Nvidia Geforce 'Maxwell' Thread

_Alatar_ · 5 Jul 2014 at 21:35

That's just some tesla boards connected to arm mobos with pci-e....

yes Nvidia added ARM ISA support on top of power and x86 but I don't see how that pic in particular has anything to do with msata slots...

Rroff · 5 Jul 2014 at 21:44

In that pic its just fans but in those chassis its also possible to hook up interfaces in the same position (what purpose I have no idea).

Orangey · 5 Jul 2014 at 22:07

Perhaps it's to accomodate some kind of jig for use in freeboard testing. It is an engineering sample.

AStaley · 6 Jul 2014 at 08:40

Or perhaps you are going to be able to plug an msata SSD drive directly into the GFX card to supplement the on board memory. That would be something totally new.

Silent_Scone · 6 Jul 2014 at 08:59

I like I said on OCN, it could just for exporting data off the card easily as an engineering sample. Or as Orangey suggests might just be added to help slot the card into place

psychas · 6 Jul 2014 at 09:26

why we stuck on 28nm for so long can anyone explain , would it not be easy to make 256bus etc .card on 20nm instead of full fat and it would be still faster then any card we have now ?

Orangey · 6 Jul 2014 at 11:06

All the fabs are lagging behind Intel, that's why.

20nm from TSMC was too expensive, not dense enough (not allowing enough transistors) and not power efficient enough. It was good enough for mobile chips (Apple/Qualcomm bought up all the wafers for the first 2-3 months) but Nvidia not so much. So they had to go back and redesign Maxwell for 28nm, with GK104 (GTX 680)-type parts launching first (GM204) and buy them time until 20nm process was good enough from either TSMC or Global Foundries (who supposedly AMD is exclusive to now and will be launching Pirate Islands based on their 20nm in Q2 2015).

At least that's my understanding of events.

_Alatar_ · 6 Jul 2014 at 11:14

20nm is more than dense enough. It should have a 1.9x density increase. Almost double.

The problem is the meh power consumption savings and cost per transistor.

Boomstick777 · 6 Jul 2014 at 13:29

My predictions,

GTX 880 3200 cores 4GB/8GB 256bit/bus 28nm Q4 2014
GTX 870 3072 cores 4GB/8GB 256bit/bus 28nm Q4 2014

GTX Titan Ultra 3699 cores 8GB 512bit/bus 20nm Q1 2015 (Feb)

GTX 880 '20nm refresh' Q1/Q2 2015 (April/May)
GTX 870 '20nm refresh' Q1/Q2 2015 (April/May)

GTX 860 20nm Q1 2015
GTX 850 Ti 20nm Q1 2015

GTX 880 Ti 3496 cores 4GB/8GB 512bit/bus 20nm Q2/Q3 2015

Orangey · 6 Jul 2014 at 13:53

Why do you have the Ti pegged as having substantially less cores than Titan Ultra?

They can just hobble DP performance to avoid cannibalising sales like they have done previously.

Boomstick777 · 6 Jul 2014 at 14:11

Orangey said:
Why do you have the Ti pegged as having substantially less cores than Titan Ultra?

They can just hobble DP performance to avoid cannibalising sales like they have done previously.

Yeah they could, just have a feeling Maxwell will be one complete arch on one gen, rather than spread over 2 gens like Kepler has been.

Kepler started > GTX 680 > 780 > 780 Ti. Titan and Titan Black etc.

I think Maxwell will run from top to bottom under 800 series brand. So GTX 870/880 2014 > GTX 880 Ti 2015 and only one Titan like card, probably under the 'ultra' moniker (Feb 2015). Plus a dual card later in 2015. Then move onto Pascal in 2016 rather than more Maxwell cards..

So GTX 880 Ti will be a step up from the GTX 880 but not quite as fast as the GTX Titan Ultra. Then Pascal will start from 2016 >

Maxwell 800 Series 2014/2015.
Pascal 900 Series 2016.

Orangey · 6 Jul 2014 at 15:57

Pirate Islands coming Q2 2015 apparently, probably going to be 390X vs Titan Ultra then. It will look bad having a £1200* card either trading blows with or beaten by a ~£500 card so I think 880Ti would be put out with full fat and hobbled DP to be sold at a competitive price against the 390X.

Of course this is all wiiiiild speculation on my part.

*projected price

Boomstick777 · 6 Jul 2014 at 16:30

Orangey said:
Pirate Islands coming Q2 2015 apparently, probably going to be 390X vs Titan Ultra then. It will look bad having a £1200* card either trading blows with or beaten by a ~£500 card so I think 880Ti would be put out with full fat and hobbled DP to be sold at a competitive price against the 390X.

Of course this is all wiiiiild speculation on my part.

*projected price

Prices look set to be lower with the new cards, not higher. Single GPU Titan Black is around £699 now. I very much doubt the next Single GPU Titan will nearly double in price, £1200? Yeah I don't think so..

varkanoid · 6 Jul 2014 at 16:56

Boomstick777 said:
My predictions,

GTX 880 3200 cores 4GB/8GB 256bit/bus 28nm Q4 2014
GTX 870 3072 cores 4GB/8GB 256bit/bus 28nm Q4 2013

Time Paradox ?

Boomstick777 · 6 Jul 2014 at 17:04

varkanoid said:
Time Paradox ?

Haha, oops

FoxEye · 6 Jul 2014 at 17:58

Boomstick777 said:
Prices look set to be lower with the new cards, not higher. Single GPU Titan Black is around £699 now. I very much doubt the next Single GPU Titan will nearly double in price, £1200? Yeah I don't think so..

I've heard this a couple time, but what incentive is there for either company to lower prices?

The genie is out of the bottle. They know now that they can sell cards from £700 to £3000. They know they can sell mid-range cards for £250. At today's prices we keep being told that cards are flying off the shelves.

So why would they reduce prices?

Boomstick777 · 6 Jul 2014 at 18:17

FoxEye said:
I've heard this a couple time, but what incentive is there for either company to lower prices?

The genie is out of the bottle. They know now that they can sell cards from £700 to £3000. They know they can sell mid-range cards for £250. At today's prices we keep being told that cards are flying off the shelves.

So why would they reduce prices?

The upcoming first wave on Maxwell cards are looking likely on 28nm, it's very mature now and will be very cost effective for Nvidia. These cards will def come in cheaper.

GTX 880 4GB could come in at £350. GTX 870 4GB £300. Higher 8GB vram cards might be available which will cost a bit more due to vram cost.

Next year, by AMD / Nvidia holding out for 20nm so long, the prices won't be so high at launch either. Nvidia and AMD aren't having to soak up initial wafer prices with TSMC, Apple is doing that for them. By the time they get onto 20nm it should also be more cost effective than previous node transitions were as AMD / Nvidia were the first onto them soaking up the initial cost, they are not doing that this time around.

Orangey · 6 Jul 2014 at 18:19

For the Ultra I expect demand to be high, supply to be low, add in brand tax, features tax, VRAM tax, Ripoff Britain, OcUK exclusivity tax... it'll likely be out before AMD, too. Gonna be an arm and a leg.

Boomstick777 · 7 Jul 2014 at 01:33

NVIDIA preparing four Maxwell GM204 SKUs [videocardz]

NVIDIA to skip 20nm fabrication process, third generation Maxwell to use 16nm?

Maxwell core is obviously much more power efficient than Kepler, thus the next flagship will most likely have less cores than full GK110 processor. This has not happened before.

'Well that could be my theory out the window

. Although less cores and GTX 880Ti on 28nm seem very unlikely to me.. Videocardz with Semi Accurate as source, so large pinch of salt'.

http://videocardz.com/51009/nvidia-preparing-four-maxwell-gm204-skus

Rroff · 7 Jul 2014 at 01:40

Would make far more sense based on the currently known information to have a round of GM204 on 28nm (the 750 must have been done for some reason as they wouldn't have done that lightly due to the whole lithography deal) then the full fat GK110 replacement on 16nm (due to the whole bitching about 20nm and full fat Maxwell suitability).