Maxsun may not be much of a household name in territories outside China, as the western market penetration isn't the most relevant within NVIDIA's partners. That said, the company does enjoy the status of NVIDIA AIB, so they're privy to details on next-gen products - especially when they are, allegedly, so close to a reveal and launch.

Maxsun showcased their take on NVIDIA's next generation (you can find the ending of that very word in the photo of the presentation slide) products with a 3D render of what could very well be their finalized next-gen graphics card's looks - and part of their premium, iCraft segment. The ubiquitous RGB is there, as always, pandering to the majority of users' lighting requirements. The graphics card presents a dual-slot, triple-fan solution, and there doesn't seem to be a DVI connector, nor an SLI termination, for that matter. The card also seems to have a single 8-pin power connector, and the GeForce branding is clear. Sadly, the render doesn't specify the model it pertains to - it would be great to finally have some closure on the 1100, 2000 series' debates.

Yesterday, a story surfaced on how Manli corporation had seemingly spilled the beans on NVIDIA's next-gen graphics cards lineup. A submission registration appeared online where the company was registering GTX 2070, GTX 2080, and GA104 and GA104-400 codenames for upcoming products - which obviously paved the way for speculation on those being the real, next-gen NVIDIA graphics solutions, in detriment of the on-and-off GTX 1100 series.

Today, Manli has sent out a media-wide email denying that the company had anything to do with the submission, and are actively investigating how, when, and why this happened. Still, the fact remains that the submission to the Eurasian Economic Union did happen. It remains to be seen whether this is a defensive, last-ditch effort to try and control media and PR damage to an impending announcement, or just an exceedingly clever ploy from a non Manli-affiliated party.

There's just no quieting the rumor mill. It's like we're walking through a field that's made entirely of small pieces of stone that we inadvertently kick - and under every stone, another tidbit, another speculation, another pointer - a veritable breadcrumb trail that's getting more and more convoluted. Even as we were getting sort of decided in regards to NVIDIA's next-generation hardware and its nomenclature and model number - 1100 series - we now have two distinct sources and reports popping one right after the other that point to a 2000 series - and that also suggests Ampere might be in the cards for the next-gen product after all.

NVIDIA, via its UK storefront, has launched new graphics card bundles - bundles that come with a free Kingston SSD. The offer doesn't stretch through the entirety of the lineup, and is restricted to the GeForce GTX 1050 Ti and 1060 - likely the top volume offerings NVIDIA has right now. The offered SSDs are all part of Kingston's A400 value lineup, and the offered capacities range from 120 GB (in the majority of the models) through to 240 GB.

The small capacity SSDs being bundled with these mid range graphics cards also makes sense due to the market these are usually aimed at: casual, price/performance, budget customers, who may not have the funds to spare on an SSD upgrade. So while NVIDIA helps move some more graphics card units (maybe for an eventual, hypothetical, upcoming next-gen 1100 series release?), it only offers SSDs to the market that is more likely to require them for their systems.

"History turned to legend, legend turned to myth", is part of one of the opening lines on the first Lord of the Rings movie. And it just so happens it applies pretty well to the overall rumor mill context and expectation: we'll see if this is history in the making or not. Case in point: leaked benchmarks point towards NVIDIA's next-gen 1100 series of graphics cards to bring tangible performance improvements, with the 1170 tier delivering GTX 1080 Ti levels of performance. This is conveyed through a 3D Mark Firestrike score of 22,989 - of which true authenticity can't be ascertained, due to the old "photo of a screenshot" trick. The 2.5 GHz core clock also seems too good to be true - and the 16 GB memory pool tends towards that end of the spectrum as well. Still, it wets the appetite, doesn't it? Just another rumor that we'll eventually see either confirmed or dismissed - like the expected launch date.

NVIDIA has posted a short (literally short) teaser, treating users to the promise of the "Ultimate Gaming Experience". This might mean something, such as the new, expected NVIDIA 11** series of graphics cards... Or it may mean something much less exciting, and have something to do with the 4K, HDR gaming experience that is supposed to be reaching gamers in a couple of weeks, at an expected cost of more kidneys than the average human has.

Officially, though, GTC 2018 Taiwan will revolve around artificial intelligence tech (what doesn't these days, really?) Translated, the teaser image reads something along the lines of "Utilizing GPU computing to explore the world's infinite possibilities - witness the power of artificial intelligence and the ultimate gaming experience in GTC Taiwan and Computex 2018." Remember, however, that marketing almost always has a way of blowing things out of proportion - don't hold your breath for a new graphics card series announcement.