It was only yesterday we told you about the sped up launch of the GeForce 9600GT. The card is expected to be launched on February 14th, but as we’ve told you before it won’t be alone. Along with it there will be two high-end cards; GeForce 9800GTX and D9E, which actually seems to be the 9800GX2, and not an 8 series card. The guys over at HardOCP has managed to get a hold of a picture of D9E, and we’ve been able to confirm at least parts of what they are saying the report.
Front of the card, back pretty much the same
The card sports two fully equipped G92 chips, which means 2*128 shader processors, 2*512MB graphics memory, and the SLI is built-in. Two of these will also work in quad configurations, although it’s hard to tell from the pictures. This card is also meant to replace the GeForce 8800 Ultra and will be approximately up to 30% faster than the Ultra, a figure which will of course change depending on usage.
However, for the true enthusiasts the GeForce 9800GTX will most likely be a lot more interesting. The single PCB design will make it more attractive as most water blocks, and most of all pots, won’t work with the 9800GX2. GeForce 9800GTX will replace the 8800GTX but the exact specifications of this one is actually more illusive than that of the 9800GX2.
Both cards are expected at about the same time as the GeForce 9600GT, meaning February/March. This card has been confirmed to perform much like the Radeon 3850, which means that it is a lot faster than the predecessor GeForce 8600GT. Later on there will also be a 9800GT, which will probably replace the 8800GT. Specifications are a bit unknown, but we’re assuming they’re not that different from the 8800GT, just a tad bit faster.
To summarize, the GeForce 9 series is more or less just a 65nm refresh of the GeForce 8 series (not even DirectX 10.1), which was in fact to expect. NVIDIA self more or less said at the launch of the G80 that it would be the base of a refresh. The true next generation should be ready for the R700 launch later this year though.
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