NVIDIA's GeForce 300 at tape out, ready this year?
updated 11:00 am EDT, Fri September 25, 2009
NVIDIA GeForce 300 at tape out, due soon
Despite a report of NVIDIA's 40nm GeForce 300 series GPUs facing a possible delay until 2010, the card is currently at the tape out (initial silicon production stage), Fudzilla reported on Friday. Codenamed GT300, it was was originally believed to be going on sale in October and may still reach the target if all goes smoothly during testing. The DirectX 11-capable card has already been seen by key industry people, and if the tape out began in early September, it could be shipping by middle or late October.
As with other manufacturers, NVIDIA is aiming to release its first cards using the architecture before Black Friday, the day after US Thanksgiving and traditionally the busiest shopping day in the US. The occasion falls on November 27th this year.
Detailed specs of the GT300 are unknown, but the architecture is expected to support newer OpenGL effects in addition to the aforementioned DirectX 11 and should have significantly improved performance and heat reduction compared to the current 55nm graphics processors.
