There's been some confusion over the past few days regarding NVIDIA's recently unveiled G70 graphics processor (the one used in GeForce 7800 GTX cards), and its effective operating clock speed. Clarification from the graphics giant came quick however, as NVIDIA's Chief Scientist, David Kirk, explained that the G70 has 'many' clocks.
"It's somewhat hard for us to say 'the core clock in G70 is this single number'", says Kirk. "We didn't want to be accused of exaggerating the clock speed, so we picked a conservative number to talk about the core clock speed. But, yes, that is just one of the multiple clocks."
"The chip was designed from the ground up to use less power. In doing that, we used a lot of tricks that we learned from doing mobile parts. The clock speeds within the chip are dynamic - if you were watching them with an oscilloscope, you'd see the speeds going up and down all the time, as different parts of the chip come under load."
That's indeed some very interesting information, ATI is taking note for sure. The only thing to worry about from an user's stand point of view is about the overclocking potential this leaves to G70 chips. Though, we have already seen overclocking figures being shown on 7800 GTX card reviews, not to mention, NVIDIA has said they will collaborate with Rivatuner developers, so that those settings that can actually enhance performance are offered in the utility.