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NVIDIA's Next-Gen Gaming GPU Rumors Are Heating Up

If you believe any number of the recent anonymous sources, NVIDIA’s Pascal follow up will be on shelves before October with power to spare.

Chris Jarrard

July 26, 2018 2:10 PM

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It has been more than two years since NVIDIA released gaming GPUs based on their Pascal architecture. The GTX 1080 and GTX 1070 arrived on shelves to much fanfare in the early summer of 2016 and have remained at the top of the performance charts despite new releases from AMD and a total market shakeup thanks to the cryptocurrency boom. Unlike previous generations, gaming GPU pricing has remained high and overall demand has remained strong over the two year period. The Pascal-based products were already blisteringly fast at launch and were more than ample for driving the newest games at resolutions up to 1440p and beyond. As the next batch of cutting edge titles is expected to arrive this holiday season and with the gaining popularity of high-refresh rate and 4K displays, the demand for more power will finally be met by NVIDIA this fall. With no official word out of NVIDIA in regards to these new gaming GPUs, the rumor mill has been whipped into a frenzy as we approach the expected unveiling of the successor to Pascal’s gaming throne.

Digitimes is reporting that the next-generation GPUs will be showcased before the end of August, with a likely release of the flagship GPU the last week of August or the first week of September. The GPUs will be based on TSMC’s new 12nm fabrication process, resulting in reduced power draw and smaller die sizes.

VideoCardz (by way of Chiphell) reports that the new gaming cards will officially drop the DVI connector from the reference design. While the ports can still be added by board partners, it is expected that the aging connector will be replaced by the recently unveiled VirtualLink Type C connector. VirtualLink is a new open standard backed by a consortium of companies like NVIDIA, AMD, Valve, Oculus, and Microsoft that is designed to offer a high-bandwidth connection with a single cable. It will replace the octopian mess of cables currently required for VR use and have enough headroom for the next generation of HDR and high-refresh displays. HDMI 2.1 is also expected to make its gaming GPU debut on the new line of NVIDIA cards.

If you are inclined to trust the scoops out of wccftech, NVIDIA has yet to inform board partners on what the names of the new parts will be (though the name Turing has been used by the rumor mill for months), but did offer power efficiency and pricing details. According to the wccftech source, there will be three GPUs released, coming in at 120W TDP, 150W TDP, and 180W TDP. The 120W part will carry the XX70 name (the GTX 1060 filled this segment in the Pascal family of GPUs) while the 150W part will bear the XX80 name. The 180W variant is rumored to be a premium part that will be dubbed XX85 or XX95.

The rumored pricing is as follows:

• The 120W NVIDIA next-gen GPU will be priced around $499 MSRP.
• The 150W NVIDIA next-gen GPU will be priced around $599 MSRP.
• The 180W NVIDIA next-gen GPU will be priced around $699-749 MSRP.
• The GeForce GTX 1080 Ti MSRP will drop in price by $100.
• The GeForce GTX 1080 MSRP will drop in price by $50.

If NVIDIA’s marketing strategy from previous generations holds true for the new GPUs, it is likely that the 120W part will be faster than the GTX 1080 if the plan is to sell it at a $50 premium. The most expensive GPU is expected to carry 11GB of RAM (like the 1080 Ti) while the other two will keep the same 8GB of RAM that both the GTX 1070 and 1080 launched with.

The rumor concludes with a guesstimate on the release schedule of the cards. These new parts will see a staggered release with all parts being available at retail by the second month of September. The 180W flagship card is rumored to be the first to release and the 120W card will mark the end of the rollout.

As always, take these rumors with a huge grain of salt. Until you see Jensen Huang in his leather jacket throwing GTX 1180s at reporters like footballs, nothing can be considered official. It is possible that NVIDIA could launch this new GPU lineup at the upcoming Gamescom show that starts August 21 in Germany. Until then, we will be waiting with bated breath.

Chris Jarrard

Contributing Tech Editor

Chris Jarrard likes playing games, crankin' tunes, and looking for fights on obscure online message boards. He understands that breakfast food is the only true food. Don't @ him.