Information leaked from inside ASUS confirms many of the specification details above.

The two launch ASUS products will be

• ASUS EN8800GTX/HTDP/768M - Based on the NVIDIA 8800 GTX, 575 MHz Core, 384-bit 768 MB VRAM operating at 1.3 GHz
• ASUS EN8800GTS/HTDP/640M - Based on NVIDIA 8800 GTX, 500 MHz Core, 320-bit 640 MB VRAM operating at 1.2 GHz

Details on the G80 architecture itself still have not been confirmed. I've seen rumours from a 32/24/?? Pixel/Vertex/Geometry Shader arrangement to the above 128 Unified Shaders. From NVIDIA's comments about Unified Shaders being implemented "When it counts", and various comments on the DirectX 10/Unified Shader thing, I believe that NVIDIA's new chip will feature discrete Shader engines. ATI's next product (R600/X2000) will almost definitely feature a fully fledged unified Shader engine.

Contrary to what I said above, Unified Shaders are NOT a required part of the DirectX 10 specification. This originally seemed to be the case, but apparently isn't so after all. DirectX 10 compliancy hinges on Pixel Shader 4.0 support, most of which means Geometry Shaders, and probably a few tweaks to Pixel and Vertex Shaders. Instead, a Unified Shader language will replace the existing demarcation point between the Pixel and the Vertex. It’s entirely up to the driver how that is handled; whether instructions are despatched to unified Shaders or limited purpose Shaders.

Retail pricing is still not clear.

MyChat posts.