by Anton Shilov
10/02/2003 | 02:59 AM
Specifications of some actual graphics cards based on NVIDIA’s upcoming NV36 graphics processor for performance-mainstream market transpired in the web this week. The solutions based on the GeForce FX 5700 will feature a little-bit reworked GeForce FX 5600 GPU running at higher speed and DDR-II memory with 128-bit bus. NVIDIA decided not to cope with 256-bit design this year for mainstream solutions probably because it is more efficient from economic point of view to use newer and faster memory on conventional 128-bit channels.
With the GeForce FX 5700 NVIDIA will not follow its typical strategy exactly; there will be a number of speed-versions for the GeForce FX 5700 from various graphics cards makers, not only one or two, as NVIDIA typically offers. For instance, Albatron will release its FX5700PV and FX5700UV graphics cards with 450MHz speed for core and 500MHz for 128MB of DDR-II SDRAM memory. Chaintech, on the other hand, will have its GeForce FX 5700 aka NV36 running at 475MHz core and 475MHz memory.
PCStats web-site expects the GeForce FX 5700 to score about 5000 marks in 3DMark 2003 web-site. This leads me to assume that the NV36 is a bit redesigned NV31 GPU, given that the original GeForce FX 5600 Ultra with its 4 rendering pipelines is unable to score 5000 even with extreme overclocking unless NVIDIA cheated or optimized something in the drivers.
Earlier this year some sources suggested that the NV36 would be made using 0.13 micron fabrication process at IBM,
Graphics cards on the GeForce FX 5700 should appear in retail later this month or early next month, before Comdex Fall 2003 trade-show.
Remember that the information herein is not official, you can read some more rumored facts here.