Here's the first picture of an NVIDIA "Ampere" GA102 GPU die. This is the largest client-segment implementation of the "Ampere" architecture by NVIDIA, targeting the gaming (GeForce) and professional-visualization (Quadro) market segments. The "Ampere" architecture itself debuted earlier this year with the A100 Tensor Core scalar processor that's winning hearts and minds in the HPC community faster than ice cream on a dog day afternoon. There's no indication of die-size, but considering how tiny the 10.3 billion-transistor AMD "Navi 10" die is, the GA102 could come with a massive transistor count if its die is as big as that of the TU102. The GPU in the picture is also a qualification sample, and was probably pictured off a prototype graphics card. Powering the GeForce RTX 3090, the GA102-300 is expected to feature a CUDA core count of 5,248. According to VideoCardz, there's a higher trim of this silicon, the GA102-400, which could make it to NVIDIA's next halo product under the TITAN brand.

EK Waterblocks via Facebook teased availability of its custom-designed, custom-fitting watercooling solutions for NVIDIA's RTX 3000 series. Usually, users have to wait for a while before aftermarket cooling solutions become available for the latest and greatest; but apparently, not anymore. In response to a user question on Twitter on whether the company would have 3000 series blocks available on launch day, the official EK handle answered that "we'll have some things ready at or close to launch".

This is surely good news from users who have the economic power to go after NVIDIA's halo products (which, if reports are correct for this graphics card generation's costs, are bound for a significant upwards movement). Especially considering the most recent leaks painting the RTX 3090 as quite the three-slot behemoth.

Leading PSU manufacturer Seasonic is shipping a modular cable that confirms NVIDIA's proprietary 12-pin graphics card power connector for its upcoming GeForce "Ampere" graphics cards. Back in July we did an in-depth analysis of the connector, backed by confirmation from various industry sources about the connector being real, being a proprietary design by NVIDIA (and not a PCI-SIG or ATX standard), and its possible power output limit being 600 W. Seasonic's adapter converts two versatile 12 V 8-pin PSU-side connectors into one 12-pin connector, which tends to back the power output information. On typical Seasonic modular PSUs, cables are included to convert one PSU-side 8-pin 12 V connector into two 6+2 pin PCIe power connectors along a single cable. HardwareLuxxx.de reports that it's already received the Seasonic adapter in preparation for its "Ampere" Founders Edition reviews.

NVIDIA leaker with an extremely high hit-rate, kopite7kimi, however predicts that the 12-pin connector was designed by NVIDIA exclusively for its Founders Edition (reference design) graphics cards, and that custom-design cards may stick to industry-standard PCIe power connectors. We recently spied a custom-design RTX 3090 PCB, and it's shown featuring three 8-pin PCIe power connectors. This seems to be additional proof that a single 12-pin connector is a really fat straw for 12 V juice. The label on the box for the Seasonic cable reads that it's recommended to use the cable with PSUs with at least 850 W output (which could very well be a system requirement for the RTX 3090). Earlier this weekend, pictures of the RTX 3090 Founders Edition surfaced, and it is huge.

The rumor mill has no weekend break, and it churned out photos of what appears to be an NVIDIA Founders Edition version of the upcoming GeForce RTX 3090 next to the equivalent FE RTX 2080, with the latter looking like a toy compared to the massive triple slotter. The cooler comprises of the same design we discussed in detail in June, with the unique obverse dual-fan + aluminium heatsink seen in the images below. We also covered alleged PCB photos, in case you missed them before, and all lines up with the most recent leaks. The only difference here is that pricing for the RTX 3090 FE is claimed to be $1400, a far cry from the $2000 mark we saw for certain aftermarket offerings in the makings, and yet significantly higher from the previous generation- a worrying trend that we eagerly await to see justified with performance, before we even get into case compatibility concerns with the increased length here. Either way, if the images below are accurate, we are equally curious about the cooling capability and how it affects partner solutions and pricing.

NVIDIA today announced that it will be hosting another GTC keynote for the coming month of October. To be held between October 5th and October 9th, the now announced keynote will bring updates to NVIDIA's products and technologies, as well as provide an opportunity for numerous computer science companies and individuals to take center stage on discussing new and upcoming technologies. More than 500 sessions will form the backbone of GTC, with seven separate programming streams running across North America, Europe, Israel, India, Taiwan, Japan and Korea - each with access to live demos, specialized content, local startups and sponsors.

This GTC keynote follows the May 2020 keynote where the world was presented to NVIDIA's Ampere-based GA100 accelerator. A gaming and consumer-oriented event is also taking place on September 1st, with expectations being set high for NVIDIA's next-generation of consumer graphics products. Although if recent rumors of a $2,000 RTX 3090 graphics card are anything to go by, not only expectations will be soaring by then.

A user on ChipHell going by the alias Alienxzy posted a screenshot taken from an alleged insider account with information regarding plans for next-gen RTX 3090 as fabricated by NVIDIA's AIB partner Colorful. According to the original information, posted on ChipHell as a screenshot, Colorful will be releasing two high-end versions of the RTX 3090 graphics card, in the form of the Vulcan (air-cooled) and Neptune (hybrid cooling) models. According to it, and when the text is parsed through a translator, the tentative pricing for NVIDIA's next-gen is slated at CNY 13,999 (online selling) for the Vulcan X OC, and CNY 12,999 (again online selling) for the Neptune. These translate to roughly $2,000 for the high-end Vulcan X OC and (strangely, for a hybrid, water-cooled version) $1875 for the Neptune. Another pricing of CNY 12,000 is mentioned for the Vulcan ($1,730), so that might actually be the real pricing (and makes more sense compared to the Neptune).

Some more information is present on the rumor-mill-powering post, such as a 5 V RGB capability that pairs the graphics cards' lighting with that of the motherboard (and vice-versa), as well as improved in-card display for the Vulcan X; meanwhile, sales of the Neptune graphics card for the previous generation were reportedly low, which is why its pricing is reportedly being revised close to its introduction, which will be in the same ballpark of the Vulcan X OC. If true, this should set the pricing trend for NVIDIA's expected top offering in the RTX 3000 series, and it's creeping ever higher - the cost to have a generation's best performer is becoming more and more (insert descriptor here). Even considering NVIDIA's all but guaranteed Founders' Edition, we're looking at a steep pricing landscape. Do please note the rumor tag on the title of the news post, as this isn't confirmed information in any way or form. Images below for the Vulcan X and Neptune are merely representative of current generation's offerings.

Micron have spilled the beans on at least some specifications for NVIDIA's next-gen Ampere graphics cards. In a new tech brief posted by the company earlier this week, hidden away behind Micron's market outlook, strategy and positioning, lie some secrets NVIDIA might not be too keen to see divulged before their #theultimatecountdown event.

Under a comparison on ultra bandwidth solutions, segregated into the GDDR6X column, Micron lists a next-gen NVIDIA card under the "RTX 3090" product name. According to the spec sheet, this card features a total memory capacity of 12 GB GDDR6X, achieved through 12 memory chips with a 384-bit wide memory bus. As we saw today, only 11 of these seem to be populated on the RTX 3090, which, when paired with specifications for the GDDR6X memory chips being capable of 19-21 Gbps speeds, brings total memory subsystem bandwidth towards the 912 - 1008 GB/s range (using 12 chips; 11 chips results in 836 GB/s minimum). It's possible the RTX 3090 product name isn't an official NVIDIA product, but rather a Micron-guessed possibility, so don't look at it as factual representation of an upcoming graphics card. One other interesting aspect from the tech brief is that Micron expects their GDDR6X technology to enable 16 Gb (or 2 GB) density chips with 24 Gbps bandwidth, as early as 2021. You can read over the tech brief - which mentions NVIDIA by name as a development partner for GDDR6X - by following the source link and clicking on the "The Demand for Ultra-Bandwidth Solutions" document.

As we are getting close to September 1st, the day NVIDIA launches its upcoming GeForce RTX graphics cards based on Ampere architecture, we are getting even more leaks. Today, an alleged PCB of the NVIDIA's upcoming GeForce RTX 3090 has been pictured and posted on social media. The PCB appears to be a 3rd party design coming from one of NVIDIA's add-in board (AIB) partners - Colorful. The picture is blurred out on the most of the PCB and has Intel CPU covering the GPU die area to hide the information. There are 11 GDDR6X memory modules covering the surrounding of the GPU and being very near it. Another notable difference is the NVLink finger change, as there seems to be the new design present. Check out the screenshot of the Reddit thread and PCB pictures below:More pictures follow:

Here's possibly the first picture of an ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 3080 Ti graphics card, which not only confirms NVIDIA's nomenclature for its next-generation GeForce RTX graphics cards, but also provides fascinating insights into the direction ASUS is taking with its next-generation ROG Strix graphics cards. The design language involves matte black metal surfaces accented by brushed metal elements that conceal more RGB LED elements. ASUS's Axial Tech fans do the heavy lifting along with a large aluminium fin-stack heatsink underneath. The mention of "RTX 3080 Ti" also casts a shadow of doubt over "RTX 3090" leading the lineup. We should learn more about what ASUS and NVIDIA have in store, as we inch closer to the September unveil of this series.

An unknown NVIDIA GeForce "Ampere" GPU model surfaced on 3DMark Time Spy online database. We don't know if this is the RTX 3080 (RTX 2080 successor), or the top-tier RTX 3090 (RTX 2080 Ti successor). Rumored specs of the two are covered in our older article. The 3DMark Time Spy score unearthed by _rogame (Hardware Leaks) is 18257 points, which is close to 31 percent faster than the RTX 2080 Ti Founders Edition, 22 percent faster than the TITAN RTX, and just a tiny bit slower than KINGPIN's record-setting EVGA RTX 2080 Ti XC. Futuremark SystemInfo reads the GPU clock speeds of the "Ampere" card as 1935 MHz, and its memory clock at "6000 MHz." Normally, SystemInfo reads the memory actual clock (i.e. 1750 MHz for 14 Gbps GDDR6 effective). Perhaps SystemInfo isn't yet optimized for reading memory clocks on "Ampere."

Alleged specifications of NVIDIA's upcoming GeForce RTX 3090, RTX 3080, and next-generation TITAN graphics cards, based on the "Ampere" graphics architecture, surfaced in tweets by KatCorgi, mirroring an early-June kopite7kimi tweet, sources with a high hit-rate on NVIDIA rumors. All three SKUs will be based on the 7 nm "GA102" silicon, but with varying memory and core configurations, targeting three vastly different price-points. The RTX 3080 succeeds the current RTX 2080/Super, and allegedly features 4,352 CUDA cores. It features a 320-bit GDDR6X memory interface, with its memory ticking at 19 Gbps.

The RTX 3090 is heir-apparent to the RTX 2080 Ti, and is endowed with 5,248 CUDA cores, 12 GB of GDDR6X memory across a 384-bit wide memory bus clocked at 21 Gbps. The king of the hill is the TITAN Ampere, succeeding the TITAN RTX. It probably maxes out the GA102 ASIC with 5,326 CUDA cores, offers double the memory amount of the RTX 3090, at 24 GB, but at lower memory clock speeds of 17 Gbps. NVIDIA is expected to announce these cards in September, 2020.

NVIDIA's next-generation GeForce "Ampere" RTX 3000 series graphics cards are heading for a September reveal, along with availability shortly after. Much of the news cycle over the past couple of weeks revolved around alleged leaks of the card's cooling solution that provides insights into what the finished product could look like, with some even doubting the veracity of the picture leaks given the September launch. Igor's Lab did some digging into the production timeline of these cards. The leaks seem to perfectly align with the timeline.

The chip design, prototyping, taping-out, and testing of "Ampere" IP completed before the mass-production timeline kicks off. This begins in April/May, with NVIDIA's OEM partners and other suppliers finalizing a bill of materials (BOM). June is also when the products go through the EVT (engineering validation test) and DVT (design validation test). It is at these stages that NVIDIA has the opportunity to approve or summarily reject/change the design of the product and finalize it. By July, there are working samples of the finished products for NVIDIA and its industry partners to validate. This is also when regulators such as the FCC and CE conduct EMI tests. Production validation tests (PVT), or proofing of the production line, occurs in late-July/early-August. The final BIOS is released to the OEM by NVIDIA around this time. Mass-production finally commences in August, and the onward march to distributors rolls on. The media event announcing the product and press reviews follow in September, and market availability shortly thereafter.

Pictures of alleged next-generation GeForce "Ampere" graphics cards emerged over the weekend, which many of our readers found hard to believe. It's features a dual-fan cooling solution, in which one of the two fans is on the reverse side of the card, blowing air outward from the cooling solution, while the PCB extends two-thirds the length of the card. Since then, there have been several fan-made 3D renders of the card. NVIDIA is not happy with the leak, and started an investigation into two of its contractors responsible for manufacturing Founders Edition (reference design) GeForce graphics cards, Foxconn and BYD (Build Your Dreams), according to a report by Igor's Lab.

According to the report, the cooling solution, which looks a lot more overengineered than the company's RTX 20-series Founders Edition cooler, costs a hefty USD $150, or roughly the price of a 280 mm AIO CLC. It wouldn't surprise us if Asetek's RadCard costs less. The cooler consists of several interconnected heatsink elements with the PCB in the middle. Igor's Lab reports that the card is estimated to be 21.9 cm in length. Given its cost, NVIDIA is reserving this cooler for only the top three SKUs in the lineup, the TITAN RTX successor, the RTX 2080 Ti successor, and the RTX 2080/SUPER successor.