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The upcoming Nvidia GeForce RTX 30 series GPUs will reportedly be divided into three tiers, according to their respective quality. The chance of getting a good or excellent chip is greater than getting an “ok” chip, but the probability is expected to increase as the manufacturing process matures.
It is known that in the semiconductor world, each chip has a varying level of quality. To differentiate them at different levels, chipmakers test and classify chips in a process called chip bundling. By testing how much voltage they can handle, their operating temperature, and their “overclocking ability,” manufacturers divide their chips into grouping levels to differentiate them. Depending on these results, each chip will be destined for “different” applications or will simply be destroyed if it does not meet the minimum criteria.
In the case of Nvidia, the process becomes more complicated. The company sends AiB partners a board with the GPU and memory soldered on. After receiving this, the AiB partner’s job is to use the best-grouped GPUs in their high-quality graphics cards, while the standard ones are used in their cheaper graphics cards.
There are several processes for selecting which chips to use in high-quality graphics cards. There is the 50:50 method, where the AiB partner mounts the cooler to the card, tests it, and then selects whether it will be a factory OC or a reference watch, for example. The AiB can also “pre-bin” the graphics card, but it can be more expensive.
According to Igor’sLab, Ampere GPUs will be divided into three different tiers: Bin “0”, Bin “1” and Bin “2”. Bin “0” chips are fine, Bin “1” chips are the good ones, and Bin “2” chips are the best of all. The probability of having a Bin “0” chip will be 30%, a Bin “1” will be at 60% and Bin “2” will be 10%, which means that the chances of getting a good or excellent chip are greater than getting a good one. Given the short production time Samsung had, these values seem pretty good. As the process matures, the chances of obtaining Bin “1” and “2” chips will increase.
KitGuru Says: How important is it to you to get a higher rated RTX 30 series graphics card? Would you pay more for a higher chance of getting a higher rated card?
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