Nvidia reportedly planning on launching GTX 1060 variant with GP104 chip

[AlTech]

Nvidia is reportedly planning on launching GTX 1060 SKUs which feature Nvidia's GP104 chip found in the GTX 1070, 1070Ti and GTX 1080.

 

 

The 2 new SKUs would use GP104-140 and GP104-150 and would feature 3GB and 6GB of GDDR5 respectively. These SKUs will feature the same specifications as the current GTX 1060 GPUs except for the obviously larger die size.

 

Although I would expect slightly worse power consumption due to the sheer amount of disabled Clusters.

 

It is kind of odd that Nvidia is comfortable releasing a 50% disabled GPU die. 

 

Quote

NVIDIA is planning to offer a new variant of the GeForce GTX 1060 graphics card which may not look different at all but hold a surprise underneath the hood. The latest rumors coming straight from China indicate that NVIDIA is planning to use a high-performance GPU on the GeForce GTX 1060 graphics card which has been used on their high-end products such as the GTX 1080 and GTX 1070.

 

Quote

The source points out that the NVIDIA GP104-300 chip which is used on the GTX 1070, will be cut down specifically for the GeForce GTX 1060 graphics cards. This won’t be the first time we are hearing such reports as far back as December 2016, when reports emerged that NVIDIA will be equipping the 3 GB GeForce GTX 1060 models with cut down GP104 GPUs. The cut down GPUs will match the specifications of the GP106 GPU and feature no additional gains which many will expect from a high-end GP104 GPU.

 

Quote

So now the question, why is NVIDIA bringing this variant so late to the market. First of all, the card wouldn’t affect any 6 GB GTX 1060 owners at all. It’s literally the same thing and no one would even notice the change. However, it shows that NVIDIA is clearing stock of their Pascal GPUs to ready for the next generation. The GeForce GTX 1060 is a good seller among gamers and it’s possible that NVIDIA wants to ship as many cards as they can before the new cards launch. It’s also worth noting that NVIDIA will be offering the GP104 equipped GTX 1060 cards in the Chinese region only.

 

So yeah, the GeForce Pascal hype train keeps on rolling. That is, until Navi and GeForce Turing come around.

 

Source: https://wccftech.com/nvidia-geforce-gtx-1060-6-gb-pascal-gp104-gpu/

[Guest The Viking]

nvidia's line-up is already a mess.

 

Gtx1060 3gb and 1060 6gb are different cards with different performance, yet people buying the 3gb version are fooled believing they'll get 6gb performance (just get an rx580, 4gb and 8gb are same performance, ffs)

 

then you had the mx150 with the cut-down version but no way of telling which one is which (yes, yes, amd also did the same crap with the... rx560? 550?)

 

now you'll have a cut-down.... 1070/1080 chip for a 1060, probably with different performance again.

 

Why?

 

so basically you'll have:

 

gtx1060 3gb original

gtx1060 3gb new gp104

gtx1060 6gb original

gtx1060 6gb new gp104

 

all probably performance differently and no way of knowing what is what. Yay, nvidia ftw.

[mr moose]

2 minutes ago, The Viking said:

so basically you'll have:

 

gtx1060 3gb original

gtx1060 3gb new gp104

gtx1060 6gb original

gtx1060 6gb new gp104

 

 

No, This is nvidia, you'll have the:

 

GTX 1060 3GB

GTX 1060 6GB

GTX 1060 3GB

GTX 1060 6GB

 

And maybe the:

GTX 1060 3GB

GTX 1060 6GB

 

 

[Jurrunio]

Not sure why either. Wouldnt it be easier to change products of some factory from GP104 to GP106? Same process node.

 

5 minutes ago, The Viking said:

Gtx1060 3gb and 1060 6gb are different cards with different performance, yet people buying the 3gb version are fooled believing they'll get 6gb performance

they are ill-informed, and thought they save $50 for no reason.

[CyanideInsanity]

Just now, mr moose said:

No, This is nvidia, you'll have the:

 

GTX 1060 3GB

GTX 1060 6GB

GTX 1060 3GB

GTX 1060 6GB

 

And maybe the:

GTX 1060 3GB

GTX 1060 6GB

 

 

Nvidia does like to go where the money is, so real life loot boxes for everyone!

[Dustyne]

I would really hope they just name them 1060ti for god sake

[Taf the Ghost]

Looks like they plan to produce the GP104 for a while, so they're just going to use all of the normally discarded dies. Given that Nvidia doesn't normally stop producing dies until well into the next generation, this probably points to them removing the entire GP106 die from production. GP107, the really small die, will be in production another 5 years or so (for embedded & other uses).  Thus, this just looks like a cost saving move at the end of a production cycle.

[AlTech]

8 minutes ago, Jurrunio said:

Not sure why either. Wouldnt it be easier to change products of some factory from GP104 to GP106? Same process node.

They probably have a bunch of GP104 chips lying around and need to get rid of them by the time GeForce Turing is released.

[porina]

40 minutes ago, AluminiumTech said:

Although I would expect slightly worse power consumption due to the sheer amount of disabled Clusters.

Depends on how well they can disable the unused parts. Ideally, they wont take any significant power at all so overall it'll be the same. If anything, a bigger die with more parts disabled could help lower power density and make cooling it a little easier.

 

40 minutes ago, AluminiumTech said:

It is kind of odd that Nvidia is comfortable releasing a 50% disabled GPU die. 

We can only speculate, but maybe they have collected enough "reject" dies over the years from the 1070+ for this to be a valid use case. At this stage we're probably close enough to next gen they don't want to make too many more current gen dies, and looking to get the most of what they have left.

[leadeater]

I'm guessing they want to stop production of GP106 dies to clear a fab line for something new, yields and cost of GP104 must be good enough for it to not matter.

[leadeater]

47 minutes ago, Jurrunio said:

they are ill-informed, and thought they save $50 for no reason.

Doesn't help the major model number is the same, I mean when is a GTX 1060 not a 1060? When it's a 1060.... heh. It's not like Nvidia is using a 1040 model name or 1060 Ti so  like ... wtf come on.

[Jurrunio]

Just now, leadeater said:

Doesn't help the major model number is the same, I mean when is a GTX 1060 not a 1060? When it's a 1060.... heh. It's not like Nvidia is using a 1040 model or 1060 Ti so  like ... wtf come on.

it didnt affect online shoppers like me, since memory capacity is always mentioned ;P

[Taf the Ghost]

4 minutes ago, leadeater said:

I'm guessing they want to stop production of GP106 dies to clear a fab line for something new, yields and cost of GP104 must be good enough for it to not matter.

Apparently GP107 & GP108 are fabbed at Samsung, so Nvidia is clearing out their highest volume part produced at TSMC.

[leadeater]

4 minutes ago, Jurrunio said:

it didnt affect online shoppers like me, since memory capacity is always mentioned ;P

Unless you don't know that 3GB and 6GB are actually different, more so than is implied. The 1050 could be a 1040 instead, 1050 Ti could be 1050, 1060 3GB could just be a 1060 and 1060 6GB could be 1060Ti. Not sure why that would be so hard.

[Jurrunio]

1 minute ago, leadeater said:

Unless you don't know that 3GB and 6GB are actually different, more so than is implied. The 1050 could be a 1040 instead, 1050 Ti could be 1050, 1060 3GB could just be a 1060 and 1060 6GB could be 1060Ti. Not sure why that would be so hard.

becasue they have to reprint the boxes?

[AlTech]

6 minutes ago, leadeater said:

Doesn't help the major model number is the same, I mean when is a GTX 1060 not a 1060? When it's a 1060.... heh. It's not like Nvidia is using a 1040 model name or 1060 Ti so  like ... wtf come on.

Well, we could just get everybody to agree to call the 6GB GTX 1060 as the GTX 1060Ti and call the 3GB 1060 the GTX 1060

[leadeater]

4 minutes ago, Jurrunio said:

becasue they have to reprint the boxes?

I mean originally, had plenty of opportunity when making those GPUs knowing the CUDA configuration is different to name them properly.

[leadeater]

4 minutes ago, AluminiumTech said:

Well, we could just get everybody to agree to call the 6GB GTX 1060 as the GTX 1060Ti and call the 3GB 1060 the GTX 1060

So another Titan Xppppppppppppppp 

[AlTech]

7 minutes ago, Jurrunio said:

it didnt affect online shoppers like me, since memory capacity is always mentioned ;P

memory capacity isn't the only difference as others have mentioned before and Nvidia's naming scheme does not suggest that there is a cuda core difference.

 

The 1060 3GB has 10% fewer cuda cores and Nvidia does not advertise this at all.

[porina]

Was checking out Tech Deals yt channel recently now he's on fp, and he did a recent vid on 1060 3GB vs 6GB. Putting aside the ram for now, an interesting point was that while there is a difference due to the cores, it isn't that much of a difference outside of benchmarks. It's unlikely to find a situation the 6GB playable where the 3GB is not, excluding the ram... I have to say that as that seems to be the bigger factor looking forward. You're more likely going to notice running out of vram than the core difference.

[Arika]

1 hour ago, AluminiumTech said:

These SKUs will feature the same specifications as the current GTX 1060 GPUs except for the obviously larger die size.

sooo, whats the benefit/point?

[AlTech]

Just now, Sierra Fox said:

sooo, whats the benefit/point?

To the consumer, there doesn't appear to be a real benefit other than potentially better availability of GTX 1060s.

 

To Nvidia, there is a clear cost benefit.

 

[GoldenLag]

1 minute ago, Sierra Fox said:

sooo, whats the benefit/point?

Other thermals i suppose as there is more die area. Also there is more dead cuda-cores to spread the heat.

 

Therefore we now have a 1060 with the same specs meanwhile being different. Great.......

[leadeater]

9 minutes ago, porina said:

Was checking out Tech Deals yt channel recently now he's on fp, and he did a recent vid on 1060 3GB vs 6GB. Putting aside the ram for now, an interesting point was that while there is a difference due to the cores, it isn't that much of a difference outside of benchmarks. It's unlikely to find a situation the 6GB playable where the 3GB is not, excluding the ram... I have to say that as that seems to be the bigger factor looking forward. You're more likely going to notice running out of vram than the core difference.

I just hate pointless dumb naming when there is no need for it, my car is bad enough with it being a Type S variant yet not actually displayed on the badge at all.

[Misanthrope]

1 hour ago, The Viking said:

nvidia's line-up is already a mess.

 

Gtx1060 3gb and 1060 6gb are different cards with different performance, yet people buying the 3gb version are fooled believing they'll get 6gb performance (just get an rx580, 4gb and 8gb are same performance, ffs)

 

then you had the mx150 with the cut-down version but no way of telling which one is which (yes, yes, amd also did the same crap with the... rx560? 550?)

 

now you'll have a cut-down.... 1070/1080 chip for a 1060, probably with different performance again.

 

Why?

 

so basically you'll have:

 

gtx1060 3gb original

gtx1060 3gb new gp104

gtx1060 6gb original

gtx1060 6gb new gp104

 

all probably performance differently and no way of knowing what is what. Yay, nvidia ftw.

 

1 hour ago, mr moose said:

No, This is nvidia, you'll have the:

 

GTX 1060 3GB

GTX 1060 6GB

GTX 1060 3GB

GTX 1060 6GB

 

And maybe the:

GTX 1060 3GB

GTX 1060 6GB

 

 

Guys remember: Nvidia said in a press statement about the GPP that they wanted to avoid consumer confusion....

 

I think I'm getting a nosebleed of trying to figure this out but these motherfuckers claim they want to avoid confusion.