NVIDIA G80 will not use a unified architecture, as we’ve reported before, but will rely on the current generation technology with the first DX10-compatible circuits and use separate shaders. Its flagship of today, GeForce 7900GTX, uses 24 pixel pipelines and 8 vertex pipelines. New information says that NVIDIA will increase the number of shader pipelines significantly, up to 32 pixel pipelines and 16 vertex and geometry pipelines. If this highly unofficial information is correct NVIDIA has chosen to stick with its 2:1 ratio for the pixel and vertex performance.
ATI will not need to care for what kind of calculations the games of the future will need the most as its unified shader architecture distributes the work among the shaders according to what effects are being used in the rendered picture.
