No NV40 or R420 to Come in 2003

The chances of the next-generation graphics products to reach store shelves
this calendar year were not big at all and now they are equal to zero. Both
leading companies have never commented on the rumours about NV40 or R420
graphics chips, even though unofficial stories built castles in the sky
about the upcoming processors and their power.

A senior executive at ATI told me one day: "We do not need new graphics
architecture this year"; a week after the conversation Mr. Jen-Hsun Huang,
the CEO of NVIDIA, said during the quarter conference call that "Now is not
a time to talk about next generation products."

Based on such claims from the companies themselves and considering the
rumours collected by this web-site, neither ATI nor NVIDIA are ready to
roll-out powerful next-generation VPUs this year. There is absolutely no
difference between the possible reasons of the postponement; we should take
it as a fact and nothing more.

According to the information from the same web-site that watches all the
rumours all the time from all around the web, the NV40 will have 8x2
architecture, include 175 million of transistors and will be equipped with
1500MHz memory. The target clocking of the chip is 600MHz. The part has not
been taped out yet, according to the source, despite of the earlier claims.
ATI's R420 VPU is expected to have 12x1 architecture, blazing core-speeds
and skyrocketing memory. There is no information about its tape out, but I
would doubt about its successful silicon implementation at this point.

The fourth generation graphics processors will support additional
functionality of Pixel and Vertex Shaders 3.0 pushing the limits of 3D even
further. But this will only happen next year, we should add...

The chances of the next-generation graphics products to reach store
shelves
this calendar year were not big at all and now they are equal to zero.

Hm, forgive me for asking, but is this supposed to be NEWS?

As soon as we heard of R360 and NV38 (which was months ago), it was clear
there would be hardly any chance of NV40/R400 around the end of the year.
ATi themselves said ages ago they were slowing down architecture cycles,
while they'd release a new product every six months, they would aim to
update their hardware in any major fashion only every 18 months. Looks like
we'll have to wait a little longer still, probably due to Nvidia fumbling
the ball this time. ATi doesn't have to hurry its marginally modified R360
out the door due to the currently fairly anemic product line-up of its major
rival. Remember, R300 was on sale already by this time last year, and R360
hasn't even been announced yet and no hints of when that might happen.

Thus, we have R360 to look forwards to, then six or more months down the
road after that we can expect an R400 announcement. That's just a guess, but
I think it's a fairly reasonable one since ASIC design on this level is
getting horribly expensive. There's a lot of common sense in companies
wanting to extend product cycles. Not to mention the lag in getting software
support too...

"Dave" wrote...

The chances of the next-generation graphics products to reach store
shelves
this calendar year were not big at all and now they are equal to zero.
Both
leading companies have never commented on the rumours about NV40 or R420
graphics chips, even though unofficial stories built castles in the sky
about the upcoming processors and their power.

snip article

I don't know if it's just me but I'm hoping they don't release new products
for a good while yet. I seriously think they need to let the actual software
'catch up' with the current level of technology in a big way first. It's all
well and good having these new product releases so often, but there's hardly
any games/software out there that fully take advantage of it! I think ATI
and especially Nvidia should spend more time designing a new card that will
give immediate benefits to gamers straight away, not months down the line
when games have caught up with the technology.... by which time the next
brand spanking new and shiny card has been released thats over-priced and
offers no real world benefits!!
Everyones gone and got themselves in a big damn hurry for the latest and
greatest benchmark scores and they've forgotten about what matters, the
games!

Danny

I don't know if it's just me but I'm hoping they don't release new products
for a good while yet. I seriously think they need to let the actual software
'catch up' with the current level of technology in a big way first. It's all
well and good having these new product releases so often, but there's hardly
any games/software out there that fully take advantage of it! I think ATI
and especially Nvidia should spend more time designing a new card that will
give immediate benefits to gamers straight away, not months down the line
when games have caught up with the technology.... by which time the next
brand spanking new and shiny card has been released thats over-priced and
offers no real world benefits!!
Everyones gone and got themselves in a big damn hurry for the latest and
greatest benchmark scores and they've forgotten about what matters, the
games!

Danny

True, and if product cycles are slowed down to allow recouping the
money over a longer period of time they will be able to sell it for a
lower price and make a better profit due to larger sales. Right now
trying to milk the consumer for a 500 dollar videocard every 12 months
can only go for so long. Think about it name any real DX9 titles for
purchase now? Programmers will get scared if the target keeps moving,
consumers will tire of 400-500 dollar purchases.

I don't know if it's just me but I'm hoping they don't release new
products for a good while yet. I seriously think they need to let the

NVidia has already released an entire product line that has a tough time
beating out the previous line in all but the high end. It's almost like
bringing out new stuff for the sake of being able to call it new stuff.

Product release may not have slowed, but it seems like technological
improvement did.