NVIDIA to Unveil "Ampere" Based GeForce Product Next Month

[btarunr]

NVIDIA prepares to make its annual tech expo, the 2018 Graphics Technology Conference (GTC) action-packed. The company already surprised us with its next-generation "Volta" architecture based TITAN V graphics card priced at 3 grand; and is working to cash in on the crypto-currency wave and ease pressure on consumer graphics card inventories by designing highly optimized mining accelerators under the new Turing brand. There's now talk that NVIDIA could pole-vault launch of the "Volta" architecture for the consumer-space; by unveiling a GeForce graphics card based on its succeeding architecture, "Ampere."

The oldest reports of NVIDIA unveiling "Ampere" date back to November 2017. At the time it was expected that NVIDIA will only share some PR blurbs on some of the key features it brings to the table, or at best, unveil a specialized (non-gaming) silicon, such as a Drive or machine-learning chip. An Expreview report points at the possibility of a GeForce product, one that you can buy in your friendly neighborhood PC store and play games with. The "Ampere" based GPU will still be based on the 12 nanometer silicon fabrication process at TSMC, and is unlikely to be a big halo chip with exotic HBM stacks. Why NVIDIA chose to leapfrog is uncertain. GTC gets underway late-March.



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[bug]

Meh, we all know it's going to be the A100 HPC card with consumer cards 3-4 months away and mid-range cards (aka stuff that most people care about) even further away.

Expect the usual assortment of people trying to derive gaming numbers while other people point out that HPC != gaming. Yawn.

 

[dyonoctis]

Meh, we all know it's going to be the A100 HPC card with consumer cards 3-4 months away and mid-range cards (aka stuff that most people care about) even further away.

Expect the usual assortment of people trying to derive gaming numbers while other people point out that HPC != gaming. Yawn.

Maybe it's just a toned down volta for gaming (with the A.I stuff kicking the bucket). That would be surprising to see them having 2 HPC cards competing with one another. Especialy when the "Ampere" name came as a surprise for everyone. This is just too odd.

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

anyone taking out a 2nd Mortgage to buy the new volta cards?

 

[Fluffmeister]

Interesting to see what these offer, i wonder if the midrange XX104 chip will beat the GTX 1080 Ti.

 

[bug]

Maybe it's just a toned down volta for gaming (with the A.I stuff kicking the bucket). That would be surprising to see them having 2 HPC cards competing with one another. Especialy when the "Ampere" name came as a surprise for everyone. This is just too odd.

What surprised? I think we've known for 2 years (or more) that Volta will be succeeded by Ampere. Also, releasing the top HPC card first has also been a treand for a number of years now.

anyone taking out a 2nd Mortgage to buy the new volta cards?

Why would we do that? There's no consumer-oriented Volta card to be had anyway.

 

[lexluthermiester]

(with the A.I stuff kicking the bucket)

This seems likely. The AI tech is useless to the gaming community and general PC users. It seems logical that it will not be present on consumer GPU's.

Why would we do that? There's no consumer-oriented Volta card to be had anyway.

Bug, I think we can safely presume he was joking..

 

[bug]

Bug, I think we can safely presume he was joking..

Idk. I always advocate in favor of companies being free to sell their stuff for whatever they want (just like we're free to buy or not), but with products like the Titan V I can't shake the feeling that the joke's on us. Or on whoever buys that stuff.

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

Idk. I always advocate in favor of companies being free to sell their stuff for whatever they want (just like we're free to buy or not), but with products like the Titan V I can't shake the feeling that the joke's on us. Or on whoever buys that stuff.

as long as the prices of GPUs continue to rise, yes the joke is on us.

 

[lexluthermiester]

but with products like the Titan V I can't shake the feeling that the joke's on us.

If purchased for playing games, then yes, the joke would be on whoever bought a TitanV. But if used for it's intended purpose, it is money well spent. Nvidia has clearly stated that it's not a gaming card. However, take out the very pricey circuitry that's useless to games and general use anyway and ramp up the the other components, and you've got a good step forward at a reasonable price... When GPU prices come down.

Personally, I'm not buying a new GPU till prices come back down to reasonable levels, IE what they were in 2017.

 

[dyonoctis]

What surprised? I think we've known for 2 years (or more) that Volta will be succeeded by Ampere. Also, releasing the top HPC card first has also been a treand for a number of years now.


Why would we do that? There's no consumer-oriented Volta card to be had anyway.

I must have been out of it then ,I've only knew about Ampere for a few month, and volta has been a pretty special product that's been used only by a select few. The quadro volta isn't even out yet.
So i'm really confused about this. The tesla v100 was available for purchase really really late, (and it's even worse for the titan V). That would be the first time that the consumer side of thing skipped a generation. It would be shocking if ampere was more than a tweaked volta on the same 12nm.

 

[Vya Domus]

It would be shocking if ampere was more than a tweaked volta on the same 12nm.

Well , it wont. Nvidia may have a lot of cash but they wont waste money on an entire new architecture after they spent so much on Volta and that 12nm node. Regardless whoever is looking forward to these should be prepared to shell out 600$+ for the XX60 part , that is if they can even get one.

Though , I am still doubtful they will announce anything at all at GTC , maybe another TItan at best.

 

[the54thvoid]

Well , it wont. Nvidia may have a lot of cash but they wont waste money on an entire new architecture after they spent so much on Volta and that 12nm node. Regardless whoever is looking forward to these should be prepared to shell out 600$+ for the XX60 part , that is if they can even get one.

Though , I am still doubtful they will announce anything at all at GTC , maybe another TItan at best.

Yeah, I read an article a while back that said Nvidia had zero announcements to make at GTC regarding the consumer GPU side. Biggest expectation is for another Drive AI thing. I suppose we'll see in a month.

 

[RH92]

Regardless whoever is looking forward to these should be prepared to shell out 600$+ for the XX60 part , that is if they can even get one.

Based on ? ....... Yeah NONSENSE !!! The 250-350 price range is where GPU's sell the most and Nvidia knows this better than everyone since 1060's are outselling everything .

Worst case scenario the new XX60 will cost around +50$ compared to 1060 MSRP and honestly if Ampere (or whatever the next gen is called ) follows the trend created by Pascal ( 1060 = 980 ) well im ok paying 350-400 bucks for 1080 perf or more knowing 1080's here in France cost as much as 800+ euro .

 

[jabbadap]

Yeah, I read an article a while back that said Nvidia had zero announcements to make at GTC regarding the consumer GPU side. Biggest expectation is for another Drive AI thing. I suppose we'll see in a month.

Well yeah that would not surprise me at all: GTC ain't for consumer tech. Before GTC there's GDC on March 19-23 2018 and one could check what were released/announced in the last years GDC...

 

[Fluffmeister]

Well yeah that would not surprise me at all: GTC ain't for consumer tech. Before GTC there's GDC on March 19-23 2018 and one could check what were released/announced in the last years GDC...

Makes more sense for sure, it's been a year since the GTX 1080 Ti was unveiled after all.

Who knows, maybe time and Nvidia don't wait for the competition to show up.

 

[Vya Domus]

Based on ? ....... Yeah NONSENSE !!! The 250-350 price range is where GPU's sell the most and Nvidia knows this better than everyone since 1060's are outselling everything .

Worst case scenario the new XX60 will cost around +50$ compared to 1060 MSRP and honestly if Ampere (or whatever the next gen is called ) follows the trend created by Pascal ( 1060 = 980 ) well im ok paying 350-400 bucks for 1080 perf or more knowing 1080's here in France cost as much as 800+ euro .

MSRP is utterly useless and irrelevant with the current market situation. You may not see even a glimer of it.

And who is to say Nvidia wont speculate this and price their cards absurdly high from the get go and they'll just lower the prices at some point if mining becomes irrelevant.

 

[bug]

If purchased for playing games, then yes, the joke would be on whoever bought a TitanV. But if used for it's intended purpose, it is money well spent. Nvidia has clearly stated that it's not a gaming card. However, take out the very pricey circuitry that's useless to games and general use anyway and ramp up the the other components, and you've got a good step forward at a reasonable price... When GPU prices come down.

Personally, I'm not buying a new GPU till prices come back down to reasonable levels, IE what they were in 2017.

I don't think Nvidia themselves know what Titan is for. They just build them and suppoedly people buy them.

I must have been out of it then ,I've only knew about Ampere for a few month, and volta has been a pretty special product that's been used only by a select few. The quadro volta isn't even out yet.
So i'm really confused about this. The tesla v100 was available for purchase really really late, (and it's even worse for the titan V). That would be the first time that the consumer side of thing skipped a generation. It would be shocking if ampere was more than a tweaked volta on the same 12nm.

Well, besides the name, little has transpired about Ampere anyway. I believe at some point it was supposed to bring HBM to the masses, but that boat has sailed. It could be Volta without tensors and such, but then again, they probably wouldn't give it a new name if it was (I'm thinking Maxwell here).
But like I said, this announcement will be about their top Tesla card, so it will still tell us little about a future gaming card. So I'll just chill for a while longer.

 

[RH92]

And who is to say Nvidia wont speculate this and price their cards absurdly high from the get go and they'll just lower the prices at some point if mining becomes irrelevant.

Their CEO himself maybe ?
Nvidia claims hard that they doing everything to get GeForce cards on gamers hands where they belong to be . So why would they go and do such a stupid thing ? To loose credibility ? You underestimate big time their marketing team . Nvidia has a simple task . Price correctly next gen and profit a new record breaking year interms of market share and income !

MSRP is utterly useless and irrelevant with the current market situation. You may not see even a glimer of it.

A dedicated mining platform will hepl to eliminate such an issue ....... and looks like they're going for it .

 

[kruk]

Their CEO himself maybe ?
Nvidia claims hard that they doing everything to get GeForce cards on gamers hands where they belong to be . So why would they go and do such a stupid thing ? To loose credibility ? You underestimate big time their marketing team . Nvidia has a simple task . Price correctly next gen and profit a new record breaking year interms of market share and income !

Lol. Are you aware you are talking about a company that takes any chance it can to milk people (G-Sync, Founders Edition)?

There is shortage in supplies (RAM) and massive demand for GPUs on the market. They are not dumb and will most certainly raise the MSRP, and MSRP is only the tip of the iceberg. I would be surprised if next gen GPUs won't cost at least as much as Pascal does now ($100+ over MSRP) when they hit the market. Unless ... they are artificially crippled at mining ...

 

[bug]

just noticed that all leaks mention GeForce GTX, which would mean we really get a consumer card this time around. Then again, it could also mean everybody's relaying info from a single source.

@kruk Good point. I mean, Nvidia doesn't have that policy that AMD adopted where they are forbiden from selling at more than 7% the manufacturing costs

 

[Upgrayedd]

Eh more speculation and what ifs. The most concrete evidence I have read so far is that Nvidia is no longer providing Pascal silicon to partners. Which could mean a new arch or that miners still got them drained.

 

[Vya Domus]

Their CEO himself maybe ?
Nvidia claims hard that they doing everything to get GeForce cards on gamers hands where they belong to be . So why would they go and do such a stupid thing ? To loose credibility ? You underestimate big time their marketing team . Nvidia has a simple task . Price correctly next gen and profit a new record breaking year interms of market share and income !

Sometimes I wish there was a fanboy tag under someone's name so that I know when to not waste my time trying to discuss something.

My bad , it should have been obvious to me from the very beginning but hey.

 

[rtwjunkie]

Based on ? ....... Yeah NONSENSE !!! The 250-350 price range is where GPU's sell the most and Nvidia knows this better than everyone since 1060's are outselling everything .

Worst case scenario the new XX60 will cost around +50$ compared to 1060 MSRP and honestly if Ampere (or whatever the next gen is called ) follows the trend created by Pascal ( 1060 = 980 ) well im ok paying 350-400 bucks for 1080 perf or more knowing 1080's here in France cost as much as 800+ euro .

Are you perhaps unaware of what crypto mining has done to recommended prices? Those old price levels you used to hold dear are gone, gone gone.

Nvidia is in business to make money like ANY company. It doesn’t matter to them who buys their products. The commitment to gamers news conference? PR Stunt.

 

[bug]

Are you perhaps unaware of what crypto mining has done to recommended prices? Those old price levels you used to hold dear are gone, gone gone.

Nvidia is in business to make money like ANY company. It doesn’t matter to them who buys their products. The commitment to gamers news conference? PR Stunt.

Well, it may be more than a stunt. Because while nobody knows whether the mining market will be with us two years from now, the gaming market certainly will. My guess, is they're trying to please both crowds, but like you pointed out, it would be bad business not to sell to those willing to pay more in the end.