Rumored NVIDIA GK110 Chip Coming This Summer

Subject: Graphics Cards | March 22, 2012 - 02:19 AM | Tim Verry
Tagged: nvidia, gpu, gk110, GK104

Update: The GK104 GeForce GTX 680 has now been released and we have our review published.

There have been some rumors going around the web about an alleged NVIDIA GK110 chip that is to be the successor to the upcoming GK104, or GTX 600 series, graphics cards. Videocardz is the latest site to pick up on the rumors, and they were able to translate the German blog from which the GK110 chip rumors originated. The NVIDIA GTX 600 series is not yet out, but rumored specs put the top end GTX 680 at 1536 CUDA cores, 2 GB GDDR5 memory, 3.54 billion transistors and a die size of 294mm^2. Clockspeed wise, the GTX 680 will run at a 1.006 GHz core clock, 2.012 GHz shader clock, and effective memory clock of 6.008 GHz.

The rumored GK110 chip, on the other hand, will have 6 billion transistors, 2,304 CUDA cores, and a die size of 550mm^2. That die size figure is where many of the doubts about the rumors come from. Many people have expressed their doubts that NVIDIA would ever create a GPU using such a large die as it would be very cost prohibitive to manufacture. Further, at 550mm^2, that would mean a 87% jump versus the GTX 680, which to many seems too large to consider realistic. Even AMD's 7970 Tahiti XT part only has a die size of 365mm^2. While the other reported figures seem to match up to what's realistically possible, the jump in die size is taken by many to indicate the rumors are false.

	AMD HD 7970 Tahiti XT	NVIDIA GTX 680 GK104	NVIDIA GK110
Die Size	365mm^2	294mm^2	550mm^2
Transistors	4.3 billion	3.54 billion	6 billion
GCN/CUDA Cores	2048	1536	2304
Single Precision Computing Power	3.79 TFlops	3.09 TFlops	4.5 TFlops
Gaming Performance (relative)	85%	100%	150%
Power Consumption	211 Watts	185 Watts	250-300 Watts
Launch Price	$549	$549	$650
Release Date	12-22-2011 (paper)	3-22-2012	August 2012

Rumored GK110 Specs

The GK104 is likely going to be released today (be sure to stay tuned to PC Per Live for more information on the NVIDIA event today), and rumors suggest that the GK110 will be released sometime between August 2012 and January 2012. Performance is said to be 1.41 Teraflops more than the GTX 680 based on the GK104 chip.

It could be possible but it would be questionable for NVIDIA to release another big chip within five months of GK104's release. Videocardz suggests that it may in face be a "GTX 685" type of card, but it is bigger and uses more power than the GTX 680 so I honestly don't see NVIDIA doing such a thing. If anything, a refresh should use less power or provide the same performance at a lower price thanks to manufacturing advances. Should the 550mm^2 die hold true, it's not looking likely even for a GTX 700 series card but who knows what NVIDIA has up their sleeves. For now, I am going to focus on the GTX 680 release (heh).

Source: Videocardz

So when is that GTX680 coming out anyways?

Subject: General Tech | March 12, 2012 - 03:20 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: nvidia, kelper, GK104, gtx680

Whether you are an NVIDIA fan or not you are likely anxiously awaiting the release of NVIDIA's new GPU. Since AMD is currently holding the lead on graphics cards they have no competition to lower the price of their high end cards which can beat anything NVIDIA currently has on the market. Depending on the price and performance of the new Kepler chip, its release should have an effect on the pricing of at least one line of AMD card, be it Pitcairn or Cape Verde. This is why SemiAccurate's pegging of the expected release dates, both paper and physical, are worth taking a look at, especially if your GPU recently died and you are looking at getting a new one. We should have a good idea of the price, performance and availability by the end of March.

"Today, March 8, is the day where the press that Nvidia flew in get their ‘tech day’, basically the deep dive on Kepler. Then, like we said a few days ago, Nvidia will paper launch the cards next Monday, March 12. From that point, things get a little hazy because people are arguing over two different days. Some are saying Friday March 23, others Monday March 26, with a few more saying 23 than 26. It could be none of the above though, but if you bet on two weeks out, you won’t be far off."

Here is some more Tech News from around the web:

Tech Talk

Source: SemiAccurate

Alleged NVIDIA GK104 Kepler GTX 670 Ti Photo Leaked

Subject: Graphics Cards | March 8, 2012 - 03:41 PM | Tim Verry
Tagged: nvidia, kepler, graphics card, gpu, GK104, gaming, 28nm

GDC 2012 is upon us, and in addition to the Samaritan demo and some gaming goodness, we spotted a leaked image over at Legit Reviews that is allegedly a photo of a production NVIDIA GTX 670 Ti graphics card.

The cooler looks to cover the whole PCB and be of the blower design, funneling hot air of the of the front of the card and out of the case. The connectors include two DVI, one HDMI, and one Display Port. Rumors suggest that the latest NVIDIA cards will be capable of multi-display (>2) from a single card much like AMD cards have been doing for some time.

Not a whole lot is known about the upcoming GK104 "Kepler" GPUs with a good deal of certainty, but we have reported on a few leaks including that the cards will have 2 GB of GDDR5 RAM on a 256 bit memory bus, and that the cards may just be coming out in May. Due to Epic using a working Kepler GPU in their Samaritan demo, that launch date does not sound too far fetched either. On the performance front, there are conflicting rumors; some rumors state that the cards will blow AMD out of the water and other people swear the cards will not be as powerful as the rumors suggest. I suppose we'll find out soon though!

Are you still waiting for NVIDIA's Kepler GPUs or have you jumped on the latest Radeon series?

Source: Legit Reviews

Podcast #185 - ASUS EeePad Transformer Prime, an overclocked XFX HD7970, AMDs Lightning Bolt and more!

Subject: Editorial | January 19, 2012 - 07:05 PM | Ken Addison
Tagged: podcast, Intel, amd, ssd, hdd, nvidia, kepler, GK104, gpu, cpu

PC Perspective Podcast #185 - 01/19/2011

Join us this week as we talk about the ASUS EeePad Transformer Prime, an overclocked XFX HD7970, AMDs Lightning Bolt and more!

You can subscribe to us through iTunes and you can still access it directly through the RSS page HERE.

The URL for the podcast is: http://pcper.com/podcast - Share with your friends!

iTunes - Subscribe to the podcast directly through the iTunes Store
RSS - Subscribe through your regular RSS reader
MP3 - Direct download link to the MP3 file

Hosts: Ryan Shrout, Josh Walrath, Jeremy Hellstrom, and Allyn Malvantano

This Podcast is brought to you by MSI Computer, and their all new Sandy Bridge Motherboards!

Program length: 1:25:22

Program Schedule:

0:00:26 Introduction
1-888-38-PCPER or podcast@pcper.com
http://pcper.com/podcast
http://twitter.com/ryanshrout and http://twitter.com/pcper
0:00:55 SOPA and PIPA Chat...
0:06:35 ASUS Eee Pad Transformer Prime Review: Thinner, Faster
0:07:23 Acer Extensa 5420 Retrospective Review: How Far Have We Come?
0:10:15 Corsair Hydro Series H100 Liquid CPU Cooler Review
0:11:10 Video Perspective: Cooler Master Cosmos II Case Review
0:14:00 XFX Radeon HD 7970 3GB Black Edition and CrossFire Results
0:22:45 AMD and IBM inside the Xbox Next?
0:31:30 Lucid Cloud Gaming (VGWare) and XLR8 on Tablets Demo
0:44:55 Nvidia May Launch GF104 "Kepler" GPUs Ahead Of Schedule
0:51:00 AMD Lightning Bolt Strikes At Intel's Thunderbolt
0:53:00 AMD Countering Ultrabooks With Ultrathin Notebooks
0:55:00 Random Storage stuff at CES? also this link
1:05:00 Alienware X51 Desktop -- Console Sized PC, $700 and up.
1:10:30 Email from Tom about 7970 CrossFire
1:13:34 Hardware / Software Pick of the Week
1. Ryan: Behringer XENYX 802
2. Jeremy: EVGA SR-X
1. Josh: Decent and cheap for the AMD enthusiast: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103962
2. Allyn: Mophie Juice Pack Powerstation, oh, and my current house rep is my anti-pick
1-888-38-PCPER or podcast@pcper.com
http://pcper.com/podcast
http://twitter.com/ryanshrout and http://twitter.com/pcper
Closing

Source:

Are AMD's Southern Islands about to be swamped by a Kepler tidal wave?

Subject: Graphics Cards | January 19, 2012 - 03:06 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: nvidia, kepler, GK104, amd

AMD had better hope that SemiAccurate lives up to their tongue in cheek name because according to their sources NVIDIA's new Kepler GPU line is going to better AMD at everything. The variety of negative rumours about Kepler are contradicted by the news that the A2 silicon has arrived, trouble free, at NVIDIA's door step so the early arrival of Kepler in May now seems reasonable.

From the limited description we have it seems that NVIDIA's Achilles Heel, multi-monitor support on a single card is no longer a problem as there are two DVI plugs, a single HDMI, and a DisplayPort connector present. With all of those plugs it seems obvious the card is designed to handle NVIDIA Surround all by its lonesome. From the GDDR5 count the cards bandwidth of 256 bits and total memory size of 2GB is lesser than AMD's 384-bit, 3GB card but from the description at SemiAccurate that is not going to be enough to save AMD's biscuit.

^Ex-cellent

"The short story is that Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) will win this round on just about every metric, some more than others. Look for late March or early April availability, with volumes being the major concern at first. GK104 cards seen by SemiAccurate all look very polished and complete, far from rough prototypes or “Puppies“. A2 silicon is now back from TSMC, and that will likely be the production stepping barring any last second hitches. Currently, there aren’t any."

Here are some more Graphics Card articles from around the web:

Graphics Cards

Source: SemiAccurate

PC Perspective

Rumored NVIDIA GK110 Chip Coming This Summer

Subject: Graphics Cards | March 22, 2012 - 02:19 AM | Tim Verry Tagged: nvidia, gpu, gk110, GK104

So when is that GTX680 coming out anyways?

Subject: General Tech | March 12, 2012 - 03:20 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom Tagged: nvidia, kelper, GK104, gtx680