Almost a month ago, as new nuggets of information about Nvidia’s GeForce 8800 GT graphics cards were popping up every other day, rumors began to emerge about a new version of the GeForce 8800 GTS 640MB based on the same G92 graphics processor as the 8800 GT. Nvidia made no mention of such a product when the GeForce 8800 GT launched yesterday, but the company told us today that new, G92-based GeForce 8800 GTS 640MB cards are indeed shipping already.
As rumored, the G92-based GeForce 8800 GTS 640MB has more stream processors than the previous, G80-based model—112 instead of 96—and it otherwise conserves the same core clock speed (500MHz), memory speed (800MHz), and memory bus width (320 bits). The new card should therefore be faster than its predecessor, especially since it benefits from the G92 graphics processor’s new stream processors and their greater texture addressing capacity. Other improvements should include lower power consumption, as a result of the G92’s finer process technology, and better hardware high-definition video decoding, thanks to Nvidia’s built-in VP2 decoding engine.
For more information about the G92’s architecture and the GeForce 8800 GT graphics processor, make sure your check out our review of Nvidia’s new baby.
Update from Scott: Ok, I whiffed on this one and gave Cyril the wrong info. The revised 8800 GTS 640MB cards are, in fact, based on the G80 GPU, and they simply have an additional SP cluster enabled internally, giving them 112 SPs and a little more texturing capacity. Because they’re based on the G80, these cards do not have the VP2 decoding engine, doubled texture addressing capability, or power consumption improvements found in the G92 and the GeForce 8800 GT. Apologies for the error.
Share
