Nvidia Potential Roadmap Update for 2017: Volta Architecture Could Be Landing As Early As 2H 2017

[Gregster]

Something pretty interesting has been making the rounds lately. Word around the grapevine is, the Volta GPU is going to be landing one year early in May next year at the GTC event held annually by Nvidia. There are two particular sources in play on this report, both as critical to the authenticity of this information as the other. Before we go any further, I would like to point out that according to the official roadmaps, Nvidia has revealed to the public so far, Volta architecture was originally scheduled for release in 2018. That said however, I believe there has been a significant update.
NVIDIA Volta GPU
Nvidia launching the 16nm FinFET based Pascal successor on GTC on 8-11th May 2017 ?
Nvidia CEO Jen Hsun Huang has previously stated that every GPU Technology Conference needs to involve a new GPU but as far as Volta was concerned – this was going to be impossible. Volta was originally designed for a process node that was smaller than the 16nm FinFET (namely 10nm FinFET TSMC), a node that was not going to be anywhere near maturity for large scale GPUs by mid-2017. This was of course the primary reason why everyone assumed we will not be seeing Volta by GTC 2017 next year.
So why am I still writing bout this? Well, the reason I think this report might actually turn out to be true is because though the Volta GPU was originally slated for release in 2018, a report recently published by Fudzilla claimed that Nvidia is giving the 16nm FinFET treatment to the Volta architecture. This of course, is something that completely changes the dynamics of Nvidia’s roadmap for 2016 and 2017. If Volta will indeed be manufactured on the 16nm FinFET node than we can actually expect to see it by May 2017 – which is less than a year away.


Read more: http://wccftech.com/nvidia-roadmap-2017-volta-gpu/#ixzz4FMJfyouX

It wouldn't surprise me to see Volta that early in truth and NVidia seem to be flying GPUs out quicker than we can get them in our machines

 

[Gregster]

We all know or should know that wccftech is full of click bait unsubstantiated articles and very rarely are they correct but we all like hardware here I assume and hence why I posted it. It would be good to see another GPU that soon (maybe not for our wallets) and I hope this isn't far off and time will tell. Maybe the card that does bring true Async support?

 

[Gregster]

Lots of people said the same about "big" pascal not coming until early 2017, but here we are.

Very true. Some were saying that AMD were something like 6 months ahead of Nvidia with the node shrink that Pascal/polaris brought, so I wouldn't be shocked or surprised in truth.

 

[Gregster]

It will be interesting to see what architectural changes come with Volta. I agree that Pascal is more akin to Maxwell and not really a change up in architecture so to speak and will they go big with ACE? I think it is a given this time.

 

[Gregster]

Volta should be very interesting. They won't necessarily mimic AMD and they may very well come up with something even better. It's not like NVidia don't have excellent engineers.

Yer, I can't see them missing the boat on what seems to give some good performance gains.

 

[Gregster]

I think 4k samsung phone screens will be out by next year so could have 4k VR headsets and Volta. Sounds good to me. oh as long as it does not cost £1000 for a 1180 by then.

I wish they would get the 4K VR headsets out. Whilst I really enjoy my Rift, I can't help but think what the future will bring and I want that now.

 

[Gregster]

A rock and a hard place really. AMD cards gain performance over time but we have completed those games that they get performance in but NVidia don't improve over time and force you to upgrade to get new performance levels

 

[Gregster]

I still have my 3D kit bit not touched it since getting a DK2 and then the CV1. I was really impressed with how good 3D was in truth but something about 3D films just doesn't really work for me. I am a Imax regular and much prefer a 2D Imax film to 3D for some reason.

 

[Gregster]

The right film on a giant 3d imax screen is a thing of beauty. Seeing the ships in star wars coming out over the seats and almost been able to touch them was amazing.

By far the best 3d film IMO was AVatar. That was really enhanced.

SOme movies just do 3d for the sake of it and would have been better in 2d though.

Avatar was an exception to the rule and worked very well but Star wars didn't really do it for me (might just be me). I have seen a number lately from Batman Vs Superman (that was a complete waste in 3D) and Captain America (another waste). Some scenes look really good and work well but for the most, I would rather not bother. More like Avatar and a real winner and it looks sweet on my 3DTV as well.

 

[Gregster]

Too much horse power from both AMD and Nvidia is awesome ,however, pc will still be suffering from a low quality Console ports.

I hope with Volta at least 4K 60fps on Ultra settings become standard.

Hopefully AMD can get the power down for Vega or Greenland and give Volta a fair match. It is quite a worry when you see the 480 uses more than the 1070 and performs substantially worse.

 

[Gregster]

Yeah, hoping HBM2 helps them a lot with that. The reduction in watts (or increase in perf/w) they managed going from the 290X to the Fury was very impressive.

As long as they can get within ~10% of Pascal's perf/w it should be all good.

Agreed. I don't think HBM 2 is needed as of yet and we don't run bigger enough resolutions to justify it but that doesn't stop me wanting it