Saturday, November 26th 2011

NVIDIA GeForce Kepler Roadmap Compiled

2012-13 promises to be a period of big graphics product launches, centric to a new DirectX version, DirectX 11.1, which will ship with Microsoft's next major Windows version (currently referred to as Windows 8). Information compiled by ExpertsPC.com and 4Gamer.net tables what NVIDIA's next-generation graphics family could look like, and around what time it could be released to market. With its next-generation GeForce Kepler family of GPUs, NVIDIA will follow a sensible bottom-up product release model, to ensure that it isn't met with any technical hurdles with TSMC's new 28 nm manufacturing process, and so it could launch GPUs with increasingly higher transistor counts, till its top-of-the-line GPU is outed.

The first GPU in NVIDIA's pipeline is the GeForce Kepler 107 (GK107), on which will be based entry thru lower-mainstream SKUs. The data doesn't reveal things like core counts, but points out that GK107 will have a 128-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface, will use the current-generation PCI-Express 2.0 bus, will be built on the 28 nm process, and will support DirectX 11.1. This will be followed by the GK106, on which "sweet-spot" SKUs could be based. This will be NVIDIA's first PCI-Express 3.0 compliant GPU, it will have a 256-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface.
Moving further up, there is GK104, NVIDIA's high-performance (≠ high-end) GPU. Think of it as NVIDIA's equivalent of AMD's "one high-performance GPU to rule them all" approach. GK104 will have a zesty 384-bit GDDR5 memory interface, and will support PCIe 3.0. NVIDIA's fastest product for 2012, codenamed GK110, will use two of these GK104 GPUs to give you an SLI-on-a-stick solution. Finally in 2013, when TSMC's 28 nm process will have achieved a certain degree of maturity, NVIDIA will launch a monolithic high-end GPU, the GK112. This one will feature a massive 512-bit GDDR5 memory interface.
Source: 4gamers.net
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26 Comments on NVIDIA GeForce Kepler Roadmap Compiled

#1
Damn_Smooth
The high end is arriving a little later than I expected. They should be worth the wait for the green team though.
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#2
LiveOrDie
This sucks i was hoping mid next year not 2013 O_o
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#3
Damn_Smooth
Live OR DieThis sucks i was hoping mid next year not 2013 O_o
The 680 is quarter 3. Still a little late, but today's cards should easily hold up until then. It really sucks if you are in dire need of an upgrade though.
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#4
Sinzia
GK104 is what I'm looking forward to, I just dont have the cash to spend on SLi "580"s like I used to.

I hope the performance is good.
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#5
LiveOrDie
Damn_SmoothThe 680 is quarter 3. Still a little late, but today's cards should easily hold up until then. It really sucks if you are in dire need of an upgrade though.
No the GK112 would be the 680, GK110 would be a 675 i would say and the GK104 would be the 670.
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#6
Damn_Smooth
Live OR DieNo the GK112 would be the 680, GK110 would be a 675 i would say and the GK104 would be the 670.
My bad. The GK110 is lined up with the 580, I thought it was replacing it.
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#7
NC37
So is NV slipping into a "tick tock" setup like Intel? Last gen we had the 104 then the 114. Now GK104...so then next, expecting GK114?

Doesn't matter much to me as long as they perform well. AMD seems to be rehashing again so, I wonder.
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#8
Trackr
Holy Shit!

So, there aren't going to be new high-end GPUs for a YEAR!

Everyone (including me) who waited for Kepler in Q4 2011 is going to be upset..

Okay, so..

GK112 = GTX 685/780
GK110 = GTX 690
GK104 = GTX 680
GK106 = GTX 650/660
GK107 = GTX 630/640

It's a bit confusing in terms of performance.

They have the GK104 lined up with the GTX 570, but it's the single most powerful core of the new 2012 line-up, so it has to be the GTX 680.

Then, assuming the GTX 690 is the successor to the 590, the 512-bit GK112 will be called GTX 685 or GTX 780.
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#9
Damn_Smooth
NC37So is NV slipping into a "tick tock" setup like Intel? Last gen we had the 104 then the 114. Now GK104...so then next, expecting GK114?

Doesn't matter much to me as long as they perform well. AMD seems to be rehashing again so, I wonder.
A completely new architecture and a die shrink is a rehash? I would love to know your requirements for something fresh.

Unless you're talking about the low end. I have no interest in that.
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#10
YautjaLord
GK114, cause of 512-bit bus since 256- & 384-bit will sound like BS by 1H 2013; hope they (NV & TSMC) won't f***-up with 28nm process like with 40nm in GTX 480's case, though. (not that it is bad GPU)

I will definitelly wait til 1H 2013 for my next DX11.1/Win8/GK114 upgrade. The only thing left to know how much VRAM GK114 will have: 1GB? 2GB? Hope later, since GF100/110 have 1.5GB & since i find the 1.5GB BS as well: bout the f***in' time the 2GB/512-bit GPU was released. :toast:
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#11
Yellow&Nerdy?
Seems like Fermi all over again, at least when it comes to release dates. Before this, I thought that they were on schedule for a Q1 2012 launch, with some parts coming in early Q2 2012. Let's see if AMD manages to launch all of their cards in early Q1, then it would be an interesting situation.
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#12
qubit
Overclocked quantum bit
I do like that GK112 is 512-bit. A design is always more efficient if it fills the full power of 2 that base 2 digital circuits fit into.
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#13
Completely Bonkers
I think the poor design of the "roadmap chart" should give away that we should really wait until AMD make their announcement. There is a big danger in over-analysing this until we get something more concrete.
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#14
YautjaLord
qubitI do like that GK112 is 512-bit. A design is always more efficient if it fills the full power of 2 that base 2 digital circuits fit into.
Wonder why i called it GK114; thanx for correcting, my bad. But now i wonder whether it'll be GTX 690 or 780? Plus, 2014 or 2013 is the year Maxwell comes out? Still, 1+ year left for full-blown upgrade for me. :toast:
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#15
Crap Daddy
The is no really need for high-end GPUs. Except for DX11 and just a few games, a 2 year old card can almost max out any game on a single monitor. So this trend of launching low/mid level new cards is understandable. I think AMD will do the same.
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#16
Zubasa
It is going ot be interesting for nVidia to go the Dual-GPU route right of the bat with GK110.
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#17
qubit
Overclocked quantum bit
YautjaLordWonder why i called it GK114; thanx for correcting, my bad. But now i wonder whether it'll be GTX 690 or 780? Plus, 2014 or 2013 is the year Maxwell comes out? Still, 1+ year left for full-blown upgrade for me. :toast:
Actually, I can't take any credit/discredit for correcting you, because I made my comment purely from looking at the chart. :) And yes, it's not exactly clear with the way the performance levels line up.

-----------------------

Re all the grammar/spelling discussion

As a grammar nazi myself, I hate to see spelling and grammatical errors, anywhere.

My native language is English and I am indeed good at writing. However, we're all human and make mistakes, me included and I still make a few of them, despite being so obsessive about it. :laugh: I feel quite compelled to correct my errors afterwards too, as it feel like a horrible itch otherwise. I'm even more keen to fix them if they appear in one of my news articles.

I think we should give extra credit and a little slack to those of us that don't speak English natively and not point out every trifling error to them. If an error is worthy of correction, then always send a polite PM to the writer.
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#18
dj-electric
This thing only makes me wonder how will it compete against Radeon HD8000 series, lol?
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#19
GSquadron
So you mean that Amd (aka Ati) will be 6 months to 1 year ahead of nvidia?
O.o lol
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#20
Benetanegia
I highly doubt this roadmap is real, or even close to being real. The reason is in the last GPUz notes:
0.5.6
Removed PowerColor hardware giveaway
Added support for ATI Radeon HD 6320, ATI FirePro V9800, AMD FirePro V4900
Added support for GeForce GTX 560 Ti 448 cores, GeForce GTX 460 v2, NVIDIA Quadro NVS 420, NVIDIA Quadro NVS 450, NVIDIA Quadro FX 380 LP
Fix for incorrect shader reading on Blackcomb
Added basic detection for NVIDIA Kepler GK107
W1zz adding support for a chip not coming in ~5 months? Unlikely.

As stupid as it may sound I'm thinking that the chart is just very poorly done and that 2012 column should start where the letters in the 2011 column end. That would mean GK107 in early January, which would be in line with what everybody has been saying, including Nvidia, TSMC, etc. GK104 in March/April or so.

EDIT: Kinda like this:

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#21
Kreij
Senior Monkey Moderator
What does DirectX 11.1 bring new to the table?
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#23
Kreij
Senior Monkey Moderator
Thanks for the link, Benetanegia.
I read through it, had a brain aneurism and died. I'll reread it when I respawn.
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#24
Ferrum Master
Chill down people... I can bet that it is a fake, or a very old one from summer...
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#25
DarthCyclonis
I like Nvidia's strategy this time. Work out the bugs with the lower to mid grade cards before releasing the highend. This makes total sense. If they would have done this with Fermi it would have avoided what some consider a disaster.
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