2012-12-21-147

[Rumour] Nvidia Fermi Updates - Mainstream cheaps, huge orders

Fudzilla has a date for Nvidia's mainstream Fermi chips to compete inthe popular <$199 segment. Unfortunately, we are talking about March2010 "if all goes well". This is simply disastrous for Nvidia as ATI'sHD 5700 series will go unchallenged for nearly half a year, if not more.

On the performance segment, things are looking much more promising forNvidia as partners are confident about GF100 and have ordered largequantities of it. November 27th was the date being talked about before,while the general consensus is still "Late Decembers". Naysayers stillclaim GF100 will only hit stores in mass quantity in January 2010.

Despite being late - we have high hopes for GF100, and it should outperform the HD 5800 series. It is unknown how GF100 will perform against the dual-5800 Hemlock, though Fudo claims Nvidia have dual GPU version of GF100 in wraps. Much like the GT200 vs. RV770 battle, Nvidia once again have a severe die size disadvantage. The GF100 die has been estimated at at least 480 mm2, and rumours of yield issues are a plenty. The Cypress die is 330 mm2, and as we know, in most cases, the larger the die, the lower the yield. The larger die requires more cooling, better power circuitry, a heftier PCB. In the end, there is no doubt GF100 will cost a lot more to manufacture than Cypress. This means that ATI have a larger window to scale prices down. Nevertheless, if GF100 offers stellar performance - there will be consumers at any price point.

Reference: Fudzilla, Fudzilla