The speculation about nVidia's upcoming, NV30 based, chip is reaching a climax as the card is getting preped for launch. Most of the secrets of the card have already been discussed but the final piece of the NV30 puzzle, that of the memory used, has not yet been put in place.
As discussed in an earlier article, nVidia's Radeon Buster, will carry a 128 Bit memory interface while its rival the RADEON 9700 PRO uses double that. As can be expected most were shocked to hear that and were ready to write the new product off. It is unlikely however, that a competitive, driven company like nVidia would release a product which would be ouclassed by the competition from day one.
The latest information, leaked or not, suggests that the new chip will have a small surprise as far as memory clock speed is concerned. How do you compensate for a weak interface? Using what you've got effectively. Initial suggestions that nVidia would be using 700 or 800 MHz DDR memory were hurried and inaccurate.
Apparently nVidia, in December, will dish out the first graphics chip carrying the new DDR II memory. That claim alone is enough to raise a few eyebrows, since DDR II was not expected until Q1 2003 and many, including AMD, claim that it will not hit its market stride until 2004. Confused? If the card will utilize DDR II it will have to be available in extremely limited quantities in December, if at all. Strangely enough, Nvidia CEO, Jen Hsun did say he expected some new cards to be available in December.
If the new information is correct then the clock speed of the memory on the new card will be an astounding 1GHz.
A new chip with DDR II, 1GHz memory, approximately 400MHz faster than ATI's is a serious contender for the fastest graphics chip crown and is bound to push the RADEON 9700 PRO to its limits.
Since we almost know everything about nVidia's upcoming chip except for its name and there are bound to be more than a few comments on this article, why not suggest what name you would like it to have. (GeForce 5 replies will be overlooked)