RV770 vs GT200: Architecture Comparison

Now that the first review of the 4870 is out, we can compare the two architectures on different fronts.

The RV770 design team should be pretty happy. The GT200 architecture is in no way bad, but in comparison to RV770 and its former mate (G80) it fizzes out. The RV770 architecture looks more scalable (both up and down) unlike GT200 which you can scale only down because of current process node technology. AMD could probably have gone for 2000SPs, 100TMUs & 40ROPs (RBEs) for a chip the size of GT200 but they are waiting for the right time ..

Besides the architecture benefit AMD brings to the table, they also have a higher transistor density compared to Nvidia. Since the RV770 and GT200 are manufactured on different processes, by normalizing (19% shrink to 55nm) GT200, we get a die size of 460mm². That gives Nvidia a transistor density of 3 million transistors per mm² compared to a transistor density of 3.77 million transistors per mm² for AMD. All possible because AMD got a headstart on 55nm over Nvidia.

Stumble it!