Discussion Nvidia Blackwell in Q1-2025

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Saylick

Diamond Member
Sep 10, 2012
3,798
8,666
136
Naaa, the SM is just very underwhelming to say the least. I guess this had a higher fmax target?
I agree. The SM improvements just seems to be:
- Added back INT to the previous FP-only pipe (meh)
- Added FP4/INT4 to the tensor units (meh)
- Doubled ray-triangle intersection (not sure if the ray-box intersection has improved)
- Support for neural shading (meh)
- Support for SER on the tensor units for neural shading (meh)
 

adroc_thurston

Diamond Member
Jul 2, 2023
4,714
6,501
96
I agree. The SM improvements just seems to be:
- Added back INT to the previous FP-only pipe (meh)
- Added FP4/INT4 to the tensor units (meh)
- Doubled ray-triangle intersection (not sure if the ray-box intersection has improved)
- Support for neural shading (meh)
- Support for SER on the tensor units for neural shading (meh)
They didn't showcase L1/shame size either, or any scheduler capacity bumps. No real actual™ SM diagram. Lame.
 

Grooveriding

Diamond Member
Dec 25, 2008
9,144
1,322
126
Was there a reason they couldn't have used TSMC 3nm for these cards? This is worse than I expected. 5090 is okayish, but that appears to strictly be because of the massive die and massive power usage. 5080 is pretty bad considering it's a new gen.
 

MrTeal

Diamond Member
Dec 7, 2003
3,749
2,137
136
Was there a reason they couldn't have used TSMC 3nm for these cards? This is worse than I expected. 5090 is okayish, but that appears to strictly be because of the massive die and massive power usage. 5080 is pretty bad considering it's a new gen.
You should just be happy Nvidia is allowing people to play games on their AI cards at all and quit complaining.

What are you going to do, buy from Intel? Hahaha...
 

SiliconFly

Golden Member
Mar 10, 2023
1,925
1,279
96
Just got this & it's a bit disturbing! Except for the top die, just look at the die size, transistor density & most importantly the transistor count. Kinda disillusioned & feeling a bit nauseated.



This ladies & gentlemen, is clear evidence of cheating. I think I'll be skipping 50 series.
 
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tajoh111

Senior member
Mar 28, 2005
340
380
136
An embarrassing improvement. No wonder the presentation was focused on DLSS 4.

Looking at the transistor density, it also seems last generation they were using something closer to TSMC 4NM rather than 5NM.

Being too AI focused is finally hurting gamers.
 

jpiniero

Lifer
Oct 1, 2010
15,633
6,110
136
I agree. The SM improvements just seems to be:
- Added back INT to the previous FP-only pipe (meh)
- Added FP4/INT4 to the tensor units (meh)
- Doubled ray-triangle intersection (not sure if the ray-box intersection has improved)
- Support for neural shading (meh)
- Support for SER on the tensor units for neural shading (meh)

At least they seemed to have done this without really increasing the transistor count and seemingly only removing the Optical Flow Accelerator.
 

blckgrffn

Diamond Member
May 1, 2003
9,501
3,816
136
www.teamjuchems.com
Considering GB203 has fewer transistors despite having more SMs and the architectural improvements, my guess is Nvidia reduced L2 cache size. Potentially halved it to 32MB. To make up for that they use GDDR7 now.
That would pair well with GDDR7 not seeming to have the kind of uplift expected. Cutting the cache reduces the effective bandwidth and then GDDR7 picks the slack back up.
 
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Meteor Late

Senior member
Dec 15, 2023
266
292
96
Was there a reason they couldn't have used TSMC 3nm for these cards? This is worse than I expected. 5090 is okayish, but that appears to strictly be because of the massive die and massive power usage. 5080 is pretty bad considering it's a new gen.

Cost, obviously, poor Nvidia wouldn't survive pricing RTX 5090 at 2000$ if it was at 3nm.
 

jpiniero

Lifer
Oct 1, 2010
15,633
6,110
136
Considering GB203 has fewer transistors despite having more SMs and the architectural improvements, my guess is Nvidia reduced L2 cache size. Potentially halved it to 32MB. To make up for that they use GDDR7 now.

It is likely to still be 64 MB, based upon looking at the GB202 die annotation.
 

SiliconFly

Golden Member
Mar 10, 2023
1,925
1,279
96
An embarrassing improvement. No wonder the presentation was focused on DLSS 4.

Looking at the transistor density, it also seems last generation they were using something closer to TSMC 4NM rather than 5NM.

Being too AI focused is finally hurting gamers.
They used a customized node 4N which many said was an improved N5. But it appears it was actually closer to N4. And the new customized node they're using 4NP is eerily close to the previous one (4N). In fact, I'd say it's a very minor revision with same density and doesn't even clock much higher, but should be cheaper by now. So, for Blackwell they're using the (almost) same damn old node. No more "Better than Moore's Law" nonsense.

Except for top end, the die sizes are very similar but should be a little cheaper than before. In fact, technically speaking, the other 2 dies are a tad smaller! This is not good for raster! Raster needs die space. Not a good sign. At this point, I'm thinking that 5070 may not have that better raster than a 4070.

I'm thinking they'll have more margins with Blackwell than the previous gen. My guess is, Blackwell is all about pure profits and not raw performance.
 

Saylick

Diamond Member
Sep 10, 2012
3,798
8,666
136
At least they seemed to have done this without really increasing the transistor count and seemingly only removing the Optical Flow Accelerator.
Xtor count went up roughly proportional to the die size (~21% more xtors, ~23% larger die). I think the OFA still exists, since it gets used for other applications, but it's no longer leveraged for frame generation.

 
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Ranulf

Platinum Member
Jul 18, 2001
2,653
1,898
136
Sit down son, we need to have a talk.


And don't you try to pay with them fake dollar bills, I can smell 'em a mile away, you hear?


Its all about the size...of the arrow in the graph. Does your card make bigger arrows? I think not sir. You need the latest and greatest. It just works!




I'd upload the Jensen talking about moores law is dead so gpu prices go up vs running great for AI gif but the upload failed.
 

gdansk

Diamond Member
Feb 8, 2011
3,768
6,016
136
I was still hopeful Nvidia was sandbagging clock rates and the 5080 would match 4090 in raster.
 

SiliconFly

Golden Member
Mar 10, 2023
1,925
1,279
96
I was still hopeful Nvidia was sandbagging clock rates and the 5080 would match 4090 in raster.
I maybe wrong, But at this point, I'm starting to believe AMD RX 9070 may easily match or surpass RTX 5070 in raster. My guess is, 9070 might fall between 5070 & 5080. And if AMD can price it right, they have a clear winner.
 
Reactions: Tlh97

Heartbreaker

Diamond Member
Apr 3, 2006
4,653
6,108
136
I maybe wrong, But at this point, I'm starting to believe AMD RX 9070 may easily match or surpass RTX 5070 in raster. My guess is, 9070 might fall between 5070 & 5080. And if AMD can price it right, they have a clear winner.

I think nearly everyone has been on the 9070 > 5070 for a while given that it's long been known (from Reliable Kopite7Kimi) that Shader core counts were especially low on the 5070.

In more recent days estimation of where 9070 XT stands vs 5070 Ti, has really been getting more optimistic for AMD.
 

Heartbreaker

Diamond Member
Apr 3, 2006
4,653
6,108
136
Xtor count went up roughly proportional to the die size (~21% more xtors, ~23% larger die). I think the OFA still exists, since it gets used for other applications, but it's no longer leveraged for frame generation.

View attachment 115032

If those are accurate it really makes clear, how critical die pricing has become. So much that NVidia will make the worse generation gains ever, just to keep die size from growing.
 

SiliconFly

Golden Member
Mar 10, 2023
1,925
1,279
96
If those are accurate it really makes clear, how critical die pricing has become. So much that NVidia will make the worse generation gains ever, just to keep die size from growing.
I had high hopes for 50 series. But considering many of the DLSS4 features are being backported to 40 series, I think it's better not to upgrade anytime now.
 
Reactions: Tlh97

SiliconFly

Golden Member
Mar 10, 2023
1,925
1,279
96
I’m not so sure. Minor node update, power consumption going up roughly proportional to performance gains, seems like they got roughly what they could out of the node given the power limit.
They're squeezing blood out of stone. And then some. 4NP is a dud.
 
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