RV740 and RV790 should be considered as a trial run for TSMC’s 40nm process, currently “the most advanced manufacturing process” on Earth. Yes, it is plain bulk silicon, thus it is not High-K/SOI and this claim can be disputed. Then again, Intel always bangs the drum of numbers, and only numbers will count when the company regains the lead. When it’s following TSMC, then it is usually talk about materials such as brilliant implementation of Hafnium for High-K process.

40nm GPU will overthrow Intel and AMD as makers of most advanced chips on the market, with their respective CPUs being manufactured in 45nm. Intel will briefly recapture the crown with its 32-nm processors in Q1’2010, but Nvidia and ATI will launch 28nm chips in Q2’10. When ATI/AMD GPG moves to The Foundry Company, Nvidia will remain sole proprietor of TSMC’s most advanced lines and is set to continue GPU lead over CPU manufacturing.

Both parts are taking advantage of the fact that 40nm process gives tremendous power-saving and cost-saving (size of the die) and putting additional architectural improvements. According to Hardware-Infos, who managed to acquire sample cards through mysterious ways, RV740 should be considered as die-shrink of 55nm RV730, but the fact of the matter is that number of Shader processors doubled to 640 Processors (4600 features 320 SP). Memory controller remained at 128-bit, connecting to 512-1024MB GDDR5 memory clocked at 800-900 MHz (3.2-3.6 GT/s, “GHz”), resulting in memory bandwidth of 51.2-57.6 GB/s. Number of texture units is staying at 32, but the number of ROP units is now set at just eight, e.g. just eight pixels leave the GPU per clock.

RV790 features unknown number of Shader Processors, but given the fact that the company decided to keep the GPU clock on the same level as Radeon 4800 series (750 MHz), you could put a wager of 1200 or even more units. Currently, RV790 samples are floating around with 1GB GDDR5 memory from now-defunct Qimonda at 900-950 MHz in QDR mode (3.6-3.8 GT/s). Combining that memory with 256-bit memory controller will result in 115-122 GB/s of available bandwidth. A lot of rumors are flying around what the final specs are, but you can expect that AMD will keep the fixed-function AntiAliasing hardware that worked so greatly with Radeon 4800, offering true “free” 8xAA.

New line-up is expected to debut during Q1’2009, most probably on CeBIT – according to our sources in executive ranks, organizing a dedicated press event at troubled financial times is considered a waste of money. Still, PR department is fighting for their budgets, because at the end of the day, dedicated press event is believe it or not, the cheapest way of getting the message through, putting all execs together at one spot and achieving the maximum effect.

We’ll see, but one thing is for certain. ATI wants the crown back from Nvidia, and the company isn’t going to remain silent.

UPDATED February 1st, 2009, 00:24AM CET – According to a story on Planet 3DNow, AMD GPG decided to brand their 40nm chips as Radeon 5000 series. Apparently, the company changed its mind when it comes to marking their products. Originally, ATI’s products went up as they would implement newer versions of DirectX, but that is now changed and tied to manufacturing process and the architecture itself. I wish to thank Sysfried for this link.

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Steam has more than 15 million users worldwide and is to software distribution what World of Warcraft is in the world of MMO games. But probably the most interesting part of Steam is world famous “Steam Hardware Survey”. Every month, Valve collect data from 15 million users and lists what kind of hardware do people use. This is an invaluable process that gives developers golden information about platforms they should target. In my discussions with game developers, I had countless verbal battles with people who didn’t want to create a game for high-end hardware, because the adoption rate is too low. Well, think again.

In survey for November 2008, stats show that Intel leads the CPU share with 63.62%, while AMD owns the remaining 36.38%. Dual-core dominates with 49.04%, e.g. almost eight million people own a dual-core processor. Quad-core captured just 10.43%, which means quaddies have a mountain to climb. It is surprising to see that 40.19% still own a single-core processor, but multi-thread support is a must-have feature today, not tomorrow – 59.47% own a multi-thread capable computer.

CPU-wise, best sellers are Core 2 Duo E6600 and E6700 processors (2.4-2.66 GHz), while owners of AMD platform just cannot get enough of Athlon 64 X2 2.2 GHz (4400+). Graphics-wise, Nvidia captured 65.11% of all steam users, translated into more than 10 million gamers. Here comes the most interesting part of the survey. According to Steam, GeForce 8800 captured the hearts of no less than 32.35% of users. Out of 10 million Nvidia users, more than three million people own a high-performing GeForce 8800 card – it is almost incredible to see that amount of 3D horsepower taking more market share than numerous mainstream and low-end cards. 

API is a key decided in what platform to go with, and software developers will appreciate the fact that even though almost half of all Steam users use DirectX 10 hardware, only 21.43% of all steam users can actually use DX10 API. Windows XP is loved by more than massive majority of DX10 HW-owning users.

Numbers don't lie, and these are results from more than 15M people around the world. World's largest IT-related survey, that's for sure.

Summary

All in all, I would conclude that this survey proves just how popular Core 2 Duo and GeForce 8800 are. If you’re working on game code optimization today, and plan to launch the game on Steam in 2009, focus your efforts on following parts:

• Vista is a failure, gamers are waiting for Windows 7 to tell Good Bye to Windows XP
• Focus optimization on two cores, most likely in 2.5 GHz range
• 480.000 users overclocked their CPU beyond fastest shipping clock, additional 1.5 million moderately overclock their machines
• Users have around 100GB of free space on the hard drive
• Most of users have 512MB of video memory.
• Most popular resolution is 1024×768
• Most widescreen users use 27″ screens (surprised?), followed by 24″ ones. Thus, for widescreen focus on FullHD resolution
• Multi-GPU is esoteric at best, with 1.79% of overall share. Yes, only 280.000 people have multi-GPU configuration, with SLI dominating the share with 1.55% (240.000).
• Currently, nobody uses 4 GPUs with ATI chips and mere 4600 people own two 7950GX2 cards
• Valve currently makes world’s largest IT-based survey, and probably one of largest surveys in existence (does anybody know how many people Nielsen actually track?)  

All in all, Steam survey offered an interesting insight. I’ll follow-up on this one in our future monthly reports on Steam.

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GeForce with PCIe slot, not the GeForce that goes in the PCIe slot

What makes this motherboard special is “Zotac-special”: beside HDMI audio/video connector, this motherboard also features DVI audio output, so technically, you can drive two TV screens via HDMI from the same motherboard. This company was first to offer DVI Audio on NVIDIA graphics cards and it’s nice to see that trend spreading across various nV partners.
But perhaps the most important part is the fact that nForce brand is slowly cease to exist. NVIDIA stated that all future products will include graphics processors and Hybrid SLI modes. With the focus on GeForce brand, it is no wonder that nForce is slowly, but certainly – going the way of dodo birds.
Future of NVIDIA is most probably integration of Tegra processors with the GeForce parts on their AMD/Intel chipsets, able to boot OS without using AMD/Intel CPUs at all. Who knows, the day when GeForce graphics card will boot operating system may not seem so far away.

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Sparkle

Of course, don’t expect these cards to break speed records. Their sole role is to offer good performance with Windows Vista Aero interface and games such as Sims 2, World of Warcraft, Spore and so on – games that would not work at all if you were running them on integrated “crapics” solution such as Intel’s G33, G35 or G45. Also, board brings Pure Video HD engine, supporting 720p and 1080p decoding.
My personal take is that this would be a good solution if you’re building a HTPC, and the selected motherboard does not feature PCIe x16 slot.

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