Original URL: http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/11/30/nvidia_d9e_rollout_plan/
Nvidia GeForce 9s due Feb '08?
And AMD prunes prices
30th November 2007 10:38 GMT
It's no surprise to learn that Nvidia's working on its GeForce 9 family of graphics chips, but until today we didn't know when the first of them will appear.
Expect to see high-end GeForce 9s out next February, card-maker moles claimed today by way of (http://www.digitimes.com/mobaos/a20071129PD216.html) DigiTimes. The first is codenamed 'D9E', they say, it's fabbed at 65nm - just like the recently released 'G92' GPU - and will support DirectX 10.1 and Shader Model 4.1, something AMD's latest Radeons already do.
Yes, but DirectX 10.1 won't be released until early next year - or whenever Microsoft delivers Windows Vista Service Pack 1, the much-anticipated major bug-fix for the new OS. In that respect, Nvidia's D9E launch schedule is sound.
Mid-range GeForce 9s will appear in June 2008. They'll be fabbed at 55nm and based on the 'D9P' core, the sources alleged.
Meantime, AMD has apparently knocked $20 off the price of its new ATI Radeon HD 3850 and 3870 GPUs - the latter reviewed here (http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/11/28/review_amd_radeon_hd_3870/). That takes board down to around $159 and $199, respectively.
Related reviews
• AMD ATI Radeon HD 3870 graphics chip (http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/11/28/review_amd_radeon_hd_3870/)
• Nvidia GeForce 8800 GT graphics chip (http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/11/12/review_nvidia_geforce_8800_gt/)