NVIDIA Pascal GPUs Spotted in India’s Trade Database

NVIDIA’s upcoming architecture codenamed ‘Pascal’ is based on the TSMC 16nm manufacturing process and utilizes the latest iteration of high bandwidth memory. HBM2 will feature bandwidth exceeding 1 Terabyte per second and ship in larger forms compared to HBM1. Some of you might remember, HBM1 was a major talking point on AMD’s Fiji XT line-up but the memory has a limitation of 4GB. Thankfully, HBM2 resolves this and could potentially allow for GPUs sporting a whopping 32GB. While this isn’t confirmed, rumours suggest that NVIDIA could launch a flagship with a huge amount of video memory. However, I personally think a 32GB graphics card will target professionals requiring huge compete power.

It’s important to remember that HBM is up to 9 times faster than the current GDDR5 standard and a huge revolution in memory technology. Pascal will also be the first architecture to utilize NV-Link. This is an energy-efficient, high-bandwidth communications channel that uses up to three times less energy to move data on the node at speeds 5-12 times conventional PCIe Gen3 x16. In theory, this enables faster communication between the CPU and GPU as well as multiple graphics cards. This is only a very brief insight into the potential of Pascal and it could be the biggest step forward in graphics technology we’ve seen in a long time.

Recent information from Zauba.com shows a shipment of Pascal graphics cards which suggests the launch date isn’t too far off. However, according to the Tech Times, Pascal might not launch until June at the earliest! The general consensus is the launch will occur sometime in Q2 this year. With AMD and NVIDIA preparing new architectures, it’s a very exciting time and I cannot wait to see the kind of performance gains compared to the previous generation. Hopefully, the new range offers superb performance at reasonable prices, and AMD keeps NVIDIA in check to drive costs down.