes, if NVIDIA will try to make significant modifications in the design before production or simply attempt to ramp it up ASAP to help with costs and yields
Originally posted by: Janooo
Now, 9800GTX might go to history as a card with the fastest falling price.
A hundred in about 10 weeks. Nice.
Originally posted by: Wreckage
Wow it pretty much stomps the 4850 especially in DX10. Crysis is a huge gap.
It's a 55nm chip so it should be a lot cooler than the 4850 which is pretty much the hottest running chip you can buy.
Still these are "preview numbers". Techreport said they got a card today for testing, so I'm sure more will show up.
Remember that the Radeon HD 3800 was built on TSMC's 55nm process and there simply isn't a smaller process available for AMD to use, so the 4800 most likely uses the same manufacturing process.
You do realize that the 4850 runs 25% hotter than a standard GTX right?Originally posted by: Spartan Niner
You do realize that AMD has made their cards on 55nm since the 38xx series, right? From the AnandTech preview article:
Originally posted by: Wreckage
You do realize that the 4850 runs 25% hotter than a standard GTX right?Originally posted by: Spartan Niner
You do realize that AMD has made their cards on 55nm since the 38xx series, right? From the AnandTech preview article:
So, I'm not sure what your point is.
Originally posted by: ElFenix
meh, watts matters more than raw temperature.
Originally posted by: Wreckage
You do realize that the 4850 runs 25% hotter than a standard GTX right?Originally posted by: Spartan Niner
You do realize that AMD has made their cards on 55nm since the 38xx series, right? From the AnandTech preview article:
So, I'm not sure what your point is.
Originally posted by: seipheroth
Looking very good for the 9800GTX+. Does spoil the 4850 launch a bit (4850 is a great card for the price, and some manufacturers are already offering mail-in-rebates!), but I'll have to wait and see how the price of the 4850 compares to the 9800GTX+ once it's available. I'm guessing AMD will drop the price a bit. Either way, both AMD and NVIDIA have some nicely performing cards in the midrange segment.
Originally posted by: Waylay00
Yeah, that's all I care about. It's all about the consumer!
Originally posted by: Wreckage
Originally posted by: seipheroth
Looking very good for the 9800GTX+. Does spoil the 4850 launch a bit (4850 is a great card for the price, and some manufacturers are already offering mail-in-rebates!), but I'll have to wait and see how the price of the 4850 compares to the 9800GTX+ once it's available. I'm guessing AMD will drop the price a bit. Either way, both AMD and NVIDIA have some nicely performing cards in the midrange segment.
Originally posted by: Waylay00
Yeah, that's all I care about. It's all about the consumer!
These are 2 comments I can certainly agree with. It's been a good day for mid-range buyers.
Originally posted by: ronnn
So was the gtx+ a hard launch? :laugh: Can buy the 4850 here for $200 Canadian, the gtx+ is still a no show.
Did you not read the articles? It's not being released until next month.Originally posted by: ronnn
So was the gtx+ a hard launch? :laugh: Can buy the 4850 here for $200 Canadian, the gtx+ is still a no show.
Originally posted by: Allio
That firingsquad review is weird, it shows the normal 9800GTX equal to or beating the 4850 in most tests which is nothing like what other reviews have shown. Compare Bioshock results from firingsquad and anandtech...