Nvidia Rumour: GTX 2080 & 2070 using Ampere (GA104) and will launch in April, GP102 is EOL

[Master Disaster]

Coming from WCCF however they got it from German tech site 3Dcenter.org

 

Taken from the article

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Let me begin by saying that this news is a nothing but a rumor at this point – its not even a leak. There is a very good reason this is tagged as ‘rumor’ and not a leak or an exclusive so if unverified rumors aren’t your cup of tea, now would be the time to get off.

 

The German site is reporting that Nvidia have already transitioned GP102 to End Of Line and that mass production of its new Ampere based GA104 chip has begun in earnest

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For those that are still here, lets start with the GP102 chip. The GP102 Pascal chip is the flagship product for the commercial segment and according to the report it has already been shifted to EOL status which basically means that production on the GPUs have stopped and no more will be made. According to the report, GP102 entered EOL status sometime in the beginning of November last month.

 

If true, this would have interesting implications on the market dynamics. The GP102 powers the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti graphics card – the flagship product – and if its core has indeed entered EOL then its unlikely stock is going to last for long given the current market demand. In fact, its entirely possible that the GeForce 1080 Ti will go permanently out of stock in a few months assuming there’s any truth to this report.

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This is where the GA104 comes in. According to Beyond3D, the company has been preparing the Ampere architecture mainstream champion as the perfect replacement for high end Pascal and will be unveiling it in March.  Production for the Ampere based GA104 will start sometime this month according to this report and we should see initial market availability by April. This timeline is something that does fit to the clockwork that NVIDIA usually follows. In second quarter of 2018 would mark exactly 2 years since the GP104 was unveiled back in 2016. To keep its two-year cycle alive, the company has to upgrade to the next iteration during H1 2017.

Despite what the article headline says there's no indication Nvidia will use the same nomenclature for the new Ampere cards but if this is true the GDC in March seems like a good time for them to drop the press release

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As far as nomenclature goes, there is no confirmation but if NVIDIA chooses to stick to its roots, then the new graphics cards will be called the GeForce GTX 2080 and GeForce GTX 2070. GDC and GTC are both being held in March and remain one of the likely candidates where the unveiling/launch of the NVIDIA Ampere based GeForce GTX 2080 and 2070 might happen. We should naturally see other chips being created on the platform such as the GA106, which will be for the mid range segment, GA107 / GA108 for the budget segment and of course the GA102 for the high end enthusiast segment which will be part of the GeForce GTX 2080 Ti (or whatever NVIDIA ends up calling them).

This rumour directly contradicts earlier rumors that Nvidias next cards will be using Volta, could that mean they designed Volta for other tasks and that Ampere is a purely gaming designed card?

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Of course the next question on everyone’s mind is wheres Volta? Well, there are a couple of possible answers to that question. Its possible that Volta was made primarily for the HPC side of things and Ampere is the commercial side of things. That would make Ampere a highly gaming focused micro-architecture and probably incredibly optimized for gaming loads. Its also possible that Ampere is simply a Pascal refresh with better binning and an optimized architecture. That said, as far as nomenclature goes, Pascal to Ampere doesn’t seem to have any link while as Volta and Ampere do, so I am more likely to believe (caution: opinion) that Volta and Ampere are basically two sides of the same platform with the latter being the gaming optimized micro-architecture.

 

In any case, the Ampere based NVIDIA GeForce GTX 2070 and GTX 2080 graphics cards should certainly help revive some demand in the industry and will almost certainly run into severe shortage issues as miners pick up the initial batches. With most foundries now working at almost peak capacity to serve miners its interesting to see how the next sage of the gaming technology cycle pans out and how companies deal with the rights of the gamers that are being trodden upon by cyrptocurrency miners.

https://wccftech.com/nvidia-ampere-ga104-gpu-geforce-gtc-2070-gtx-2080-launching-april/

http://m.3dcenter.org/news/nvidia-ampere-geruechtekueche-gp102-produktion-bereits-eingestellt-ga104-seit-februar-produktio

 

Very interesting, Pascal is now EOL, Volta isn't getting a consumer release and we're skipping straight to Ampere.

 

Ignoring the fact it's WCCF if true this is pretty big news.

[Princess Luna]

If true it is much sooner than most of us believed it would be, I still think the 1080 Ti and 2080 will be pretty much on pair with each other.

[Sir Asvald]

If the rumors are true, please make sure they can't be used for mining! 

 

 

EDIT: ALL GPUs make sure they can't be used for mining!

[Guest]

Isn't it supposed to be called gtx 1180 and 1170 or am i missing something?

[Master Disaster]

I find it interesting they'd stop making GP102s before they have a GA102 to replace it with.

 

Wouldn't that mean that 1080ti stock might dry up while they only have a 2080 on the shelves to replace it with?

[FloRolf]

Bitcoin/ETH loses it's value and BOOM, Ampere news. Coincidence? 

[Imbellis]

Man - I hope this is right about the release date. I'm running off of a 770 with very bad coil whine, so I'm ready to upgrade to some used 1060 or something.

[Master Disaster]

2 minutes ago, FloRolf said:

Bitcoin/ETH loses it's value and BOOM, Ampere news. Coincidence? 

I wouldn't say it's news, it might be entirely fictional but if it's true it means Nvidia transitioned Pascal to EOL while BTC was climbing to its peak (November/December).

 

I'm pretty sure Nvidia would be happy if BTC stayed up permanently tbh.

[Andrew Sh]

2 minutes ago, Imbellis said:

Man - I hope this is right about the release date. I'm running off of a 770 with very bad coil whine, so I'm ready to upgrade to some used 1060 or something.

I'd almost go off and get a 1060 now if you can get one cheap. Worthy upgrade and chances are the 2070 (if it's called that) will cost what a 1080 costs now. It'll be super hard to get your hands on the new cards too since miners will go John Cena on retailers.

[MrRavens]

Let's see if I can even get one on release, since I was planning on getting a GPU soon, but was holding off for...obvious reasons. *looks at the prices and all the sold out signs*

[Blademaster91]

"Ampere a highly gaming focused micro-architecture and probably incredibly optimized for gaming loads. "

If anywhere near being true would this mean Ampre wouldn't be ideal for mining? Nvidia  would need to branch out with a mining card,but imo is necessary or else there will just be another shortage.

[BuckGup]

Nvidia will probably bump prices up $50 again so we will see $700-$750 ti variants and probably $1,499 Titans.

[MaktimS]

19 minutes ago, Almostbauws said:

Isn't it supposed to be called gtx 1180 and 1170 or am i missing something?

The naming is now just speculation. Nobody knows how they will name it. But my tip is that the names will be something like Turbo Lazer 4000GTR

[Master Disaster]

1 minute ago, MaktimS said:

The naming is now just speculation. Nobody knows how they will name it. But my tip is that the names will be something like Turbo Lazer 4000GTR

Is it wrong that I'd buy the hell out of that?

[iiNNeX]

Just now, Master Disaster said:

Is it wrong that I'd buy the hell out of that?

That would be a cool ass name

[Master Disaster]

14 minutes ago, Blademaster91 said:

"Ampere a highly gaming focused micro-architecture and probably incredibly optimized for gaming loads. "

If anywhere near being true would this mean Ampre wouldn't be ideal for mining? Nvidia  would need to branch out with a mining card,but imo is necessary or else there will just be another shortage.

Unless Nvidia strip it of CUDA cores it will still be great for mining.

[TVwazhere]

2 minutes ago, Master Disaster said:

Is it wrong that I'd buy the hell out of that?

It's got Turbo and Lazer in the name

 

All you need is GT, STI, or Type R and you got yourself a sucsessful car GPU launch!

[iiNNeX]

4 minutes ago, TVwazhere said:

It's got Turbo and Lazer in the name

 

All you need is GT, STI, or Type R and you got yourself a sucsessful car GPU launch!

Don't forget them VTEC cores.

[TacoSenpai]

8 minutes ago, MaktimS said:

The naming is now just speculation. Nobody knows how they will name it. But my tip is that the names will be something like Turbo Lazer 4000GTR

Did you just say GTR?

 

 

[NinJake]

"It's the beST card yet!" @TVwazhere

 

I am very much ready for the 1180Ti/2080Ti! (Tax returns woooot)

[TVwazhere]

Just now, NinJake said:

"It's the beST card yet!" @TVwazhere

 

I am very much ready for the 1180Ti/2080Ti! (Tax returns woooot)

If GPU prices normalize and Ram starts coming down I'll probably postpone springs and struts and LSD for a custom watercooled loop, as right now I dont have the funds for both  

[Master Disaster]

Just now, TVwazhere said:

If GPU prices normalize and Ram starts coming down I'll probably postpone springs and struts and LSD for a custom watercooled loop, as right now I dont have the funds for both  

You should probably clarify, you mean limited slip differential, right?

[TVwazhere]

Just now, Master Disaster said:

You should probably clarify, you mean limited slip differential, right?

Nah man i do hard drugs off the floor of my dealer's trailer home

 

Yes I meant Limited slip Diff.  

[NinJake]

1 minute ago, TVwazhere said:

If GPU prices normalize and Ram starts coming down I'll probably postpone springs and struts and LSD for a custom watercooled loop, as right now I dont have the funds for both  

LSD would make me jelly. You gonna RGB your intercooler too? haha just kidding. I know you are like the case master but if I decided to just build a new system I might end up going with a nicer glass case with some water cooling as well but idk... might just get a new GPU for now.

 

(Now that I think of it, my ST3 has "rgb" in it lol...)

[DildorTheDecent]

Ampere is probably similar to Volta but with the Tensor cores removed. Would let them make the die smaller.

 

The 2080 Ti and 2080 might ship with GDDR6 in place of GDDR5X that was on the 1080 Ti and 1080.

 

This little graph shows theoretical perf: https://www.anandtech.com/show/12338/samsung-starts-mass-production-of-gddr6-memory

  Assuming of course nvidia are going to allow it to operate at 18Gb/s. They might aim for lower, maybe around 16Gb/s then increase later.

 

Of course I'm just speculating.