Report: Nvidia GTX 480 to Have Disabled Cores

By Marcus Yam
published

It would be interesting if those cores could be re-enabled.

Nvidia's road to bringing the GF100 to market has been a bumpy one that will finally reach its first stop this Friday March 26 with the launch of the GeForce GTX 480 and GTX 470.

According to a story from Digitimes, which Nvidia refused to comment on, TSMC's 40nm yield is currently still under 50 percent which could mean that some GPUs are coming out less than perfect.

Rather than completely toss out the chip, Nvidia could disable the bad cores. Digitimes says that this resulted in a lower core count than the original 512; the GeForce GTX 480 will only have 480 cores and GTX 470 only 448, the website reported.

Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam served as Tom's Hardware News Director during 2008-2014. He entered tech media in the late 90s and fondly remembers the days when an overclocked Celeron 300A and Voodoo2 SLI comprised a gaming rig with the ultimate street cred.
90 Comments Comment from the forums
  • shmung
    The more and more i read about these cards the less and less i think the 5800 series will drop in price, but i have waited this long for a new card i could hold out till the official benchmarks come out.
    Reply
  • tipoo
    6 months late, AMD already has near a dozen DX11 parts out, this will likely cost more than equivalent AMD cards (based on transistor count and yields), and run hotter and louder to top it all off.


    *Starts slow clap for Nvidia*
    Reply
  • mmast0
    Fail :(
    Reply
  • jimishtar
    why would someone buy a brand new vga with disabled cores on it ?
    Reply
  • rage machine
    Although i don't like the idea of throwing out tons of video cards...it just doesn't seem right to sell them to customers if they have disabled cores. Rather, it seems like if they are making lower models with the same material than the highest model should be equal cost...

    I think im going in circles. I don't like the idea.
    Reply
  • RazberyBandit
    Speculations won't stop til Friday. Even if this is true, if they work, that's what counts. GTX260's technically had 240 cores, originally with 48 disabled, then 32. It's just teething pains.

    I'd be more concerned with just how much power these things will consume. The ~290W figures are just plain scary.
    Reply
  • liquidsnake718
    No what they will do with these defective cores and chips is they will make a GTX475.... an inbetweener like the previously defective GTX275 and Ati's 4830's. This will allow a new SKU to be introduced but in reality it is nothing but a simple recycling of a non-perfect or non=standard GPU.
    Reply
  • omnimodis78
    tipoo6 months late, AMD already has near a dozen DX11 parts out, this will likely cost more than equivalent AMD cards (based on transistor count and yields), and run hotter and louder to top it all off. *Starts slow clap for Nvidia*Enough with the DX11 argument. How many games have you played which are true DX11? And how many DX11 "compatible" games look any better then their DX10 or even DX9 hybrid counterparts? I am all for DX11, but it's nonsense at this point to make it seem like the DX11 issue is the make it or break it thing regarding the ATI vs nvidia race. I own an nvidia, but I know ATI rocks and next purchase i'll be making will be an objective one, not based on brand loyalty.
    Reply
  • victomofreality
    Stop fluffing Fermi! I can't think of anything else that's had this many articles without any actual substance! when the benches come out then I'll be interested, and if theres benchmarks with the disabled cores unlocked I'll be extremely interested, till then give me a break please.
    Reply
  • Abrahm
    If the GTX 480 has 480 cores, it seems the GTX 470 should have 470 cores, or change it's name to the GTX 448.
    Reply