Nvidia Ampere GPUs Expected in 1H 2020

So the rumours and expectations for Nvidia’s next-next-gen graphics card have begun. I mean, it’s to be expected, if Nvidia weren’t already building the next big thing, they wouldn’t be a very good graphics card manufacturer. Sources have suggested the cards could arrive in the first half of 2020. Personally, I think that sounds pretty reasonable to assume. It pretty much falls in line with the release schedule for previous generations.

Ampere

One thing we do expect is a process change. This would be a drop down to 7nm, matching that of the current crop of AMD Radeon RX 5700 cards. A big step up/down given their currently using 12nm for Turing. That’s going to have a significant impact on transistor density alone.

Production

Who’s going to make the new graphics chips? Well, foundries seem to be booked up pretty tight for 7nm these days. However, speculation is that Samsung could produce Nvidia’s Ampere chips. Of course, with some issues a TSMC to meet demand, that may be a smart move.

What Do You Think?

Ampere is still a long way off, in tech terms. No doubt the cards will replace the current RTX and GTX cards. However, I suspect Nvidia will launch with one high-end card, then bleed out the range to later in 2020. Are you holding out for Ampere or are you happy with the current range?