Nvidia and TSMC to increase production of 12nm Volta GPUs later this year

We've already had a peek at Nvidia's Volta architecture with the launch of the mega-expensive professional Tesla cards, but gamers are still waiting for this new tech to trickle down to consumer graphics cards. This week, TSMC, Nvidia's silicon partner, announced that it will be kicking off production of its 12nm FinFET chips later this year, making Volta-based GeForce graphics cards possible as soon as early 2018.

The first Volta GPU to make it out into the wild was the V100, which is squarely aimed at professionals. While it has been out since may, this GPU will differ from what we will see in GeForce cards next year. Given that there is a Volta-based GPU out already, this won't be the first time TSMC has produced 12nm FinFET. However, starting in Q4 volume will be ramped up in order to appease the consumer market.

It's worth noting that Nvidia CEO, Jensen Huang, recently told investors during an earnings call that gamers should not expect Volta before the end of 2017, stating that for the foreseeable future “Pascal is just unbeatable”. You can find the full quote below:

“Volta for gaming, we haven't announced anything. And all I can say is that our pipeline is filled with some exciting new toys for the gamers, and we have some really exciting new technology to offer them in the pipeline. But for the holiday season for the foreseeable future, I think Pascal is just unbeatable.”

So we won't be seeing any GeForce-series Volta graphics cards in time for the holiday season, but with production of 12nm FinFET ramping up, we could see something in the first half of next year, potentially even before the end of March 2018 but that is speculation at this time.

KitGuru Says: The ball firmly rests in Nvidia's court and with such a shift in architecture for both AMD's Vega and Nvidia's Volta cards, the GPU market looks to be quite interesting right now. Do you plan on upgrading anytime soon? What would be your next card?

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