What you need to know
- A new report claims some big changes are in store for NVIDIA's next-gen Ampere graphics.
- Chips based on Ampere will reportedly increase performance by 50 percent while halving power consumption.
- Ampere is expected to debut later in 2020 based on a 7nm process.
We're starting to get some of our first details on what's in store for NVIDIA's next graphics platform, known as Ampere. According to a client note by Yuanta Securities Investment Consulting Co and reported by the Taipei Times, Ampere chips are expected to be 50 percent faster while requiring half the power consumption when compared to the current Turing architecture (via Toms Hardware).
From the Taipei Times:
A successor to units based on the Turing architecture, Nvidia's next-generation GPU based on the Ampere architecture is to adopt 7-nanometer technology, which would lead to a 50 percent increase in graphics performance while halving power consumption, the note said.
If true, the shift in power would make sense. Turing is based on a 12nm fabrication process, while Ampere is expected to shrink that down to 7nm. With a significant move like that, major improvements to power consumption and performance are to be expected.
Moreover, this turns up the heat on AMD to deliver with its next graphics platform, dubbed "Big Navi." AMD's current Navi platform has already stepped into the 7nm arena, but NVIDIA's Ampere chips will heat things up if the Yuanta's note is accurate.
As for when we'll see Ampere make its debut, Yuanta points to the second half of 2020 as a general timeframe. As Tom's Hardware points out, this could mean NVIDIA will launch Ampere at its SIGGRAPH conference in August. Have a look at our roundup of the current best graphics cards for other powerful options.
