Curie (microarchitecture) explained

Nvidia Curie
Created:	2004
D3dversion:	9.0c
Predecessor:	Rankine
Successor:	Tesla
Process:	130 nm, 110 nm, 90 nm, 80 nm
Openglversion:	2.1
Support Status:	Unsupported

Curie is the codename for a GPU microarchitecture developed by Nvidia, and released in 2004, as the successor to the Rankine^[1] microarchitecture. It was named with reference to the Polish physicist Marie Salomea Skłodowska–Curie and used with the GeForce 6 and 7 series. Curie was followed by Tesla.

Graphics features

• DirectX 9.0c (9_3)^[2]
• OpenGL 2.1^{[3] [4]}
• Shader Model 3.0
• Nvidia PureVideo (first generation)
• Reintroduced support for Z compression
• Hardware support for MSAA anti-aliasing algorithm (up to 4x)^[5]

The lack of unified shaders makes DirectX 9.0c the last supported version of DirectX for GPUs based on this microarchitecture.^[6]

GPU list

GeForce 6 (6xxx) series

Model	Launch	Code name	Fab (nm)	Bus interface	Core clock (MHz)	Memory clock (MHz)	Core config^1	Fillrate				Memory
								MOperations/s	MPixels/s	MTexels/s	MVertices/s	Size (MB)	Bandwidth (GB/s)	Bus type	Bus width (bit)
GeForce 6100 + nForce 410	20 October 2005	MCP51	TSMC 90 nm	HyperTransport	425	100–200 (DDR)200–533 (DDR2)	2:1:2:1	850	425	850	106.25	Up to 256 system RAM	1.6–6.4 (DDR)3.2–17.056 (DDR2)	DDRDDR2	64128
GeForce 6150 SE + nForce 430	June 2006	MCP61				200400							3.216.0	DDR2
GeForce 6150 LE + nForce 430		MCP61				100–200 (DDR)200–533 (DDR2)							1.6–6.4 (DDR)3.2–17.056 (DDR2)	DDRDDR2
GeForce 6150 + nForce 430	20 October 2005	MCP51			475			950	475	950	118.75		1.6–6.4 (DDR)3.2–17.056 (DDR2)
GeForce 6200 LE	2005	NV44	TSMC 110 nm	AGP 8×PCIe ×16	350	266		700	700	700	87.5	128256	4.256	DDR	64
GeForce 6200A	4 April 2005	NV44A		AGP 8×	350	250533 (DDR2)	4:3:4:2	1400	700	1400	175225 (DDR2)	128256 (DDR2)512 (DDR2)	413.3 (DDR2)	DDRDDR2	64
GeForce 6200	12 October 2004 (PCIe)17 January 2005 (AGP)	NV43		AGP 8×PCIPCIe ×16	300	275	4:3:4:4	1200	1200	1200	225	128256	8.8	DDR2	128
GeForce 6200 TurboCache	15 December 2004	NV44		PCIe ×16	350	350	4:3:4:2	1400	700	1400	262.5	128–256 System RAM incl.16/32–64/128 onboard	5.6	DDR	64
GeForce 6500	1 October 2005				400	333		1600	800	1600	300	128256	5.328
GeForce 6600 LE	2005	NV43		AGP 8×PCIe ×16	300	200	4:3:4:4	1200	1200	1200	225		6.4		128
GeForce 6600	12 August 2004					275400	8:3:8:4	2400		2400			8.812.8	DDRDDR2
GeForce 6600 GT	12 August 2004 (PCIe)14 November 2004 (AGP)				500	475 (AGP)500 (PCIe)		4000	2000	4000	375		15.2 (AGP)16 (PCIe)	GDDR3
GeForce 6800 LE	22 July 2004 (AGP)16 January 2005 (PCIe)	NV40 (AGP)NV41, NV42 (PCIe)	IBM 130 nm		320 (AGP)325 (PCIe)	350	8:4:8:8	2560 (AGP)2600 (PCIe)	2560 (AGP)2600 (PCIe)	2560 (AGP)2600 (PCIe)	320 (AGP)325 (PCIe)	128	22.4	DDR	256
GeForce 6800 XT	30 September 2005				300 (64 Bit)325	266 (64 Bit)350 500 (GDDR3)		24002600	24002600	24002600	300325	256	4.25611.2 22.4 32 (GDDR3)	DDRDDR2 GDDR3	64128 256
GeForce 6800	14 April 2004 (AGP)8 November 2004 (PCIe)				325	350	12:5:12:12	3900	3900	3900	406.25	128256	22.4	DDR	256
GeForce 6800 GTO	14 April 2004	NV45		PCIe ×16		450		4200	4200	4200	437.5	256	28.8	GDDR3
GeForce 6800 GS	7 November 2005 (PCIe)8 December 2005 (AGP)	NV42 (PCIe)NV40 (AGP)	TSMC 110 nm	AGP 8×PCIe ×16	425 (PCIe)350 (AGP)	500		5100	5100	5100	531.25	128256	32
GeForce 6800 GT	4 May 2004 (AGP)28 June 2004 (PCIe)	NV40 (AGP)NV45 (PCIe)	IBM 130 nm	AGP 8×PCIe ×16	350		16:6:16:16	5600	5600	5600	525
GeForce 6800 Ultra	4 May 2004 (AGP)28 June 2004 (PCIe)14 March 2005 (512 MB)				400	525 (512 MB)550 (256 MB)		6400	6400	6400	600	256512	33.6 (512 MB)35.2 (256 MB)
GeForce 6800 Ultra Extreme Edition	4 May 2004	NV40		AGP 8×	450	600		7200	7200	7200	675	256	35.2
Model	Launch	Code name	Fab (nm)	Bus interface	Core clock (MHz)	Memory clock (MHz)	Core config^1	Fillrate				Memory
								MOperations/s	MPixels/s	MTexels/s	MVertices/s	Size (MB)	Bandwidth (GB/s)	Bus type	Bus width (bit)

Features

Model	Features
	OpenEXR HDR	Scalable Link Interface (SLI)	TurboCache	PureVideo WMV9 Decoding
GeForce 6100
GeForce 6150 SE
GeForce 6150
GeForce 6150 LE
GeForce 6200			Yes (PCIe only)
GeForce 6500
GeForce 6600 LE		Yes (No SLI Connector)
GeForce 6600		Yes (SLI Connector or PCIe Interface)
GeForce 6600 DDR2		Yes (SLI Connector or PCIe Interface)
GeForce 6600 GT
GeForce 6800 LE
GeForce 6800 XT		Yes (PCIe only)		Yes (NV42 only)
GeForce 6800		Yes (PCIe only)		Yes (NV41, NV42 only)
GeForce 6800 GTO
GeForce 6800 GS		Yes (PCIe only)		Yes (NV42 only)
GeForce 6800 GT		Yes (PCIe only)
GeForce 6800 Ultra		Yes (PCIe only)

GeForce 7 (7xxx) series

Model	Launch	Code name	Fab (nm)	Bus interface	Core clock (MHz)	Memory clock (MHz)	Core config^1	Fillrate				Memory
								MOperations/s	MPixels/s	MTexels/s	MVertices/s	Size (MB)	Bandwidth (GB/s)	Bus type	Bus width (bit)
GeForce 7025 + nForce 630a	July 2007	MCP68S	TSMC 110 nm	HyperTransport	425	200 (DDR)400 (DDR2) 933 (DDR3)	2:1:2:2	850	850	850	106.25	Up to 256 system RAM	6.412.8 34	DDRDDR2 DDR3	64128
GeForce 7050PV + nForce 630a		MCP67QV
GeForce 7050 + nForce 610i/630i		MCP73	TSMC 90 nm	HyperTransport/FSB	500	333		1000	1000	1000	125		5.336	DDR2	64
GeForce 7100 + nForce 630i		MCP76		FSB	600	400		1200	1200	1200	150		6.4
GeForce 7150 + nForce 630i					630			1260	1260	1260	157.5
GeForce 7100 GS	8 August 2006	NV44	TSMC 110 nm	PCIe ×16	350	300	4:3:4:2	1400	700	1400	262.5	128256	2.44.8	DDRDDR2	3264
GeForce 7200 GS	18 January 2006	G72	TSMC 90 nm		450	400	2:2:4:2	1800	900	1800	337.5		3.26.4	DDR2
GeForce 7300 SE	22 March 2006				350	333	4:3:4:2					128	2.6565.328
GeForce 7300 LE
GeForce 7300 GS	18 January 2006				550	400		2200	1100	2200	412.5	128256	6.4		64
GeForce 7300 GT	15 May 2006	G73		AGP 8×PCIe ×16	350	325 (DDR2)700 (GDDR3)	8:5:8:4	2800	1400	2800	437.5		10.422.4	DDR2GDDR3	128
GeForce 7500 LE	2006	G72		PCIe ×16	263324	275	4:3:4:2	9001100	9001100	2200	412.5	64128256	2.66.8	DDR2	3264
GeForce 7600 GS	22 March 2006 (PCIe)1 July 2006 (AGP)	G73		AGP 8×PCIe ×16	400	400 (DDR2)700 (GDDR3)	12:5:12:8	4800	3200	4800	500	256	12.822.4	DDR2GDDR3	128
GeForce 7600 GT	9 March 2006 (PCIe)15 July 2006 (AGP)				560			6720	4480	6720	700
GeForce 7600 GT 80 nm	8 January 2007	G73-B1	TSMC 80 nm
GeForce 7650 GS	22 March 2006	G73		PCIe ×16	450	400		5400	3600	5400	562.5		12.7	DDR2
GeForce 7800 GS	2 February 2006	G70	TSMC 110 nm	AGP 8×	375	600	16:8:16:8	6000	3000	6000	750		38.4	GDDR3	256
GeForce 7800 GT	11 August 2005			PCIe ×16	400	500	20:7:20:16	8000	6400	8000	700		32
GeForce 7800 GTX	22 June 2005 (256 MB)14 November 2005 (512 MB)				430 (256 MB)550 (512 MB)	600 (256 MB)850 (512 MB)	24:8:24:16	10320 (256 MB)13200 (512 MB)	6880 (256 MB)8800 (512 MB)	10320 (256 MB)13200 (512 MB)	860 (256 MB)1100 (512 MB)	256512	38.4 (256 MB)54.4 (512 MB)
GeForce 7900 GS	May 2006 (PCIe)2 April 2007 (AGP)	G71	TSMC 90 nm	AGP 8×PCIe ×16	450	660	20:7:20:16	9000	7200	9000	787.5	256	42.24
GeForce 7900 GT	9 March 2006			PCIe ×16			24:8:24:16	10800		10800	900
GeForce 7900 GTO	1 October 2006				650			15600	10400	15600	1300	512
GeForce 7900 GTX	9 March 2006					800							51.2
GeForce 7900 GX2		2× G71			500	600	2× 24:8:24:16	24000	16000	24000	2000	2× 512	2x 38.4
GeForce 7950 GT	6 September 2006 (PCIe)2 April 2007 (AGP)	G71		AGP 8×PCIe ×16	550	700	24:8:24:16	13200	8800	13200	1100	512	44.8
GeForce 7950 GX2	5 June 2006	2× G71		PCIe ×16	500	600	2× 24:8:24:16	24000	16000	24000	2000	2× 512	2x 38.4
Model	Launch	Code name	Fab (nm)	Bus interface	Core clock (MHz)	Memory clock (MHz)	Core config^1	Fillrate				Memory
								MOperations/s	MPixels/s	MTexels/s	MVertices/s	Size (MB)	Bandwidth (GB/s)	Bus type	Bus width (bit)

Features

Model	Features
	Gamma-correct antialiasing	64-bit OpenEXR HDR	Scalable Link Interface (SLI)	TurboCache	Dual Link DVI
GeForce 7100 GS			Yes (PCIe only, No SLI bridge)
GeForce 7200 GS
GeForce 7300 SE
GeForce 7300 LE
GeForce 7300 GS			Yes (PCIe only)
GeForce 7300 GT			Yes (PCIe only, No SLI bridge)
GeForce 7600 GS			Yes (PCIe only)
GeForce 7600 GT			Yes (PCIe only)
GeForce 7600 GT (80 nm)
GeForce 7650 GS (80 nm)			Yes (Depending on OEM Design)
GeForce 7800 GS
GeForce 7800 GT
GeForce 7800 GTX
GeForce 7800 GTX 512
GeForce 7900 GS			Yes (PCIe only)
GeForce 7900 GT
GeForce 7900 GTO
GeForce 7900 GTX
GeForce 7900 GX2 (GTX Duo)
GeForce 7950 GT			Yes (PCIe only)
GeForce 7950 GX2

See also

• List of eponyms of Nvidia GPU microarchitectures
• List of Nvidia graphics processing units
• Nvidia PureVideo
• Scalable Link Interface (SLI)
• Qualcomm Adreno

Notes and References

1. Web site: CodeNames. 2021-02-15. nouveau.freedesktop.org.
2. Web site: NVIDIA C61 GPU Specs. 2021-02-15. TechPowerUp. en.
3. Web site: GPU chips — envytools git documentation. 2021-02-15. envytools.readthedocs.io.
4. Web site: NVIDIA C51 GPU Specs. 2021-02-15. TechPowerUp. en.
5. Web site: Anti-Aliasing - Preview : NVIDIA GeForce 6800 Ultra - HardWare.fr. 2021-02-15. www.hardware.fr.
6. NVIDIA introduced unified shader model in Tesla GPU microarchitecture.