Question 'Ampere'/Next-gen gaming uarch speculation thread

[Ottonomous]

How much is the Samsung 7nm EUV process expected to provide in terms of gains?
How will the RTX components be scaled/developed?
Any major architectural enhancements expected?
Will VRAM be bumped to 16/12/12 for the top three?
Will there be further fragmentation in the lineup? (Keeping turing at cheaper prices, while offering 'beefed up RTX' options at the top?)
Will the top card be capable of >4K60, at least 90?
Would Nvidia ever consider an HBM implementation in the gaming lineup?
Will Nvidia introduce new proprietary technologies again?

Sorry if imprudent/uncalled for, just interested in the forum member's thoughts.

 

[DooKey]

Based on what? I'm feeling a bit sceptical over this whole thing, it would be a big departure, introducing a new connector that nobody (outside possibly some few industry insiders) has ever seen or heard of, and doing so before there's any ecosystem in the wild.

Yep, don't see it happening. Why would they use a new power connector no one has ever heard of? Those pushing this obviously have an agenda.

IF true, it's not a problem as long as they provide an adapter. Would not be cool if this requires a new PSU.

 

[BenSkywalker]

Double checked the spec, 8 pin has 3 +12V and 5 ground for 150 watts, in order for this to allow for 300 watts they'd need 6 +12V and six ground. I'd guess in theory that works but the six pin that uses a 2/3 + 12V with 3 ground only pushes 75Watts.

Not saying it's impossible but it would be a very different configuration than what we've seen.

 

[Stuka87]

Based on what? I'm feeling a bit sceptical over this whole thing, it would be a big departure, introducing a new connector that nobody (outside possibly some few industry insiders) has ever seen or heard of, and doing so before there's any ecosystem in the wild.

Well, ATX 12VO is a brand new standard. It requires a new motherboard to go with it. They could easily include a new PCIE connector with an adapter two dual 8pin connectors. Its not like you would be unable to install it unless you were one of ten people with the new ATX spec system.

Its also quite possible there will be versions with both old and new setups. Dual 8pin and single 12 pin. Its going to take quite a while for the 12VO standard to overtake the current standard. But it will be nice once it does. Power Supplies will become better, as they only have to generate 12V so a single rail, single voltage PUS can be made more efficient. And the power header to the mobo will be a lot smaller.

 

[Mopetar]

It would be strange if only because it's a new connector when we haven't seen changes in what seems like forever.

But if anyone were to do it, it would be NVidia. Anyone committing to a halo product like a 3080 Ti would have no problem with upgrading to other premium components as well.

There wasn't much of an ecosystem for ray tracing in the consumer market, but that didn't stop NVidia when it came to adding it to Turing. I'm reminded of Henry Ford who once quipped that if he'd asked people what they wanted they would have told him "a faster horse."

It seems clear that we've hit the edge of what's currently possible, but the demand for even more power means either we find a way to deliver that or we settle for what we can get. Humans haven't been very good at the latter.

Maybe some do want to use this rumor to imply Ampere is inefficient or can't compete with AMD, but that's only one possibility. The other is that it's a better architecture and NVidia is looking for a way to deliver even more performance on top of that. We obviously won't know until we have a final product and actual results from it, but anyone who insists on a single interpretation of incomplete pieces of data which may not even be valid is being unnecessarily narrow-minded as are people who reject data just because it may not square with what they themselves would prefer to believe.

I hope this particular rumor is true. It's a move forward no matter how it turns out. Regardless of whether the 30XX cards are amazing, lackluster, or merely somewhere in between having the option of a more powerful card on the table is something we get from here on out.

 

[amenx]

Would be the height of stupidity for Nvidia to use a connector that no current PSU uses or that would require everyone to upgrade their PSUs and add to the cost of an Ampere card. Common sense has gone out the window in this thread, lol. If at worse, 3x 8-pin would be more sensible if Ampere required that much power.

 

[Stuka87]

Would be the height of stupidity for Nvidia to use a connector that no current PSU uses or that would require everyone to upgrade their PSUs and add to the cost of an Ampere card. Common sense has gone out the window in this thread, lol. If at worse, 3x 8-pin would be more sensible if Ampere required that much power.

Yeah, because obviously it is 1000% impossible to have an adapter

 

[Saylick]

FWIW:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1283502323893964800

Does anyone here speak/read fluent Chinese?

 

[BenSkywalker]

Kopite said it was real. For a lot of people here, that's all that matters.

You could read that as "I edited this" also to be fair.

 

[insertcarehere]

FWIW:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1283502323893964800

Does anyone here speak/read fluent Chinese?

The phrase is more correctly translated into "The above content was written by me". But the content is based on "I have a source that says so" circlejerk and conjecture by the author himself than anything substantive.

 

[FaaR]

FWIW:

FWIW:
Machine translators aren't very good.

Still might be a bogus rumor tho. I'll be surprised if it turns out to be correct, and even if it is, do we really need a new connector? Is up to 475W graphics cards something we actually want, or should be looking forward to? My Vegas are hot and noisy enough as it is and they don't hit anywhere near that level.

Personally I'd be fairly dismayed by high-end GPUs starting to shoot around the 400W level, summers are uncomfortable enough to game during as it is.

 

[Glo.]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1283408369957494784

This is what he has to say about this connector.

 

[ozzy702]

Would be the height of stupidity for Nvidia to use a connector that no current PSU uses or that would require everyone to upgrade their PSUs and add to the cost of an Ampere card. Common sense has gone out the window in this thread, lol. If at worse, 3x 8-pin would be more sensible if Ampere required that much power.

Agreed. My PSU can handle 4x 8-pins... why the move to a non-standard plug? I don't see the benefit to doing so.

 

[BFG10K]

This pretty much confirms the power connector is real: https://www.techpowerup.com/269957/...nector-its-real-and-coming-with-nvidia-ampere

Up to 600W, and not part of any spec outside of nVidia.

There's even less doubt in my mind now about that new cooler, too.

 

[DiogoDX]

Bring back memories when the gpus stared to use more power and changed to 2 pci-ex and I had to use the 2 molex to pcie adapter.

 

[amenx]

nm

 

[Veradun]

Well, ATX 12VO is a brand new standard. It requires a new motherboard to go with it. They could easily include a new PCIE connector with an adapter two dual 8pin connectors. Its not like you would be unable to install it unless you were one of ten people with the new ATX spec system.

Its also quite possible there will be versions with both old and new setups. Dual 8pin and single 12 pin. Its going to take quite a while for the 12VO standard to overtake the current standard. But it will be nice once it does. Power Supplies will become better, as they only have to generate 12V so a single rail, single voltage PUS can be made more efficient. And the power header to the mobo will be a lot smaller.

The rumors about the new connector explicitly said it was an FE thing only.

 

[Bubbleawsome]

Wow. I’m kind of excited to see what kind of GPU is crazy enough to bring it’s own 600w connector to the table.

 

[Dribble]

The rumors about the new connector explicitly said it was an FE thing only.

That makes more sense - you have system builders (eg. dell) and they want to simplify to a 1 size fits all connector as opposed to having this mix of 6 and 8 pins. How do you bring something like that in? I am guessing it will be something that's available for founders cards, and you can use an adaptor if you don't have a compatible psu.

 

[BenSkywalker]

One thing really doesn't make sense to me, why wouldn't this be on the A100?

826mm, 40GB HBM2, five figure price, deployed in machines purpose built to power the GPU, and yet they went with a lower tune to keep the power envelope at 250 watts.

Something really doesn't add up here.

 

[jpiniero]

One thing really doesn't make sense to me, why wouldn't this be on the A100?

826mm, 40GB HBM2, five figure price, deployed in machines purpose built to power the GPU, and yet they went with a lower tune to keep the power envelope at 250 watts.

Something really doesn't add up here.

The SMX4 version is 400W.

 

[FaaR]

not part of any spec outside of nVidia

Ahhahaha. More proprietary NV BS. Undoubtedly, they'll "offer" this connector to PSU manufacturers for an outsized "licensing fee" (AKA JHH's vig.)

 

[Mopetar]

If someone makes a 2x 12-pin GPU someday, I could justify the purchase as an expensive space heater

Even if it can deliver up to 600W as claimed in the article I can't see that much being used for a while outside of some incredibly beefy enterprise cards.

 

[beginner99]

One thing really doesn't make sense to me, why wouldn't this be on the A100?

826mm, 40GB HBM2, five figure price, deployed in machines purpose built to power the GPU, and yet they went with a lower tune to keep the power envelope at 250 watts.

Something really doesn't add up here.

Simple. Consumer Ampere isn't made on 7nm TSMC hence the higher power needs at lower performance.

 

[Stuka87]

One thing really doesn't make sense to me, why wouldn't this be on the A100?

826mm, 40GB HBM2, five figure price, deployed in machines purpose built to power the GPU, and yet they went with a lower tune to keep the power envelope at 250 watts.

Something really doesn't add up here.

The current A100 doesn't use PCIe power connectors at all as its not a PCIe card. It uses a mezzanine type slot. There will most likely be a PCIe version for consumers at some point, but nobody has seen one yet.

EDIT: Per post below, the PCIe version was announced, but nobody has seen one yet.

 

[jpiniero]

The current A100 doesn't use PCIe power connectors at all as its not a PCIe card. It uses a mezzanine type slot. There will most likely be a PCIe version for consumers at some point, but nobody has seen one yet.

The A100 PCIe was announced on June 22nd.

NVIDIA Announces PCIe A100 Accelerator: 250 Watt Ampere In A Standard Form Factor

www.anandtech.com