Introduction
In this technical brief we introduce NVIDIA’s new GeForce
®
GTX 200 GPU
family, the first GPUs to implement NVIDIA’s second-generation unified graphics
and computing architecture. The high-end, enthusiast-class GeForce GTX 280
GPU and performance-oriented GeForce GTX 260 GPU are the first members of
the GeForce GTX 200 GPU family and deliver the ultimate visual computing and
extreme high-definition (HD) gaming experience.
We’ll begin by describing architectural design goals and key features, and then dive
into the technical implementation of the GeForce GTX 200 GPUs. We assume you
have a basic understanding of first-generation NVIDIA unified GPU architecture,
including unified shader design, scalar processing cores, decoupled texture and math
units, and other architectural features. If you are not well versed in NVIDIA unified
GPU architecture, we suggest you first read the Technical Brief titled
NVIDIA
GeForce 8800 GPU Architecture Overview
. You can also refer to
Appendix A
for a
historical retrospective.
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May, 2008 | TB-04044-001_v01
