Few details have been leaked regards Nvidia's upcoming next-generation graphics core, codenamed D10U.
D10U will make its first debut in 2 separate graphics cards; the high end GeForce GTX 280 (D10U-30) and the lower spec GeForce GTX 260 (D10U-20). For this new generation, Nvidia redesigned its unified stream(shader) processors to perform 50% faster than the ones used in the G90 series. GeForce GTX 280 will feature 240 of those redesigned unified stream processors and GeForce GTX 260 will carry 192.
GTX 280 ships with a 512-bit memory bus capable of supporting 1GB GDDR3 memory and GTX 260 alternative has a 448-bit bus with support for 896MB.
The new D10U series will deliver all the features found in the current G90 series and, surprisingly, it won't support DirectX 10.1. This might seem like lagging behind AMD's upcoming Radeon HD 4000 series, but it may be in the best interest of GeForce 8 and GeForce 9 cards owners that Nvidia utilizes its market position to protect them from being outdated over some minor DirectX changes.
D10U series will incorporate the PhysX stream engine into its shader engine, but no more info is available right now.
The new cards are scheduled for launch on June 18, 2008.
