Thanks to innovations such as the latest Turing-based RTC 20 series GPUs featuring real-time ray tracing, Nvidia remains one of the best brands on the GPU market. However, when it comes to the manufacturing process used for the new Radeon VII GPUs, its rival AMD is ahead with the 7 nm process. For this reason, Nvidia is striving to close that gap by using Samsung’s 7 nm EUV process for its next-gen graphic cards.
It is rumored that Nvidia will launch its Ampere-based GPUs in the first half of 2020. The rumors are based on a report on Digitimes, Taiwan’s top tech publication, as well as a leaked EEC certification. The upcoming Ampere Nvidia graphics card will be an important performance upgrade over current Turing GPUs and it will feature Samsung’s 7nm node technology.
The reputable Igor’s Lab publication is the third to confirm rumors of a Nvidia Ampere GPU launch in the first half of 2020. The first leaks about the upcoming Ampere graphics card date back to 2018.
It seems that we will soon see Nvidia’s ambitions materialize. After the company had lower than expected quarterly earnings, it makes sense that Nvidia’s management is determined to return to record-breaking quarters. This means we can be fairly certain to see the next-generation Ampere flagship graphics card arrive in the first half of 2020.
Nvidia’s Ampere GPU will continue the company’s RTX philosophy and take it to the next level. The graphics card will be based on the Samsung 7nm EUV process, being able to go further than today’s Turing GPUs that are capable of ray tracing at 1080p and 30 fps. The upcoming Ampere GPU will not only provide a performance increase, but also better power efficiency. It is estimated that Samsung’s 7nm EUV process will provide a 50% increase watt for watt.
With its upcoming Ampere GPUs, NVIDIA will be better positioned to compete with its rival AMD's second-gen Navi GPU architecture. For gamers, the advantage of this competition will likely be seen as gaming at 4K and 60 fps is becoming more mainstream. With ray tracing enabled, NVIDIA's next-gen Ampere graphics card will surely enable higher frame rates and resolution.
Another potential advantage if Nvidia will start using Samsung’s 7nm EUV process is that the EUV chips are less expensive to produce. This could mean that the successor to the GeForce RTX 2080 will be cheaper than the current Turing GPUs.
