Graphics Cards - Page 268

It seems like Nvidia is working on a new technology called Hybrid SLI and it will enable you to use a combination of integrated and discrete graphics. It will not only allow for increased performance during 3D, as it is also a power saving technology.

When the discrete GPU isn't needed, say for example when you're doing mundane Windows tasks, the discrete solution will be powered down and the integrated GPU will take over, thus reducing the power drawn by the system.

If this sounds familiar to you, then you'll be glad to know that AMD actually announced its PowerXPress technology a little while back for its next mobile platform. Nvidia isn't specifically talking about notebooks here though, as it works just as well on a desktop system.

It might not be that important to most of us, since even discrete graphics cards draws a lot less power in Windows than they do during 3D work, but with power saving in general is becoming more and more of an issue, those few Watts saved might have an overall impact on your power costs.

It's not clear when this technology will be available, but it should launch alongside the upcoming MCP78 and MCP79 parts with integrated DX10 graphics. We'll bring you more on the subject as we find out more specific information.

Nvidia has launched its latest mobile GPU, the 8700M GT, which is its top of the range GPU in the GeForce 8M series, for now. It has 32 stream processors, just as the 8600M GT, but the core clock is up from 475MHz of the 8600M GT to 625MHz. The shader clock has been increased from 950MHz to 1,250MHz and the memory has also been given a boost from 700MHz to 800MHz. Nvidia is also using something it calls dual-rank 128-bit memory, although we're not quite sure what this does at the time of writing this, but it sounds like some kind of dual channel memory interface. It can be paired with up to 512MB of GDDR3 memory.

News just hit our bench about upcoming information regarding nVidia's upcoming G80 based graphics cards. We want to first clearly state that we're not sure if the information is accurate and at best it would just be estimated prices.

Our friends over at OCW seem to be talking to the right people here in Taiwan and have a bunch of information regarding the most expensive GeForce 8950GX2 that will be sold for $599 USD. It is rumored to be a dual GPU solution much like the 7950GX2 and will come with a total of 512MB GDDR-4 memory per GPU.

The second on the list is the GeForce 8900GTX which will replace the current high-end 8800GTX. It will ship at a retail price of $549 USD and sees total pipelines increased to 128 which is an increase of 32 or 25% as suggested by Fudo over at the INQ recently. It will also see the inclusion of GDDR4 memory which allows nVidia to increase the clock speed to a huge 2200MHz DDR. It also seems like the manufacturing process is being reduced to 80nm from 90nm in the latest batch of G80 chips.

In case you're not sure, one of our local Taiwanese drinking buddies (thanks Charlie!) was kind enough to provide translation. The top part after NV G80 says "specs and prices are estimated" and from left to right - chip name, core / memory frequency, memory type, memory bandwidth, memory amount, pipelines, process and price (USD).