How Much Does the GF100 Fermi Cost NVIDIA?
As the Fermi-based GF100 comes along, many of you might be worried about how much it would cost – is the so-called fastest graphics card on the planet going to beyond the reach of mass? The fellow site BSN has grabbed a mockup of the TSMC’s 300mm wafer containing GF100 die, and made a detailed analysis to the GF100 silicon cost.
According to the site, a single 300mm wafer can produce 94 GF100 chips at best, and GF100 die should measure 24x23mm or 24x24mm with a total die size of 570-571mm2, which is almost identical to the GT200.
TSMC sells chips in two ways: you can purchase the whole wafer at a lower price – but you’re responsible for the yields in question. Or you can purchase die alone, which means you pay much more for per die but you don’t need to care what the yield is. For GPU dies such as Cypress and GF100, AMD and NVIDIA order per wafer and pay around $5000 for each wafer on 40nm manufacturing process.
TSMC has been unable to offer 40nm yield rate of any higher than 40% for better part of 2009. Yes, the company’s execs did claim that the quality had reached the same level of 65nm process, but you’d better take it with a grain of salt – After all, it sounds too good to be true, if you remember the sad number we’ve been hearing. So, NVIDIA would have to pay $131 for a single GF100, while the current cost of single Cypress die is $96.
What matters most is the end price for consumers. If NVIDIA wants to make a good profit, the GF100 needs to be priced at $599, but nobody wanna buy it. BSN expects to see a price of $499-$549 for the GeForce 380 and $349-$399 for the GeForce 360.
It should be noted that, it’s very likely that NVIDIA will disable a part of GeForce 380 and sell it as GeForce 360, then the cost will be brought down, so the cards should be a little less expensive.
NVIDIA is kicking off mass production of GF100 in the first week of February, with the AIB partners following in the remaining part of the month. Considering the expensive cost of GF100, NVIDIA is unlikely to make much money from it, at least for the coming a few months.
January 22nd, 2010 at 10:52 pm
What a pity!
ATi/AMD delivered the DirectX 11 experience to its fans months ago. nVidia couldn’t make it. It’s real, and it’s a tremendous defeat! That’s what happened, that’s the truth.
It’s called “Cost of Opportunity”. There’s no price to be the first to experience a ATi Radeon HD 5870 in its all glory, a single card crushing nVidia’s dual card GTX 295. And we’re talking about a heavy title such as Crytek Crysis @ 2560×1600.
According to Tom’s Hardware, nVidia GTX 295 simply didn’t work at that resolution. Pity again! Please, see for yourself.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-5870,2422-13.html?xtmc=crysis_2560x1600_gtx_295_buffer_memory&xtcr=2
One of the paragraphs from this review says:
“Notice the missing result for Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 295 at 2560×1600 with 8xAA? That’s due to the card not having ample on-board memory to run that configuration (and the game not knowing any better than to keep it from trying). Grand Theft Auto gets around this by simply making resolutions unavailable if a graphics card doesn’t have a large enough frame buffer. Crysis crashes instead.”
GTX 295 not being able to run Crysis @ 2560×1600? Pity!
Fermi has got to be better and faster than Cypress. It’s an obligation for nVidia to build this in that way, since they had, at least, more time to conceive it.
And, as always, don’t be fooled: you’re going to hurt your pocket to have Fermi installed onto your RIG. Be prepared to pay the price. It happened with Cypress. It’s going to be the same with Fermi. And since, nVidia cards are always much more expensive than ATi/AMD’s, one Fermi card can reach as much as 750 bucks. Wait and see.
Take this weekend and go to your favorite retail store and grab your ATi Radeon HD 5870. It’s there, real. Just take it.
Fermi, humpf…maybe 3Q2010 you’ll get one. It’s just an illusion…a dream (that hasn’t come true…hehehehe…)
Cheers!
January 23rd, 2010 at 12:07 am
Hi Charlie, fagget much?
January 23rd, 2010 at 1:58 am
daaamn, maybe its the cost of innovation, but its sad that it will cost so much
January 23rd, 2010 at 5:52 pm
@Bob:
who cares what company comes out with the latest dx first. it won’t be supported for any length of time, and by then both companies will have a compliant part.
as for 2560×1600, other review websites didn’t report any trouble with it (to be fair, i only found two out of five websites that actually used crisis as a benchmark). i haven’t heard of the gtx 295 having trouble with any other game at that resolution as well, which leads me to believe there’s something wrong with crysis (hasn’t it been discussed that crysis was a horribly inefficient engine?).
as for the 5870 crushing the gtx 295…at what website does it show this? even toms hardware’s own benchmarks show the two cards to be fairly even in performance overall…if anything, the gtx 295 is faster than the 5870. the results from the tech report, anand tech, hot hardware and pc perspective all show this as well.
January 23rd, 2010 at 6:36 pm
It crushes the 295 because it uses less power, almost equal in performance, cheaper, and a single GPU unit.
The problem with the 295 on Crysis at a very high resolution is the 295′s fault in design, that is why the problem is not duplicated with other cards of equal or higher performance levels or configurations.
Nvidia’s chip problems will pass onto the customers no doubt, be it the cost or chip failures, or likely both. So my advice for or now and in the near future, it is best to stay away from Nvidia cards because this generation of graphics cards is best enjoyed with ATI’s offerings. Less power requirement, less heat, great technology, great value for what you pay for, stable and reliable supplies.
January 23rd, 2010 at 9:34 pm
Regarding the “delays”, you guys are aware that there are no DX11 games out yet? Nvidia could wait until December to release GF100 if they wanted to since any decent DX11 games won’t be out until 2011. Not much of an incentive to upgrade at this point.
January 23rd, 2010 at 10:08 pm
There are DX11 games out yet and more to come shortly. The thing is that the difference can only be seen with a magnifying glass and yet, performance (fps) decreases.
January 24th, 2010 at 9:32 am
@Anon
‘you guys are aware that there are no DX11 games out yet?”
do you live in mars? DX11 games are already out
BattleForge
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Call of Pripyat
Dirt 2
and a bunch of coming titles in Q1 2010
“Nvidia could wait until December to release GF100 if they wanted to since any decent DX11 games won’t be out until 2011. Not much of an incentive to upgrade at this point.”
for your info, ATI next generation/architecture card(HD 6XXX)will be released in second half of 2010
anotherfail
January 24th, 2010 at 6:02 pm
ATi/AMD delivered the DirectX 11 experience to its fans months ago. nVidia couldn’t make it.
I like your sense of humour. What dx11 experience, lol? The only dx11 game out is dirt 2 and battleforge with DX11 added as a last resort and it’s a crap game anyway.
Fermi probably will be more expensive, but then if you want the best all round gfx card you’ll have to pay more for it. Also ATI has no Physx or Cuda support which is the reason I will never buy an ATI gfx card. Lot’s of companies are now adopting Cuda for Accelerating video and other apsects of their applications. Nero, Adobe, Kaspersky, etc Fermi will be the best graphics card for both games and applications, so why would I even consider ATI.
January 24th, 2010 at 10:22 pm
cyco and steven you fuckin fanboys
January 25th, 2010 at 8:53 am
I’m not complaining too much about the “delay,” I’m just worried about the price. Even if it does perform better, who’s going to pay that much? I know I won’t.
January 25th, 2010 at 10:40 pm
ATi/AMD offers 3-monitor output. You don’t need a Crossfire (CF).
nVidia: the new Fermi delivers only 2-monitor output. If you want to experience a 3-monitor gaming setup, you must buy two nVidia cards, a lot more expensive than one single ATi Radeon HD 5970, for instance. Although it’s a bit expensive to afford a 3-monitor rig, that’s what gamers are starting to look at.
ATi/AMD is delivering the ultimate gaming experience with its latest Dx11 card.
nVidia is moving away from the gaming industry bringing horrible products that definitely didn’t make it.
NVIDIA 3D Vision Surround – Expensive and A Huge Mess?
http://en.expreview.com/2010/01/23/nvidia-3d-vision-surround-expensive-and-a-huge-mess/6523.html
We’re talking about gaming here, not working at the office with business solutions, CUDA, GPGPU, etc.
@those_who_said_about_dx11_titles
What the hell is CUDA, PhysX, anyway?
If now we have just a couple of titles, it’s the beginning of a new gaming generation with Windows 7 and DirectX 11; it’s a trend, it’s the future.
Does anybody REALLY has any titles which benefit from PhysX. How many are available? Did you know that PhysX is proprietary? nVidia does not offer it as an open standard. Guess now why so few or non-PhysX titles? huh?
ATi/AMD is working on a new generation of its current line of products to be available in the second semester.
nVidia: when exactly Fermi will be available? hehehehe…pity!
ATi/AMD is completely committed to the gaming industry.
nVidia is a big company, but it’s not working to the gaming industry anymore.
ATi/AMD won last year. And it will win again this year.
nVidia was a big FIASCO last year. It it will do it again in 2010! Pity!
Cheers!
January 25th, 2010 at 10:47 pm
Just to add to the last post:
The company’s behavior and attitude to its customers are EVERYTHING!
ATi/AMD delivers great products at reasonable prices. The ratio BENEFIT/COST is always maximized.
nVidia: apart from the Dx11 Fiasco, forces you to buy its products. The benefit here is not to customers, but to the company. Pity again!
Cheers!
January 25th, 2010 at 10:56 pm
Hey guys, I have an idea!
Let’s celebrate the new graphics cards generation!
For those who already have an ATi Radeon HD 5870 (fast graphics), please, run Crysis maxed out!
For those who “have” Fermi, please, update your Orkut, Facebook, MySpace, and of course, the Tweeter, and celebrate Fermi online!
FERMI, the fastest card on the planet, at least, on the web! hehehehehehe…
PITY!
Cheers!
January 28th, 2010 at 2:44 pm
Is it red in here or what?
ATI’s early DX11 card release will prove to be the biggest (literally) waist of money ever.
Nvidia is OBVIOUSLY doing the right thing because they have taken there time to create the perfect DX11 card.
the GF100 is close to the same size and power consumption of the gtx200 series with up to (I quote) “quadruple the performance”
on the other-hand ATI’s monster cards are another half as big (givatake) with only another half the performance.
Tortise and the hair.
January 28th, 2010 at 10:39 pm
Damn those nvidiots, earlier I was skeptic about that nvidia fanboy stuff, but now, seriously STFU fanboys. HD 5000 cards are out, Farmi isn’t, we don’t even have perf numbers or exact specs, only some shit that fanboys tell. O yeah, fermi, how about HD 6000 series? I’m sure Radeon HD 6000 series will kick the shit out of fermi, but you can’t buy one, can you? In fact I might think one graphics card out by myself and tell you it’s the most powerful thing ever…
January 29th, 2010 at 8:00 am
How about all you nerds go suck on your dad’s cock and quit bitching. We all have our own preference in video cards.
February 2nd, 2010 at 3:25 pm
this is the xbox vs ps3 situation. First usually wins.
March 13th, 2010 at 1:16 am
I will buy the new fermi. ATI maybe faster if you compare the frame rates, specs and things like that but I did my own test between ATI and NVidea cards by checking there odors and frankly, ATI just stinks too much. I wouldn’t want to have one in my PC because I’m afraid it will fill the whole room with that hideous ATI scent. Seriously guys…. dont waste your time by checking all benchmark comparisons on all the countless websites, those are marketing related only. Just follow you nose!