Won't there be a GeForce 8900?

If The Inquirer information is correct, NVIDIA has changed its schedule.

While much of the source news revolves around whether NVIDIA will be able to transition to 65-nanometer production on time, we don’t think these are the most interesting questions at the moment.

We feel two major issues are hanging in the air. The first is what is the reason for leaving the card. If the news is true, then we can assume that ATI’s latest announcement is the reason, as the R600’s slip also means there’s no reason to change current cards as it won’t have any competition.

The second question is what will happen to the heralded mid-range products. Given the current balance of power, NVIDIA’s current GeForce 7 × 00 products will also compete with ATI’s products, so there would be no logical basis for further rivaling rival sales.

News from The Inquirer reports that one card is still planned, and this is the GX2 version, which will include two graphics chips. According to the news, the only question is whether NVIDIA engineers can solve the heat dissipation efficiently.

So the point is that G81-based products are lagging behind, NVIDIA is turning its efforts to a solution codenamed G90. According to The Inq, the architecture of the G90 will be the same as that of the G80, but it will be made at a lower bandwidth, so it is expected to work at a significantly higher clock speed, and they have no choice but to attach a quick memory to it.

This is where 65-nanometer production comes into play, which is currently an obstacle to development. If NVIDIA, together with TSMC, manages to reach this bandwidth in time, production of the new chips could begin in the second half of 2007, so while the ATI R600 may arrive sooner, it will soon get a strong opponent from NVIDIA.