14 DAY TRIAL // NVIDIA recently launched its GeForce GTX 460 DirectX 11 video board. This graphics card is powered by the GF104 graphics processing unit, the second Fermi GPU that the company made and the one that was received quite well by reviewers. Not long ago, Fudzilla even managed to uncover the fact that this chip actually has eight clusters, which hints at the possibility of cards with 384 shaders. What is even more interesting, however, is a certain other report regarding a dual-GPU adapter that may debut before the year is out.
Fudzilla claims that it managed to get some confirmation, as it calls it, that NVIDIA is, indeed, working on a dual-Fermi card and that said card will definitely be based on the GF104. Supposedly, it shall play the part of GX2 Fermi successor and should become the fastest beast on sale. No specifications are actually known for now, but speculations will obviously suggest GDDR5 memory, possibly clocked at 4,000 MHz.
Since the GF104 has eight clusters, there is the possibility of the dual-GF104 being designed with 768 shaders (384 x 2). Granted, the possibility of this actually occurring is low, but it is still a possibility. GPU clock speeds are still shrouded in mystery, but the report points towards something along the lines of 700 MHz or above. Basically, NVIDIA will probably do whatever it takes to make sure its creation outdoes AMD's ATI Radeon HD 5970.
As for GTX 460 single-GPU cards with 384 shaders, the Santa Clara, California-based outfit will probably unveil one once it runs out of GTX 465 models. This so-called 'Ultra' version of the 460 will likely have a higher GPU clock as well. Nevertheless, all of these are still only rumors, so they should be taken with the obligatory grain of salt.