NVIDIA to Launch Three GPUs Next Month?

Rob Williams

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Staff member
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From our front-page news:
When NVIDIA launched their GTX 200 series in June, I don't think anyone had an idea of how fast they would be overshadowed, but leave it to AMD... it was done. Since then, NVIDIA hasn't had a truly competitive high-end part, but it appears they're working towards changing that with a few upgraded releases.

To help better compete this holiday season, The Inquirer is reporting that the big green will be launching three 'new' models - GTX 270, GTX 290, and get this, a GX2. The reason why the GTX 260/216 wasn't called the GTX 270 becomes clear with these findings. Both cards take advantage of a die shrink and clock boosts.

When the GTX 200 series first launched, a GX2 version of the cards seemed unlikely due to the sheer size of the GPUs, but thanks to these forthcoming die shrinks, it's going to be possible. It doesn't seem to be clear whether it will be based on the GTX 260 or GTX 280, but it will likely have to be the latter in order to overtake ATI's HD 4870 X2.

Two problems I foresee with the GX2 is heat and the fact that it still seems to use a dual-PCB design, which in my experience, is nowhere near as reliable as having two cores on the same PCB. Sharing the same PCB makes it easier to share other components, like memory, and on top of it, the card's production cost should be lower in the end. The dual-PCB factor was cute at first, but we really need to see a change here. You know... if this rumor is at all true.

nvidia_gefoce_gtx280_061608.jpg

NV is in a real bind here, it needs a halo, but the parts won't let it do it. If they jack up power to give them the performance they need, they can't power it. Then there is the added complication of how the heck do you cool the damn thing. With a dual PCB, you have less than one slot to cool something that runs hot with a two slot cooler. In engineering terms, this is what you call a mess.


Source: The Inquirer
 

Krazy K

Partition Master
I read this since I have to run SLI and I thought this part was pretty funny, if not true.

" Hint: "20W less power consumption!" on the side of the box won't sell many cards. You would be better off airbrushing bigger nipples on the chrome chick cover art."
 

Kougar

Techgage Staff
Staff member
Hm, it's rather interesting. My GTX 260 did quit screeching when put under most loads, but it is unbearably loud even sitting at the Crysis Warhead menuscreen.

So I am anxious to upgrade to a GPU that isn't missing a fourth or fifth of the power circuitry... hopefully the clockspeeds will make those cards worth it, but I am not expecting much.
 

Kougar

Techgage Staff
Staff member
Screeching, chirping, whistling... plenty of adjectives for it. it's due to electrical resonance in some part of the power circuitry. Cheap parts, or parts being stressed a little to far can apparently cause it. Or it could also be caused by a simple fluke coincidence when frequencies magically align just right for it to become audible supposedly.

You can see issues of this going back years. Often it's from capacitors and heard on motherboards near the GPU slot, but seems to be most common on GPUs now. Also people overclocking to the limit will also report their CPU overclocks causing the motherboard to chirp or emit transient sounds under the strain / extreme frequencies invovled, your guess is as good as mine as to which is more the root cause. Even I had one of those as well but it was a budget 965P-DS3... I can't really blame it screeching because of the 542FSB overclock I was subjecting it to.. :D

As for how annoying mine is, the GTX 260 when playing Crysis Warhead was screeching constantly and loudly enough to be heard over my PC speakers during half the firefights... didn't matter if I removed the overclock or not either.
 

Krazy K

Partition Master
How fun that must have been. I know what your talking about now, we have a tool at work and whenever you put it in the charger, it whistles. If you push it in the charger so the pins make better contact it stops. I don't think you can put the card in any further, so is it RMA time?
 

Kougar

Techgage Staff
Staff member
I started to RMA it once before, but before I put my foot down eventually the wailing of the card slowly started to go away, so I changed my mind. For awhile I thought it had fixed itself, but then I played Crysis Warhead and suddenly it was back and even worse... but only for that game!

I don't want to deal with the hassle of being sans-GPU for a 1-2 weeks + paying shipping charges because it makes noise in only two games, both of them named Crysis.

It didn't help my Foxconn 8800GTS 320mb is dying, I thought it had a bad memory chip but now I'm having to underclock the entire card to keep it artifact free, and because it was a review sample there is obviously no warranty for that one. So unless I want to use an 8600GTS for two weeks, and spend a few hours uninstalling / reinstalling my waterblock I'm going to suffer with the noise... I was able to tune it out into the background explosions eventually. I just have to set off bigger explosions and stand much closer when I play Crysis from here on out. :D
 

Rob Williams

Editor-in-Chief
Staff member
Moderator
That noise is odd, and something I've never heard of a GPU doing before. I've had that exact thing with a PSU before, but no other components that I remember. Can't eVGA do an advance RMA though? I did that with BFG once. They sent me a new card first and then I sent them mine back. No need to go without a GPU then.
 

Kougar

Techgage Staff
Staff member
No, it's a valid point. For all the commenty I've and other people say about lifetime warranties, it just goes to show it's a little more complicated then that.

I remember XFX doesn't offer a cross-shipping warranty option at all, except in rare cases, for example.

I came close to buying the advance warranty, it wasn't a bad deal. But I read the fine print that said I'd be wasting my money if I bought it, then used the EVGA step-up program... was hoping I could step-up from this card to a GTX 270 or 290 or whatever they are going to be but that obviously didn't work out. ;)
 

Rob Williams

Editor-in-Chief
Staff member
Moderator
I agree... most often those extra purchase options are a huge waste of money. Lifetime warranties in general are a huge waste of cash, since the card you get in place of what you are senidng in is something at current market value. Two years after owning a GPU, you aren't likely going to even want the GPU replacement they'd send you.
 

Kougar

Techgage Staff
Staff member
I've not seen that issue to be honest. Usually if XFX doesn't have a model in stock they upgrade the person to whatever was the next rung up, etc. At least some others at least appear to do this. Even Dell did that with the NVIDIA GPU in my laptop when they finally figured out that was the culprit, upgraded it from a 6800 Ultra GO to a 7800GTX GO, the other other model that fits the laptop. What I wouldn't give to be able to upgrade the chipset in that thing, it's not Core CPU compatible.

For example I'd be happy with almost anything comparable to an 8800GTS 320mb, I'm miffed the Foxconn board is dying like it is. It's one of the few items I never even took apart just because I didn't want to risk something like this occuring...
 
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