I will start today with my favourite graphics card, which is GeForce 8800.
The 8800 series, codenamed G80, was launched on November 8, 2006 with the release of the GeForce 8800 GTX and GTS. The GTX is equipped with 768 MB GDDR3 RAM while the GTS has 640 MB GDDR3 RAM. The 8800 series replaced the GeForce 79x0 series as NVIDIA's top-performing consumer video card. GeForce 8800 GTX and GTS use identical GPU cores, but the GTS model disables parts of the GPU and reduces RAM size / bus width to lower production cost.
As of April 2007, the G80 is the largest commercial GPU ever constructed. It consists of 681 million transistors covering a 480 mm² die surface area built on a 90 nm process.(In fact G80's total transistor count is ~690 million, but since the chip was made on a 90nm process and due to process limitations and yield feasibility, NVIDIA had to break the main design into two chips : Main shader core at 681 million transistors and NV I/O core of about ~5 million transistors making the entire G80 design standing at ~690 million transistors). Thus making G80 the largest and most complex design ever made for the PC market.
As of April 2007, the G80 is the largest commercial GPU ever constructed. It consists of 681 million transistors covering a 480 mm² die surface area built on a 90 nm process.(In fact G80's total transistor count is ~690 million, but since the chip was made on a 90nm process and due to process limitations and yield feasibility, NVIDIA had to break the main design into two chips : Main shader core at 681 million transistors and NV I/O core of about ~5 million transistors making the entire G80 design standing at ~690 million transistors). Thus making G80 the largest and most complex design ever made for the PC market.
The 8800 GTX has 8 clusters of 16 stream processors, for a total of 128 stream processors. 8800 GTS, in comparison, features a G80 processor with 2 of the 8 clusters disabled, leaving 96 stream processors. The cards are larger than their predecessors, with 8800GTX measuring 10.6 in (~26.9 cm) in length and the GTS measuring 9 in (~23 cm). Both cards have two dual-link DVI connectors and a HDTV/S-Video out connector. The 8800GTX requires 2 PCIe power inputs, to keep within the PCIe standard, while the GTS requires just 1.
NVIDIA released a 320 MB version of the 8800 GTS on February 12, 2007 in order to tap into a more mainstream market. Aside from the decreased amount of video memory, all other aspects of the 8800 GTS remained unchanged. The unit retailed at US$299.[
On May 2nd, 2007, NVIDIA released the 8800 Ultra, and it retails at $829.
NVIDIA claims that the GeForce 8800 GTX has 518.4 Gigaflops performance given the fact that there are 128 processors at 1.35GHz MADD+MUL dual-issue[(MADD(2flops)+MUL(1flop))×1350MHz ×128 SPs＝518.4 Gigaflops)]. However, it should be noted that 8800 GTX's 518.4 Gigaflops may not be the practical performance, due to the fact that the MUL operation is not always available.
A minor manufacturing defect related to a resistor of improper value caused a recall of the 8800GTX models (not the 8800GTS) just two days before the product launch, the launch itself was unaffected.
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