NVIDIA has just posted an official teaser of its next-generation GeForce RTX 30 Series Ampere graphics cards. The latest teaser confirms the design of the next-gen graphics cards which even in the form of a teaser looks seriously impressive.
NVIDIA Teases Next-Gen GeForce RTX 30 Series Gaming Graphics Cards – Brand New Cooling & Power Delivery Showcased
The teaser shows us the first official look at the next-gen Founders Edition cards which were leaked months earlier. Not only that, but we also get some more information on the PCB and power layout incorporated by the GeForce RTX 30 series graphics cards.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30 Series Founders Edition Cooling
NVIDIA has developed one of their best Founders Edition cooling design to date for the GeForce RTX 30 series graphics cards. The Founders Edition cooling makes use of a full aluminum alloy heatsink with dual-sided axial-tech based fans. The cooler heatsink is coated with a nano-carbon coating and should do a really good job at keeping the temperatures in control.
The previously leaked shrouds and heatsinks indicate at least four massive heat pipes running through all 4 sets of heatsinks.
The design is interesting in the sense that not only does it goes all out with a fin and heat pipe design, the first design of its kind since the original Founders Edition launch back with NVTTM on the GeForce GTX 780, but it also comes with a unique fan placement, one on the front and one at the bottom. This push & pull fan configuration which as it is referred to is yet to be tested in the field on a graphics card but it’s definitely one unique implementation.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30 Series PCB & Power Design
The Founders Edition design is also expected to feature over 20 power chokes which put it is a more premium design than the flagship non-reference RTX 20 series cards. In addition to that, GeForce RTX 30 series Founders Edition cards will be featuring the 12-pin Micro-Fit 3.0 power connectors.
These connectors don’t require a power supply upgrade as the cards will ship with bundled 2x 8-pin to 1x 12-pin connectors so you can run your latest graphics card without any compatibility issues.
The placement of the 12-pin connector on the PCB is also noteworthy. It is placed in a vertical position and judging by the PCB design, we can tell why NVIDIA moved to a single 12-pin plug instead of the standard dual 8-pin design.
The next-generation RTX cards come with a unique PCB design which is very compact compared to any previous flagship designs we’ve seen from NVIDIA. There’s limited room on the PCB to do stuff and as such, it was necessary to go for a more small and compact power input.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 – The Fastest Ampere Gaming Graphics Card
According to leaked details, the GeForce RTX 3090 will feature the GA102-300-A1 GPU. The GA102-300-A1 GPU is said to be comprised of 5248 CUDA cores or 82 SMs. In total, that’s a 20% increase in cores over the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti. No details such as clock speeds, TMU/ROP counts are provided and we can’t take the Ampere A100 die as a reference since gaming & HPC parts share a different configuration hierarchy.
Moving on to the memory side, things start to look interesting as it is stated that the card will get up to 24 GB memory with faster GDDR6X pin speeds. Since that’s a 384-bit bus we are looking at, it will be able to offer nearly 1 TB/s bandwidth.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 – GA102 For High-End Gaming
Moving on to the GeForce RTX 3080, the rumor reports that the card will be featuring the GA102-200-KD-A1 SKU. This cut down SKU will feature the same 4352 CUDA cores as the RTX 2080 Ti that will be arranged in a total of 68 SMs. The card is reportedly going to feature up to 10 GB of memory that is also going to be GDDR6X. Assuming the memory is running at 19 Gbps across a 320-bit bus interface, we can expect a bandwidth of up to 760 GB/s.
The switch to GA102 from TU104 on the RTX 2080 is definitely an interesting one. A high-end SKU would also result in higher wattage and thermals but I believe this could be done to raise the bar up on the sub $500 segment which should comprise of GA104 based RTX 3070 and RTX 3060. The latest performance leaks also show a considerable performance improvement over the RTX 2080 and even the RTX 2080 Ti in synthetic benchmarks. If the same could translate over to the gaming performance, then Ampere does look like a super enticing product for gamers who have waited for almost 2 years now.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30 “Ampere’ Graphics Card Rumored Launch/Specs:
| Graphics Card Name | GPU Name | SMs / CUDA Cores | Memory Capacity | Memory Bus | Launch Timeframe |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX RTX 3090 | Ampere GA102-300? | 5248 (82)? | 24 GB GDDR6X? | 384-bit? | September 2020 |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 | Ampere GA102-200? | 4352 (68)? | 10/20 GB GDDR6X? | 320-bit? | September 2020 |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti? | Ampere GA104-400? | 2944 (46)? | 8/16 GB GDDR6X? | 256-bit? | October 2020 |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 | Ampere GA106-300? | TBD | 6/12 GB GDDR6X? | 192-bit? | November 2020 |
The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30 ‘Ampere’ Gaming graphics card lineup is expected to be announced on 1st September at a digital event which will be hosted by CEO of NVIDIA, Jensen Huang. We expect at the very least, three new graphics cards during the event which include the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti (or RTX 3090), GeForce RTX 3080, and a next-generation Titan. There’s definitely a lot more to talk about regarding the Ampere GPUs but we will have to wait until more information comes our way.
