According to an inside source close to [H], multi-gpu configurations will lead NVIDIA’s yet to be announced GeForce 9000 series - at least for now. Enter the GeForce 9800 GX2. Pretty much a return of the 7950 GX2. Basically, the 9800 GX2 is a sandwiched 8800 variant (loose assumption here) with a (now predictable) monster cooling apparatus. Straight from [H]:
“The GeForce 9800 GX2 will launch in late February or early March as it now stands and will replace the 8800 Ultra (single GPU) card in NVIDIA’s high-end product line up. The 9800 GX2 is said to be at least 30% faster than a 8800 Ultra. While it is not clear from the pictures below, we are told it will support ‘Quad SLI.’”
The only specs [H] could wrangle from its source (regarding the 9800 GX2) at this time were the following:
- 1GB Frame Buffer
- Two PCBs
- Two 65nm GPUs Total
- 256 Stream Processors Total
As [H] keenly points out, the 1GB Frame Buffer could mean a 2x 512MB configuration (or 512MB per gpu).
If this bit of gaming hardware news didn’t underwhelm you enough, well… the fun doesn’t stop there.
[H] just whipped up a supplementary article discussing ‘NVIDIA Roadmap Outline for 1H08‘. As many had feared, NVIDIA will not be introducing any next-gen tech in the months to come. I wouldn’t be suprised if the entire GeForce 9000 line were nothing more than die-shrunk rebadged variants of the 8000 series (pretty much what the recently released 8800GT and 8800GTS [G92] were anyway).
Whether this is due to the lack of competition from AMD/ATI or the slow adoption of current-gen features in games, one can only speculate. One thing is for sure, the GeForce 8000 series was fairly short lived.
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