Nvidia Post-Volta (Ampere?) Rumor and Speculation Thread

We only know one fact about Ampere, it's build into the Big Red supercomputer in this summer. Which means it should start mass production now and should've taped out around 1 year before mass production for such a big complex chip, which we can expect as volta successor.
So it's clear his info was true. We have no other reliable infos. Speculated was 8LPP Samsung as a process in the last time. We'll know it in the next weeks, when Nvidia presents Ampere. They won't wait too long after postponing their GTC presentation of it. I'm sure they'll show it in may. But that's only about the supercomputer Ampere. Consumer we have 0 infos.

 

It's more than enough. Even XBSX is allocating 10GB for video and limiting bandwidth for the other 6GB of RAM (the 6GB can be accessed by the GPU, but the design choice tells me they decided they only need 10GB). Besides, PCs have a separate pool for system RAM. Above budget gaming PCs will probably have 24GB of RAM (8GB VRAM + 16GB System RAM). That's almost double what the consoles have, although consoles use it for gaming much more efficiently.

 

16gb for the whole system, OS/audio/game logic. 10gb for graphics related is more towards high end.

 

It surpasses current "enthusiast" grade GPUs certainly, though I would like to point out that high-end graphics cards have featured > 10GB (11-12GB) since the Titan X (Pascal) launched in August 2016. Next-gen cards will almost certainly have more VRAM onboard due to the density of GDDR6. Yes, consumer Turing SKUs use GDDR6 though at the lower 8Gbit density, which is the same as high-end GDDR5/x. I suspect this was a cost-saving measure due to the large die sizes of Turing GPUs. My guess is 20 or 22GB for 3080 Ti, 16GB for 3080.

 

It shouldn't take too long now before NDAs are lifted.
That also depends a bit on how badly Nvidia is impacted by Corona, and I know for some companies it's pretty bad.

 

Nvidia's earnings conference call is in May so hopefully they can shed a light on Ampere by then or in the Q&A during the call.

 

nVidia had a firechat last month and they claimed that every "new" product they would have shown is on track and contributing to the financial quarter: https://investor.nvidia.com/events-...ails/2020/GTC-Analyst-QA-Session/default.aspx

Summary: https://seekingalpha.com/article/43...f-multi-decade-growth-trends#comment-84604751

 

Meaning?

 

Ampere is already in use.

 

That's 1:1 for Xsx high speed only, discarding the rest of the ram. Disregarding that a few titles inevitably will put VRAM stuff in the low speed bin regardless, titles going from consoles to PC aren't always 1:1 with VRAM reqs. Doom Eternal recommends a 4gb card for specs, that probably matches consoles settings despite the fact we know all 4gb of available console ram aren't GPU dedicated.

So, they're sending out GPUs to high end corporate clients? At least that's what I'd assume.

 

Probably not for base console settings (medium and low). A 7970 3gb runs the game at high/ultra 60fps.
Premium consoles run it at closer to high.

 

Yes, probably first small amounts for hyperscalers to develop their cloud solutions. But this makes it pretty clear, that they need to announce it before the earnings call in May. No way they'll publish results with revenues from yet unannounced products.

 

Get amped!

NVIDIA Announces GTC 2020 Keynote with CEO Jensen Huang Set for May 14 - NVIDIA

 

I thought this is your wordings, but apparently this is NVIDIA's own wordings of the news!

 

Rumor: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 and 3080 Coming Q3 2020 + Specs
April 29, 2020

https://www.guru3d.com/news-story/rumor-nvidia-geforce-rtx-3070-and-3080-coming-q3-2020-specs.html

 

The gap between 3080 and 3080T seems big (if the frequency is pretty much the same).

 

Damn, a 3070 being in 2080Ti level performance, seems like a good buy if the pricing is right.

 

NVIDIA has filed for DGX A100 trademark, practically giving final confirmation for Ampere codename and GA100 being launched on 14th

https://trademarks.justia.com/888/54/dgx-88854783.html

 

Rather worried about Nvidia's bandwidth situation, GDDR6 is hitting a Max of 18gbps only at the end of the year and from the looks of it they've done all they reasonably can with compression.

Thus the huge "nigh double!" 2080ti successor seems dubious. How many separate very expensive HBM stacks would that require? Or a notoriously difficult 512bit bus. But I guess we'll see.

Edit- 4, 4 stacks of HBM2e should about equal a 512bit bus with 18gbps ram (actually more than, but 3 doesn't quiiiite work so whatever), which would be enough to feed 8k cores. Except 4 stacks cost like $250+ or so just for the ram, that's damned heavy on the BOM side and does not at all feel like it belongs in a consumer part. If it was 8k for some crazy new AI Volta successor that they'll charge $5k for or something I can see it, but for a consumer part at all I find it suspect.

 

Mmm, 512bit GDDR6. But hmm, what if Samsung's curtain-raiser for 2020.Q4 5nm is HBM2-E(UV)...