NVIDIA'S NV41 WON'T be any kind of boom chip but will have just one goal. To be cheaper then NV40, Geforce 6800 non Ultra or standard, as the graphics chip firm dubs it. It seems that Nvidia 222 millions of transistor chip clocked at 325MHz is expensive to produce and it's, in theory at least, similar to all NV40s with four pipelines disabled. That makes its pipeline number fall from sixteen to twelve. I guess this modification of core will mean that it will natively have only twelve pipes but it should be, performance-wise identical or very close to the currently shipping 6800 standard. Nvidia gains cheaper production and the possibility to earn more money from this chip. And who can blame it?
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News source: The Inq