2012-12-21-111

[Rumour] Geforce GTS 455 might be GF104 based

Initially, GF104 was expected to be a 256 SP product, or half of GF100,fitting in the Geforce GTS series. However, GF104 had 50% more shadersthan originally expected - 384. Considering the Geforce GTX 465 contains352 shaders, this was bound to cause an overlap with the GF100 basedGTX 400 series. Hence, the first GF104 based products would be calledGTX 460 rather than GTS 460, as the performance will be close to GF100based cards. Of course, GTX 460 is a crippled part, and the full 384 SPGF104 is expected to perform close to the Geforce GTX 470. Nvidia is setto follow GTX 460 with GTS 400 series cards in the <$200 mainstreamsegment. They were expected to be based on GF106. However, rumours arecirculating which suggest that the top GTS 400 part, the GTS 455, couldbe based on GF104 rather than GF106.

The specifications of GF104 are rather vague, though shader count in the 192 to 256 range has been suggested, along with a 192-bit memory interface. A crippled yield-harvesting GF104 - maybe disabled to about 288 SP, and low clock speeds is once again likely to cause an overlap between the two series. Of course, the nature of GTS 455 will ultimately depend on the yield of GF104. If GF100's yield problems spill over GF104, we may see more heavily crippled GF104 parts.

Further GTS series products - GTS 450 and GTS 445 are expected to be based on GF106. GF106 cards are expected to release between August and September, followed by GF108 based GT 400 series cards.

As for GF104, following the Geforce GTX 460 768 MB and 1 GB, a fully functional 384 SP version may be released, possibly as a refresh to GTX 465 or GTX 470. If clocked high enough, it may even outperform the GTX 470 and take over a GTX 475 branding. Of course, while Nvidia is finally filling up its Geforce 400 generation, AMD is preparing their next-generation Southern Islands GPUs. It is going to be an interesting H2 2010 for the GPU industry.

Reference: Fudzilla