Q1-2025 promises to be an action-packed quarter for graphics cards, with NVIDIA introducing the bulk of its next-generation GeForce RTX 50-series "Blackwell" GPUs. The company is expected to start things off with the two enthusiast-segment SKUs, the RTX 5090 and RTX 5080, in January, followed by the RTX 5070-series in February, and rounded off nicely with the RTX 5060-series in March. This would mean hundreds of individual new graphics card SKUs from NVIDIA's board partners, which are reportedly busy winding up the final inventory deliveries of their RTX 40-series "Ada" products, and transferring this production capacity to the RTX 50-series. So, when the RTX 50-series GPU models do come out across the quarter, there's plenty of inventory to go around. Board Channels reports that on NVIDIA's end, production of nearly every AD100-series silicon has ended, except the AD107, which will continue selling for entry-mainstream GeForce RTX 40-series SKUs. The AD106 production line has stopped, as has the AD103, AD104, and AD102.

We officially have the first look at NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 5090 "Blackwell" add-in board from what appears to be ZOTAC manufacturing facility. The leaked video shows a newly opened factory in Indonesia, which is recently opened-up to circumvent US export regulations. Published on Chiphell platform, the factory video shows NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 AIB design powering up, followed by cheering of factory workers. This signals that the alleged NVIDIA GeForce RTX 50 series scheduled for CES is near indeed, and AIB designs are also going to be available around that timeframe.

To confirm that the video is indeed showing GeForce RTX 5090, the video description, translated from Chinese, is as follows: "Due to the US's chip export control on China, graphics card chips with performance equal to or higher than 4090 are prohibited from being exported to mainland China. In order to avoid the impact of this move on the launch of RTX 5090, Bo Neng urgently built a factory in Batam, Indonesia. The video shows the debugging of the factory production line. The graphics card that lights up the monitor in the video is the NVIDIA RTX 5090 graphics card that will be launched soon." Although the video is quite blurry, we have to wait for the official launch or more leaks to see the GPU in its full glory.

The first quarter of 2025 (January thru March) will see back-to-back launches of next-generation GeForce RTX 50-series "Blackwell" graphics card, according to the latest rumors. NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang is confirmed to take center stage for the 2025 International CES keynote address, where he is widely expected to kick off the GeForce "Blackwell" gaming GPU generation. CES is expected to see NVIDIA launch its flagship GeForce RTX 5090 (RTX 4090-successor SKU), and its next-best part, the GeForce RTX 5080 (RTX 4080 successor).

February 2025 is expected to see the company debut the RTX 5070, and possibly the RTX 5070 Ti, if there is such a SKU. The RTX 5070 succeeds a long line of extremely successful SKUs that tended to sell in large volumes. Perhaps the most important launches of the generation will come in March 2025, when the company is expected to debut the RTX 5060 and RTX 5060 Ti, which succeed the current RTX 4060 and RTX 4060 Ti, respectively. The xx60 tier tends to be the bestselling class of gaming GPUs in any generation. In all, it's expected that NVIDIA will release six new SKUs within Q1, and you can expect over a hundred graphics card reviews from TechPowerUp in Q1.

NVIDIA is gearing up for an exciting showcase at CES 2025, where its CEO, Jensen Huang, will take the stage and talk about, hopefully, future "Blackwell" products. According to Wccftech's sources, the anticipated GeForce RTX 5090, RTX 5080, and RTX 5070 graphics cards should arrive at CES 2025 in January. The flagship RTX 5090 is rumored to come equipped with 32 GB of GDDR7 memory running at 28 Gbps. Meanwhile, the RTX 5080 looks very interesting with reports of its impressive 16 GB of GDDR7 memory running at 32 Gbps. This advancement comes after we previously believed that the RTX 5080 model is going to feature 28 Gbps GDDR7 memory. However, the newest rumors suggest that we are in for a surprise, as the massive gap between RTX 5090 and RTX 5080 compute cores will be filled... with a faster memory.

The more budget-friendly RTX 5070 is also set for a CES debut, featuring 12 GB of memory. This card aims to deliver solid performance for gamers who want high-quality graphics without breaking the bank, targeting the mid-range segment. We are very curious about pricing of these models and how they would fit in the current market. As anticipation builds for CES 2025, we are eager to see how these innovations will impact gaming experiences and creative workflows in the coming year. Stay tuned for more updates as the event approaches!

Thanks to the renowned NVIDIA hardware leaker kopite7Kimi on X, we are getting information about the final versions of NVIDIA's first upcoming wave of GeForce RTX 50 series "Blackwell" graphics cards. The two leaked GPUs are the GeForce RTX 5090 and RTX 5080, which now feature a more significant gap between xx80 and xx90 SKUs. For starters, we have the highest-end GeForce RTX 5090. NVIDIA has decided to use the GB202-300-A1 die and enabled 21,760 FP32 CUDA cores on this top-end model. Accompanying the massive 170 SM GPU configuration, the RTX 5090 has 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus, with each GDDR7 die running at 28 Gbps. This translates to 1,568 GB/s memory bandwidth. All of this is confined to a 600 W TGP.

When it comes to the GeForce RTX 5080, NVIDIA has decided to further separate its xx80 and xx90 SKUs. The RTX 5080 has 10,752 FP32 CUDA cores paired with 16 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 256-bit bus. With GDDR7 running at 28 Gbps, the memory bandwidth is also halved at 784 GB/s. This SKU uses a GB203-400-A1 die, which is designed to run within a 400 W TGP power envelope. For reference, the RTX 4090 has 68% more CUDA cores than the RTX 4080. The rumored RTX 5090 has around 102% more CUDA cores than the rumored RTX 5080, which means that NVIDIA is separating its top SKUs even more. We are curious to see at what price point NVIDIA places its upcoming GPUs so that we can compare generational updates and the difference between xx80 and xx90 models and their widened gaps.

NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang never misses an opportunity to remind us that Moore's Law is cooked, and that future generations of logic hardware will only get larger and hotter, or hungrier for power. NVIDIA's next generation "Blackwell" graphics architecture promises to bring certain architecture-level performance/Watt improvements, coupled with the node-level performance/Watt improvements from the switch to the TSMC 4NP (4 nm-class) node. Even so, the GeForce RTX 5090, or the part that succeeds the current RTX 4090, will be a power hungry GPU, with rumors suggesting the need for two 16-pin power inputs.

TweakTown reports that the RTX 5090 could come with two 16-pin power connectors, which should give the card the theoretical ability to pull 1200 W (continuous). This doesn't mean that the GPU's total graphics power (TGP) is 1200 W, but a number close to or greater than 600 W, which calls for two of these connectors. Even if the TGP is exactly 600 W, NVIDIA would want to deploy two inputs, to spread the load among two connectors, and improve physical resilience of the connector. It's likely that both connectors will have 600 W input capability, so end-users don't mix up connectors should one of them be 600 W and the other keyed to 150 W or 300 W.

NVIDIA is on the brink of finalizing its next-generation "Blackwell" graphics cards, the GeForce RTX 5090 and RTX 5080. Sources close to BenchLife indicate that NVIDIA is targeting September for the official design specification finalization of both models. This timeline hints at a possible unveiling at CES 2025, with a market release shortly after. The RTX 5090 is rumored to boast a staggering 550 W TGP, a significant 22% increase from its predecessor, the RTX 4090. Meanwhile, the RTX 5080 is expected to draw 350 W, a more modest 9.3% bump from the current RTX 4080. Interestingly, NVIDIA appears to be developing "D" variants for both cards, which are likely tailored for the Chinese market to comply with export regulations.

Regarding raw power, the RTX 5090 is speculated to feature 24,576 CUDA cores paired with 512-bit GDDR7 memory. The RTX 5080, while less mighty, is still expected to pack a punch with 10,752 CUDA cores and 256-bit GDDR7 memory. As NVIDIA prepares to launch these powerhouses, rumors suggest the RTX 4090D may be discontinued by December 2024, paving the way for its successor. We are curious to see how the power consumption is handled and if these cards are packed efficiently within the higher power envelope. Some rumors indicate that the RTX 5090 could reach 600 watts at its peak, while RTX 5080 reaches 400 watts. However, that is just a rumor for now. As always, until NVIDIA makes an official announcement, these details should be taken with a grain of salt.

It appears like 2024 will go down as the second consecutive year without any new GPU generation launch from either NVIDIA or AMD. Kopite7kimi, a reliable source with NVIDIA leaks, says that the GeForce RTX 50-series "Blackwell" generation won't see a debut before the 2025 International CES (January 2025). It was earlier expected that the company would launch at least its top two SKUs—the RTX 5090 and RTX 5080—toward the end of 2024, and ramp the series up from 2025. There is no explanation behind this "delay." Like everyone else, NVIDIA could be rationing its foundry allocation of the 3 nm wafers from TSMC for its high-margin "Blackwell" AI GPUs. The company now makes over five times the revenue from selling AI GPUs than it does from gaming GPUs, so this development should come as little surprise.

Things aren't any different with NVIDIA's rivals in this space, AMD and Intel. AMD's RDNA 4 graphics architecture and the Radeon RX series GPUs based on it, aren't expected to arrive before 2025. AMD is making several architectural upgrades with RDNA 4, particularly to its ray tracing hardware; and the company is expected to build these GPUs on a new foundry node. Meanwhile, Intel's Arc B-series gaming GPUs based on the Xe2 "Battlemage" graphics architecture are expected to arrive in 2025, too, although these chips are rumored to be based on a more mature 4 nm-class foundry node.

In the preparation season for NVIDIA's upcoming GeForce RTX 50 Series of GPUs, codenamed "Blackwell," one power supply manufacturer accidentally leaked the power configurations of all SKUs. Seasonic operates its power supply wattage calculator, allowing users to configure their systems online and get power supply recommendations. This means that the system often gets filled with CPU/GPU SKUs to accommodate the massive variety of components. This time we have the upcoming GeForce RTX 50 series, with RTX 5050 all the way up to the top RTX 5090 GPU. Starting with the GeForce RTX 5050, this SKU is expected to carry a 100 W TDP. Its bigger brother, the RTX 5060, bumps the TDP to 170 W, 55 W higher than the previous generation "Ada Lovelace" RTX 4060.

The GeForce RTX 5070, with a 220 W TDP, is in the middle of the stack, featuring a 20 W increase over the Ada generation. For higher-end SKUs, NVIDIA prepared the GeForce RTX 5080 and RTX 5090, with 350 W and 500 W TDP, respectively. This also represents a jump in TDP from Ada generation with an increase of 30 W for RTX 5080 and 50 W for RTX 5090. Interestingly, this time NVIDIA wants to unify the power connection system of the entire family with a 16-pin 12V-2x6 connector but with an updated PCIe 6.0 CEM specification. The increase in power requirements for the "Blackwell" generation across the SKUs is interesting, and we are eager to see if the performance gains are enough to balance efficiency.

Possible specifications of the various NVIDIA GeForce "Blackwell" gaming GPUs were leaked to the web by Kopite7kimi, a reliable source with NVIDIA leaks. These are specs of the maxed out silicon, NVIDIA will carve out several GeForce RTX 50-series SKUs based on these chips, which could end up with lower shader counts than those shown here. We've known from older reports that there will be five chips in all, the GB202 being the largest, followed by the GB203, the GB205, the GB206, and the GB207. There is a notable absence of a successor to the AD104, GA104, and TU104, because NVIDIA is trying a slightly different way to approach the performance segment with this generation.

The GB202 is the halo segment chip that will drive the possible RTX 5090 (RTX 4090 successor). This chip is endowed with 192 streaming multiprocessors (SM), or 96 texture processing clusters (TPCs). These 96 TPCs are spread across 12 graphics processing clusters (GPCs), which each have 8 of them. Assuming that "Blackwell" has the same 256 CUDA cores per TPC that the past several generations of NVIDIA gaming GPUs have had, we end up with a total CUDA core count of 24,576. Another interesting aspect about this mega-chip is memory. The GPU implements the next-generation GDDR7 memory, and uses a mammoth 512-bit memory bus. Assuming the 28 Gbps memory speed that was being rumored for NVIDIA's "Blackwell" generation, this chip has 1,792 GB/s of memory bandwidth on tap!

Micron is getting ready to set sail with the new GDDR7 memory, and being NVIDIA's long-term partner, both are gaining big with the GeForce RTX 4000 Series. A few days ago, Micron announced its imminent launch of GDDR7 memory, remember that in March JEDEC published the GDDR7 memory standard. The interesting part is that an even more important piece of information was provided in one of Micron's slide-deck, the one that shows GDDR7 gaming performance. Officially Micron says that GDDR7 can be 3.1x faster than GDDR6 and 1.5x faster than GDDR6X. However, the slide in question provides some normalized FPS performance for ray tracing, and rasterization under game testing conditions. Until now, everything is clear, what comes next is our speculation and assumptions, based on previous knowledge so please, take it with a grain of salt. Will it be a hard guess, looking over those graphs, to tell that NVIDIA's RTX 5090 offers up to a 42% improvement over the RTX 4090 in rasterization, and up to 48% in ray tracing?

NVIDIA is getting closer to releasing its next-gen GPU with the RTX 5090 graphics card. Micron is in a strong partnership with NVIDIA and it's expected that its next gen graphics cards will use Micron GDDR7 memory. Now, we know that, at least for Ray Tracing, one real-world benchmark is Cyberpunk 2077, and it could be also the case here, from the graphs it looks very much like Ray Tracing was tested with Path Tracing. For Rasterization performance another hard guess is that perhaps it's either Starfield or Assassin's Creed Mirage. Presumably, tests were made using also AMD RX 7900XTX, and NVIDIA RTX 4090 to get GDDR6 reference. Time will tell if we made the right prediction.

NVIDIA's GeForce "Blackwell" generation of gaming GPUs will stick to being traditional monolithic die chips. The company will not build its next generation of chips as either disaggregated devices, or multi-chip modules. Kopite7kimi, a reliable source with NVIDIA leaks, says that the largest GPU in the generation, the "GB202," is based on a physically monolithic design. The GB202 is expected to power the flagship GeForce RTX 5090 (or RTX 4090 successor), and if NVIDIA sticking to traditional chip design for this, then it's unlikely that smaller GPUs will be any different.

In contrast, AMD started building disaggregated devices with its current RDNA 3 generation, with its top two chips, the "Navi 31" and "Navi 32," being disaggregated chips. An interesting rumor suggests that team red's RDNA 4 generation will see a transition from disaggregated chips to multi-chip modules—packages that contain multiple fully-integrated GPU dies. Back to the green camp, and NVIDIA is expected to use an advanced 4 nm-class node for its GeForce "Blackwell" GPUs.

NVIDIA's upcoming GeForce RTX 5090 Founders Edition graphics card may implement a design closely resembling the cinder block product design the company readied for its RTX 4090 Ti graphics card that never materialized into a marketable product. This sees a 4-slot thick board design, with a slender main logic PCB arranged along the plane of the motherboard, on top of which the cooling solution is mounted perpendicular to the plane, as shown in the images below. This main logic board contains the GPU, memory, and VRM. There two additional PCBs—one has the display I/O, and the other has the PCIe interface. There is a fourth disaggregated component, the 12V-2x6 receptacle, located somewhere along the top of the cooling solution.

Confirmation of NVIDIA using the RTX 4090 Ti "cinder block" board design for the RTX 5090 comes from kopite7kimi, a reliable source with NVIDIA leaks. Kopite7kimi mentions a card that has a "Main Board, IO Rigid Board and a separate PCIE slot component (perhaps it should not be considered as the third PCB)," which perfectly describes with the RTX 4090 Ti. NVIDIA had completed the design phase of this card, which made it to its cooling solution OEM (which is likely where the images leaked out from). The company probably decided against launching this product because the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX fell significantly short of the performance proposition of the RTX 4090.

NVIDIA debuted the current RTX 40-series "Ada" in 2022, which means the company is expected to debut its next-generation in some shape or form in 2024, having refreshed it earlier this year. We've known for a while that the new GeForce RTX 50-series "Blackwell" could see a 2024 debut, which is going by past trends, would be the top-two or three SKUs, followed by a ramp up in the following year, but we're now learning through a new Moore's Law is Dead leak that the launch could be limited to just the flagship product, the GeForce RTX 5090, or the SKU that succeeds the RTX 4090.

Even a launch limited to the flagship RTX 5090 would give us a fair idea of the new "Blackwell" architecture, its various new features, and how the other SKUs in the lineup could perform at their relative price-points, because the launch could at least include a technical overview of the architecture. NVIDIA "Blackwell" is expected to introduce another generational performance leap over the current lineup. The reasons NVIDIA is going with a more conservative launch of GeForce "Blackwell" could be to allow the market to digest inventories of the current RTX 40-series; and to accord higher priority to AI GPUs based on the architecture, which fetch the company much higher margins.