GTX480 first pictures

[Sumanji]

But, and now to be a total spoil sport, it's to prevent people from figuring out the length of the PCB.

But that can easily calculated from the width of the card, PCI slot cover, core size (known to be 41mm iirc), SLI connectors, RAM chips, DVI ports....

Take your pick

Sorry

 

[D.P.]

that site is full of **** - only 5000 cards, if the rumors are true about 80% yield percentage so much money will be lost

The site is utter garbage and anyone who seriously posts links to it have their argument voided by default.

 

[bru]

so the original rumour was only 9000cards...... so if that is 5000 gtx480's, that leaves 4000 for the gtx470 yeah right........obviously as Nvidia has said several times now they are in production now only limited by tsmc capacity.

 

[drunkenmaster]

so the original rumour was only 9000cards...... so if that is 5000 gtx480's, that leaves 4000 for the gtx470 yeah right........obviously as Nvidia has said several times now they are in production now only limited by tsmc capacity.

The original rumour was 9000wafers, which has nothing to do with number of cards, they always said the 480gtx would be VERY limited as yields on full shader parts were embarrasing. THe 470gtx definately has less memory, so it definately has a cut down memory bus and 448SP's, the only thing not known for sure is clock speeds. Though its likely to be between 600-650mhz core and 1.2Ghz shader.

THe majority of what they can actually get off the other wafers is going to be 470gtx's, if you get around 10 cores a wafer, you'd end up with 90k cards, if you got nearer 20 cores a wafer, you're talking about 180k cards.

The idea is though that Nvidia put in 9000 wafers as hot lots, essentially they make these at the same time as they tape out a core and pray to the gods the respin worked. IT would seem they didn't, Fudzilla is now reporting the 480gtx is going to be incredibly close to 300W, and the 470gtx will be around the 220W that yes, Semiaccurate suggested would be on the cut down version months ago.

They could be producing more wafers, but keep this in mind, if they are only getting 20 working cores, which could be VERY generous, each core would be costing $250 dollars, before profit, before going to AIB's, distro/retailer who will between them take around 60-80% above that cost. They WILL lose money on every card at these yields, if yields are as reported, 10 a wafer, thats $500 a core, BEFORE ANY PROFIT, the pcb, memory, putting it together all comes after that cost.

The rumours that Nvidia have stopped with the "hot lots" and are waiting on either another respin or a full base layer respin are likely true. Every 9000 wafers costs $45,000,000 to make, they cost $5000 a pop. Nvidia simply can't afford to make a constant supply of cards that will lose them probably around $20million a month to supply. DO that for a year and most of their profits from other sectors would be canceled out.

Its likely these 9000 wafers, and possibly a few more here or there to "keep up appearances" is all we get of the A3 silicon and the refresh, IE a B1 stepping, with several key fixes like extra via's, bigger spacing between transistors, things to account for the awful process, are in the works. A full base layer respin would take 6-7 months to get out in production, assuming they started work right after A3 came back in very early Jan, it means they "might" have a B1 out with much higher yields in August.

Theres simply no reason, when they can't even possibly have decent supply before late April as it stands, to continue making the current wafers at a massive loss with a hopefully significantly improved version out only a couple months after that.

As for saying they are in production, they said that back in October, aswell, and November, and every month since then, Nvidia lie, get over it. Wafers simply cost $5000 a pop, they aren't getting many cores of a wafer, they'd need to be at something approaching 40% to be able to sell at 5870 prices without making a loss, but likely with zero profit, they need to be up above 50% yields to be making a profit on a core that size at those prices, they aren't close. No one on earth, even the most pro Nvidia reporters in the world believe they are anywhere near that kind of yield. They are going to make a loss on every card sold. SO they can dedicate wafers to losing money, or they can keep producing the low end gt310/320/340 thats been making them a steady profit for 5-6 months.

 

[redeye_uk]

I thought it was blacked out to protect the person who leaked the card for photo's?

 

[fornowagain]

 

[Sumanji]

Interesting positioning of the VRM's on the GTX270... relatively nice and compact cards though - I approve

[edit] The 470 is compact, but the 480 looks about the same length as a 5870?

Su

 

[Lightnix]

So from the look of the white outlines on the PCB, at least the 480 is getting a decently sized fan.

 

[Steveo1982]

Looks a bit of a beast to be honest. Massive GPU die and copper heat pipes sticking out the top.

Wonder how loud the fan will be tho ?

 

[bru]

snip.......

your quite right the rumour was 9000 wafers my mistake.

most of what you say makes a lot of sense, and i agree they will probably be losing money on every card, i cannot see how they can sell what they have made so far without doing so and remain even anywhere near competitive price wise.

so what do you reckon, October was the a1 silicon, November the a2, January the a3, dare they try another straight re-spin 'a4' while waiting for the new base layer re-spin which i agree with you is probably the best way forward.

 

[solway]

Shouldn't do. It looks like the design of the GTX295 dual PCB cooler. Maybe they all have it, so when they bring out the dual PCB version of the card , less manufacturing costs.

Eg: http://www.markljlewis.com/front_full.jpg

Or it is just for additional airflow from both sides of the card.

christ that card looks scary!
imagine moving the HDD or something out the system, hitting the card and snapping the end off. very little PCB join there