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Introduction
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When NVIDIA launched their GT200 GPU and the first two graphics cards based on it - the GeForce GTX 280 and the GeForce GTX 260, they thought they had ATI licked for good. In fact, they originally pegged the GeForce 9800 GTX+ as the direct competitor to ATI's forthcoming (at that time) Radeon HD 4870 graphics card.
Unfortunately, NVIDIA grossly underestimated the ATI Radeon HD 4870, which not only roundly trounced both the GeForce 9800 GTX+ and the GeForce GTX 260, but was also more than a match for the GeForce GTX 280. ATI followed that up with a second blow - the dual-GPU Radeon HD 4870 X2, which effectively made ATI the new leader in the consumer 3D graphics market.
The fall was hard on NVIDIA. They were dominant for the last 2-3 generations of graphics cards and to fall so far so fast was a certainly a big blow. But NVIDIA is never one to sit down and cry. They may have stumbled but they now feel they have a card fast enough to regain their dominance in the industry - the new dual-GPU NVIDIA GeForce GTX 295!
The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 295 uses two GT200 GPUs fabricated on the newer 55 nm process. Effectively, it is the equivalent of two GeForce GTX 280 graphics cards running at the clock speeds of the GeForce GTX 260. Confused? Take a look at this comparison.
|
GeForce |
GeForce |
GeForce |
Radeon |
GeForce |
Architecture |
GT200 |
GT200 |
GT200 |
RV770 XT |
G92 |
Manufacturing |
55 nm |
65 nm |
65 nm |
55 nm |
55 nm |
Transistor |
1400 Million |
1400 Million |
1400 Million |
956 Million |
754 Million |
DirectX |
10 |
10 |
10 |
10.1 |
10 |
Interface |
PCIe 2.0 |
PCIe 2.0 |
PCIe 2.0 |
PCIe 2.0 |
PCIe 2.0 |
Stream Processors |
480 |
240 |
192 |
800 |
128 |
Textures Per Clock Cycle |
160 |
80 |
64 |
48 |
64 |
ROPs |
56 |
32 |
28 |
16 |
16 |
Vertex
Shader |
4.0 |
4.0 |
4.0 |
4.1 |
4.0 |
Pixel Shader |
4.0 |
4.0 |
4.0 |
4.1 |
4.0 |
Core Speed |
576 MHz |
602 MHz |
576 MHz |
750 MHz |
738 MHz |
Texture Fill Rate |
92,160 MTexels/s |
48,160 MTexels/s |
36,864 MTexels/s |
36,000 MTexels/s |
47,232 MTexels/s |
Pixel Fill Rate |
32,256 MPixels/s |
19,264 MPixels/s |
16,128 MPixels/s |
12,000 MPixels/s |
11,808 MPixels/s |
Memory
Bus |
448-bits x 2 |
512-bits |
448-bits |
256-bits |
256-bits |
Memory |
GDDR3 |
GDDR3 |
GDDR3 |
GDDR5 |
GDDR3 |
Memory Speed |
999 MHz |
1107 MHz |
999 MHz |
900 MHz |
1100 MHz |
Memory |
223.78 GB/s |
141.67 GB/s |
111.89 GB/s |
115.20 GB/s |
70.40 GB/s |
If you discount the new 55nm process, the GeForce GTX 295 is really a GX2 version of the GeForce GTX 280, running at the slower clock speed of the GeForce GTX 260. But is it be a stop-gap measure, or does NVIDIA really have a winner here? Let's find out.
For more details on the actual architecture of the GT200 GPU, do take a look at our NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280 & GTX 260 Tech Report.
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