GeForce 8 Series
Encyclopedia
The GeForce 8 Series, is the eighth generation of NVIDIA
's GeForce
line of graphics processing unit
s. The third major GPU architecture developed at NVIDIA, the GeForce 8 represents the company's first unified shader architecture.
Although overall raw performance, particularly when it comes to total frames-per-second in 3D games, may not appear to justify the larger number (or new name for re-badged chips), newly introduced GPUs nearly always introduce some improvements, often in the form of process shrinkage which yields more performance per watt than previous-generation chips. Another common improvement are additional technologies for such things as decoding compressed video and audio, new instructions to conform to a higher DirectX
and OpenGL
specification, co-processing, and updated display connectors. Despite such improvements, some buyers are better off purchasing previous-generation GPUs for some needs, such as overall frames-per-second in popular contemporary 3D titles as compared to dollars spent.
New high-end flagship GPU chips invariably offer improved overall performance over parts of the previous generation, but are not always the best value for all buyers.
Shader Model 4.0 / OpenGL
2.1(later drivers have OpenGL 3.3 support) architecture. The design is a major shift for NVIDIA in GPU functionality and capability, the most obvious change being the move from the separate functional units (pixel shaders, vertex shaders) within previous GPUs to a homogeneous collection of universal floating point
processors (called "stream processors") that can perform a more universal set of tasks.
GeForce 8's unified shader architecture consists of a number of stream processors
(SPs). Unlike the vector processing
approach taken with older shader units, each SP is scalar
and thus can operate only on one component at a time. This makes them less complex to build while still being quite flexible and universal. Scalar shader units also have the advantage of being more efficient in a number of cases as compared to previous generation vector
shader units that rely on ideal instruction mixture and ordering to reach peak throughput. The lower maximum throughput of these scalar processors is compensated for by efficiency and by running them at a high clock speed (made possible by their simplicity). GeForce 8 runs the various parts of its core at differing clock speeds (clock domains), similar to the operation of the previous GeForce 7 Series GPUs
. For example, the stream processors of GeForce 8800 GTX operate at a 1.35 GHz clock rate while the rest of the chip is operating at 575 MHz.
GeForce 8 performs significantly better texture filtering
than its predecessors that used various optimizations and visual tricks to speed up rendering while impairing filtering quality. The GeForce 8 line correctly renders an angle-independent anisotropic filtering
algorithm along with full trilinear texture filtering
. G80, though not its smaller brethren, is equipped with much more texture filtering arithmetic ability than the GeForce 7 series. This allows high-quality filtering with a much smaller performance hit than previously.
NVIDIA has also introduced new polygon edge anti-aliasing
methods, including the ability of the GPU's ROPs
to perform both Multisample anti-aliasing
(MSAA) and HDR lighting at the same time, correcting various limitations of previous generations. GeForce 8 can perform MSAA with both FP16 and FP32 texture formats. GeForce 8 supports 128-bit HDR rendering
, an increase from prior cards' 64-bit support. The chip's new anti-aliasing technology, called coverage sampling AA (CSAA), uses Z, color, and coverage information to determine final pixel color. This technique of color optimization allows 16X CSAA to look crisp and sharp.
The claimed theoretical processing power for the 8 Series cards given in FLOPS
may not be correct at all times. For example the GeForce 8800 GTX has 518.43 GigaFLOPs
theoretical performance given the fact that there are 128 stream processors at 1.35 GHz with each SP being able to run 1 Multiply-Add and 1 Multiply instruction per clock [(MADD (2 FLOPs) + MUL (1 FLOP))×1350 MHz×128 SPs ＝ 518.4 GigaFLOPs]. This figure may not be correct because the Multiply operation is not always available giving a possibly more accurate performance figure of (2×1350×128) = 345.6 GigaFLOPs.
Able to drive two flat-panel displays up to 2560x1600 resolution. Available on select GeForce 8800 and 8600 GPUs.
One Dual-link DVI Support:
Able to drive one flat-panel display up to 2560x1600 resolution. Available on select GeForce 8500 GPUs and GeForce 8400 GS cards based on the G98.
One Single-link DVI Support:
Able to drive one flat-panel display up to 1920x1200 resolution. Available on select GeForce 8400 GPUs. GeForce 8400 GS cards based on the G86 only support single-link DVI.
(SLI) for multiple installed cards to act as one via an SLI Bridge, so long as they are of similar architecture.
NVIDIA's PureVideo HD
video rendering technology is an improved version of the original PureVideo introduced with GeForce 6
. It now includes GPU-based hardware acceleration for decoding HD movie formats, post-processing of HD video for enhanced images, and optional High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection
(HDCP) support at the card level.
or AGP motherboard.
At the end of 2007 NVIDIA released a new GeForce 8400 GS based on the G98 (D8M) chip. It is quite different from the G86 used for the "first" 8400 GS, as the G98 features VC-1 and MPEG2 video decoding completely in hardware, lower power consumption, lowered 3D-performance and a smaller fabrication process. The G98 also features dual-link DVI support and PCI Express 2.0. G86 and G98 cards were both sold as "8400 GS", the difference showing only in the technical specifications.
NVIDIA introduced 2nd-generation PureVideo with this series. As the first major update to PureVideo since the GeForce 6's launch, 2nd-gen PureVideo offered much improved hardware-decoding for H264
and VC-1
video.
The 8800 series, codenamed G80, was launched on November 8, 2006 with the release of the GeForce 8800 GTX and GTS. A 320 MB GTS was released on February 12 and the Ultra was released on May 2, 2007. The cards are larger than their predecessors, with the 8800 GTX measuring 10.6 in (~26.9 cm) in length and the 8800 GTS measuring 9 in (~23 cm). Both cards have two dual-link DVI
connectors and a HDTV
/S-Video out
connector. The 8800 GTX requires 2 PCIe power inputs to keep within the PCIe standard, while the GTS requires just one.
On April 28, 2008, Apple announced an updated iMac
line featuring an 8800 GS. However, the GPU is actually a rebranded NVIDIA GeForce 8800M GTS. It features up to 512 MB of 800 MHz GDDR3 video memory, 64 unified stream processors, a 500 MHz core speed, a 256-bit memory bus width, and a 1250 MHz shader clock.
RAM. The 8800 series replaced the GeForce 7950 Series as NVIDIA's top-performing consumer GPU. GeForce 8800 GTX and GTS use identical GPU cores, but the GTS model disables parts of the GPU and reduces RAM size and bus width to lower production cost.
At the time, the G80 was the largest commercial GPU ever constructed. It consists of 681 million transistors covering a 480 mm² die surface area built on a 90 nm process. (In fact the G80's total transistor count is ~686 million, but since the chip was made on a 90 nm process and due to process limitations and yield feasibility, NVIDIA had to break the main design into two chips: Main shader core at 681 million transistors and NV I/O core of about ~5 million transistors making the entire G80 design standing at ~686 million transistors).
A minor manufacturing defect related to a resistor
of improper value caused a recall of the 8800 GTX models just two days before the product launch, though the launch itself was unaffected.
The GeForce 8800 GTX was by far the fastest GPU when first released, and 13 months after its initial debut it still remained one of the fastest. The GTX has 128 stream processors clocked at 1.35 GHz, a core clock of 575 MHz, and 768 MB of 384-bit GDDR3 memory at 1.8 GHz, giving it a memory bandwidth of 86.4 GB/s. The card performs faster than a single Radeon HD 2900 XT, and faster than 2 Radeon X1950 XTXs in Crossfire or 2 GeForce 7900 GTXs in SLI. The 8800 GTX also supports HDCP
, but one major flaw is its older NVIDIA PureVideo processor that uses more CPU resources. Originally retailing for around US$600, prices came down to under US$400 before it was discontinued. The 8800 GTX is also very power hungry, using up to 185 watts of power and requiring two PCI-E
power connectors to operate. The 8800 GTX also has 2 SLI connector ports, allowing it to support NVIDIA 3-way SLI for users who run demanding games at extreme resolutions such as 2560x1600.
The 8800 Ultra, retailing at a higher price, is identical to the GTX architecturally, but features higher clocked shaders, core and memory. Nvidia later told the media the 8800 Ultra was a new stepping, creating less heat therefore clocking higher. Originally retailing from $800 to $1000, most users thought the card to be a poor value, offering only 10% more performance than the GTX but costing hundreds of dollars more. Prices dropped to as low as $200 before being discontinued on January 23, 2008. The core clock of the Ultra runs at 612 MHz, the shaders at 1.5 GHz, and finally the memory at 2.16 GHz, giving the Ultra a theoretical memory bandwidth of 103.7 GB/s. It has 2 SLI connector ports, allowing it to support NVIDIA 3-way SLI. An updated dual slot cooler was also implemented, allowing for quieter and cooler operation at higher clock speeds.
codecs. Performance benchmarks at stock speeds place it above the 8800 GTS (640 MB and 320 MB versions) and slightly below the 8800 GTX. A 256 MB version of the 8800 GT with lower stock memory speeds (1.4 GHz as opposed to 1.8 GHz) but the same core is also available. Performance benchmarks have shown that the 256 MB version of the 8800 GT has a considerable performance disadvantage when compared to its 512 MB counterpart, especially in newer games such as Crysis
. Some manufacturers also make models with 1 GB of memory; and with large resolutions and big textures one can perceive a performance difference in the benchmarks. These models are more likely to take up to 2 slots of the computer.
The release of this card presents an odd dynamic to the graphics processing industry. At an NVIDIA projected initial street price of around $200, this card outperforms the ATI
flagship HD2900XT and HD3870 in most situations, and even NVIDIA's own 8800 GTS 640 MB (previously priced at an MSRP
of $400). The card, only marginally slower in synthetic and gaming benchmarks than the 8800 GTX, also takes much of the value away from NVIDIA's own high-end card. This release was shortly followed by the (EVGA) 8800 GTS SSC (the original 8800 GTS re-released with 96+ (112) shader processor units), and ATI's counter, the HD 3800 series.
Some graphics cards had a workaround, which was to re-flash the graphics card's BIOS
with an older GEN1 BIOS. However this effectively made it into a PCI Express 1.0 card, not being able to utilize the PCIE 2.0 functions. This could be considered a non-issue however since the card itself could not even utilize the full capacity of the regular PCIE 1.0 slots, there was no noticeable performance reduction. Also flashing of the video card BIOS voided the warranties of most video card manufacturers (if not all) thus making it a less-than-optimum way of getting the card to work properly. A workaround to this is to flash the BIOS of the motherboard to the latest version, which depending on the manufacturer of the motherboard, may contain a fix. In relation to this compatibility issue, the high numbers of cards reported as DOA
(as much as 13-15%) were believed to be inaccurate. When it was revealed that the G92 8800 GT and 8800 GTS 512 MB were going to be designed with PCI Express 2.0 connections, NVIDIA claimed that all cards would have full backwards-compatibility, but failed to mention that this was only true for PCI Express 1.1 motherboards. The source for the BIOS-flash did not come from NVIDIA or any of their partners, but rather ASRock, a mainboard producer, who mentioned the fix in one of their motherboard FAQs. ASUSTek, sells the 8800 GT with their sticker, posted a newer version of their 8800 GT BIOS on their website, but did not mention that it fixed this issue. EVGA also posted a new bios to fix this issue.
Around the same release date as the 8800 GT, NVIDIA released a new 640 MB version of the 8800 GTS. While still based on the 90 nm G80 core, this version has 7 out of the 8 clusters of 16 stream processors enabled (as opposed to 6 out 8 on the older GTSs), giving it a total of 112 stream processors instead of 96. Most other aspects of the card remain unchanged. However, because the only 2 add-in partners who are making this card (BFG and EVGA) have decided to overclock it, this version of the 8800 GTS actually runs slightly faster than a stock GTX in most scenarios, especially at higher resolutions, due to the increased clock speeds.
NVIDIA released a new 8800 GTS 512 MB based on the 65 nm G92 GPU on December 10, 2007. This 8800 GTS has 128 stream processors, compared to the 96 processors of the original GTS models. It is equipped with 512 MB GDDR3 on a 256-bit bus. Combined with a 650 MHz core clock and architectural enhancements, this gives the card raw GPU performance exceeding that of 8800 GTX, but it is constrained by the narrower 256-bit memory bus. Its performance can match the 8800 GTX in some situations, and it outperforms the older GTS cards in all situations.
content such as Blu-ray Disc
and HD DVD
movies and play current and some future games with decent settings. Versions include the 8600M GS and 8600M GT, and provide decent gaming performance (due to the implementation of GDDR3 memory in the higher-end 8600M models) for current games. It is currently on the Dell XPS M1530 portable, Sony VAIO VGN-FZ21Z, some models of the Acer Aspire 5920, some models of the BenQ Joybook S41, some models of the MacBook Pro, and some models of Fujitsu Siemens.
XPS M1730, Sager NP5793, and Toshiba Satellite X205. While this card is considered by most in the field to be a decent mid-range card, it is hard to classify the 8700M-GT as a high-end card due to its 128-bit memory bus, and is essentially an overclocked 8600M GT GDDR3 mid-range card. However, it shows strong performance when in a dual-card SLI configuration, and provides decent gaming performance in a single-card configuration.
Versions include the 8800M GTS and 8800M GTX. These were released as the first truly high-end mobile GeForce 8 Series GPUs, each with a 256-bit memory bus and a standard 512 megabytes of GDDR3 memory, and provide high-end gaming performance equivalent to many desktop GPUs. In SLI, these can produce 3DMark06 results in the high thousands.
Laptop models which include the 8800M GPUs are: Sager NP5793, Sager NP9262, Alienware m15x and m17x, HP HDX9494NR and Dell M1730. Clevo also manufactures similar laptop models for CyberPower, Rock, and Sager (among others) - all with the 8800M GTX, while including the 8800M GTS in the Gateway P-6831 FX and P-6860 FX models.
The reason for the high failure rate was because of improper selection of the underfill material for the chip. Underfill materials are a type of glue that keeps the silicon die firmly attached to the packaging material, which is where the connection to the actual pins takes place. On the affected chips, the working temperature of the underfill material was too low for the task and allowed the chip to move slightly if temperature was raised above a certain level, weakening the solder joints by which the die is attached. This eventually leads to a catastrophic failure, although the way the chip fails is quite random.
NVIDIA
Nvidia is an American global technology company based in Santa Clara, California. Nvidia is best known for its graphics processors . Nvidia and chief rival AMD Graphics Techonologies have dominated the high performance GPU market, pushing other manufacturers to smaller, niche roles...
's GeForce
GeForce
GeForce is a brand of graphics processing units designed by Nvidia. , there have been eleven iterations of the design. The first GeForce products were discrete GPUs designed for use on add-on graphics boards, intended for the high-margin PC gaming market...
line of graphics processing unit
Graphics processing unit
A graphics processing unit or GPU is a specialized circuit designed to rapidly manipulate and alter memory in such a way so as to accelerate the building of images in a frame buffer intended for output to a display...
s. The third major GPU architecture developed at NVIDIA, the GeForce 8 represents the company's first unified shader architecture.
Naming
There has been, at times, controversy over the naming of GeForce 8 series chips, including due to previous-generation chips being repackaged with minor changes (or possibly none at all) with the new names implying they are derived from the newly introduced GPU chip design featured by the flagship products.Although overall raw performance, particularly when it comes to total frames-per-second in 3D games, may not appear to justify the larger number (or new name for re-badged chips), newly introduced GPUs nearly always introduce some improvements, often in the form of process shrinkage which yields more performance per watt than previous-generation chips. Another common improvement are additional technologies for such things as decoding compressed video and audio, new instructions to conform to a higher DirectX
DirectX
Microsoft DirectX is a collection of application programming interfaces for handling tasks related to multimedia, especially game programming and video, on Microsoft platforms. Originally, the names of these APIs all began with Direct, such as Direct3D, DirectDraw, DirectMusic, DirectPlay,...
and OpenGL
OpenGL
OpenGL is a standard specification defining a cross-language, cross-platform API for writing applications that produce 2D and 3D computer graphics. The interface consists of over 250 different function calls which can be used to draw complex three-dimensional scenes from simple primitives. OpenGL...
specification, co-processing, and updated display connectors. Despite such improvements, some buyers are better off purchasing previous-generation GPUs for some needs, such as overall frames-per-second in popular contemporary 3D titles as compared to dollars spent.
New high-end flagship GPU chips invariably offer improved overall performance over parts of the previous generation, but are not always the best value for all buyers.
3D rendering
The GeForce 8 series arrived with NVIDIA's first unified shader Direct3D 10Direct3D
Direct3D is part of Microsoft's DirectX application programming interface . Direct3D is available for Microsoft Windows operating systems , and for other platforms through the open source software Wine. It is the base for the graphics API on the Xbox and Xbox 360 console systems...
Shader Model 4.0 / OpenGL
OpenGL
OpenGL is a standard specification defining a cross-language, cross-platform API for writing applications that produce 2D and 3D computer graphics. The interface consists of over 250 different function calls which can be used to draw complex three-dimensional scenes from simple primitives. OpenGL...
2.1(later drivers have OpenGL 3.3 support) architecture. The design is a major shift for NVIDIA in GPU functionality and capability, the most obvious change being the move from the separate functional units (pixel shaders, vertex shaders) within previous GPUs to a homogeneous collection of universal floating point
Floating point
In computing, floating point describes a method of representing real numbers in a way that can support a wide range of values. Numbers are, in general, represented approximately to a fixed number of significant digits and scaled using an exponent. The base for the scaling is normally 2, 10 or 16...
processors (called "stream processors") that can perform a more universal set of tasks.
Stream processing
Stream processing is a computer programming paradigm, related to SIMD , that allows some applications to more easily exploit a limited form of parallel processing...
(SPs). Unlike the vector processing
Vector processor
A vector processor, or array processor, is a central processing unit that implements an instruction set containing instructions that operate on one-dimensional arrays of data called vectors. This is in contrast to a scalar processor, whose instructions operate on single data items...
approach taken with older shader units, each SP is scalar
Scalar processor
Scalar processors represent the simplest class of computer processors. A scalar processor processes one datum at a time . , a scalar processor is classified as a SISD processor .In a vector processor, by contrast, a single instruction operates simultaneously on multiple data items...
and thus can operate only on one component at a time. This makes them less complex to build while still being quite flexible and universal. Scalar shader units also have the advantage of being more efficient in a number of cases as compared to previous generation vector
Vector processor
A vector processor, or array processor, is a central processing unit that implements an instruction set containing instructions that operate on one-dimensional arrays of data called vectors. This is in contrast to a scalar processor, whose instructions operate on single data items...
shader units that rely on ideal instruction mixture and ordering to reach peak throughput. The lower maximum throughput of these scalar processors is compensated for by efficiency and by running them at a high clock speed (made possible by their simplicity). GeForce 8 runs the various parts of its core at differing clock speeds (clock domains), similar to the operation of the previous GeForce 7 Series GPUs
GeForce 7 Series
The GeForce 7 Series is the seventh generation of Nvidia's GeForce graphics processing units.-Features:The following features are common to all models in the GeForce 7 series except the GeForce 7100, which lacks GCAA:-GeForce 7100 Series:...
. For example, the stream processors of GeForce 8800 GTX operate at a 1.35 GHz clock rate while the rest of the chip is operating at 575 MHz.
GeForce 8 performs significantly better texture filtering
Texture filtering
In computer graphics, texture filtering or texture smoothing is the method used to determine the texture color for a texture mapped pixel, using the colors of nearby texels . Mathematically, texture filtering is a type of anti-aliasing, but it filters out high frequencies from the texture fill...
than its predecessors that used various optimizations and visual tricks to speed up rendering while impairing filtering quality. The GeForce 8 line correctly renders an angle-independent anisotropic filtering
Anisotropic filtering
In 3D computer graphics, anisotropic filtering is a method of enhancing the image quality of textures on surfaces that are at oblique viewing angles with respect to the camera where the projection of the texture appears to be non-orthogonal In 3D computer graphics, anisotropic filtering...
algorithm along with full trilinear texture filtering
Trilinear filtering
Trilinear filtering is an extension of the bilinear texture filtering method, which also performs linear interpolation between mipmaps.Bilinear filtering has several weaknesses that make it an unattractive choice in many cases: using it on a full-detail texture when scaling to a very small size...
. G80, though not its smaller brethren, is equipped with much more texture filtering arithmetic ability than the GeForce 7 series. This allows high-quality filtering with a much smaller performance hit than previously.
NVIDIA has also introduced new polygon edge anti-aliasing
Anti-aliasing
In digital signal processing, spatial anti-aliasing is the technique of minimizing the distortion artifacts known as aliasing when representing a high-resolution image at a lower resolution...
methods, including the ability of the GPU's ROPs
Render Output unit
The Render Output Unit, often abbreviated as "ROP", and sometimes called Raster Operations Pipeline, is one of the final steps in the rendering process of modern 3D accelerator boards. The pixel pipelines take pixel and texel information and process it, via specific matrix and vector operations,...
to perform both Multisample anti-aliasing
Multisample Anti-Aliasing
Multisample anti-aliasing is a type of anti-aliasing, a technique used in computer graphics to improve image quality.- Definition :The term generally refers to a special case of supersampling. Initial implementations of full-scene anti-aliasing worked conceptually by simply rendering a scene at a...
(MSAA) and HDR lighting at the same time, correcting various limitations of previous generations. GeForce 8 can perform MSAA with both FP16 and FP32 texture formats. GeForce 8 supports 128-bit HDR rendering
High dynamic range rendering
In 3D computer graphics, high dynamic range rendering , also known as high dynamic range lighting, is the rendering of computer graphics scenes by using lighting calculations done in a larger dynamic range. This allows preservation of details that may be lost due to limiting contrast ratios...
, an increase from prior cards' 64-bit support. The chip's new anti-aliasing technology, called coverage sampling AA (CSAA), uses Z, color, and coverage information to determine final pixel color. This technique of color optimization allows 16X CSAA to look crisp and sharp.
The claimed theoretical processing power for the 8 Series cards given in FLOPS
FLOPS
In computing, FLOPS is a measure of a computer's performance, especially in fields of scientific calculations that make heavy use of floating-point calculations, similar to the older, simpler, instructions per second...
may not be correct at all times. For example the GeForce 8800 GTX has 518.43 GigaFLOPs
FLOPS
In computing, FLOPS is a measure of a computer's performance, especially in fields of scientific calculations that make heavy use of floating-point calculations, similar to the older, simpler, instructions per second...
theoretical performance given the fact that there are 128 stream processors at 1.35 GHz with each SP being able to run 1 Multiply-Add and 1 Multiply instruction per clock [(MADD (2 FLOPs) + MUL (1 FLOP))×1350 MHz×128 SPs ＝ 518.4 GigaFLOPs]. This figure may not be correct because the Multiply operation is not always available giving a possibly more accurate performance figure of (2×1350×128) = 345.6 GigaFLOPs.
Max Resolution
Dual Dual-link DVI Support:Able to drive two flat-panel displays up to 2560x1600 resolution. Available on select GeForce 8800 and 8600 GPUs.
One Dual-link DVI Support:
Able to drive one flat-panel display up to 2560x1600 resolution. Available on select GeForce 8500 GPUs and GeForce 8400 GS cards based on the G98.
One Single-link DVI Support:
Able to drive one flat-panel display up to 1920x1200 resolution. Available on select GeForce 8400 GPUs. GeForce 8400 GS cards based on the G86 only support single-link DVI.
Display capabilities
The GeForce 8 series supports 10-bit per channel display output, up from 8-bit on previous NVIDIA cards. This potentially allows higher fidelity color representation and separation on capable displays. The GeForce 8 series, like its recent predecessors, also supports Scalable Link InterfaceScalable Link Interface
Scalable Link Interface is a brand name for a multi-GPU solution developed by NVIDIA for linking two or more video cards together to produce a single output...
(SLI) for multiple installed cards to act as one via an SLI Bridge, so long as they are of similar architecture.
NVIDIA's PureVideo HD
Nvidia PureVideo
Nvidia PureVideo is a hardware feature designed to offload video decoding processes and video post-processing from a computer's CPU hardware to Nvidia's GPU hardware series GeForce 6 and later, GeForce M series ; and Nvidia Quadro series...
video rendering technology is an improved version of the original PureVideo introduced with GeForce 6
GeForce 6 Series
The GeForce 6 Series is Nvidia's sixth generation of GeForce graphic processing units. Launched on April 14, 2004, the GeForce 6 family introduced PureVideo post-processing for video, SLI technology, and Shader Model 3.0 support .-GeForce 6 Series features:-SLI:The Scalable Link...
. It now includes GPU-based hardware acceleration for decoding HD movie formats, post-processing of HD video for enhanced images, and optional High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection
High-Bandwidth Digital Content Protection
High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection is a form of digital copy protection developed by Intel Corporation to prevent copying of digital audio and video content as it travels across connections...
(HDCP) support at the card level.
GeForce 8300 and 8400 Series
In the summer of 2007 NVIDIA released the entry level GeForce 8300GS and 8400GS graphics cards, based on the G86 core. The GeForce 8300 was only available in the OEM market, and as the GeForce 8300 mGPU motherboard GPU. These graphics cards were not intended for intense 3D applications such as fast, high-resolution video games. They were originally designed to replace the 7200 and 7300 models, but could not due to their poor game performance. It was able to play modern games at playable framerates at low settings and low resolutions making it popular among casual gamers and HTPC (Media Center) builders without a PCI ExpressPCI Express
PCI Express , officially abbreviated as PCIe, is a computer expansion card standard designed to replace the older PCI, PCI-X, and AGP bus standards...
or AGP motherboard.
At the end of 2007 NVIDIA released a new GeForce 8400 GS based on the G98 (D8M) chip. It is quite different from the G86 used for the "first" 8400 GS, as the G98 features VC-1 and MPEG2 video decoding completely in hardware, lower power consumption, lowered 3D-performance and a smaller fabrication process. The G98 also features dual-link DVI support and PCI Express 2.0. G86 and G98 cards were both sold as "8400 GS", the difference showing only in the technical specifications.
GeForce 8500 and 8600 Series
On April 17, 2007, NVIDIA released the GeForce 8500 GT, 8600 GT, and 8600 GTS for the low-end to mid-range market. As with many GPUs, the larger number these parts carry does not guarantee superior performance over previous generation parts with a lower number.NVIDIA introduced 2nd-generation PureVideo with this series. As the first major update to PureVideo since the GeForce 6's launch, 2nd-gen PureVideo offered much improved hardware-decoding for H264
H.264/MPEG-4 AVC
H.264/MPEG-4 Part 10 or AVC is a standard for video compression, and is currently one of the most commonly used formats for the recording, compression, and distribution of high definition video...
and VC-1
VC-1
VC-1 is the informal name of the SMPTE 421M video codec standard, which was initially developed as a proprietary video format by Microsoft before it was released as a formal SMPTE standard video format on April 3, 2006...
video.
GeForce 8800 Series
Digital Visual Interface
The Digital Visual Interface is a video interface standard covering the transmission of video between a source device and a display device. The DVI standard has achieved widespread acceptance in the PC industry, both in desktop PCs and monitors...
connectors and a HDTV
High-definition television
High-definition television is video that has resolution substantially higher than that of traditional television systems . HDTV has one or two million pixels per frame, roughly five times that of SD...
/S-Video out
S-Video
Separate Video, more commonly known as S-Video and Y/C, is often referred to by JVC as both an S-VHS connector and as Super Video. It is an analog video transmission scheme, in which video information is encoded on two channels: luma and chroma...
connector. The 8800 GTX requires 2 PCIe power inputs to keep within the PCIe standard, while the GTS requires just one.
8800 GS
The 8800 GS is a trimmed-down 8800 GT with 96 stream processors and either 384 or 768 MB of RAM on a 192-bit bus. In May 2008, it was rebranded as the 9600 GSO in an attempt to spur sales.On April 28, 2008, Apple announced an updated iMac
IMac
The iMac is a range of all-in-one Macintosh desktop computers built by Apple. It has been the primary part of Apple's consumer desktop offerings since its introduction in 1998, and has evolved through five distinct forms....
line featuring an 8800 GS. However, the GPU is actually a rebranded NVIDIA GeForce 8800M GTS. It features up to 512 MB of 800 MHz GDDR3 video memory, 64 unified stream processors, a 500 MHz core speed, a 256-bit memory bus width, and a 1250 MHz shader clock.
8800 GTX / 8800 Ultra
The 8800 GTX is equipped with 768 MB GDDR3GDDR3
Graphics Double Data Rate 3 is a graphics card-specific memory technology, designed by ATI Technologies with the collaboration of JEDEC.It has much the same technological base as DDR2, but the power and heat dispersal requirements have been reduced somewhat, allowing for higher performance memory...
RAM. The 8800 series replaced the GeForce 7950 Series as NVIDIA's top-performing consumer GPU. GeForce 8800 GTX and GTS use identical GPU cores, but the GTS model disables parts of the GPU and reduces RAM size and bus width to lower production cost.
At the time, the G80 was the largest commercial GPU ever constructed. It consists of 681 million transistors covering a 480 mm² die surface area built on a 90 nm process. (In fact the G80's total transistor count is ~686 million, but since the chip was made on a 90 nm process and due to process limitations and yield feasibility, NVIDIA had to break the main design into two chips: Main shader core at 681 million transistors and NV I/O core of about ~5 million transistors making the entire G80 design standing at ~686 million transistors).
A minor manufacturing defect related to a resistor
Resistor
A linear resistor is a linear, passive two-terminal electrical component that implements electrical resistance as a circuit element.The current through a resistor is in direct proportion to the voltage across the resistor's terminals. Thus, the ratio of the voltage applied across a resistor's...
of improper value caused a recall of the 8800 GTX models just two days before the product launch, though the launch itself was unaffected.
The GeForce 8800 GTX was by far the fastest GPU when first released, and 13 months after its initial debut it still remained one of the fastest. The GTX has 128 stream processors clocked at 1.35 GHz, a core clock of 575 MHz, and 768 MB of 384-bit GDDR3 memory at 1.8 GHz, giving it a memory bandwidth of 86.4 GB/s. The card performs faster than a single Radeon HD 2900 XT, and faster than 2 Radeon X1950 XTXs in Crossfire or 2 GeForce 7900 GTXs in SLI. The 8800 GTX also supports HDCP
High-Bandwidth Digital Content Protection
High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection is a form of digital copy protection developed by Intel Corporation to prevent copying of digital audio and video content as it travels across connections...
, but one major flaw is its older NVIDIA PureVideo processor that uses more CPU resources. Originally retailing for around US$600, prices came down to under US$400 before it was discontinued. The 8800 GTX is also very power hungry, using up to 185 watts of power and requiring two PCI-E
PCI Express
PCI Express , officially abbreviated as PCIe, is a computer expansion card standard designed to replace the older PCI, PCI-X, and AGP bus standards...
power connectors to operate. The 8800 GTX also has 2 SLI connector ports, allowing it to support NVIDIA 3-way SLI for users who run demanding games at extreme resolutions such as 2560x1600.
The 8800 Ultra, retailing at a higher price, is identical to the GTX architecturally, but features higher clocked shaders, core and memory. Nvidia later told the media the 8800 Ultra was a new stepping, creating less heat therefore clocking higher. Originally retailing from $800 to $1000, most users thought the card to be a poor value, offering only 10% more performance than the GTX but costing hundreds of dollars more. Prices dropped to as low as $200 before being discontinued on January 23, 2008. The core clock of the Ultra runs at 612 MHz, the shaders at 1.5 GHz, and finally the memory at 2.16 GHz, giving the Ultra a theoretical memory bandwidth of 103.7 GB/s. It has 2 SLI connector ports, allowing it to support NVIDIA 3-way SLI. An updated dual slot cooler was also implemented, allowing for quieter and cooler operation at higher clock speeds.
8800 GT
The 8800 GT, codenamed G92, was released on October 29, 2007. The card is the first to transition to 65 nm process, and supports PCI-Express 2.0. It has a single-slot cooler as opposed to the double slot cooler on the 8800 GTS and GTX, and uses less power than GTS and GTX due to its 65 nm process. While its core processing power is comparable to that of the GTX, the 256-bit memory interface and the 512 MB of GDDR3 memory often hinders its performance at very high resolutions and graphics settings. The 8800 GT, unlike other 8800 cards, is equipped with the PureVideo HD VP2 engine for GPU assisted decoding of the H.264 and VC-1VC-1
VC-1 is the informal name of the SMPTE 421M video codec standard, which was initially developed as a proprietary video format by Microsoft before it was released as a formal SMPTE standard video format on April 3, 2006...
codecs. Performance benchmarks at stock speeds place it above the 8800 GTS (640 MB and 320 MB versions) and slightly below the 8800 GTX. A 256 MB version of the 8800 GT with lower stock memory speeds (1.4 GHz as opposed to 1.8 GHz) but the same core is also available. Performance benchmarks have shown that the 256 MB version of the 8800 GT has a considerable performance disadvantage when compared to its 512 MB counterpart, especially in newer games such as Crysis
Crysis
Crysis is a science fiction first-person shooter video game developed by Crytek , published by Electronic Arts for Microsoft Windows, and released in November 2007. It is the first game of a trilogy. A separate game entitled Crysis Warhead was released on September 12, 2008, and follows similar...
. Some manufacturers also make models with 1 GB of memory; and with large resolutions and big textures one can perceive a performance difference in the benchmarks. These models are more likely to take up to 2 slots of the computer.
The release of this card presents an odd dynamic to the graphics processing industry. At an NVIDIA projected initial street price of around $200, this card outperforms the ATI
Ati
As a word, Ati may refer to:* Ati, a town in Chad* Ati, a Negrito ethnic group in the Philippines* Ati-Atihan Festival, an annual celebration held in the Philippines* Ati, a queen of the fabled Land of Punt in Africa...
flagship HD2900XT and HD3870 in most situations, and even NVIDIA's own 8800 GTS 640 MB (previously priced at an MSRP
Suggested retail price
The manufacturer's suggested retail price , list price or recommended retail price of a product is the price which the manufacturer recommends that the retailer sell the product. The intention was to help to standardise prices among locations...
of $400). The card, only marginally slower in synthetic and gaming benchmarks than the 8800 GTX, also takes much of the value away from NVIDIA's own high-end card. This release was shortly followed by the (EVGA) 8800 GTS SSC (the original 8800 GTS re-released with 96+ (112) shader processor units), and ATI's counter, the HD 3800 series.
Compatibility issue with PCI-E 1.0a
Shortly after the release, an incompatibility issue with older PCI Express 1.0a motherboards was unmasked. When using the PCI Express 2.0 compliant 8800 GT or 8800 GTS 512 in some motherboards with PCI Express 1.0a slots, the card would not produce any display image, but the computer would often boot (with the fan on the video card spinning at a constant 100%). The incompatibility has been confirmed on motherboards with VIA PT880Pro/Ultra, Intel 925 and Intel 5000P PCI-E 1.0a chipsets.Some graphics cards had a workaround, which was to re-flash the graphics card's BIOS
BIOS
In IBM PC compatible computers, the basic input/output system , also known as the System BIOS or ROM BIOS , is a de facto standard defining a firmware interface....
with an older GEN1 BIOS. However this effectively made it into a PCI Express 1.0 card, not being able to utilize the PCIE 2.0 functions. This could be considered a non-issue however since the card itself could not even utilize the full capacity of the regular PCIE 1.0 slots, there was no noticeable performance reduction. Also flashing of the video card BIOS voided the warranties of most video card manufacturers (if not all) thus making it a less-than-optimum way of getting the card to work properly. A workaround to this is to flash the BIOS of the motherboard to the latest version, which depending on the manufacturer of the motherboard, may contain a fix. In relation to this compatibility issue, the high numbers of cards reported as DOA
DOA
DOA is often an acronym for dead on arrival or Dead or Alive.DOA may also refer to:- Film :*D.O.A. , a film noir*D.O.A. , a remake of the 1950 film...
(as much as 13-15%) were believed to be inaccurate. When it was revealed that the G92 8800 GT and 8800 GTS 512 MB were going to be designed with PCI Express 2.0 connections, NVIDIA claimed that all cards would have full backwards-compatibility, but failed to mention that this was only true for PCI Express 1.1 motherboards. The source for the BIOS-flash did not come from NVIDIA or any of their partners, but rather ASRock, a mainboard producer, who mentioned the fix in one of their motherboard FAQs. ASUSTek, sells the 8800 GT with their sticker, posted a newer version of their 8800 GT BIOS on their website, but did not mention that it fixed this issue. EVGA also posted a new bios to fix this issue.
8800 GTS
The first releases of the 8800 GTS line, in November 2006, came in 640 MB and 320 MB configurations of GDDR3 RAM and utilized NVIDIA's G80 GPU. While the 8800 GTX has 128 stream processors and a 384-bit memory bus, these versions of 8800 GTS feature 96 stream processors and a 320-bit bus. With respect to features, however, they are identical because they use the same GPU.Around the same release date as the 8800 GT, NVIDIA released a new 640 MB version of the 8800 GTS. While still based on the 90 nm G80 core, this version has 7 out of the 8 clusters of 16 stream processors enabled (as opposed to 6 out 8 on the older GTSs), giving it a total of 112 stream processors instead of 96. Most other aspects of the card remain unchanged. However, because the only 2 add-in partners who are making this card (BFG and EVGA) have decided to overclock it, this version of the 8800 GTS actually runs slightly faster than a stock GTX in most scenarios, especially at higher resolutions, due to the increased clock speeds.
NVIDIA released a new 8800 GTS 512 MB based on the 65 nm G92 GPU on December 10, 2007. This 8800 GTS has 128 stream processors, compared to the 96 processors of the original GTS models. It is equipped with 512 MB GDDR3 on a 256-bit bus. Combined with a 650 MHz core clock and architectural enhancements, this gives the card raw GPU performance exceeding that of 8800 GTX, but it is constrained by the narrower 256-bit memory bus. Its performance can match the 8800 GTX in some situations, and it outperforms the older GTS cards in all situations.
Technical summary
| Model | Release Date | Codename | Bus Computer bus In computer architecture, a bus is a subsystem that transfers data between components inside a computer, or between computers.Early computer buses were literally parallel electrical wires with multiple connections, but the term is now used for any physical arrangement that provides the same... interface |
Memory (MiB Mebibyte The mebibyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information. The binary prefix mebi means 220, therefore 1 mebibyte is . The unit symbol for the mebibyte is MiB. The unit was established by the International Electrotechnical Commission in 2000 and has been accepted for use by all major... ) |
Fabrication process (nm) | Clock rate | Peak fillrate Fillrate The term fillrate usually refers to the number of pixels a video card can render and write to video memory in a second. In this case, fillrates are given in megapixels per second or in gigapixels per second , and they are obtained by multiplying the number of raster operations by the clock... |
Shaders | Memory | Texture Units | Raster Operators | Power Consumption (Watt Watt The watt is a derived unit of power in the International System of Units , named after the Scottish engineer James Watt . The unit, defined as one joule per second, measures the rate of energy conversion.-Definition:... s) |
Transistor Transistor A transistor is a semiconductor device used to amplify and switch electronic signals and power. It is composed of a semiconductor material with at least three terminals for connection to an external circuit. A voltage or current applied to one pair of the transistor's terminals changes the current... Count (Millions) |
Theoretical Shader Processing Rate (Gigaflops FLOPS In computing, FLOPS is a measure of a computer's performance, especially in fields of scientific calculations that make heavy use of floating-point calculations, similar to the older, simpler, instructions per second... ) |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Core (MHz Hertz The hertz is the SI unit of frequency defined as the number of cycles per second of a periodic phenomenon. One of its most common uses is the description of the sine wave, particularly those used in radio and audio applications.... ) |
Shader (MHz Hertz The hertz is the SI unit of frequency defined as the number of cycles per second of a periodic phenomenon. One of its most common uses is the description of the sine wave, particularly those used in radio and audio applications.... ) |
Memory (MHz Hertz The hertz is the SI unit of frequency defined as the number of cycles per second of a periodic phenomenon. One of its most common uses is the description of the sine wave, particularly those used in radio and audio applications.... ) |
Billion pixel Pixel In digital imaging, a pixel, or pel, is a single point in a raster image, or the smallest addressable screen element in a display device; it is the smallest unit of picture that can be represented or controlled.... /s |
Billion bilinear Bilinear filtering Bilinear filtering is a texture filtering method used to smooth textures when displayed larger or smaller than they actually are.Most of the time, when drawing a textured shape on the screen, the texture is not displayed exactly as it is stored, without any distortion... texel Texel (graphics) A texel, or texture element is the fundamental unit of texture space, used in computer graphics. Textures are represented by arrays of texels, just as pictures are represented by arrays of pixels.... /s |
Billion bilinear FP16 texel/s | Billion FP32 pixel/s | Stream Processors | Bandwidth (GB Gigabyte The gigabyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information storage. The prefix giga means 109 in the International System of Units , therefore 1 gigabyte is... /s) |
DRAM Dynamic random access memory Dynamic random-access memory is a type of random-access memory that stores each bit of data in a separate capacitor within an integrated circuit. The capacitor can be either charged or discharged; these two states are taken to represent the two values of a bit, conventionally called 0 and 1... type |
Bus width (bit Bit A bit is the basic unit of information in computing and telecommunications; it is the amount of information stored by a digital device or other physical system that exists in one of two possible distinct states... ) |
|||||||||||
| GeForce 8300 GS (OEM) | July 2007 | G86 | PCIe x16 | 128/256 | 80 | 450 | 900 | 400 | 1.8 | 1.8 | 0.9 | 0.45 | 8 | 6.4 | DDR2 DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 SDRAM is a double data rate synchronous dynamic random-access memory interface. It supersedes the original DDR SDRAM specification and has itself been superseded by DDR3 SDRAM... |
64 | 4 | 4 | ? | 210 | 21.6 |
| GeForce 8400 GS | 15 June 2007 | G86 | PCIe x16 | 128/256 | 80 | 450 | 900 | 400 | 3.6 | 3.6 | 1.8 | 0.9 | 16 | 6.4 | DDR2 | 64 | 8 | 4 | 38 | 210 | 43.2 |
| GeForce 8400 GS | 4 December 2007 | G98GS | PCIe 2.0 x16 | 256/512 | 65 | 567 | 1400 | 400 | 2.3 | 4.5 | ? | ? | 8 | 6.4 | DDR2 | 64 | 4 | 4 | 25 | ~280 | 67 |
| GeForce 8400 GS | April 2009 | GT218 | PCIe 2.0 x16 | 1024 | 40 | 520 | 1240 | 1000 | ? | ? | ? | ? | 16 | 8 | DDR3 | 64 | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| GeForce 8500 GT | 17 April 2007 | G86 | PCIe x16 | 256/512 | 80 | 450 | 900 | 400 | 3.6 | 3.6 | 1.8 | 0.9 | 16 | 12.8 | DDR2 | 128 | 8 | 8 | 40 | 210 | 43.2 |
| GeForce 8600 GS | 17 April 2007 | G84 | PCIe x16 | 256/512 | 80 | 540 | 1190 | 400 | 4.3 | 8.6 | 4.3 | 1.08 | 16 | 12.8 | DDR2 | 128 | 16 | 8 | 43 | 289 | 114.2 |
| GeForce 8600 GT | 17 April 2007 | G84 | PCIe x16 | 256/512 | 80 | 540 | 1190 | 700 | 4.3 | 8.6 | 4.3 | 1.08 | 32 | 22.4 | GDDR3 GDDR3 Graphics Double Data Rate 3 is a graphics card-specific memory technology, designed by ATI Technologies with the collaboration of JEDEC.It has much the same technological base as DDR2, but the power and heat dispersal requirements have been reduced somewhat, allowing for higher performance memory... |
128 | 16 | 8 | 43 | 289 | 114.2 |
| GeForce 8600 GTS | 17 April 2007 | G84 | PCIe x16 | 256/512 | 80 | 675 | 1450 | 1000 | 5.4 | 10.8 | 5.4 | 1.35 | 32 | 32.0 | GDDR3 | 128 | 16 | 8 | 71 | 289 | 139.2 |
| GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) | 8 November 2006 | G80 | PCIe x16 | 320/640 | 90 | 500 | 1200 | 800 | 10.0 | 24.0 | 12.0 | 2.5 | 96/112 | 64.0 | GDDR3 | 320 | 48 | 20 | 146 | 681 (~690) | 345.6 403.2 |
| GeForce 8800 GS | January 15, 2008 | G92-150 | PCIe 2.0 x16 | 384 | 65 | 550 | 1375 | 800 | 6.6 | 26.4 | 13.2 | 3.3 | 96 | 38.4 | GDDR3 | 192 | 48 | 12 | 105 (TDP) | 754 | 396.0 |
| GeForce 8800 GT | 29 October 2007 | G92-200 | PCIe 2.0 x16 | 256/512/ 1024 | 65 | 600 | 1500 | 900 | 9.6 | 33.6 | 16.8 | 4.8 | 112 | 57.6 | GDDR3 | 256 | 56 | 16 | 105 (TDP) | 754 | 504.0 |
| GeForce 8800 GTS 512 | 11 December 2007 | G92-400 | PCIe 2.0 x16 | 512 | 65 | 650 | 1625 | 970 | 10.4 | 41.6 | 20.8 | 5.2 | 128 | 62.1 | GDDR3 | 256 | 64 | 16 | 135 (TDP) | 754 | 624.0 |
| GeForce 8800 GTX | 8 November 2006 | G80 | PCIe x16 | 768 | 90 | 575 | 1350 | 900 | 13.8 | 36.8 | 18.4 | 3.45 | 128 | 86.4 | GDDR3 | 384 | 64 | 24 | 155 | 681 (~690) | 518.0 |
| GeForce 8800 Ultra | 2 May 2007 | G80 | PCIe x16 | 768 | 90 | 612 | 1512 | 1080 | 14.7 | 39.2 | 19.6 | 3.672 | 128 | 103.7 | GDDR3 | 384 | 64 | 24 | 175 | 681 (~690) | 576.0 |
| Model | Release Date | Codename | Bus Computer bus In computer architecture, a bus is a subsystem that transfers data between components inside a computer, or between computers.Early computer buses were literally parallel electrical wires with multiple connections, but the term is now used for any physical arrangement that provides the same... interface |
Memory (MiB Mebibyte The mebibyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information. The binary prefix mebi means 220, therefore 1 mebibyte is . The unit symbol for the mebibyte is MiB. The unit was established by the International Electrotechnical Commission in 2000 and has been accepted for use by all major... ) |
Fabrication process (nm) | Clock rate | Peak fillrate Fillrate The term fillrate usually refers to the number of pixels a video card can render and write to video memory in a second. In this case, fillrates are given in megapixels per second or in gigapixels per second , and they are obtained by multiplying the number of raster operations by the clock... |
Shaders | Memory | Texture Units | Raster Operators | Power Consumption (Watt Watt The watt is a derived unit of power in the International System of Units , named after the Scottish engineer James Watt . The unit, defined as one joule per second, measures the rate of energy conversion.-Definition:... s) |
Transistor Transistor A transistor is a semiconductor device used to amplify and switch electronic signals and power. It is composed of a semiconductor material with at least three terminals for connection to an external circuit. A voltage or current applied to one pair of the transistor's terminals changes the current... Count (Millions) |
Theoretical Shader Processing Rate (Gigaflops FLOPS In computing, FLOPS is a measure of a computer's performance, especially in fields of scientific calculations that make heavy use of floating-point calculations, similar to the older, simpler, instructions per second... ) |
|||||||
| Core (MHz Hertz The hertz is the SI unit of frequency defined as the number of cycles per second of a periodic phenomenon. One of its most common uses is the description of the sine wave, particularly those used in radio and audio applications.... ) |
Shader (MHz Hertz The hertz is the SI unit of frequency defined as the number of cycles per second of a periodic phenomenon. One of its most common uses is the description of the sine wave, particularly those used in radio and audio applications.... ) |
Memory (MHz Hertz The hertz is the SI unit of frequency defined as the number of cycles per second of a periodic phenomenon. One of its most common uses is the description of the sine wave, particularly those used in radio and audio applications.... ) |
Billion pixel Pixel In digital imaging, a pixel, or pel, is a single point in a raster image, or the smallest addressable screen element in a display device; it is the smallest unit of picture that can be represented or controlled.... /s |
Billion bilinear Bilinear filtering Bilinear filtering is a texture filtering method used to smooth textures when displayed larger or smaller than they actually are.Most of the time, when drawing a textured shape on the screen, the texture is not displayed exactly as it is stored, without any distortion... texel Texel (graphics) A texel, or texture element is the fundamental unit of texture space, used in computer graphics. Textures are represented by arrays of texels, just as pictures are represented by arrays of pixels.... /s |
Billion bilinear FP16 texel/s | Billion FP32 pixel/s | Stream Processors | Bandwidth (GB Gigabyte The gigabyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information storage. The prefix giga means 109 in the International System of Units , therefore 1 gigabyte is... /s) |
DRAM Dynamic random access memory Dynamic random-access memory is a type of random-access memory that stores each bit of data in a separate capacitor within an integrated circuit. The capacitor can be either charged or discharged; these two states are taken to represent the two values of a bit, conventionally called 0 and 1... type |
Bus width (bit Bit A bit is the basic unit of information in computing and telecommunications; it is the amount of information stored by a digital device or other physical system that exists in one of two possible distinct states... ) |
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GeForce 8M Series
On May 10, 2007, NVIDIA announced the availability of their GeForce 8 notebook GPUs through select OEMs. So far the lineup consists of the 8200M, 8400M, 8600M, 8700M and 8800M series chips. It has been announced by nVidia that some of their graphics chips have a higher than expected rate of failure due to overheating when used in particular notebook configurations. Some major laptop manufacturers are making adjustments to fan setting and firmware updates to help delay the occurrence of any potential GPU failure. In late July 2008, Dell released a set of BIOS updates that made the laptop fans spin more frequently. As of mid-August, nVidia is yet to give further details publicly, though it has been heavily rumored that all or most of the 8400 and 8600 cards have this issue.GeForce 8400M Series
The GeForce 8400M is the entry level series for the GeForce 8M chipset. Normally found on midrange laptops as an alternative solution to integrated graphics, the 8400M is designed for watching high definition video content rather than gaming. Versions include the 8400M G, 8400M GS, and 8400M GT. While these GPUs are not oriented for high-end gaming, the GDDR3-equipped 8400M-GT can handle most modern games at medium settings, and is suitable for occasional gaming.GeForce 8600M Series
The GeForce 8600M is offered in midrange laptops as a mid-range performance solution for enthusiasts who want to watch high-definitionHigh-definition video
High-definition video or HD video refers to any video system of higher resolution than standard-definition video, and most commonly involves display resolutions of 1,280×720 pixels or 1,920×1,080 pixels...
content such as Blu-ray Disc
Blu-ray Disc
Blu-ray Disc is an optical disc storage medium designed to supersede the DVD format. The plastic disc is 120 mm in diameter and 1.2 mm thick, the same size as DVDs and CDs. Blu-ray Discs contain 25 GB per layer, with dual layer discs being the norm for feature-length video discs...
and HD DVD
HD DVD
HD DVD is a discontinued high-density optical disc format for storing data and high-definition video.Supported principally by Toshiba, HD DVD was envisioned to be the successor to the standard DVD format...
movies and play current and some future games with decent settings. Versions include the 8600M GS and 8600M GT, and provide decent gaming performance (due to the implementation of GDDR3 memory in the higher-end 8600M models) for current games. It is currently on the Dell XPS M1530 portable, Sony VAIO VGN-FZ21Z, some models of the Acer Aspire 5920, some models of the BenQ Joybook S41, some models of the MacBook Pro, and some models of Fujitsu Siemens.
GeForce 8700M Series
The GeForce 8700M was developed for the high-end market. Currently the only version is the 8700M GT. This chipset is available on high-end laptops such as the DellDell
Dell, Inc. is an American multinational information technology corporation based in 1 Dell Way, Round Rock, Texas, United States, that develops, sells and supports computers and related products and services. Bearing the name of its founder, Michael Dell, the company is one of the largest...
XPS M1730, Sager NP5793, and Toshiba Satellite X205. While this card is considered by most in the field to be a decent mid-range card, it is hard to classify the 8700M-GT as a high-end card due to its 128-bit memory bus, and is essentially an overclocked 8600M GT GDDR3 mid-range card. However, it shows strong performance when in a dual-card SLI configuration, and provides decent gaming performance in a single-card configuration.
GeForce 8800M Series
The GeForce 8800M was developed to succeed the 8700M in the high-end market, and can be found in high-end gaming notebook computers.Versions include the 8800M GTS and 8800M GTX. These were released as the first truly high-end mobile GeForce 8 Series GPUs, each with a 256-bit memory bus and a standard 512 megabytes of GDDR3 memory, and provide high-end gaming performance equivalent to many desktop GPUs. In SLI, these can produce 3DMark06 results in the high thousands.
Laptop models which include the 8800M GPUs are: Sager NP5793, Sager NP9262, Alienware m15x and m17x, HP HDX9494NR and Dell M1730. Clevo also manufactures similar laptop models for CyberPower, Rock, and Sager (among others) - all with the 8800M GTX, while including the 8800M GTS in the Gateway P-6831 FX and P-6860 FX models.
Technical summary
| Model | Release Date | Codename | Fabrication process (nm) | Core clock max (MHz Hertz The hertz is the SI unit of frequency defined as the number of cycles per second of a periodic phenomenon. One of its most common uses is the description of the sine wave, particularly those used in radio and audio applications.... ) |
Peak fillrate Fillrate The term fillrate usually refers to the number of pixels a video card can render and write to video memory in a second. In this case, fillrates are given in megapixels per second or in gigapixels per second , and they are obtained by multiplying the number of raster operations by the clock... |
Shaders | Memory | Power Consumption (Watt Watt The watt is a derived unit of power in the International System of Units , named after the Scottish engineer James Watt . The unit, defined as one joule per second, measures the rate of energy conversion.-Definition:... s) |
Transistor Transistor A transistor is a semiconductor device used to amplify and switch electronic signals and power. It is composed of a semiconductor material with at least three terminals for connection to an external circuit. A voltage or current applied to one pair of the transistor's terminals changes the current... Count (Millions) |
Theoretical Shader Processing Rate (Gigaflops FLOPS In computing, FLOPS is a measure of a computer's performance, especially in fields of scientific calculations that make heavy use of floating-point calculations, similar to the older, simpler, instructions per second... ) |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| billion pixel Pixel In digital imaging, a pixel, or pel, is a single point in a raster image, or the smallest addressable screen element in a display device; it is the smallest unit of picture that can be represented or controlled.... /s |
billion bilinear Bilinear filtering Bilinear filtering is a texture filtering method used to smooth textures when displayed larger or smaller than they actually are.Most of the time, when drawing a textured shape on the screen, the texture is not displayed exactly as it is stored, without any distortion... texel Texel (graphics) A texel, or texture element is the fundamental unit of texture space, used in computer graphics. Textures are represented by arrays of texels, just as pictures are represented by arrays of pixels.... /s |
billion bilinear FP16 texel/s | Stream Processors | Clock (MHz) | Bandwidth max (GB Gigabyte The gigabyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information storage. The prefix giga means 109 in the International System of Units , therefore 1 gigabyte is... /s) |
DRAM Dynamic random access memory Dynamic random-access memory is a type of random-access memory that stores each bit of data in a separate capacitor within an integrated circuit. The capacitor can be either charged or discharged; these two states are taken to represent the two values of a bit, conventionally called 0 and 1... type |
Bus width (bit Bit A bit is the basic unit of information in computing and telecommunications; it is the amount of information stored by a digital device or other physical system that exists in one of two possible distinct states... ) |
Megabyte Megabyte The megabyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information storage or transmission with two different values depending on context: bytes generally for computer memory; and one million bytes generally for computer storage. The IEEE Standards Board has decided that "Mega will mean 1 000... s |
Effective DDR Clock (MHz) | ||||||||
| GeForce 8200M G | 2007? | MCP77MV MCP79MV | 80 | 350/500 | 3 | ? | ? | 8 | 1200 | ? | DDR2 | 64 | 256 | ? | ? | ? | 19 |
| GeForce 8400M G | 10 May 2007 | G86M | 80 | 400 | 3.2 | 3.2 | 1.6 | 8 | 800 | 6.4 | GDDR3 | 64 | 128/256 | 1200 | 15 | 210 | 19.2 |
| GeForce 8400M GS | 10 May 2007 | G86M | 80 | 400 | 3.2 | 3.2 | 1.6 | 16 | 800 | 6.4 | GDDR2/GDDR3 | 64 | 64/128/256 | 1200 | 15 | 210 | 38.4 |
| GeForce 8400M GT | 10 May 2007 | G86M | 80 | 450 | 3.6 | 3.6 | 1.8 | 16 | 900 | 19.2 | GDDR3 | 128 | 128/256/512 | 1200 | 17 | 210 | 43.2 |
| GeForce 8600M GS | 10 May 2007 | G84M | 80 | 600 | 4.8 | 4.8 | 2.4 | 16 | 1200 | 12.8/22.4 | DDR2/GDDR3 | 128 | 128/256/512 | 800/1400 | 19 | 210 | 57.6 |
| GeForce 8600M GT | 10 May 2007 | G84M | 80 | 475 | 3.8 | 7.6 | 3.8 | 32 | 950 | 12.8/22.4 | DDR2/GDDR3 | 128 | 128/256/512 | 800/1400 | 22 | 289 | 91.2 |
| GeForce 8700M GT | 12 June 2007 | G84M | 80 | 625 | 5.0 | 10.0 | 5.0 | 32 | 1250 | 25.6 | GDDR3 | 128 | 256/512 | 1600 | 29 | 289 | 120.0 |
| GeForce 8800M GTS | 19 November 2007 | G92M | 65 | 500 | 8.0 | 16.0 | 8.0 | 64 | 1250 | 51.2 | GDDR3 | 256 | 512 | 1600 | 35 | 754 | 240.0 |
| GeForce 8800M GTX | 19 November 2007 | G92M | 65 | 500 | 12.0 | 24.0 | 12.0 | 96 | 1250 | 51.2 | GDDR3 | 256 | 512 | 1600 | 37 | 754 | 360.0 |
- The series is being succeeded by GeForce 9 seriesGeForce 9 SeriesThe GeForce 9 Series is the ninth generation of NVIDIA's GeForce series of graphics processing units, the first of which was released on February 21, 2008.-Geforce 9300GE :*65nm G98 GPU*PCI-E x16*64 Bit Bus Width*4 ROP, 8 Unified Shaders...
. The GeForce 9 Series is in turn being succeeded by the GeForce 200 SeriesGeForce 200 SeriesThe GeForce 200 Series is the 10th generation of Nvidia's GeForce graphics processing units. The series also represents the continuation of the company's unified shader architecture introduced with the GeForce 8 Series and the GeForce 9 Series. Its primary competition came from ATI's Radeon HD 4000...
.
Problems
Some chips of the GeForce 8 series (concretely those from the G84 and G86 series) may suffer from an overheating problem. NVIDIA states this issue should not affect many chips, whereas others assert that all of the chips in these series are potentially affected. NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang and CFO Marvin Burkett were involved in a lawsuit filed on September 9, 2008 alleging that their knowledge of the flaw, and their intent to hide it, resulted in NVIDIA losing 31% on the stock markets.The reason for the high failure rate was because of improper selection of the underfill material for the chip. Underfill materials are a type of glue that keeps the silicon die firmly attached to the packaging material, which is where the connection to the actual pins takes place. On the affected chips, the working temperature of the underfill material was too low for the task and allowed the chip to move slightly if temperature was raised above a certain level, weakening the solder joints by which the die is attached. This eventually leads to a catastrophic failure, although the way the chip fails is quite random.
See also
- Comparison of NVIDIA Graphics Processing UnitsComparison of NVIDIA Graphics Processing UnitsThis page contains general information about Nvidia's GPUs and videocards based on official Nvidia specifications.-Direct X version note:Direct X version indicates which graphics acceleration operations the card supports.* DirectX 6.0 - Multitexturing...
- GeForce 7 SeriesGeForce 7 SeriesThe GeForce 7 Series is the seventh generation of Nvidia's GeForce graphics processing units.-Features:The following features are common to all models in the GeForce 7 series except the GeForce 7100, which lacks GCAA:-GeForce 7100 Series:...
- GeForce 9 SeriesGeForce 9 SeriesThe GeForce 9 Series is the ninth generation of NVIDIA's GeForce series of graphics processing units, the first of which was released on February 21, 2008.-Geforce 9300GE :*65nm G98 GPU*PCI-E x16*64 Bit Bus Width*4 ROP, 8 Unified Shaders...
- GeForce 200 SeriesGeForce 200 SeriesThe GeForce 200 Series is the 10th generation of Nvidia's GeForce graphics processing units. The series also represents the continuation of the company's unified shader architecture introduced with the GeForce 8 Series and the GeForce 9 Series. Its primary competition came from ATI's Radeon HD 4000...
- GeForce 400 SeriesGeForce 400 SeriesThe GeForce 400 Series is the 11th generation of Nvidia's GeForce graphics processing units. The series was originally slated for production in November 2009, but, after a number of delays, launched on March 26, 2010 with availability following in April 2010....
- GeForce 500 SeriesGeForce 500 SeriesThe GeForce 500 Series is a family of graphics processing units developed by Nvidia, based on the refreshed Fermi architecture. Nvidia officially announced the GeForce 500 series on 9 November 2010 with the launch of the GeForce GTX 580.- Overview :...
- Nvidia QuadroNVIDIA QuadroThe Nvidia Quadro series of AGP, PCI, and PCI Express graphics cards comes from the NVIDIA Corporation. Their designers aimed to accelerate CAD and DCC , and the cards are usually featured in workstations....
- NVIDIA's workstation graphics solution - Nvidia TeslaNvidia TeslaThe Tesla graphics processing unit is nVidia's third brand of GPUs. It is based on high-end GPUs from the G80 , as well as the Quadro lineup. Tesla is nVidia's first dedicated General Purpose GPU...
- NVIDIA's first dedicated general purpose GPU (graphical processor unit) - DirectX 10
External links
- NVIDIA's GeForce 8 series page
- Nvidia GeForce 8800 Series
- Nvidia GeForce 8600 Series
- Nvidia GeForce 8500 Series
- Nvidia GeForce 8400 Series
- Nvidia GeForce 8800M Series
- Nvidia GeForce 8600M Series
- Nvidia GeForce 8400M Series
- Nvidia Parallel Nsight
- Nvidia GeForce Drivers for the GeForce 8x00 series (v. 285.58)
- NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GPU Architecture Overview - a somewhat longer and more detailed document about the new 8800 features
- OpenGL Extension Specifications for the G8x