Nvidia Geforce 9800GTX Specifications

[sk3lph]

Will you need to have PCI-e 2.0 to run this new card? Not sure how many boards support this if you do.

 

[Tom|Nbk]

Plenty to go round...

 

[LoadsaMoney]

Will you need to have PCI-e 2.0 to run this new card? Not sure how many boards support this if you do.

No they'll work on PCI-E 1.0 to, backwards compatible i think.

 

[sk3lph]

No they'll work on PCI-E 1.0 to, backwards compatible i think.

Thats good, wasn't relishing the thought that I'd need to upgrade the rest of my system if I somehow found the dosh to get one.

 

[hohum]

You think by the time this card is released Nvidia will have sorted their Vista drivers out?

I mean, it's been 6-7 months since Vista launch, and they still haven't put out a driver that doesn't have features missing or broken. The 9800 may aswell be a fancy looking doorstop if they don't get their act together.

 

[chaparral]

If its on a 65nm process though wouldn't that make it smaller, smaller core, less heat to give out so smaller HSF assembly, and less power needed.

I can't see there being much less power needed,as surely nvidia will be running this 65m process at a much higher core speed.....

 

[Tom|Nbk]

I can't see there being much less power needed,as surely nvidia will be running this 65m process at a much higher core speed.....

Exactly power requirements really won't change much.

 

[fornowagain]

No they'll work on PCI-E 1.0 to, backwards compatible i think.

The slot is backwards compatible, but you won't get the full bandwidth.

http://www.pcisig.com/news_room/faqs/pcie2.0_faq/

Although even a 8800GTS can saturate a x8 PCI-e, I suppose its possible a 9800GTX might need more than the x16 4GB/s.

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/pci-express-scaling-analysis-uk,review-2125.html

I can't see there being much less power needed,as surely nvidia will be running this 65m process at a much higher core speed.....

Any power saved from a shrink is soon used up by extra transistors and clocks. From a sales pov, I can't see them wanting to go over to using the 8-pin connector. That's a physical limit of less than 225W, increasing to 300W with the new slot. Hopefully it would be about the same as the G80.

 

[sk3lph]

The slot is backwards compatible, but you won't get the full bandwidth.

Although even a 8800GTS can saturate a x8 PCI-e, I suppose its possible a 9800GTX might need more than the x16 4GB/s.

So you say "might" which to me is saying that a x16 slot will still be able to deliver virtually all the benefits of this card without having to upgrade to PCI-e 2.0.