Budget 8XXX Graphics Cards From Nvidia?

Mike Howes 15 Jan, 2007 at 1:00pm ET Article published in Tech

It seems the chinese site www.beareyes.com has the scoop on the next series of budget graphics cards from Nvidia.

The Geforce 8300 and 8600 is tipped to replace the ageing 7600 and 7300 cards, to become the new entry level product.

The 8600 Ultra will have 64 shader processors running at 500MHz, coupled with a 256-bit memory bus and memory speeds at 1400MHz. The Ultra is expected to have 512MB of memory.
The 8600 GT will have 48 shader processors running at 350MHz, a 256-bit memory bus and memory speeds at 1200MHz. The GT is expected to contain 256MB of memory or less.
The 8300 GT and GS products will have half the shader processors of the 8600s running at 500MHz. The GT’s memory will be clocked higher at 1200MHz compared to the GS’s 1000MHz. Both cards should come with 256MB or less video memory via a 128-bit memory bus.

According to VR-Zone a downgraded 8800GTS is also due for release some time in February. It has all the current specifications of the existing GTS, except that it comes with half the memory bringing it down to 320MB. It’s expected to launch with a price tag of around $299 which is $100 cheaper than the current GTS.

Source: The Inquirer

Comments

15 Jan 2007 ~ 1:12pm airbornflght

Winga wrote:

It seems the chinese site www.beareyes.com has the scoop on the next series of budget graphics cards from Nvidia.

The Geforce 8300 and 8600 is tipped to replace the ageing 7600 and 7300 cards, to become the new entry level product.

The 8600 Ultra will have 64 shader processors running at 500MHz, coupled with a 256-bit memory bus and memory speeds at 1400MHz. The Ultra is expected to have 512MB of memory.
The 8600 GT will have 48 shader processors running at 350MHz, a 256-bit memory bus and memory speeds at 1200MHz. The GT is expected to contain 256MB of memory or less.
The 8300 GT and GS products will have half the shader processors of the 8600s running at 500MHz. The GT's memory will be clocked higher at 1200MHz compared to the GS's 1000MHz. Both cards should come with 256MB or less video memory via a 128-bit memory bus.

According to VR-Zone a downgraded 8800GTS is also due for release some time in February. It has all the current specifications of the existing GTS, except that it comes with half the memory bringing it down to 320MB. It's expected to launch with a price tag of around $299 which is $100 cheaper than the current GTS.

Source: The Inquirer

If I was in the market I think I would go for the $299 model. Though I'm not certain on the importance of memory. But 320mb sounds plenty enough to me for even the enthusiast games. That card sounds like it might make it into my next system if the next gen isnt out by August.
15 Jan 2007 ~ 3:04pm Sledgehammer70 From the rumors and back side info I have heard, we will be able to pick up some brand spanking new DX10 hardware for pretty cheap. Here are my estimates for future Nvidia cards "based on what I have heard"

8300 series - $70~$110
8600 series - $120~$220
15 Jan 2007 ~ 4:08pm Island-Dog Interesting. I used to pay a lot for video cards, but I just can't see myself doing that again. $299 isn't that bad though.
16 Jan 2007 ~ 4:37am FoldingAddict How well is a $100 DX10 card REALLY going to run a next-gen DX10 game though?

~FA
16 Jan 2007 ~ 10:28am Sledgehammer70 should be pretty well... just like today's DX9 cards, you will get DX10 games at medium and low setting with these cards.. maybe even High settings if your still running a 19" LCD
16 Jan 2007 ~ 12:01pm FoldingAddict I've never been one to run games on ''medium'' settings...so I guess I'm out of the DX10 game until the 8800 comes down in price, or something better is released. Thrax's 7950GX2 will hold me for awhile.

~FA
16 Jan 2007 ~ 6:17pm airbornflght This generations medium will be lasts high. It doesn't bother me to run a solid medium if I can save a couple hundred.
19 Jan 2007 ~ 8:39am RWB I wonder what the mobile solutions will be like. I want my next laptop to be killer or I'll go for the external toys like that Asus thing
19 Jan 2007 ~ 11:55am urd i've read this on other forum, but a user pointed out that lower memory capacity on 8800GTS would make the GPU at significant advantage than their 512MB or so 8600GT or so counterparts. Since G80 is a fast chip and lower memory value would just bottleneck the GPU regardless of the speeds it's running on. People usually buy highend graphics for high resolution gaming wouldn't the $75 ~ $100 difference places this board (8800GTS) at a significant disadvantage than their high memory capacity product?

unless NVIDIA flogs this product before their mainstream lineup, i don't know why anyone would want to buy these. Just to save some $100 unless he is VERY tight on budget.

what do you think?
21 Jan 2007 ~ 10:18pm Sledgehammer70 The problem with the G80 series is that they are CPU limited, not memory limited... even a Quad core can't feed the GPU enough Core power....
21 Jan 2007 ~ 10:51pm airbornflght

Sledgehammer70 wrote:

The problem with the G80 series is that they are CPU limited, not memory limited... even a Quad core can't feed the GPU enough Core power....

which is sort of a good thing. Meaning that the GPU isn't going to be the bottleneck.