NVIDIA plans to launch the next generation of its GPUs in September and one of our sources just gave us an overview of the Ampere graphics card lineup. Interestingly, they mentioned that NVIDIA has * not * confirmed the name schemes (we currently refer to these cards as the RTX 3000 series) of the cards, but has begun revealing details about the boards, SKUs, and the tentative start schedule. Oh and remember the rumors we heard about a 20 GB card in the Ampere setup? Turns out they were right.
NVIDIA Ampere GPUs: 24GB, 10GB and 8GB cards launched in September with more to follow, six boards planned from now
According to our sources, NVIDIA plans to launch 3 boards in September with 1 board followed in October and 2 plans whose launch date has not yet been decided. Since we do not yet know the confirmed naming schemes, I will refer to these boards according to their board numbers and the map of the RTX 2000 series they are intended to replace.
- The crown jewel of NVIDIA’s lineup is the PG132-10 board with 24GB vRAM. It will replace the RTX 2080 Ti and is currently scheduled to launch in the second half of September.
- We then have the PG132-20 and PG132-30 boards, which both replace the RTX 2080 SUPER graphics card and will be worth 20GB and 10GB of vRAM respectively. The PG132-20 board will launch in the first half of October, while the PG132-30 board will launch in mid-September. It’s worth adding here that these three parts are probably the SKU10, 20 and 30 we’ve heard about and the SKU20 will be dead center on AMD’s Big Navi offering (and hence the stacked launch scheme). Since AMD’s Big Navi will * probably * be worth 16GB of vRAM, it also explains why NVIDIA wants 20GB.
- The PG142-0 and PG142-10 will both replace the RTX 2070 SUPER and will be worth 16GB and 8GB of vRAM respectively. While the PG142-10 has a known launch schedule in the second half of September, the PG142-0 board has not yet confirmed a launch date.
- Finally we have the PG190-10 board that will replace the RTX 2060 SUPER graphics card and will also have 8GB vRAM. The start schedule for this board has not yet been decided.
NVIDIA Ampere GPUs Partial Specifications and Release Dates
| Board ID | Replacement class | vRAM | Bus width | Starting plan |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PG132-10 | 2080 Ti | 24 GB | 384 bit | 2H sept. |
| PG132-20 | 2080 Super | 20 GB | 320 bit | 1H Oct. |
| PG132-30 | 2080 Super | 10 GB | 320 bit | Middle. Sept. |
| PG142-0 | 2070 Super | 16 GB | TBD | TBD |
| PG142-10 | 2070 Super | 8 GB | 256 bit | 2H sept. |
| PG190-10 | 2060 Super | 8 GB | 256 bit | TBD |
September is set to be a huge month for tech enthusiasts, with NVIDIA rolling out a brand new architecture (and series of graphics cards) and AMD eventually launching Big Navi in the coming weeks as well. The Ampere series has had more leaks and rumors than any other series and if we go into crunch time after launch, many of these will be debunked or confirmed. We are also waiting to hear about more specifications from our sources as well as a confirmation of the process node from which the Ampere series of GPUs are produced.
Currently, the expected nomenclature of these cards will also be the RTX 3000 series for the first time with a potential RTX 3090 in the mix. But keep in mind that NVIDIA has previously skipped nomenclature types just to discredit the lesson scene and might do so again. The caps we saw were only in the validation phase and it would be trivial for NVIDIA to change the naming scheme. However, the board numbers would remain the same. Despite what NVIDIA decides to call it, this is shaping up to be one hell of a generation.
