Item Nvidia GeForce 6800 ATI R400 ATI Radeon 9800 / 9800 Pro
Release2004-04-14 2004-Q1 2003-03-05
Die size ~287 mm2
Process 130 nm 130 nm 150 nm Cu
Core speed 400 MHz 380 MHz
Transistors 222 M > 200 M 107+ M
Price ~$399
Ops/s 40/clock = 15.2 G
Pipelines 16x1, 32x0 8 pipelines x 1 texture unit
Memory DDR, GDDR2, GDDR3, 550 MHz, 35.2 GB/s DDR350 256b 256 MB (22.4GB/s)
AGP AGP8X AGP 3.0 (=8x)
Type Desktop Desktop
Fill rate 6.4 Gtex/s, 6.4 Gpix/s 3 Gpix/s
RAMDAC 2x400 MHz 400 MHz
DirectX 9.0c 9
Textures 16 8
Core NV40 R400 R350
Triangles/s 600 M 380 M
Vertex shaders 6 x 3.0 4 x 2.0
Pixel shaders 16 x 3.0 8 x 2.0
PCI Express Yes
 

2004-04-14 Nvidia GeForce 6800 New high-end graphics processor, succeeding NV35 (GeForce 5900). Includes Pixel Shader 3.0 and Vertex Shader 3.0 to support DirectX 9.0c (previously known as 9.1) and to include 16 "real" pipelines instead of the 4x2 architecture used previously.
Named GeForce 6800 and was to be shown at CeBIT or GDC with availability in April or May, but unveiled on April 14th.
Draws a massive 110W from two power cables. Previously known as NV40.

2004-Q1 ATI R400 New ATI graphics high end core succeeding the R300/R350 (Radeon 9700/9800). The R400 has been delayed until 2004 due to: 3GIO, DDR-3 and DX9 pixel shader 3.0. It is renamed to R500, while the less ambitious R420 takes over in the short term.

2003-03-05 ATI Radeon 9800 / 9800 Pro Successor to R300 (9700 Pro) formerly known as R350 running at 380 MHz to start with. Supports both DDR-II and DDR-I memory.