The Geforce 9 series seems analogous to GeForce 7 series, wherein we saw essentially the same NV30 core, just tweaked, shrunk, and made to perform at its max potential; although, the gains we are seeing with the 9 series are even less exciting, encompassing a mere clock speed increase and a reduction in price. Perhaps an upset from ATI is in good order?

9900 series? What are they going to do after that? Throw an "x" in front of the numbers and start over?

So how much of the AMD 3k series improvement over the 2k series was due to actual core optimizations versus the shrink benefiting things such as heat, power draw and clocks? Because if that improvement was due largely to the die shrink, or even more than half due to it, a 55nm G90 GPU could be smoking especially if it oc's like crazy. I'll have to check the TR write-up for the 3k series.

*Just checked the TR article and the 2k series was 80nm so they made a huge leap to 55nm for the 3k series. That explains a lot of the heat, power draw, and clocking issues. I take it 65-55nm will not be near as dramatic.

30% more transistors into the same space with a 10% reduction in power use, but with no real increase in transistor switching speed over 65nm.

The G80 architecture, impressive as it may have been, has gotten long in the tooth. The fact nVidia intends to call its next-gen "9900" does not inspire confidence in the new architecture being anything else than (yet another) rehash of aging 8800.

I guess that is what lack of competition will get you. Let's hope AMD-ATI's next part brings more performance improvements to the table.

I also wish intel had decided to go with a more traditional raster-based approach, rather than their exotic larrabee plans which may, or may not, prove effective.

Lack of a next-gen chip, tells me that we have hit a bit of an innovation wall. What would you put in a next-gen GPU?

nmnmnmnmnmnm

#3,

I suggest you do a complete driver tear-out/reinstall. I just played UT2K4 over the weekend on both an 8800 GT and a 9600 GT. There's no reason I'm aware of that the game would run fine on both of those cards, but choke on an 8800 GTS 640MB.