The RV740 graphics processor by AMD could well be the first GPU in production, to be built on the newer 40nm manufacturing process, giving its makers something to brag about. The RV740 design and specifications are largely derived from the RV770LE (covered here), while bringing the GDDR5 memory standard to the mainstream.

Chinese industrial journals tell DigiTimes that the company has completed taping-out the RV740, and that the GPU is awaiting mass-production by AMD's foundry partner, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC). Mass production of products based on this GPU could commence by the end of Q1 2009.

The year 2008 so far, has been very eventful for the graphics card market. A reinvigorated GPU lineup by ATI, brought in some fierce competition to NVIDIA, which resulted in a tug-of-war with pricing graphics cards in the market, with either company refusing to lose on grounds of pricing. This event, coupled with the announcement of several game titles by game publishers, resulted in bumper-sales of graphics cards, giving the present state of the global economy little or no relevance.

The months to come hold the same amount of importance for both AMD and NVIDIA, where the next round of competition begins with successors to current high-end products being slated. NVIDIA is expected to continue with its monolithic high transistor-count GPU design methodology, while AMD could bring in a little change to the way it uses two efficient GPUs to build powerful products.

NVIDIA is expected to continue on its monolithic high-end GPU approach with a few notable GPUs that have been slated for Q4, 2008 and throughout 2009. The visual computing giant will be rolling out a 55nm derivative of the existing G200 graphics processor, codenamed GT206. The GPU is expected to be essentially the same, albeit newer silicon process allowing higher clock-speeds, that push up the performance envelope. The GT206 will be released in Q4, 2008., presumably to cash-in on the X-mas shopping season. It is found that GT206 seems to be having problems with its shader domain, which has pushed its launch for that late.

Following GT206, GT212 and GT216 would be NVIDIA's entries to the 40nm silicon fabrication process. Earlier reports suggested that foundry companies in Taiwan could be ready with the infrastructure to manufacture 40nm GPUs by June/July 2009. For the late second quarter 2009, either GT212, GT216, or simply a new card based the GT206, in a dual-GPU configuration could lead the pack. GT212 and GT216 could release in Q2, 2009. The GT212, GT216 GPUs support GDDR5 memory on a broad memory bus. Towards the end of the year however, NVIDIA will have made its DirectX 11 GPU, the GT300.

Slides published during a press meeting held at ELSA's headquarters in Shenzhen, China reveals what look like NVIDIA's future graphics processors (GPU). Although not quite playing on the global stage, ELSA is a popular channel vendor operating in China that concentrates on Asian markets. ELSA showcased several of its products. During a press event where its consumer graphics plans were discussed, ELSA published a slide that shows two future GPUs from NVIDIA, codenamed GT206 and GT212. These GPUs are positioned to succeed current flagship GPUs as in the G200. The slide shows a graph with launch time on the x-axis and performance projection on the y-axis. It can be inferred that GT206 is going to succeed the current GeForce GTX 260 and the GT212 succeeds GTX 280. Time scales show that GT206 comes out towards the very end of this year, and GT212 comes out sometime in Q1, 2009.