ED#70 : NVIDIA GeForce 8800 Ultra/GTX/GTS/GT Gossip

What a day! On November 20, Marcus and I flew over to Singapore to attend an NVIDIA press briefing. What begun as a well-planned day turned into a mini-disaster when we were told to disembark from the plane. Apparently, technicians discovered at the last minute that there was a problem with one of the emergency doors. Worse, the replacement aircraft would only be here three hours later.

When the passengers heard that, quite a few of us broke off and started racing to the transfers desk, ala Amazing Race! The confusing signage at KLIA caused more than a few of us to almost crash into each other. In fact, I had to leap over someone else's trolley to avoid just such a crash! Unfortunately, the other flights were also full, and so we ended up arriving in Singapore two hours late.

To compound the start of a disastrous day, we discovered that the NVIDIA press briefing was not about a new GeForce 8800 card that many had been hoping for. Instead, it was about the new Enthusiast System Architecture (ESA) and upcoming NVIDIA motherboard chipsets.

ESA is a new open standard on monitor and controlling computer components that NVIDIA is actively supporting. Initially, it will be used to monitor things like PSU voltage lines, fan speeds, etc. but NVIDIA is hoping it will eventually evolve into something much more significant like a Smart PC where everything is automatically controlled by components that support ESA.

We can't talk about the new NVIDIA chipsets yet, because that's still under NDA. And there was absolute no sign of any new NVIDIA graphics card. However, the event did give us a great opportunity to meet up with our friends from OCWorkbench and VR-Zone, as well as the great folks from NVIDIA.

Anyway, we always get the best stuff during informal chit-chat. We won't reveal who said what or when, but here are some juicy tidbits for you guys to chew on :

NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS

• There will be a refresh of the NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS 640MB.
• However, it won't be based on the G92, but an improved version of the G80 GPU.
• The new NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS will have a soft launch on December 3, 2007 with market availability only two weeks later, from December 17 onwards.

NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT

• Supply issues with the GeForce 8800 GT cards (and their inflated prices) will end by early December.
• The 256MB GeForce 8800 GT actually had a soft launch two weeks ago, but the first cards will only be available by the end of this month, or early December.

NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX & Ultra

• There won't be any refresh of these two models, at least not in 2007.
• One of their built-in feature will differentiate them from the other models when the new NVIDIA chipsets are launched. This will keep them desirable, at least to enthusiasts with deep pockets.
• The G80 variant used in the NVIDIA GeForce 8800 Ultra is known internally as the G80+.

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