This is the near-final specs of the next generation of video cards. I have compiled this from several rumour sites but have some hard information in terms of this news article (http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/05/24/gtx260-280-revealed) which uses Nvidia NDA information, a forum post by Folding@Home testers on pre-release hardware that confirms RV770 to have 480SPs (http://www.pcgameshardware.de/aid,644062/News/480_Shader_fuer_AMDs_RV770-Grafikkarten_bestaetigt/) and a confirmation of GDDR5 use by ATI (http://www.dailytech.com/AMD+Looks+to+Qimonda+For+GDDR5+Memory/article11855.htm). The RV770 codename was confirmed in the PCI ID list for the Linux ATI Catalyst 8.5 driver. A lot of the other figures, although confirmed by multiple independent sources, were taken from http://www.hardware-infos.com.
Remember, all of this is subject to rapid change, especially the clock speeds, as very little is publicly confirmed.I have put question marks next to figures I have only seen in one source.
Also bear in mind that the specs of RV770/R700 and GT200, especially the clocks cannot readily be compared as a measure of performance to each other or R600/RV670 or G80/G90.
| Specification Point | ATI Radeon 4850 | ATI Radeon 4870 | ATI Radeon 4870 X2 | Unnamed Nvidia 9xxx-series | Nvidia Geforce GTX260 | Nvidia Geforce GTX280 | Unnamed Nvidia GTXxxx series |
| Codename | RV770PRO | RV770XT | R700 | G92b | GT200 | GT200 | GT200b |
| Availibility Date | Late June | Early July | Q3? | ? | Late June | Late June | Q3 |
| Core Clock | 625MHz? | 825/850MHz? | 825/850MHz? | >=675MHz ? | 575MHz | 600MHz | >=600MHz |
| Shader Clock | 825MHz? | 1.05GHz? | 1.05GHz? | ? | 1250MHz | 1300MHz | >=1300MHz |
| Memory Clock | 1143MHz | 1935MHz | 1935MHz | ? | 1000MHz | 1100MHz | >=1100MHz |
| Memory | 512MB GDDR3 | 512MB/1GB GDDR5 | 2x512MB GDDR5 | 512MB GDDR3? | 896MB GDDR3 | 1024MB GDDR3 | 1024MB GDDR3? |
| Memory Bus | 256-bit | 256-bit | 256-bit | 256-bit? | 448-bit | 512-bit | 512-bit? |
| TMUs | 32 | 32 | 2x32 | 64? | 64 | 80 | 80? |
| ROPs | 16 | 16 | 2x16 | 16? | 28 | 32 | 32? |
| SPUs | 480 | 480 | 2x480 | 128? | 192 | 240 | 240? |
| Process | 55nm | 55nm | 55nm | 55nm | 65nm | 65nm | 55nm |
| TDP | 114W? | 157W? | >157W? | <156W? | 182W? | 236W? | <236W? |
| Price | $189-$219 | $249-$279 | >$279 | ? | $449 | $649 |
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Early performance estimates indicate that the top-ten lineup will be somewhat like this:
BEST
ATI Radeon 4870 X2
Nvidia Geforce GTX280
Nvidia Geforce GTX260
Nvidia Geforce 9800GX2 (best current Nvidia)
ATI Radeon 4870
ATI Radeon 3870 X2 (best current ATI)
Nvidia Geforce 9800GTX
ATI Radeon 4850
ATI Radeon 3870
Nvidia Geforce 9600GT
It is debatable which of the 4870 X2 and the GTX280 will come top, however. Certainly, the cost of producing a GTX280 will be much higher and therefore it will cost more even if it doesn't have the best performance.
Also, buying an Nvidia card means you may not be able to fully enjoy all games because it doesn't support DirectX 10.1 and games like Assasin's Creed gain almost 30% in framerates when using DX10.1
