NVIDIA GeForce GTX 400 series coming March 26

Robert Hallock 22 Feb, 2010 at 1:27pm ET Article published in Tech

NVIDIA has recently revealed that it will finally unveil its next-generation GPUs, codenamed GF100 or Fermi, at the PAX EAST 2010 expo on March 26.

We had a chance to playtest several of NVIDIA’s new boards at CES 2010. We were left impressed by the experience but skeptical until the company published more hard data. Since that time, NVIDIA has stayed altogether rather quiet about the thermals, performance and clocks of their new and overdue components. What we do know, however, is that we’ll be met with a pair of boards at launch: the GeForce GTX 480 and the GeForce GTX 470.

In the mean time, you might be interested in reading our speculation as to the nature of NVIDIA’s delay, as well as a brief overview of the company’s new architecture.

Comments

22 Feb 2010 ~ 1:59pm mirage I commend Nvidia for being ambitious and trying to bring something revolutionary instead of evolutionary in the computing world. They could have followed the industry trend as they did until now to bring incremental performance improvements following Microsoft's DX numbers. I hope they succeed.
22 Feb 2010 ~ 2:44pm UPSLynx After all this time, March will be when we find out if it has all been worth it or not.

Looking forward to the reveal, I hope it's impressive.
22 Feb 2010 ~ 2:47pm Cliff_Forster Personally I just hope it makes crossfireing my 5870 cost less.

Honestly though, I am curious, I want to see the price and the benchmarking.
22 Feb 2010 ~ 4:21pm mirage I was discussing the configuration of a new cluster with a vendor last week. This is the first time they asked from the onset what kind of cluster we were going to configure; a traditional CPU based cluster or a GF100 Fermi based Tesla cluster. I am sure GF100 will be in the same (or better) class with whatever ATI has right now regarding gaming, but I actually do not care about that as much; GF100 is more than just a gaming technology. If beating ATI in gaming performance was the only goal, this could have been done with a much simpler design.
22 Feb 2010 ~ 4:30pm Cliff_Forster

mirage wrote:

I was discussing the configuration of a new cluster with a vendor last week. This is the first time they asked from the onset what kind of cluster we were going to configure; a traditional CPU based cluster or a GF100 Fermi based Tesla cluster. I am sure GF100 will be in the same (or better) class with whatever ATI has right now regarding gaming, but I actually do not care about that as much; GF100 is more than just a gaming technology. If beating ATI in gaming performance was the only goal, this could have been done with a much simpler design.

Right, because the Radeon 58xx is such a slouch??
22 Feb 2010 ~ 4:38pm mirage I did not say slouch. 58xx is where it needs to be today and it will also be old tech in one or two years. I think I am getting too old to get impressed with the latest every two-three years.
22 Feb 2010 ~ 4:42pm Cliff_Forster

mirage wrote:

I did not say slouch. 58xx is where it needs to be today and it will also be old tech in one or two years. I think I am getting too old to get impressed with the latest every two-three years.

I just have this "put up or shut up" attitude with all things Fermi at this point of my life.

Its this mythical wonder, but nobody knows what market its for, how it performs, when exactly it will be available, or how much it will ultimately cost, but we all know it will be awesome because Nvidia says so. I'm just at that point with it, put it out there, give Icrontic a sample to run through the testing wringer, tell me how much I would have to pay, and when I can get one then I will sing your praises, or offer valid criticism, but until then, stop telling me how revolutionary it is.
22 Feb 2010 ~ 4:53pm master I can buy an arm and a leg for cheaper than this cards will cost!!
22 Feb 2010 ~ 4:54pm mirage I am the romantic, dreamer type then Well, let's see.
22 Feb 2010 ~ 6:52pm Tim Why did Nvidia skip the 300s? They went from 280-285-290-295 straight to 400? No GTX 340 or 360 or whatever.
22 Feb 2010 ~ 6:57pm mirage http://www.nvidia.com/object/geforce_family.html
22 Feb 2010 ~ 7:37pm Sledgehammer70 Tim the 300 series was a refresh of 200 series parts. But as for the 400 series these parts are rumored to be hot & will also be scarce at launch. AMD will have & keep their lead as they have had time to refine their process to make the 5000 cards, and Nvidia is just ramping up. From the looks of it Nvidia might have a card that can crunch more numbers than anything to date... & the whole idea of being able to boost tessellation in gaming has been something developers have wanted to do for years. The biggest thing to look for is... will the 400 series push the FPS with all the pretty goodies. The card looks to be able to beat the 5000 series on paper but it might have to do it while running very very hot.

If I go to the 400 series it will be a water cooled setup for sure.

The way they word that launch is they will most likely be giving cards away during the presentation.
22 Feb 2010 ~ 7:44pm Thrax FX 5900 v2.0 lololol.
22 Feb 2010 ~ 10:27pm Joe I'm with cliff put up or shut up, and by the way how many times can they rename a 8800!?!
23 Feb 2010 ~ 3:11am DrLiam I'm rooting for Nvidia simply because I don't want to see them bomb and fall off the market.. ATi needs the strong competition.
23 Feb 2010 ~ 9:29am Tim Ah, my mistake, there were 300 series cards only available in pre-built OEM systems. OK.
23 Feb 2010 ~ 12:44pm Sledgehammer70 I have personally seen the GTX 480 in action as some of the IC guys have also. It is pretty safe to say this is not going to be a 5900 debacle
23 Feb 2010 ~ 3:14pm Bandrik I have a machine with a Nvidia Riva 128. I wonder if its time to upgrade it... I hear Quake III is coming out soon.
23 Feb 2010 ~ 7:04pm Sledgehammer70 Will most likely need a new PSU wait scratch that.... most likely an entire new system.