I am quite sure that we will never forget the year 2008. It will definitely be remembered as the year the world economy fell apart and when people lost millions on the stock market. Since we are more about hardware than finance, let's try to pick our favorite things of 2008.
In early 2008 we heard that Nvidia was working on the GT200 and that this will be the biggest chip of all times and that it would rip ATI's heart out of RV770. ATI was working on the successor to the RV670, HD 3000 series chip, and we've learned that this might be a very impressive chip.
GT200 even at 65nm looked way too cool to be beaten by RV770, 55nm chip with rather high clock but almost twice smaller. Nvidia launched Geforce GTX 280 and GT260 and they scored quite impressive numbers. Nvidia’s previously fastest kids on the block, Geforce 9800GTX and GT, slipped to mainstream.
Then came ATI with RV770 chip. The dual RV770 card codenamed R700 was faster than GTX 280. This was a shock, as two small chips beat Nvidia’s biggest chip ever and Radeon HD 4870 X2 was and still is the faster card for 2008. Nvidia will counter this card with its dual-chip card, Geforce GTX 295, but this is in 2009.
To make things worse for Nvidia, ATI’s single-chip Radeon HD 4870 was faster than much bigger and hotter Geforce GTX 260. This resulted in record sales of ATI cards, and ATI broke all of its previous records. At the same time Nvidia sales plummeted. Radeon HD 4850 was based on same chip, but used DDR3 memory, and this card was one of the best deals on the market, and enough to leave Geforce 9800GTX+ in the dust.
Nvidia tried to re-launch Geforce GTX 260 and introduce GTX 260 with 216 shaders (the original 65nm GT260 had 192 shaders) and this card again lost to the HD 4870.
In very late October time, Nvidia managed to pull an ace out of its sleeve and with new driver GT260 with 216 Shaders was faster. In the last week of 2008, Nvidia introduced a third addition to GT260 card, the one with 216 Shaders, 55nm and some faster overclocking speeds, but this card will make more impact in 2009 as one week of 2008 sales was simply not enough to make any difference.
Therefore, the conclusion is quite simple. The chip for market year 2008 is RV770 and the best card of 2008 is Radeon HD 4870 and its iterations. Good job, ATI, and all Nvidia fan boys don’t be disappointed, Nvidia is coming back strongly as we speak, and at least first half of 2009 looks to favor Nvidia.
Also read:
How ATI stole Christmas
Nvidia Christmas roundup