Turing | KitGuru https://www.kitguru.net KitGuru.net - Tech News | Hardware News | Hardware Reviews | IOS | Mobile | Gaming | Graphics Cards Thu, 30 Mar 2023 11:49:36 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.3 https://www.kitguru.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/cropped-KITGURU-Light-Background-SQUARE2-32x32.png Turing | KitGuru https://www.kitguru.net 32 32 Nvidia GTX 1630 Review ft. Palit https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/dominic-moass/nvidia-gtx-1630-review-ft-palit/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/dominic-moass/nvidia-gtx-1630-review-ft-palit/#respond Wed, 06 Jul 2022 11:00:43 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=566233 Nvidia's GTX 1630 has arrived to a very muted reception - we find out why

The post Nvidia GTX 1630 Review ft. Palit first appeared on KitGuru.]]>
Back from the grave, Nvidia has resurrected the GTX branding for its newest graphics card – the GTX 1630. Calling this ‘new' is somewhat of a stretch however, as GTX 1630 is simply a cut-down version of the GTX 1650 that launched three years ago on the Turing architecture. What sort of performance can we expect from this product? That's what we will find out today…

While the graphics card market had been in turmoil for almost the last two years, things are quickly returning to normal following the crypto crash and a steep drop in demand for GPUs. It is amidst that backdrop that Nvidia has announced the GTX 1630, although this GPU has launched with next to no fanfare and could easily have been missed.

Given the name, it is fair to assume the GTX 1630 is a successor to the GT 1030, and we certainly won't be expecting too much in terms of gaming performance from this card. With UK prices starting at £179.99 however, the GTX 1630 will have to really surprise us to justify that price point…

GTX 1660 SUPER GTX 1660 GTX 1650 SUPER GTX 1650 GTX 1630
GPU TU116 TU116 TU116 TU117 TU117
Process TSMC 12nm TSMC 12nm TSMC 12nm TSMC 12nm TSMC 12nm
SMs 22 22 20 14 8
CUDA Cores  1408 1408 1280 896 512
Texture Units 88 88 80 56 32
ROPs 48 48 32 32 16
GPU Boost Clock  1785 MHz 1785 MHz 1725 MHz 1665 MHz 1785 MHz
Memory Data Rate 14 Gbps 8 Gbps 12 Gbps 8 Gbps 12 Gbps
Total Video Memory 6GB GDDR6 6GB GDDR5 4GB GDDR6 4GB GDDR5 4GB GDDR6
Memory Interface  192-bit 192-bit 128-bit 128-bit 64-bit
Memory Bandwidth 336 GB/sec 192.1 GB/sec 192 GB/sec 128 GB/sec 96 GB/sec
TGP 125W 120W 100W 75W 75W

First let's take a quick look at the specs. As a cut-down TU117 GPU, the same silicon that was originally used for the GTX 1650, the GTX 1630 sports a total of 8 streaming multiprocessors (SMs). Each SM houses 64 CUDA cores, giving a total of just 512.

We also find 32 texture units and 16 ROPs, while rated boost clock comes in at 1785MHz. Today we are testing the Palit Dual model, which does not ship factory overclocked.

As for the memory configuration, 4GB GDDR6 is standard for the GTX 1630, operating at 12Gbps. Over an extremely narrow 64-bit interface however, that delivers 96GB/s bandwidth, a reduction of 25% compared to the GDDR5 GTX 1650.

Lastly, despite all of its cutbacks, GTX 1630 is still rated at 75W  total graphics power, the same as the GTX 1650. This certainly seems odd based on the specs, but we are using our updated GPU power testing methodology in this review, so read on for our most detailed power and efficiency testing yet.

Be sure to check out our sponsors store EKWB here

The post Nvidia GTX 1630 Review ft. Palit first appeared on KitGuru.]]>
https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/dominic-moass/nvidia-gtx-1630-review-ft-palit/feed/ 0
Nvidia introduces six new RTX workstation desktop and mobile GPUs https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/joao-silva/nvidia-introduces-six-new-rtx-workstation-desktop-and-mobile-gpus/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/joao-silva/nvidia-introduces-six-new-rtx-workstation-desktop-and-mobile-gpus/#respond Tue, 13 Apr 2021 08:59:59 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=511477 Nvidia will expand its RTX A workstation series with two new desktop GPUs and four laptop GPUs. During GTC, the company also revealed two entry-level mobile GPUs based on the Turing GPU architecture without RT or Tensor cores. Up to now, the Nvidia RTX A6000 was the only desktop workstation graphics card featuring the Ampere …

The post Nvidia introduces six new RTX workstation desktop and mobile GPUs first appeared on KitGuru.]]>
Nvidia will expand its RTX A workstation series with two new desktop GPUs and four laptop GPUs. During GTC, the company also revealed two entry-level mobile GPUs based on the Turing GPU architecture without RT or Tensor cores.

Up to now, the Nvidia RTX A6000 was the only desktop workstation graphics card featuring the Ampere architecture, but two new SKUs are on the way to accompany it. During Nvidia's GTC 2021 keynote, the company unveiled two new RTX workstation cards: the RTX A5000 and the RTX A4000. Nvidia has also announced four RTX workstation laptop GPUs – RTX A2000, RTX A3000, RTX A4000, and RTX A5000 – and two entry-level workstation laptop GPUs – T600 and T1200.

The following tables (via HardwareLuxx) include the specifications of each RTX A and T workstation series graphics card. The first table only includes the RTX A desktop SKUs:

RTX A6000 RTX A5000 RTX A4000
GPU GA102 GA102 GA104
Transistors 28 billion 28 billion 17.4 billion
Fabrication Node 8nm 8nm 8nm
Chip size 628.4mm² 628.4mm² 392.5mm²
FP32 ALUs 10,752 8,192 6,144
INT32 ALUs 5,376 4,096 3,072
SMs 84 64 48
Tensor cores 336 256 192
RT Cores 84 64 48
FP32 performance 38.7TFLOPS 27.8TFLOPS 19.2TFLOPS
RT performance 75.6TFLOPS 54.2TFLOPS 37.4TFLOPS
Tensor performance 309.7TFLOPS 222.2TFLOPS 153.4TFLOPS
VRAM 48GB GDDR6 24GB GDDR6 16GB GDDR6
Memory bus 384-bit 384-bit 256-bit
Memory bandwidth 768GB/s 768GB/s 448GB/s
TDP 300W 230W 140W

As seen by these specifications, Nvidia is upgrading the whole lineup. The RTX A5000 and RTX A4000 are way above their predecessors, offering more than double the FP32 and rendering performance and 5x more AI performance (10x with sparsity). Additionally, each card also comes with more 8GB VRAM than its predecessor. Both cards come with 4x DisplayPorts 1.4. The RTX A5000 features a dual-slot design and vGPU and NVLink support. The RTX A4000 comes in a single-slot design but does not feature NVLink or vGPU support.

The next table includes the specifications of the upcoming RTX A workstation laptop GPUs:

RTX A2000 RTX A3000 RTX A4000 RTX A5000
GPU GA106 GA104 GA104 GA102
Transistors 12 billion 17.4 billion 17.4 billion 28 billion
Fabrication Node
8nm 8nm 8nm 8nm
Chip size 276mm² 392.5mm² 392.5mm² 628.4mm²
FP32 ALUs 2,560 4,096 5,120 6,144
INT32 ALUs 1,280 2,048 2,560 3,072
SMs 20 32 40 48
Tensor cores 80 128 160 192
RT Cores 20 32 40 48
FP32 performance
9.3TFLOPS 12.8TFLOPS 17.8TFLOPS 21.7TFLOPS
RT performance 18.2TFLOPS 25.0TFLOPS 34.8TFLOPS 75.6TFLOPS
Tensor performance
74.7TFLOPS 102.2TFLOPS 142.5TFLOPS 174.0TFLOPS
VRAM 4GB GDDR6 6GB GDDR6 8GB GDDR6 16GB GDDR6
Memory bus
128-bit 192-bit 256-bit 256-bit
Memory bandwidth
192GB/s 264GB/s 384GB/s 448GB/s
TDP 35-95W 60-130W 80-140W 80-165W

The wide range of RTX A laptop GPUs allows users to choose which one is better to fulfil their needs. From the GA106 to the GA102, each GPU offers varying levels of performance. All RTX A workstation laptop SKUs will feature Dynamic Boost 2.0, WhisperMode 2.0, Resizable BAR, and NVIDIA DLSS technology, offering a powerful and portable solution for professionals working with AI, data science, 3D modeling, and more.

Lastly, this table features the specifications of the T workstation laptop GPUs:

T600 T1200
FP32 ALUs 896 1,024
INT32 ALUs 896 1,024
SMs 14 16
Tensor cores
RT Cores
FP32 performance 2.5TFLOPS 3.7TFLOPS
RT performance
Tensor performance
VRAM 4GB GDDR6 4GB GDDR6
Memory bus 128-bit 128-bit
Memory bandwidth 160GB/s 192GB/s
TDP 25W 35-95W

None of these two GPUs feature RT cores or Tensors cores, and only offer 4GB of GDDR6 memory. Nonetheless, these entry-level workstation GPUs should offer superior performance compared to iGPUs. 

The new Nvidia RTX desktop GPUs are scheduled to launch later this month. The RTX laptop GPUs will be available on mobile workstations starting Q2 2021.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru says: Are you thinking about putting together a new workstation? Will you be opting for a new RTX A workstation card or a workstation grade laptop?

The post Nvidia introduces six new RTX workstation desktop and mobile GPUs first appeared on KitGuru.]]>
https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/joao-silva/nvidia-introduces-six-new-rtx-workstation-desktop-and-mobile-gpus/feed/ 0
Nvidia’s flagship mining card tipped to offer twice the performance of RTX 3090 https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/joao-silva/nvidias-flagship-mining-card-tipped-to-offer-twice-the-performance-of-rtx-3090/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/joao-silva/nvidias-flagship-mining-card-tipped-to-offer-twice-the-performance-of-rtx-3090/#respond Tue, 23 Mar 2021 17:32:43 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=508665 According to a couple of sources this week, Nvidia is planning on releasing a very high-end CMP HX series crypto-mining card. A flagship model featuring the GA100 GPU is apparently on the way, expected to provide a hash rate of up to 210 MH/s – double the mining performance of the RTX 3090.  Initial word …

The post Nvidia’s flagship mining card tipped to offer twice the performance of RTX 3090 first appeared on KitGuru.]]>
According to a couple of sources this week, Nvidia is planning on releasing a very high-end CMP HX series crypto-mining card. A flagship model featuring the GA100 GPU is apparently on the way, expected to provide a hash rate of up to 210 MH/s – double the mining performance of the RTX 3090. 

Initial word on this new CMP HX flagship was shared by @kopite7kimi, a known leaker with a good record of previous Ampere leaks. In this tweet, the leaker only claimed that the “A100 is a mining monster” but didn't detail mining performance.

In response another leaker, @I_Leak_VN, stated that the upcoming CMP HX series card would be named 220HX, featuring an eye-boggling hash rate of 210 MH/s and a $3,000 price tag. Compared to the RTX 3090, the CMP 220HX  delivers twice as much performance for Ethereum mining, which would justify the price tag for mining farms.

Initially introduced almost a year ago on the A100, the GA100 GPU is the highest tier Ampere GPU to date. Unlike the GA102-powered GPUs, the A100 uses HBM2 instead of GDDR6X. The card features 5 stacks of high-speed HBM2 memory clocked at 2.4Gbps across a 512-bit memory bus. This results in 40GB of VRAM and a maximum bandwidth of 1555GB/s. As for power consumption, the A100 card's TDP is rated at 250W.

Considering the current DAG (Directed Acyclic Graph) to mine Ethereum occupies about 4GB of VRAM, Nvidia could reduce costs by using a single 8GB HBM2 memory stack.

Currently, we do not know when this new flagship mining card will hit the market. Currently, Nvidia is starting at the bottom of the stack with the CMP 30HX and 40HX cards, both based on Turing GPUs and expected to release before the end of Q1. In Q2 2020, we will see the release of the CMP 50HX and the first Ampere-powered mining card, the CMP 90HX.

KitGuru says: In today's market, it's hard to believe that such a powerful and efficient card would launch at $3000, but if it does, it would probably revolutionise the mining ecosystem. Do you believe Nvidia would launch the alleged CMP 220HX at $3000? Would you consider buying one (or a few) for mining at that price? 

The post Nvidia’s flagship mining card tipped to offer twice the performance of RTX 3090 first appeared on KitGuru.]]>
https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/joao-silva/nvidias-flagship-mining-card-tipped-to-offer-twice-the-performance-of-rtx-3090/feed/ 0
First Nvidia CMP crypto-mining card pictured https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/matthew-wilson/first-nvidia-cmp-crypto-mining-card-pictured/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/matthew-wilson/first-nvidia-cmp-crypto-mining-card-pictured/#respond Fri, 12 Mar 2021 16:22:49 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=507568 Last month ahead of the RTX 3060 launch, Nvidia announced that it would be limiting mining performance in future GeForce graphics cards and releasing a new set of ‘CMP' cards for crypto miners instead. Now, the first images of an Nvidia CMP graphics card have leaked.  There are going to be multiple Nvidia CMP (Crypto …

The post First Nvidia CMP crypto-mining card pictured first appeared on KitGuru.]]>
Last month ahead of the RTX 3060 launch, Nvidia announced that it would be limiting mining performance in future GeForce graphics cards and releasing a new set of ‘CMP' cards for crypto miners instead. Now, the first images of an Nvidia CMP graphics card have leaked. 

There are going to be multiple Nvidia CMP (Crypto Mining Processor) cards available. Images obtained by VideoCardz give us our first look at the CMP 30HX, more specifically, a custom-cooled Gigabyte model with a dual-fan cooler:

The CMP 30HX is the entry-level crypto mining card, which will be based on a TU116-100 GPU with 6GB of VRAM and a 125W TDP. There are two other Turing-based CMP cards coming as well, with one Ampere based CMP card acting as the flagship.

This particular Gigabyte CMP30HX does not have any display outputs, so it can't be resold as a gaming card on the second-hand market. Currently, Nvidia is planning to launch the first CMP cards this month, starting with entry-level cards and working up to the CMP 90HX, which is due in May 2021.

KitGuru Says: What do you think of Nvidia's new strategy of limiting mining performance on GeForce and offering a dedicated mining GPU alternative? 

The post First Nvidia CMP crypto-mining card pictured first appeared on KitGuru.]]>
https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/matthew-wilson/first-nvidia-cmp-crypto-mining-card-pictured/feed/ 0
Nvidia CMP HX series graphics cards to be based on Ampere and Turing https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/joao-silva/nvidia-cmp-hx-series-graphics-cards-to-be-based-on-ampere-and-turing/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/joao-silva/nvidia-cmp-hx-series-graphics-cards-to-be-based-on-ampere-and-turing/#respond Mon, 01 Mar 2021 09:39:51 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=505951 Last month, Nvidia announced its new crypto-mining alternative GPU line-up with some basic details. Since then, new reports have shed some light on what's to come, claiming that there will be both Turing and Ampere based CMP HX GPUs.   According to Videocardz, the 30HX, 40HX and 50HX mining GPUs will be based on the older …

The post Nvidia CMP HX series graphics cards to be based on Ampere and Turing first appeared on KitGuru.]]>
Last month, Nvidia announced its new crypto-mining alternative GPU line-up with some basic details. Since then, new reports have shed some light on what's to come, claiming that there will be both Turing and Ampere based CMP HX GPUs.  

According to Videocardz, the 30HX, 40HX and 50HX mining GPUs will be based on the older Turing architecture, while the 90HX will be based on Ampere. Some of this information was confirmed by the recent Nvidia 461.72 graphics driver, which when datamined, revealed entries for the upcoming CMP 30HX and 40HX cards. Based on the GPU IDs, they appear to be based on Turing, with one using the TU116 found in the GTX 16 series and the TU106 found on the RTX 2060 and RTX 2070.

The latest Nvidia driver didn't have the 50HX and 90HX on the list, but a source claimed the 50HX would be based on the TU102 GPU, the same powering the RTX 2080Ti. This then leaves the 90HX as the only Ampere mining card, which is reportedly coming with a GA102 GPU, the same graphics processor found on the RTX 3080 graphics cards.

The 30HX and 40HX graphics cards are expected to release in the first quarter of 2021, while the 50HX and 90HX should be available during Q2 2021.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru says: Do you use your graphics card for mining? Would you opt for a CMP HX GPU for the job over a GeForce model? 

The post Nvidia CMP HX series graphics cards to be based on Ampere and Turing first appeared on KitGuru.]]>
https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/joao-silva/nvidia-cmp-hx-series-graphics-cards-to-be-based-on-ampere-and-turing/feed/ 0
MSI to launch ‘Miner’ graphics cards based on Nvidia Turing and AMD RDNA chips https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/matthew-wilson/msi-to-launch-miner-graphics-cards-based-on-nvidia-turing-and-amd-rdna-chips/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/matthew-wilson/msi-to-launch-miner-graphics-cards-based-on-nvidia-turing-and-amd-rdna-chips/#respond Thu, 03 Sep 2020 09:35:00 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=484366 The next generation of Nvidia RTX graphics cards are about to be ushered in, which means manufacturers are going to be looking at ways to shift any remaining RTX 20 series stock they have left. In MSI's case, it looks like the company will be repackaging some of its Turing GPUs to take a stab …

The post MSI to launch ‘Miner’ graphics cards based on Nvidia Turing and AMD RDNA chips first appeared on KitGuru.]]>
The next generation of Nvidia RTX graphics cards are about to be ushered in, which means manufacturers are going to be looking at ways to shift any remaining RTX 20 series stock they have left. In MSI's case, it looks like the company will be repackaging some of its Turing GPUs to take a stab at the cryptomining market. 

As reported by PCGamer, MSI has recently registered a bunch of ‘Miner' graphics cards with the Eurasian Economic Commission (ECC). This includes a GTX 1660 Super Miner, GTX 1660 Miner, GTX 1660Ti Miner, RTX 2060 Super Miner and an RTX 2060 Miner. There will also be a few AMD-based ‘Miner' cards from MSI based on the RX 5500 XT, RX 5600 XT and RX 5700 XT, perhaps in anticipation for AMD's next-gen RDNA 2 GPUs.

We don't know if other manufacturers will try a similar method to shift remaining stock of last-gen GPUs, after all, the crypto market has been less dependent on graphics cards recently, with many mining enthusiasts instead using dedicated ASIC machines.

No official announcements have been made yet, but these graphics cards should start floating around the market soon enough.

KitGuru Says: What do you all think of this move? Are any of you hoping to get your hands on an older Turing GPU during sales towards the end of this year? 

The post MSI to launch ‘Miner’ graphics cards based on Nvidia Turing and AMD RDNA chips first appeared on KitGuru.]]>
https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/matthew-wilson/msi-to-launch-miner-graphics-cards-based-on-nvidia-turing-and-amd-rdna-chips/feed/ 0
Nvidia announces DLSS 2.0 with improved rendering quality https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/matthew-wilson/nvidia-announces-dlss-2-0-with-improved-rendering-quality/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/matthew-wilson/nvidia-announces-dlss-2-0-with-improved-rendering-quality/#respond Mon, 23 Mar 2020 14:23:18 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=458188 Alongside the launch of GeForce RTX graphics cards, Nvidia also announced DLSS, a new feature that utilises machine learning to boost game performance. In its original form, DLSS had some issues and exhibited questionable image quality in some titles. That may change starting this month, as Nvidia has now announced DLSS 2.0, overhauling the tech …

The post Nvidia announces DLSS 2.0 with improved rendering quality first appeared on KitGuru.]]>
Alongside the launch of GeForce RTX graphics cards, Nvidia also announced DLSS, a new feature that utilises machine learning to boost game performance. In its original form, DLSS had some issues and exhibited questionable image quality in some titles. That may change starting this month, as Nvidia has now announced DLSS 2.0, overhauling the tech for better results. 

If you played Wolfenstein: Youngblood after its RTX update earlier this year, then you will have already seen a preview of the quality improvements coming with DLSS 2.0. Previously with DLSS 1.0, the algorithm had to be trained on a per game basis but with DLSS 2.0, the system is much easier to integrate, which means more developers should be hopping on board to use it.

Here is Nvidia's breakdown of the improvements made for DLSS 2.0:

  • Superior Image Quality — DLSS 2.0 offers image quality comparable to native resolution while only having to render one quarter to one half of the pixels. It employs new temporal feedback techniques for sharper image details and improved stability from frame to frame.
  • Great Scaling Across All RTX GPUs and Resolutions — a new AI model more efficiently uses Tensor Cores to execute 2x faster than the original, improving frame rates and removing restrictions on supported GPUs, settings and resolutions.
  • One Network for All Games —The original DLSS required training the AI network for each new game. DLSS 2.0 trains using non-game-specific content, delivering a generalized network that works across games. This means faster game integrations, and ultimately more DLSS games.
  • Customizable Options — DLSS 2.0 offers users three image quality modes (QualityBalanced and Performance) that control render resolution, with Performance mode now enabling up to a 4x super resolution. (i.e. 1080p → 4K). This means more user choice, and even bigger performance boosts.

Several games already have DLSS 2.0 capability, including Wolfenstein: Youngblood and Deliver us the Moon. This month, Mechwarrior 5 and Control will also be patched with DLSS 2.0 improvements. Older DLSS 1.0 titles like Battlefield V, Shadow of the Tomb Raider and Metro Exodus would require a patch, so these improvements may not arrive for all previous DLSS supported titles. However, the improved integration method and support for Unreal Engine 4 means that we should see more developers adopting DLSS 2.0 as the year goes on.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: DLSS sounded very exciting to me when it was first announced but the image quality sacrifices certainly held things back. From the sounds of it, DLSS 2.0 is going to be a big upgrade all around, so I'll be looking forward to checking out the improvements in Control and Wolfenstein later in the week. Do many of you own an RTX GPU? How often do you use DLSS in its current form? 

 

The post Nvidia announces DLSS 2.0 with improved rendering quality first appeared on KitGuru.]]>
https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/matthew-wilson/nvidia-announces-dlss-2-0-with-improved-rendering-quality/feed/ 0
EVGA are shipping some RTX 2060 KO cards with Turing TU104 GPUs https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/james-dawson/evga-are-shipping-some-rtx-2060-ko-cards-with-turing-tu104-gpus/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/james-dawson/evga-are-shipping-some-rtx-2060-ko-cards-with-turing-tu104-gpus/#respond Fri, 24 Jan 2020 14:00:48 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=448555 EVGA unveiled the RTX 2060 KO card at CES earlier this month with a price tag of just $279 USD. The card can be purchased currently for $299 which is now the official MSRP that Nvidia has marked its RTX 2060 series down to. The regular RTX 2060 cards are usually equipped with Nvidia Turing …

The post EVGA are shipping some RTX 2060 KO cards with Turing TU104 GPUs first appeared on KitGuru.]]>
EVGA unveiled the RTX 2060 KO card at CES earlier this month with a price tag of just $279 USD. The card can be purchased currently for $299 which is now the official MSRP that Nvidia has marked its RTX 2060 series down to.

The regular RTX 2060 cards are usually equipped with Nvidia Turing TU106 GPU dies, however, in some cases the EVGA RTX 2060 KO is different, as it can be shipped with a Turing TU104-150 die which is typically found in Nvidia RTX 2070/2080 cards. It is believed that the reason for this is to make the RTX 2060 KO more cost-effective to produce for both EVGA and Nvidia.

Turing TU104 GPUs found in certain EVGA RTX 2060 KO cards are most likely to be defective dies with lower quality silicon that could not meet the specifications of RTX 2070/2080 graphics cards. The RTX 2060 requires considerably less CUDA cores compared to RTX 2070 and 2080, so instead of the defective dies being wasted, they are used in the EVGA RTX 2060 KO.

According to a recent discovery by GamersNexus, the Turing TU104 equipped EVGA RTX 2060 KO may be providing a little more performance than RTX 2060 cards with TU106 GPU dies in very specific scenarios such as Blender testing. GamersNexus has since reached out to Nvidia about their findings and the manufacturer did, in fact, confirm that some TU104 equipped RTX 2060’s are more powerful than TU106 cards in Blender.

“GeForce RTX 2060 boards are based on either the TU106 or TU104 GPUs. The performance difference between the two configurations is negligible in most cases, although TU104-based GeForce RTX 2060 cards will deliver higher performance in Blender.”

However, not all EVGA RTX 2060 KO cards will have the TU104 dies, the company will simply use what is available at the time, so it will be down to luck if you get one with a TU104 installed. A recent review of the EVGA RTX 2060 KO by TechPowerUp also found that their review sample EVGA 2060 KO was a TU104 equipped card, so they could be more common than you might think.

Discuss on our Facebook page HERE.

KitGuru says: this is an interesting piece of information found by GamersNexus and TechPowerUp, although it's not uncommon for Nvidia to use different GPU cores inside the same series of GPU. They have done this before with manufacturers such as Colorful, it is simply a cost-effective solution for cards which don’t need to 100% comply to reference card specifications.

 

The post EVGA are shipping some RTX 2060 KO cards with Turing TU104 GPUs first appeared on KitGuru.]]>
https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/james-dawson/evga-are-shipping-some-rtx-2060-ko-cards-with-turing-tu104-gpus/feed/ 0
Report claims Nvidia ‘Ampere’ GPUs will be 7nm and provide 50% more performance https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/matthew-wilson/report-claims-nvidia-ampere-gpus-will-be-7nm-and-provide-50-more-performance/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/matthew-wilson/report-claims-nvidia-ampere-gpus-will-be-7nm-and-provide-50-more-performance/#respond Fri, 03 Jan 2020 13:30:32 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=444486 Taipei-based investor analysts hint at next-gen Nvidia 'Ampere' launch in 2020 with a 50 percent performance increase on 7nm.

The post Report claims Nvidia ‘Ampere’ GPUs will be 7nm and provide 50% more performance first appeared on KitGuru.]]>
While a series of RTX 20 SUPER graphics cards kept things ticking over the course of 2019, as we head in to 2020, expectations for the next series of Nvidia GeForce graphics cards are rising. Rumours around the next-gen ‘Ampere' architecture have been circulating recently, and now analysts are weighing in, predicting up to 50 percent higher performance than Turing while using less power. 

Citing a client note from Yuanta Securities Investment Consulting, the Taipei Times is reporting that a “graphics processing unit upgrade by Nvidia Corp is expected to drive growth in the global gaming industry this year and benefit local firms with high exposure to the sector”. Local firms in this case would mean GPU board partners like MSI, Gigabyte, ASUS etc, which all sell custom variants of Nvidia's GPUs.

The investment consultants added that Ampere will be based on the 7nm node and will be capable of up to a 50 percent performance increase over Turing while using half as much power.

We don't have many more details than that, but according to Yuanta, we should expect a second half of 2020 launch for next-gen ‘Ampere' based Nvidia GPUs.

KitGuru Says: With a second half of 2020 launch slated, it seems that we won't be seeing official next-gen Nvidia GeForce announcements for a while. The current estimate does indicate that perhaps we'll hear something more official around the summer months. 

The post Report claims Nvidia ‘Ampere’ GPUs will be 7nm and provide 50% more performance first appeared on KitGuru.]]>
https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/matthew-wilson/report-claims-nvidia-ampere-gpus-will-be-7nm-and-provide-50-more-performance/feed/ 0
All the games confirmed to support Nvidia’s ray-tracing and DLSS RTX features https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/matthew-wilson/all-the-games-confirmed-to-support-nvidias-ray-tracing-and-dlss-rtx-features/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/matthew-wilson/all-the-games-confirmed-to-support-nvidias-ray-tracing-and-dlss-rtx-features/#respond Wed, 18 Dec 2019 11:00:46 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=384434 Nvidia's RTX features are starting to catch on with developers and the list of supported games continues to grow. At E3, a few more major releases were added to the full list.

The post All the games confirmed to support Nvidia’s ray-tracing and DLSS RTX features first appeared on KitGuru.]]>
During Nvidia's RTX 20 conference last year, we were treated to extensive demos of Battlefield V and Shadow of the Tomb Raider running with ray-tracing switched on. Since then, Battlefield V has launched with ray-tracing support, meanwhile Final Fantasy XV has been endowed with DLSS support. There are other games with RTX support on the horizon though, with quite a few studios working with Nvidia's latest technology.

First up we'll touch on the first 28 games to support real-time ray-tracing. The list includes:

  • Assetto Corsa Competizione (Update: RTX support now uncertain)
  • Atomic Heart
  • Battlefield V
  • Boundary
  • Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019)
  • Control
  • Convallaria
  • Cyberpunk 2077
  • Deliver Us The Moon: Fortuna
  • DOOM Eternal
  • Dying Light 2
  • Enlisted
  • F.I.S.T.
  • Justice
  • JX3
  • MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries
  • Metro Exodus
  • Minecraft
  • Project DH
  • Project X
  • Quake II
  • Ring of Elysium
  • Shadow of the Tomb Raider
  • SYNCED: Off-Planet
  • Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2
  • Watch Dogs Legion
  • Wolfenstein: Youngblood
  • Xuan-Yuan Sword VII

DLSS is something completely different and is more focussed on improving frame rates. DLSS stands for Deep Learning Super Sampling and utilises the new AI cores onboard the Turing chip. The easiest way to think about it is AI-assisted anti-aliasing, using deep learning to predict adjustments to each frame. By moving to this method, more of the GPU can be used elsewhere, thus improving frame rates.

The first 29 games to support DLSS include:

  • Ark: Survival Evolved
  • Anthem
  • Atomic Heart
  • Battlefield V
  • Deliver Us The Moon: Fortuna
  • Dauntless
  • Final Fantasy 15
  • Fractured Lands
  • Hitman 2
  • Islands of Nyne
  • Justice
  • JX3
  • Mechwarrior 5: Mercenaries
  • Metro Exodus
  • Monster Hunter World
  • PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds
  • Remnant: From the Ashes
  • Serious Sam 4: Planet Badass
  • Shadow of the Tomb Raider
  • The Forge Arena
  • We Happy Few
  • Darksiders III
  • Deliver Us The Moon: Fortuna
  • Fear the Wolves
  • Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice
  • KINETIK
  • Outpost Zero
  • Overkill's The Walking Dead
  • SCUM
  • Stormdivers
  • Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2

As we saw from Nvidia's own benchmarks, DLSS can improve performance in some games by quite a bit. We've yet to see independent benchmark figures but DLSS should end up being more efficient than Temporal Anti-Aliasing.

KitGuru Says: While ray-tracing is a key focus for Nvidia, I am actually quite interested in seeing how DLSS works, especially given the claims of improved performance over TAA. 

The post All the games confirmed to support Nvidia’s ray-tracing and DLSS RTX features first appeared on KitGuru.]]>
https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/matthew-wilson/all-the-games-confirmed-to-support-nvidias-ray-tracing-and-dlss-rtx-features/feed/ 0
3DMark updates with Tier 2 Variable-Rate Shading benchmark https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/matthew-wilson/3dmark-updates-with-tier-2-variable-rate-shading-benchmark/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/matthew-wilson/3dmark-updates-with-tier-2-variable-rate-shading-benchmark/#respond Thu, 05 Dec 2019 14:03:19 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=440114 DirectX 12 was recently updated with Variable-Rate Shading (VRS), giving developers the ability to improve performance by reducing the level of details in parts of a frame where you are unlikely to notice an impact on image quality. In August, UL Benchmarks added a VRS-specific test to 3DMark, utilising Tier-1 variable rate shading. This week, …

The post 3DMark updates with Tier 2 Variable-Rate Shading benchmark first appeared on KitGuru.]]>
DirectX 12 was recently updated with Variable-Rate Shading (VRS), giving developers the ability to improve performance by reducing the level of details in parts of a frame where you are unlikely to notice an impact on image quality. In August, UL Benchmarks added a VRS-specific test to 3DMark, utilising Tier-1 variable rate shading. This week, the benchmark is being updated again, adding in support for Tier-2 VRS.

If you aren't caught up on Variable-Rate Shading, here is a quick explanation for how it works:

The shading rate is the number of pixel shader operations called for each pixel. Higher shading rates are taxing on the GPU but create a more detailed image, while lower shading rates improve performance but lack in visual fidelity. Much like variable refresh rate on monitors, variable rate shading allows the rate to be dynamically adjusted based on GPU performance.

There are two tiers of VRS support in DirectX 12. With Tier 1, developers can specify a shading rate for each draw call. With Tier 2, there is more flexibility, allowing different shading rates within each draw call. In the updated 3DMark VRS benchmark, Tier 2 VRS is used to lower shading rates in areas where there is less contrast between neighbouring pixels. For instance, areas masked under shadow will have a lower shading rate compared to parts of the scene that are fully illuminated.

In the gallery above, you can see screenshots with Tier 2 VRS on, off and then the third image highlights the areas where different shading rates are applied. Purple highlights are areas with the lowest shading rate, followed by pink, orange, yellow and finally, white.

The Tier 2 VRS 3DMark benchmark is available in 3DMark Advanced Edition and Professional Edition. While the Tier 1 VRS test is compatible with either Nvidia Turing based GPUs and Intel Ice Lake processors, Tier 2 VRS is limited to Nvidia Turing GPUs. You also need to be running Windows 10 version 1903 or newer.

Discuss on our facebook page HERE.

KitGuru Says: Variable Rate Shading is very interesting tech with potential for big performance gains in PC games. Hopefully we'll have a chance to give this new benchmark update a few runs later in the month. 

The post 3DMark updates with Tier 2 Variable-Rate Shading benchmark first appeared on KitGuru.]]>
https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/matthew-wilson/3dmark-updates-with-tier-2-variable-rate-shading-benchmark/feed/ 0
NVIDIA officially launches GTX 1660 SUPER & GTX 1650 SUPER https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/matthew-wilson/nvidia-officially-launches-gtx-1660-super-gtx-1650-super/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/matthew-wilson/nvidia-officially-launches-gtx-1660-super-gtx-1650-super/#respond Tue, 29 Oct 2019 13:02:38 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=432721 Today NVIDIA is officially launching the GTX 1660 SUPER and the GTX 1650 SUPER, revamping the GTX 16-series with better performance for the same cost. We have specs, pricing and availability info here, in addition to two launch-day reviews of GTX 1660 SUPER graphics cards and details on the new feature-packed Nvidia driver update!

The post NVIDIA officially launches GTX 1660 SUPER & GTX 1650 SUPER first appeared on KitGuru.]]>
Today NVIDIA is officially launching the GTX 1660 SUPER and the GTX 1650 SUPER, putting the speculation, leaks and rumours to rest. Nvidia first began rolling out SUPER series graphics cards earlier this year, starting with the RTX 2060, 2070 and 2080. Now, the GTX 16 series is getting the SUPER treatment. 

The GTX 1660 SUPER comes equipped with GDDR6 memory, leaving the old GDDR5 standard behind. This upgrade also brings along the benefit of faster 14 Gbps memory speeds (up from 8 Gbps) and 336GB/s of memory bandwidth. This also results in a slight bump to power draw, going from 120W to 125W.

The GTX 1650 SUPER is getting more of a substantial upgrade over its predecessor, going from 896 CUDA cores and 56 TMUs to 1280 CUDA cores and 80 TMUs. Video memory also gets an upgrade, moving from 4GB of GDDR5 to 4GB of GDDR6 running at 12Gbps with 192GB/s of memory bandwidth.

You can see a breakdown of the specs for the GTX 1660 SUPER and GTX 1650 SUPER below compared against the GTX 1660Ti and the original GTX 1660/ GTX 1650:

GPU GTX 1660Ti GTX 1660 SUPER GTX 1660 GTX 1650 SUPER GTX 1650
SMs 24 22 22 20 14
CUDA Cores  1536 1408 1408 1280 896
GPU Boost Clock  1770 MHz 1785 MHz 1785 MHz 1725 MHz 1665 MHz
Memory Data Rate 12 Gbps 14 Gbps 8 Gbps 12 Gbps 8 Gbps
Total Video Memory 6GB GDDR6 6GB GDDR6 6GB GDDR6 4GB GDDR6 4GB GDDR5
Memory Interface  192-bit 192-bit 192-bit 128-bit 128-bit
Memory Bandwidth 288 GB/sec 336 GB/sec 192 GB/sec 192 GB/sec 128 GB/sec
Total Graphics Power (TGP) 120W 125W 120W 100W 75W

The GTX 1660 SUPER will be available starting this week with prices starting at £209/$229. The GTX 1650 SUPER will be arriving later, with a release date currently pencilled in for the 22nd of November, although pricing still needs to be confirmed.

A new graphics card launch also means a new driver update and this one happens to be quite exciting. Nvidia's new GeForce driver is adding several new features, including an Ultra Low Latency mode, a new sharpening tool for the Nvidia control panel and as previously rumoured, Nvidia is adding driver-level support for ReShade filters using the GeForce Freestyle and GeForce Ansel tools.

KitGuru Says: You can check out one of our TWO full reviews for the GTX 1660 SUPER to get our full thoughts. So far, we've tested the Gigabyte Gaming OC and Palit GamingPRO OC models and we'll be checking out the GTX 1650 SUPER closer to its release date. In the meantime, judging by the spec sheet, what do you all think of Nvidia's newly revamped GTX 16-series? 

The post NVIDIA officially launches GTX 1660 SUPER & GTX 1650 SUPER first appeared on KitGuru.]]>
https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/matthew-wilson/nvidia-officially-launches-gtx-1660-super-gtx-1650-super/feed/ 0
Nvidia RTX starts to see growth but revenue is still down compared to last year https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/matthew-wilson/nvidia-rtx-starts-to-see-growth-but-revenue-is-still-down-compared-to-last-year/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/matthew-wilson/nvidia-rtx-starts-to-see-growth-but-revenue-is-still-down-compared-to-last-year/#respond Fri, 17 May 2019 11:26:57 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=413149 Back in Q3 2018, Nvidia reported lower than expected results due to a weakened crypto-mining market and excess Pascal inventory taking longer to sell. Then for Q4 2018, Nvidia had to cut its earnings estimates due to weaker than forecasted sales in the gaming and datacentre markets. Now, we have Nvidia’s Q1 2019 results, showing …

The post Nvidia RTX starts to see growth but revenue is still down compared to last year first appeared on KitGuru.]]>
Back in Q3 2018, Nvidia reported lower than expected results due to a weakened crypto-mining market and excess Pascal inventory taking longer to sell. Then for Q4 2018, Nvidia had to cut its earnings estimates due to weaker than forecasted sales in the gaming and datacentre markets. Now, we have Nvidia’s Q1 2019 results, showing that revenue is still down, particularly in the gaming sector, although things are expected to pick up.

Nvidia’s Q1 2019 earnings report is now available, showing that overall revenue is down by 31 percent compared to Q1 2018. For Nvidia’s gaming GPU segment specifically, revenue is down 39 percent year-on-year. There is an upside for Nvidia though, as CEO Jensen Huang reports that quarter-on-quarter revenue is ‘back on an upward trajectory’. This return to growth is attributed to the influx of new GeForce laptops now on the market, in addition to support for RTX within the gaming industry.

While revenue might be down, make no mistake, Nvidia is still raking in vast amounts of cash. During Q1 this year, Nvidia brought in $2.22 billion in revenue, with $1.05 billion of that coming from the gaming side of the business.

Nvidia expects RTX GPU adoption to improve going forward, citing the leadership position the company has taken in bringing raytracing to the forefront. Epic’s Unreal Engine 4 and the Unity engine both support raytracing now, CRYENGINE is implementing raytracing tools later this year and we know that the next-gen PlayStation also hopes to deliver raytracing to the masses. Once more games start coming out to showcase the benefits of ray-traced lighting, Nvidia hopes to see a boost in interest.

KitGuru Says: As nice as raytracing is, the biggest issue for many continues to be pricing. RTX 20 is Nvidia’s most expensive generation of GPUs for a long time, perhaps ever. With that said, price drops did start showing up for some cards in late March, so perhaps we’ll see more of that over the summer. Are any of you hoping to upgrade to RTX this year? Have any of you made the jump already?

The post Nvidia RTX starts to see growth but revenue is still down compared to last year first appeared on KitGuru.]]>
https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/matthew-wilson/nvidia-rtx-starts-to-see-growth-but-revenue-is-still-down-compared-to-last-year/feed/ 0
Gigabyte RTX 2060 Gaming OC Pro 6G Review https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/dominic-moass/gigabyte-rtx-2060-gaming-oc-pro-6g-review/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/dominic-moass/gigabyte-rtx-2060-gaming-oc-pro-6g-review/#respond Fri, 10 May 2019 09:52:13 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=412456 It's Gigabyte's top-tier RTX 2060 card, but can it justify the £360 asking price?

The post Gigabyte RTX 2060 Gaming OC Pro 6G Review first appeared on KitGuru.]]>
We've spent the last few months focusing on Nvidia's GTX 16-series graphics cards – starting with the GTX 1660 Ti and working down to the more recent GTX 1650. Today, however, our attention turns back to the RTX family, and specifically the mid-range RTX 2060. The particular model in question is Gigabyte's Gaming OC Pro 6G, which comes with a factory overclocked core, triple-fan cooler and RGB lighting. Is it worth the £360 asking price?

When RTX 2060 launched back in January 2019, Nvidia decided that its Founders Edition card would not come factory overclocked – instead, it would be up to AIB partners to ship RTX 2060s with higher clock speeds. Gigabyte has duly stepped up to the plate with its RTX 2060 Gaming OC Pro 6G, as this card has a rated boost clock of 1830MHz – an increase of 150MHz over the Founders card.

That means we would expect the Gigabyte to run a bit faster than the Founders Edition, while its triple-fan Windforce 3X cooler should also keep the card both cooler and quieter than the Founders 2060. Priced £31 higher than RTX 2060 MSRP, though, we would expect some improvement for the extra outlay. Whether or not the improvements can justify the higher price, we will have to see.

GPU RTX 2080 (FE)  GTX 1080 RTX 2070 (FE)  GTX 1070  RTX 2060 (FE)  GTX 1060
SMs  46  20 36 15 30 10
CUDA Cores  2944 2560 2304 1920 1920 1280
Tensor Cores  368 N/A 288 N/A 240 N/A
Tensor FLOPS  85 N/A 63 N/A 51.6 N/A
RT Cores 46 N/A 36 N/A 30 N/A
Texture Units 184 160 144 120 120 80
ROPs 64 64 64 64 48 48
Rays Cast  8 Giga Rays/sec 0.877 Giga Rays/sec 6 Giga Rays/sec 0.65 Giga Rays/sec 5 Giga Rays/sec 0.44 Giga Rays/sec
RTX Performance  60 Trillion RTX-OPS  8.9 Trillion RTX-OPS 45 Trillion RTX-OPS 6.5 Trillion RTX-OPS 37 Trillion RTX-OPS N/A
GPU Boost Clock  1800 MHz  1733 MHz 1710 MHz 1683 MHz 1680 MHz 1708 MHz
Memory Data Rate 14 Gbps 10 Gbps 14 Gbps 8 Gbps 14 Gbps 8 Gbps
Total Video Memory  8GB GDDR6  8GB GDDR5X 8GB GDDR6 8GB GDDR5 6GB GDDR6 6GB GDRR5
Memory Interface   256-bit  256-bit 256-bit 256-bit 192-bit 192-bit
Memory Bandwidth  448 GB/sec  320 GB/sec  448 GB/sec 256 GB/sec 336.1 GB/sec 192 GB/sec
TDP  225W  180W 185W 150W 160W 120W

RTX 2060 is based on the same TU106 GPU as found in the RTX 2070, but with 6 less streaming multiprocessors (SMs). This means it sports 1920 CUDA cores, as opposed to the 2304 in its bigger brother. It is also very much an RTX card, meaning we do have dedicated RT cores (30 of those) and also the AI-driven Tensor cores (240 there).

Reference specification for the RTX 2060 has a rated boost clock of 1680MHz, but as mentioned this Gaming OC Pro 6G ups the speed to 1830MHz. The 6GB of GDDR6 memory, however, has been left at the stock 14 Gbps data rate.

Be sure to check out our sponsors store EKWB here

The post Gigabyte RTX 2060 Gaming OC Pro 6G Review first appeared on KitGuru.]]>
https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/dominic-moass/gigabyte-rtx-2060-gaming-oc-pro-6g-review/feed/ 0
Nvidia launches its GeForce GTX 1660 Ti starting at £259.99 https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/damien-cox/nvidia-launches-its-geforce-gtx-1660-ti-starting-at-259-99/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/damien-cox/nvidia-launches-its-geforce-gtx-1660-ti-starting-at-259-99/#respond Fri, 22 Feb 2019 14:16:52 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=404615 Nvidia has officially unveiled its Turing-based GeForce GTX 1660 Ti graphics card, starting at £259.99/$279.

The post Nvidia launches its GeForce GTX 1660 Ti starting at £259.99 first appeared on KitGuru.]]>
Nvidia has officially unveiled its GeForce GTX 1660 Ti graphics card, ditching ray tracing technology in order to make its 12th generation Turing architecture more affordable. The GPU is readily available from custom board providers starting at £259.99/$279, offering a number of improvements over the firm’s previous generation.

Team Green touts that its Turing technology delivers 1.5x instructions per clock and 1.4x the power efficiency when compared with Pascal architecture, giving the GTX 1660 Ti an unprecedented performance per watt in its class. With concurrent floating point and integer operations support, a unified cache and enhanced adaptive shading technology, it also manages to execute twice the Tera operations per second (TOPS).

The GTX 1660 Ti packs in 6GB of the new GDDR6 video memory running at 12Gbps and 1,536 CUDA cores. Nvidia promises that overclocking is easy with a boost clock of 1.8 GHz, setting the standard of 120 frames per second in full 1080p games like Fortnite and Apex Legends.

Where the GTX 1660 Ti fits into the line-up is a little more unclear. Given that it is supposedly 1.5x faster than the 6GB version of the GTX 1060, it’s likely to go head to head with the GTX 1070, albeit with fresher technology. Nvidia states that at least two-thirds of its user base has a card equal to or below a GTX 960, meaning that most users will see around three times the performance with the GTX 1660 Ti.

ASUS, MSI, PalitGigabyte, EVGA, PNY and Zotac have all pitched in with their own cards, with models starting at £259.99. Top of the range variants such as the MSI GTX 1660 Ti Gaming X 6G or ASUS Strix line climb as high as £310. Some of these links might be broken until retailers steadily release their line throughout the day. We will update them accordingly.

KitGuru Says: Although I have to question the pricing when an RTX 2060 costs just £70 more than the base price, it’s wonderful to see Nvidia covering more of the market. Does the GTX 1660 Ti appeal to you?

The post Nvidia launches its GeForce GTX 1660 Ti starting at £259.99 first appeared on KitGuru.]]>
https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/damien-cox/nvidia-launches-its-geforce-gtx-1660-ti-starting-at-259-99/feed/ 0
MSI GTX 1660 Ti Gaming X 6G Review https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/dominic-moass/msi-gtx-1660-ti-gaming-x-6g-review/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/dominic-moass/msi-gtx-1660-ti-gaming-x-6g-review/#respond Fri, 22 Feb 2019 14:00:32 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=404349 GTX 1660 Ti is official - is MSI's Gaming X model any good?

The post MSI GTX 1660 Ti Gaming X 6G Review first appeared on KitGuru.]]>
Nvidia is continuing to release new products at quite a pace. Last month saw the arrival of RTX 2060 to generally favourable reviews, and today marks the official launch of GTX 1660 Ti. Long rumoured, this card is perhaps most notable for its distinct lack of any Tensor or RT cores – features which define the RTX series of graphics cards by giving them the ability to play ray traced games and use DLSS. With those features not supported here, we return to GTX nomenclature with the 1660 Ti.

Interestingly, Nvidia has not manufactured a Founders Edition for its new GTX 1660 Ti, instead it is relying on its board partners like ASUS, MSI and Gigabyte to produce a variety of cards. The MSI GTX 1660 Ti Gaming X 6G we are looking at today is definitely positioned as a high-end 1660 Ti, with a factory overclocked core and £50 price premium over the 1660 Ti's baseline MSRP of £259.

GPU RTX 2070 (FE)  GTX 1070  RTX 2060 (FE)  ­GTX 1660 Ti GTX 1060
SMs 36 15 30 24 10
CUDA Cores  2304 1920 1920 1536 1280
Tensor Cores  288 N/A 240 N/A N/A
Tensor FLOPS 63 N/A 51.6 N/A N/A
RT Cores 36 N/A 30 N/A N/A
Texture Units 144 120 120 96 80
ROPs 64 64 48 48 48
Rays Cast  6 Giga Rays/sec 0.65 Giga Rays/sec 5 Giga Rays/sec 0.44 Giga Rays/sec
RTX Performance  45 Trillion RTX-OPS 6.5 Trillion RTX-OPS 37 Trillion RTX-OPS N/A
GPU Boost Clock  1710 MHz 1683 MHz 1680 MHz 1770 MHz 1708 MHz
Memory Data Rate 14 Gbps 8 Gbps 14 Gbps 12 Gbps 8 Gbps
Total Video Memory 8GB GDDR6 8GB GDDR5 6GB GDDR6 6GB GDDR6 6GB GDRR5
Memory Interface  256-bit 256-bit 192-bit 192-bit 192-bit
Memory Bandwidth  448 GB/sec 256 GB/sec 336.1 GB/sec 288.1 GB/sec 192 GB/sec
TDP 185W 150W 160W 120W 120W

 

GPU-Z screenshot (left), TU116 GPU block diagram (right)

GTX 1660 Ti is still based on the same Turing architecture as all of the RTX 20-series cards we have reviewed over the past 6 months. We have detailed some key features of the Turing architecture in our initial reviews of the RTX 2080 and RTX 2080 Ti from September 2018.

The primary difference here is that GTX 1660 Ti does not have any Tensor or RT cores. Rather than using the TU106 GPU (used for RTX 2060/2070) with disabled SMs and Tensor/RT cores, Nvidia created a new GPU for the GTX 1660 Ti, dubbed TU116 (as seen above).

TU102/104/106 SM (left), TU116 SM (right)

This is a consequence of Nvidia deciding that ‘adding dedicated cores to accelerate Ray Tracing and Al doesn't make sense unless you can first achieve a certain level of rendering performance', something it did not deem possible while also aiming the card at the ‘sub-$300 market.'

This has led to a slight revamp of the Turing SM design for TU116, primarily with the addition of the dedicated FP16 cores. Nvidia claims modern games are ‘increasingly using FP16 to create effects that don't require a high level of precision', and where this is handled by the Tensor cores on the RTX cards, there are now dedicated FP16 cores within TU116 which can process at double the rate of FP32 operations.

In total, TU116 sports 24 SMs, each with 64 CUDA cores – giving a total of 1536. It is also worth making clear, if not already, that GTX 1660 Ti still supports other Turing technologies we have already detailed – including variable rate shading and concurrent execution of FP/INT instructions, for example. The major difference between 1660 Ti and the RTX cards is, as mentioned, no support for ray traced games or DLSS.

Other changes to note with the GTX 1660 Ti include the 6GB GDDR6 memory. Where we have previously seen GDDR6 operating at 14 Gbps, with the 1660 Ti this is slightly slower, with a 12 Gbps data rate. Also on the topic of speeds, reference GTX 1660 Ti has a boost clock of 1770 MHz, though this factory overclocked MSI Gaming X model has increased that to 1875 MHz.

Lastly, reference TDP is rated at 120W, the same as GTX 1060. Our MSI Gaming X ups this to 130W thanks to its increased out of the box clock speed.

Be sure to check out our sponsors store EKWB here

The post MSI GTX 1660 Ti Gaming X 6G Review first appeared on KitGuru.]]>
https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/dominic-moass/msi-gtx-1660-ti-gaming-x-6g-review/feed/ 0
Nvidia cuts Q4 earnings estimates due to ‘lower than expected’ Turing sales https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/matthew-wilson/nvidia-cuts-q4-earnings-estimates-due-to-lower-than-expected-turing-sales/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/matthew-wilson/nvidia-cuts-q4-earnings-estimates-due-to-lower-than-expected-turing-sales/#respond Mon, 28 Jan 2019 18:51:49 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=402222 Nvidia lowers Q4 financial expectations following "lower than expected" sales for high-end Turing graphics cards.

The post Nvidia cuts Q4 earnings estimates due to ‘lower than expected’ Turing sales first appeared on KitGuru.]]>
Back in November, Nvidia reported lower than expected earnings due to the crypto mining market drying up and an over supply of leftover Pascal GPUs. Now a couple of months later, the situation hasn't improved much, with Nvidia today readjusting its expected Q4 earnings and admitting that Turing sales are lower than expected.

In a press release issued today, Nvidia updated its financial guidance for Q4 in the 2019 financial year. Nvidia states that it has had “weaker than forecasted sales” in the gaming and datacenter markets. While the hit from excess Pascal inventory fell “largely inline with management's expectations”, the sales of “certain high-end GPUs using Nvidia's new Turing architecture were lower than expected”.

High-end Turing/RTX graphics cards aren't flying off the shelves as swiftly as past generations. Nvidia thinks that “some customers may have delayed their purchase while waiting for lower price points and further demonstrations of RTX technology in actual games”. I'm inclined to agree with Nvidia on both counts there, as prices are spectacularly high this time around and we still have very few games supporting ray-tracing or DLSS- Shadow of the Tomb Raider owners are still waiting on an ETA for the RTX update and Battlefield V has yet to have DLSS patched in.

On the datacenter front, Nvidia says that “a number of deals in the company's forecast did not close in the last month” of Q4, which also had an impact on projected revenue for the quarter. Right now, Nvidia, has reduced its Q4 earnings guidance from $2.7 billion to $2.2 billion. Nvidia stock has dipped by around 15 percent following the announcement.

KitGuru Says: Nvidia has taken some hits over the last couple of quarters. We don't know if this will result in price drops or sales for Turing GPUs any time soon, but perhaps increased competition from AMD's upcoming Radeon VII GPU will spur things along. Were any of you considering an RTX GPU upgrade this year? Are you waiting for pricing to come down first, or would you be happy to fork out the full price is more RTX titles were readily available? 

The post Nvidia cuts Q4 earnings estimates due to ‘lower than expected’ Turing sales first appeared on KitGuru.]]>
https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/matthew-wilson/nvidia-cuts-q4-earnings-estimates-due-to-lower-than-expected-turing-sales/feed/ 0
CES 2019: Nvidia announces RTX 2060, available this month for £329 https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/matthew-wilson/ces-nvidia-announces-rtx-2060-available-this-month-for-329/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/matthew-wilson/ces-nvidia-announces-rtx-2060-available-this-month-for-329/#respond Mon, 07 Jan 2019 07:41:05 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=400288 Nvidia's RTX 2060 has been announced, bringing the entry-level price of Turing down to £329.

The post CES 2019: Nvidia announces RTX 2060, available this month for £329 first appeared on KitGuru.]]>
CES has officially kicked off and the big announcements are starting to roll in. Today, Nvidia officially announced the RTX 2060 graphics card, which will be available from the 15th of January onwards, bringing the entry level price of Turing down from $499 to $349 (£329 in the UK), all while offering performance similar to the GTX 1070Ti.

According to Nvidia, the new RTX 2060 is 60 percent faster than the GTX 1060 in current gaming titles, the GPU is also billed as being able to run Battlefield V with ray-tracing at 60 frames per second. On the RTX 2060, this is achieved by pairing ray-tracing with DLSS, which saves performance compared to traditional anti-aliasing methods. DLSS support isn't available in Battlefield V just yet, but that should arrive later this month alongside these new GPUs.

In terms of raw specs, the RTX 2060 comes with 240 Tensor Cores and is rated for '37 RTX-OPS', compared to the RTX 2070's 45, which gives some indication as to how well ray-tracing will work. The RTX 2060 also packs 1920 CUDA cores, a 1365MHz/1680MHz base/boost clock speed and 6GB of GDDR6 RAM running at 14Gbps.

So the RTX 2060 will offer a new entry point for RTX graphics, although at £329, it is more expensive than past xx60-series launches. Still, if you plan on picking one up, then you will get some free games with it, including Anthem or Battlefield V.

KitGuru Says: We should see RTX 2060 reviews start to pop up soon, so we'll be able to get a better look at exact performance. From the sounds of it though, we are expecting 1070Ti performance at a lower launch price, with the benefits of ray-tracing/DLSS included. What do you guys think of the RTX 2060 so far? Will you be upgrading?

The post CES 2019: Nvidia announces RTX 2060, available this month for £329 first appeared on KitGuru.]]>
https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/matthew-wilson/ces-nvidia-announces-rtx-2060-available-this-month-for-329/feed/ 0
Nvidia RTX 20 series GPUs available for pre-order https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/matthew-wilson/nvidia-rtx-20-series-gpus-available-for-pre-order/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/matthew-wilson/nvidia-rtx-20-series-gpus-available-for-pre-order/#respond Mon, 20 Aug 2018 18:50:30 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=383954 The big day has finally arrived. Today Nvidia launched the RTX 20 series of graphics cards, bringing forward the RTX 2080Ti, RTX 2080 and RTX 2070 all at once. We’ve already dived into the specs for these three Turing cards but pre-orders are also already going live here in the UK. Over at Overclockers UK, …

The post Nvidia RTX 20 series GPUs available for pre-order first appeared on KitGuru.]]>
The big day has finally arrived. Today Nvidia launched the RTX 20 series of graphics cards, bringing forward the RTX 2080Ti, RTX 2080 and RTX 2070 all at once. We’ve already dived into the specs for these three Turing cards but pre-orders are also already going live here in the UK.

Over at Overclockers UK, a bunch of RTX 20 GPUs are already available to order in both Founder’s Edition and custom cooled form. Options from ASUS, MSI, Gigabyte, EVGA, Zotac, Palit and more are live.

A few of the highlights include the Gigabyte RTX 2080Ti Windforce for £1,049.99, the MSI RTX 2080 Gaming X Trio for £839.99, the ASUS RTX 2080 Dual OC for £884.99 and many more. Here is a quick refresher on the specs:

GPU RTX 2080Ti RTX 2080 RTX 2070
CUDA Cores 4352 2944 2304
Base Clock 1350 MHz 1515 MHz 1410 MHz
Boost Clock 1635 (FE) / 1545 MHz 1800 (FE) / 1710 MHz 1710 (FE) / 1620 MHz
Memory 11GB GDDR6 8GB GDDR6 8GB GDDR6
Memory Bus 352-bit 256-bit 256-bit
Memory Bandwidth 616 GB/s 448 GB/s 448 GB/s
TDP 250W 215W 185W

Looking at the stack, the cheapest RTX 2080Ti you can get your hands on is the Gigabyte Windforce card, or the MSI Duke equivalent. The cheapest RTX 2080 you can get is the MSI Duke at £715.99, you will also find the Gigabyte Windforce and Inno3D Jet Edition cards going for the same price.

Unfortunately, the RTX 2070 is not live for pre-orders just yet. We are expecting this card to ship a little later compared to the RTX 2080Ti and RTX 2080. You can take a look at all of the RTX 20 series GPUs available at OCUK today, HERE.

KitGuru Says: These new RTX 20-series GPUs are certainly expensive, but from the sounds of it, they will also be high performers. Are any of you thinking about picking up one of Nvidia's new graphics cards? How do you feel about the new pricing?

The post Nvidia RTX 20 series GPUs available for pre-order first appeared on KitGuru.]]>
https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/matthew-wilson/nvidia-rtx-20-series-gpus-available-for-pre-order/feed/ 0
Nvidia’s RTX 20 series finally unveiled in Cologne https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/dominic-moass/nvidias-rtx-20-series-finally-unveiled-in-cologne/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/dominic-moass/nvidias-rtx-20-series-finally-unveiled-in-cologne/#respond Mon, 20 Aug 2018 18:42:18 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=383802 It's been a long time coming, but the new generation of Nvidia GPUs is finally here

The post Nvidia’s RTX 20 series finally unveiled in Cologne first appeared on KitGuru.]]>
Over two years on from the launch of its Pascal architecture and the highly successful GTX 10 series, Nvidia has finally officially launched a new product series. The big news at its GeForce event in Cologne, Germany, was the announcement of not only the RTX 2070, but the 2080 and RTX 2080 Ti cards as well.

If you tuned in to watch Nvidia's livestream, you will have seen the announcement – Jen-Hsun Huang launched three new GeForce cards, based on the new Turing architecture, in his keynote address.

By the day of launch, almost all details about the new cards had leaked – and the leaks turned out to be very accurate. Not only was the RTX branding made official for the GeForce gaming cards, but all three of the RTX 2070, 2080 and RTX 2080 Ti cards were announced. Built on a new 12nm process, the 2080 sports 2944 CUDA cores with 8GB GDDR6 memory, while the 2080 Ti has 4352 CUDA cores and 11GB GDDR6 memory.

The new RTX branding is obviously important, as it it signifies Nvidia's focus on ray tracing technologies. Dubbed ‘the holy grail of graphics' at the event, ray tracing has previously been out of reach for consumer graphics due to the vast amount of graphical performance required to implement it effectively. With the new Turing architecture and RTX graphics cards, however, the stunning visual effect of ray tracing is now much less of an obstacle. To make this clear, Jen-Hsun declared that a GTX 1080 Ti can calculate 1.21 Giga Rays per second – when a new RT (ray tracing) core in Turing GPUs can calculate 10 Giga Rays per second, almost 10x as fast.

There was also a strong focus on the AI and deep learning nature of the new Turing GPU. This is thanks to the new Tensor cores, which can process images in real-time to improve perceived resolution, similar to anti-aliasing – but with much greater overall clarity. To demonstrate the new technology and its impact for games, various demos were shown live, including the upcoming Shadow of the Tomb Raider which will support ray traced shadows – which looked much more dynamic and life-like than without RTX enabled.

This seems to suggest that rather than building ray tracing into games in their entirety, ray tracing will be used in a more subtle way to make certain aspects of a scene more life-like. This is likely because ray tracing is still too demanding for completely widespread use, so based on the demos we saw, game developers will pick and choose where it will be utilised to reduce overall impact on performance.

Elsewhere, the updated memory is also worth noting as the new GPUs have made the jump from GDDR5X to GDDR6 – something which was first made official with the announcement of the Quadro RTX. This means the cards have greatly increased memory bandwidth, with the 2080 Ti boasting a huge 616GB/s bandwidth speed, while the 2080 is a bit slower at 448 GB/s.

Aside from the specs of the new GPUs, we also go confirmation of the fact that Nvidia's Founder's Edition RTX cards have ditched the single fan blower-style cooler of previous generations in favour of a mean-looking dual fan card. This is despite the 2080 Ti sporting the same 250W TDP as a reference GTX 1080 Ti, suggesting Nvidia just wanted to make a better cooled card to keep core frequency up.

In terms of pricing, the RTX 2070 was announced as starting at $499/£570. The 2080 is due to start at $699/£750, with the top dog starting at $999/£1099. Pre-orders are now available but shipping won't start until the 20th of September.

See below for a full spec chart:

GPU RTX 2080Ti RTX 2080 RTX 2070
CUDA Cores 4352 2944 2304
Base Clock 1350 MHz 1515 MHz 1410 MHz
Boost Clock 1635 (FE) / 1545 MHz 1800 (FE) / 1710 MHz 1710 (FE) / 1620 MHz
Memory 11GB GDDR6 8GB GDDR6 8GB GDDR6
Memory Bus 352-bit 256-bit 256-bit
Memory Bandwidth 616 GB/s 448 GB/s 448 GB/s
TDP 250W 215W 185W

KitGuru says: It's hard to not come away feeling impressed by the new Turing architecture and what it can do for graphics. Still, we wait to see real-world game benchmarks for ourselves – so stay tuned for upcoming GTX 20 coverage

The post Nvidia’s RTX 20 series finally unveiled in Cologne first appeared on KitGuru.]]>
https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/dominic-moass/nvidias-rtx-20-series-finally-unveiled-in-cologne/feed/ 0
Nvidia hints at GeForce RTX 2080 gaming GPU https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/damien-cox/nvidia-hints-at-geforce-rtx-2080-gaming-gpu/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/damien-cox/nvidia-hints-at-geforce-rtx-2080-gaming-gpu/#respond Tue, 14 Aug 2018 11:14:20 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=383131 Nvidia has finally unveiled its brand new Turing architecture under the Quadro RTX series, confirming two of the three trademarks spotted at the end of last week. The third and final GeForce RTX trademark is still being teased, with Nvidia's new ‘Be For The Game' trailer pointing towards the RTX 2080. The teaser starts by …

The post Nvidia hints at GeForce RTX 2080 gaming GPU first appeared on KitGuru.]]>
Nvidia has finally unveiled its brand new Turing architecture under the Quadro RTX series, confirming two of the three trademarks spotted at the end of last week. The third and final GeForce RTX trademark is still being teased, with Nvidia's new ‘Be For The Game' trailer pointing towards the RTX 2080.

The teaser starts by showcasing segments of the all-new GPU, sporting Nvidia’s signature reference card design with a new cooler and a new backplate. It’s been rumoured for quite some time that Nvidia’s next flagship would carry the GTX 11 series moniker, however names within the trailer indicate that this isn’t the case.

RoyTeX is prominently featured throughout the various communication platforms shown within the teaser, lending credibility to speculation that the RTX title will also be reaching gaming graphics cards. Not_11 directly hints that Nvidia would be forgoing the 11 series in favour of the 20 series, further hinted by Mac-20. Finally, Eight Tee lends credibility to the rumoured flagship RTX 2080. Adding a finishing touch to the teaser, Nvidia subtly highlights the numbers ‘2080’ within the date of the Cologne-based event.

It doesn’t seem that this will be the death of the GTX branding, as keen-eyed viewers might notice the box at the start of the teaser sporting ‘GTX’ on its side. While out of focus, the G is unmistakably the same as seen in GeForce. It is rumoured that the GTX line will be lower-end, missing Nvidia’s proprietary ray tracing technology with a price that will hopefully reflect as such.

In more unofficial territory, Ashes of the Singularity (AotS) benchmarks have been leaked onto the game’s database, showcasing a device that outperforms Nvidia’s top-of-the-line TITAN V graphics card at 4K and even 5K resolution. Despite the card remaining hidden behind the ambiguous title of “NVIDIA Graphics Device,” this is speculated to be the RTX 2080, as nothing currently on the market outshines Nvidia’s Volta architecture found within the TITAN V.

The card shown within the AotS benchmarks hit a sturdy 69fps under a heavy bench in 4K resolution, while maintaining over 60fps on a normal bench at 5K. The Turing architecture shown during this year’s Siggraph is rated to hit as high as 16 TFLOPs, while the TITAN V outputs 15 TFLOPs, which is still monstrous by any standard. This would indicate why the AotS benchmarks supposedly concerning Turing could best the TITAN V’s raw power while falling just behind its baseline.

While this should all be taken with a pinch of salt, it’s worth remembering that device might be easy to fake, but benchmark scores prove much more difficult. Whatever Nvidia has underneath its belt and whatever it might be titled, it seems like it will pack a punch during the GeForce event at Gamescom on the 20th August. Pricing is unconfirmed, with the premium expected to be eye-wateringly expensive if Quadro RTX is any indication.

KitGuru Says: Given that Turing is a complete redesign rather than a rescaling, it’s interesting to see how this will impact the gaming market as well as workstations. Are you excited for what Nvidia has in store?

The post Nvidia hints at GeForce RTX 2080 gaming GPU first appeared on KitGuru.]]>
https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/damien-cox/nvidia-hints-at-geforce-rtx-2080-gaming-gpu/feed/ 0
Nvidia officially launches Turing architecture with Quadro RTX series https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/matthew-wilson/nvidia-officially-launches-turing-architecture-with-quadro-rtx-series/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/matthew-wilson/nvidia-officially-launches-turing-architecture-with-quadro-rtx-series/#respond Tue, 14 Aug 2018 10:48:54 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=383074 Nvidia's brand new Turing architecture is officially here, launching first in the Quadro RTX series.

The post Nvidia officially launches Turing architecture with Quadro RTX series first appeared on KitGuru.]]>
There is plenty of graphics card news to unpack today as last night during Siggraph, Nvidia officially announced the Turing architecture alongside a new range of Quadro RTX GPUs. The announcement places Ray Tracing directly in the spotlight and hints heavily at what we'll be seeing at next week's GeForce event.

After months of leaks and rumours, Nvidia has officially confirmed that its next architecture is indeed ‘Turing'. The rollout kicks off with three new graphics cards under the Quadro RTX banner, including the RTX 8000, RTX 6000 and RTX 5000. According to Nvidia, Turing represents the “greatest leap” since the introduction of CUDA cores in 2006. With Turing, Nvidia has implemented new ‘RT Cores' to accelerate ray tracing and Tensor Cores (which debuted with Volta) for AI inferencing. Combining these two technologies is what makes real-time ray tracing possible.

Nvidia talked a bit about ray tracing back in March during GDC. This technology brings ‘real-time movie quality rendering' to games- the biggest difference can be observed in lighting and how it interacts with the world in a natural, life-like way. Speaking at Siggraph this week, Nvidia CEO, Jensen Huang, described ray tracing and hybrid rendering as the company's “most important innovation” in more than a decade, even going as far as to call ray-tracing the “holy grail” of the graphics industry.

We'll be hearing a lot more about ray-tracing in videogames during Nvidia's GeForce event on Monday, where we are expecting to see the RTX 2080 graphics card announced. In the meantime, lets dive into the Quadro RTX specifications.

Quadro RTX 8000:

  • Memory: 48GB Samsung GDDR6
  • Memory w/ NVLink: 96GB
  • Ray-tracing: 10 GigaRays/sec
  • CUDA cores: 4,608
  • Tensor cores: 576

Quadro RTX 6000:

  • Memory: 24GB Samsung GDDR6
  • Memory w/ NVLink: 48GB
  • Ray-tracing: 10 GigaRays/sec
  • CUDA cores: 4,608
  • Tensor cores: 576

Quadro RTX 5000:

  • Memory: 16GB Samsung GDDR6
  • Memory w/ NVLink: 32GB
  • Ray-tracing: 6 GigaRays/sec
  • CUDA cores: 3,072
  • Tensor cores: 384

Pricing is of course, quite high, with the RTX 8000 coming in at $10,000, the RTX 6000 coming in at $6,300 and the RTX 5000 coming in at $2,300. Our guess would be that the RTX 2080 will be running a version of the chip found on the RTX 5000 but we won't know for sure until all of these graphics cards start shipping out and we can dig deeper.

KitGuru Says: Nvidia is betting big on ray-tracing becoming the next big thing in graphics, and the company seems to have a healthy lead over the competition at this point. Quadro RTX already sounds impressive, now our attention turns to Nvidia's event next Monday, where we will hopefully see the consumer implementation of this technology in the form of a GTX 1080 successor. 

The post Nvidia officially launches Turing architecture with Quadro RTX series first appeared on KitGuru.]]>
https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/matthew-wilson/nvidia-officially-launches-turing-architecture-with-quadro-rtx-series/feed/ 0
Nvidia finally trademarks Turing, alongside GeForce RTX and Quadro RTX branding https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/damien-cox/nvidia-finally-trademarks-turing-alongside-geforce-rtx-and-quadro-rtx-branding/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/damien-cox/nvidia-finally-trademarks-turing-alongside-geforce-rtx-and-quadro-rtx-branding/#respond Fri, 10 Aug 2018 15:37:13 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=382805 Nvidia’s next line-up of graphics cards is now believed to be just 10 days away, supposedly making their debut during the company’s GeForce Gaming Celebration on August 20th. While this was thought to concern the tentatively titled GTX 1180, patent filings suggest that the Green Team could be introducing an entirely new range under the …

The post Nvidia finally trademarks Turing, alongside GeForce RTX and Quadro RTX branding first appeared on KitGuru.]]>
Nvidia’s next line-up of graphics cards is now believed to be just 10 days away, supposedly making their debut during the company’s GeForce Gaming Celebration on August 20th. While this was thought to concern the tentatively titled GTX 1180, patent filings suggest that the Green Team could be introducing an entirely new range under the ‘RTX’ banner.

Anyone following what they can of Nvidia’s next-generation architecture will know it’s been a confusing one, with Ampere, Volta and Turing being touted as the sequel to Pascal. This turned out to be somewhat true for Volta, appearing in workstation and datacentre-focused cards, while the other two have yet to appear in any official capacity beyond a leak.

It seems that Turing is certainly on the cards, however, as Nvidia has now officially trademarked the name with the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). This is also backed up by leaks of Nvidia's new GPU codenames, including the TU104, the same number allocated to previous generations dating back to the GTX 680. The GPU carrying this code is none other than the RTX 2080, according to YouTuber AdoredTV.

Nvidia’s RTX branding has cropped up before, revealed to be the title of firm’s efforts with real-time ray tracing technology. The final two trademarks filed by Nvidia list the “GeForce RTX” and “Quadro RTX,” suggesting that it could be possible we will see its new ray tracing tech reserved for a newer, perhaps higher-end brand than the already established GTX series.

AdoredTV’s source highlights interesting details about the rumoured cards, including supposed performance increases on the current Pascal generation. Of course, like Ampere, RTX cards remain firmly in ‘rumour’ territory until Nvidia officially announce the division in its GTX line-up, but it does remain to be questioned why the chipmaker would want to make its popular line of cards obsolete on release if it still plans to go ahead with the whispered GTX 1180.

KitGuru Says: If this does prove true, I’m curious as to how developers would handle ray tracing technology while still making the game accessible to GTX owners. Would it work like Nvidia GameWorks or something entirely new?

The post Nvidia finally trademarks Turing, alongside GeForce RTX and Quadro RTX branding first appeared on KitGuru.]]>
https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/damien-cox/nvidia-finally-trademarks-turing-alongside-geforce-rtx-and-quadro-rtx-branding/feed/ 0
GPU shipments to fall as mining demand weakens, potentially hindering Nvidia’s next-gen chips https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/damien-cox/gpu-shipments-to-fall-as-mining-demand-weakens-potentially-hindering-nvidias-next-gen-chips/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/damien-cox/gpu-shipments-to-fall-as-mining-demand-weakens-potentially-hindering-nvidias-next-gen-chips/#respond Mon, 25 Jun 2018 17:37:52 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=377760 While GPU shipments are set to fall thanks to a reduced demand from miners, Nvidia is stuck with an overabundance of Pascal GPUs that might have hindered the road to next-gen architecture.

The post GPU shipments to fall as mining demand weakens, potentially hindering Nvidia’s next-gen chips first appeared on KitGuru.]]>
It seems that GPU shipments are set to fall in the second half of this year, as demand from miners is finally beginning to weaken. Nvidia in particular might be suffering as a result, as the company has reportedly over ordered Pascal GPUs, leaving the Green Team with a bunch of leftover chips to try and sell. Unfortunately, this could have a knock-on effect for Nvidia's roadmap, potentially delaying plans to launch next-gen graphics cards for gaming.

The GPU mining sector has seen a significant drop in demand from April 2017 until March 2018, as a result of cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin falling in value from $20,000 during December down to under $7,000 in recent months. DigiTimes also states that government interference from China, South Korea, the US and parts of Europe have played a part in the downturn, as officials try to clamp down on market manipulation.

Inventories of Taiwanese graphics card manufacturers have since increased significantly, as companies shift their target from miners to gamers once again. This has been reflected in some recent price cuts, however retailers are maintaining an approximate 20 percent inflation over MSRP, twice that of early 2017.

Despite the shift to gamers, Nvidia now has an overabundance of Pascal graphics cards on its hands thanks to grossly overestimating the longevity of GPU mining demand, according to GamersNexus. It’s possible that this could stunted the Green Team’s roadmap, as the company has withdrawn from its planned Hot Chips 30 presentation in August detailing its “next-gen GPU”.

The event organisers at Hot Chips have since redacted any mention of Nvidia’s next-generation GPU within the press release and time table, with Intel’s new “High Performance Graphics solutions” now acting as the opening. Nvidia’s presence within the event hasn’t gone entirely, with the company appearing multiple times sans new architecture.

Reports are still conflicting as to when Nvidia’s new chips, presumably based on its Turing architecture, will hit the market. Some claim that the company is still on track for a limited launch in September followed by volume in the fourth quarter 2018, while Nvidia’s next-gen presentation disappearing from Hot Chips suggests that the company might just be eking out Pascal a little more. Either way, it’s worth taking information on the Green Team’s roadmap with a lot of salt.

KitGuru Says: After all of Nvidia’s talk about prioritising gamers, it’s logical that the company would wait for further price stabilisation to push out a new generation, ensuring the new cards reach their intended audience. Still, the company has to figure out what to do with all of those Pascal chips as they approach end of sale.

The post GPU shipments to fall as mining demand weakens, potentially hindering Nvidia’s next-gen chips first appeared on KitGuru.]]>
https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/damien-cox/gpu-shipments-to-fall-as-mining-demand-weakens-potentially-hindering-nvidias-next-gen-chips/feed/ 0
Nvidia will detail its “next-gen” mainstream GPUs in August https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/damien-cox/nvidia-will-detail-its-next-gen-mainstream-gpus-in-august/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/damien-cox/nvidia-will-detail-its-next-gen-mainstream-gpus-in-august/#respond Thu, 31 May 2018 13:42:58 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=374902 Nvidia has kept mum on its next generation graphics processing units (GPUs) for quite some time, but it looks like more information is on its way in August. It has been spotted that the Green Team is pencilled in as the opening graphics presentation during this year’s Hot Chips convention, with its new GPU as …

The post Nvidia will detail its “next-gen” mainstream GPUs in August first appeared on KitGuru.]]>
Nvidia has kept mum on its next generation graphics processing units (GPUs) for quite some time, but it looks like more information is on its way in August. It has been spotted that the Green Team is pencilled in as the opening graphics presentation during this year’s Hot Chips convention, with its new GPU as the main focal point.

Although Nvidia will be appearing multiple times throughout the conference during its three-day run from August 19th to the 21st, its first Monday conference being titled “NVIDIA’s Next Generation Mainstream GPU” leaves little to the imagination as to when we will definitively get more information on the mysterious new cards.

“We will hear from the CPU and GPU giants: AMD featuring their next-gen client chip, NVIDIA with their next-gen GPU, and Intel with an interesting die-stacked CPU with iGPU plus stacked dGPU,” reads the Hot Chips press release.

It is currently unknown as to whether this will pertain to new architecture, much like the leap from Nvidia’s Maxwell within the GTX 900 series to Pascal seen in the GTX 10 Series, or whether it will be a Pascal Refresh.

Lots of names have been floating around without clarification, from Volta, which we got a first look at with the GTX Titan V, to Turing and even Ampere. Whatever architecture it is based on, GDDR6 is expected to make an appearance in some capacity as the memory enters production within the next couple of months.

Hot Chips is known for its in-depth talks, meaning that Nvidia’s next-generation GPU might see the light of day before the conference, or even launch on the 20th August. Nvidia will also be appearing at Gamescom just one day later, marking August the month to watch for the Green Team.

KitGuru Says: Those still in the market for an upgrade might want to hold off a little longer, it seems. Despite having adopted a Pascal card myself, I am looking forward to know what Nvidia has in store for its next-generation. What are you hoping from the next line of Nvidia GPUs?

The post Nvidia will detail its “next-gen” mainstream GPUs in August first appeared on KitGuru.]]>
https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/damien-cox/nvidia-will-detail-its-next-gen-mainstream-gpus-in-august/feed/ 0
July launch rumoured for the GTX 1180 – What can we expect from it? https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/matthew-wilson/july-launch-rumoured-for-the-gtx-1180-what-can-we-expect-from-it/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/matthew-wilson/july-launch-rumoured-for-the-gtx-1180-what-can-we-expect-from-it/#respond Wed, 30 May 2018 16:48:59 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=374801 With the Pascal architecture hitting two years old, we've known that Nvidia would be looking to up its game with a new generation of graphics cards soon, especially with GDDR6 memory entering production within the next couple of months. With that in mind, a GTX 11-series might not be too far off, but what can …

The post July launch rumoured for the GTX 1180 – What can we expect from it? first appeared on KitGuru.]]>
With the Pascal architecture hitting two years old, we've known that Nvidia would be looking to up its game with a new generation of graphics cards soon, especially with GDDR6 memory entering production within the next couple of months. With that in mind, a GTX 11-series might not be too far off, but what can we expect from the jump?

We already have a rough idea of what to expect Nvidia's next-gen flagship thanks to the Titan V. While Rumours say that the GTX 11-series will utilise the so-called Turing GPU core, it seems likely that this will be a revision of Volta rather than a completely separate architecture. Volta was built for AI and machine learning primarily, but as we've seen from Titan V benchmarks, it also holds its own nicely in games. We would expect Turing to be Volta with the fancy AI accelerating and machine learning features stripped out, reducing production costs and gearing the chip towards the gaming market.

What we currently don’t have a grasp on is when to expect the GTX 1180 to launch. A report recently came out from Tom’s Hardware based on multiple (anonymous) industry sources, packing in more detail on the production timeline and when to expect a launch. According to the report, Nvidia will send samples of GDDR6 memory and Turing based GPUs to their partners (such as ASUS, MSI, Gigabyte, EVGA etc) on, or perhaps even earlier, than the 15th of June. Nvidia will then launch its GTX 1180 Founder’s Edition in July.

Sources also floated the idea that we should expect custom versions of the GTX 1180 to start hitting the market in August or September, sometime after the Founder’s Edition launch. The delay between the Founder’s Edition and partner variants will allow time for the cards to go through Nvidia's validation process, which involves design submissions, noise testing and a slew of other requirements that partners adhere to. Laptop versions of the cards should then arrive later in 2018 or early 2019.

Of course, this all hinges on the production timeline information being accurate. We've had multiple Nvidia rumours this year already, with many of them turning out to be untrue, so release date details should be taken with a pinch of salt.

Judging from past releases, with the GTX 1080 outperforming the GTX 980 by as much as 69% in games, the 1080 Ti outperforming the GTX 1080 by 30% and the Titan V outperforming the 1080 Ti by up to 30% in games at 4K, the GTX 1180 should outperform even the best Pascal cards by a significant margin. It is worth remembering though that the Titan V is based on GV-100, whereas a GTX 1180 is more likely to be based on a GV-104 (or GT-104 for Turing), which makes ascertaining a more precise percentage difficult.

Assuming performance lives up to expectations, the GTX 1180 could end up being the first single GPU to deliver 4K/60Hz gaming reliably in demanding titles.

KitGuru Says: We are deploying a good amount of educated guesswork here, so don't take our word as gospel. With that said, I'm very excited to finally see some new graphics cards hit the market and the performance gains that will come along with them.

The post July launch rumoured for the GTX 1180 – What can we expect from it? first appeared on KitGuru.]]>
https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/matthew-wilson/july-launch-rumoured-for-the-gtx-1180-what-can-we-expect-from-it/feed/ 0
New rumours claim we’ll see new Nvidia GPUs in July https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/matthew-wilson/new-rumours-claim-well-see-new-nvidia-gpus-in-july/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/matthew-wilson/new-rumours-claim-well-see-new-nvidia-gpus-in-july/#respond Fri, 18 May 2018 18:07:08 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=373747 It has been a few months since we last talked about any Nvidia rumours. The last time we checked in, the rumour mill couldn't make up its mind between a March or April launch. There were also conflicting reports around whether or not the next GeForce cards would sport Volta or ‘Turing' architecture. Things have …

The post New rumours claim we’ll see new Nvidia GPUs in July first appeared on KitGuru.]]>
It has been a few months since we last talked about any Nvidia rumours. The last time we checked in, the rumour mill couldn't make up its mind between a March or April launch. There were also conflicting reports around whether or not the next GeForce cards would sport Volta or ‘Turing' architecture. Things have been quiet for a while, but this week a new rumour popped up, pointing towards a July launch.

We obviously have no idea whether or not this is true and given all of the back and forth that occurred earlier this year, I'd encourage healthy scepticism. At any rate, the folks at Tom's Hardware have reported that their sources are claiming that Nvidia will be launching its next-gen gaming graphics cards in July, and outlined a schedule for add-in board partners like ASUS, MSI, Gigabyte, EVGA, Zotac and others.

The anonymous industry sources claim that Founder's Edition GTX 1180 (or 2080, we don't know what nomenclature Nvidia will go with), will launch in July.

Third party board partners will apparently start getting new GPUs and memory from Nvidia in mid-June, giving them a chance to produce custom cooled solutions, which should launch between August and September.

The report doesn't claim to have any leaked details on specs or performance levels, so we're still in the dark on that front.

KitGuru Says: The false leak claims that appeared earlier this year have left me hesitant to put much faith in any new rumours. Still, I do hope that new GPUs arrive sooner rather than later, after all, the Pascal generation has been dragging on for quite some time at this point. 

 

The post New rumours claim we’ll see new Nvidia GPUs in July first appeared on KitGuru.]]>
https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/matthew-wilson/new-rumours-claim-well-see-new-nvidia-gpus-in-july/feed/ 0
It looks like Nvidia’s Turing GPUs will enter mass production in Q3 2018 https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/damien-cox/it-looks-like-nvidias-turing-gpus-will-enter-mass-production-in-q3-2018/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/damien-cox/it-looks-like-nvidias-turing-gpus-will-enter-mass-production-in-q3-2018/#respond Thu, 15 Mar 2018 14:04:28 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=367327 It seems to be one step forward, two steps back in the world of graphics cards as users will apparently have to wait even longer to see Nvidia’s Turing GPUs. Originally pegged for a reveal this month in time for an August launch, Nvidia’s next gaming line of cards might not reach mass production until …

The post It looks like Nvidia’s Turing GPUs will enter mass production in Q3 2018 first appeared on KitGuru.]]>
It seems to be one step forward, two steps back in the world of graphics cards as users will apparently have to wait even longer to see Nvidia’s Turing GPUs. Originally pegged for a reveal this month in time for an August launch, Nvidia’s next gaming line of cards might not reach mass production until Q3 2018.

While reports are calling into question whether or not Nvidia will reveal its new technology during the Graphics Technology Conference (GTC) March 26-29, there’s still a chance that Turing will debut and reveal where the architecture falls among Nvidia’s Volta and upcoming Ampere architectures.

If the company does manage to showcase its new architecture, it is unlikely that we will see the products hit shelves until later on in the year, as a DigiTimes report states that Nvidia will not enter mass production of its next-generation chip until the third-quarter. This is an attempt to prolong the lifecycle of existing GPU lines in order to maximise profits and minimise the damage caused by the impending drop in demand for cryptocurrency, according to the sources.

Image credit: Inno3D

In the meantime, Nvidia is focusing on the release of its cryptocurrency mining-specific cards which have been leaked by Inno3D. The P102-100 is based on the same chip found in the GeForce GTX 1080 Ti, albeit with less memory channels, shaders and memory to reduce the manufacturing cost, while maintaining high hash rates.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: Despite the long wait that would entail, I hope that Nvidia announces something during GTC, simply because I’m frustrated with the lack of clarity on its leaked architecture. Once pegged as a mining card, Turing is now apparently the company’s gaming variant, whereas Ampere has switched from a gaming GPU to supposedly focusing on high-end computing. Hopefully Nvidia answers all of our graphics woes in the coming weeks.

The post It looks like Nvidia’s Turing GPUs will enter mass production in Q3 2018 first appeared on KitGuru.]]>
https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/damien-cox/it-looks-like-nvidias-turing-gpus-will-enter-mass-production-in-q3-2018/feed/ 0
Rumours are conflicting as new report claims Nvidia ‘Turing’ GPUs will land in March https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/matthew-wilson/rumours-are-conflicting-as-new-report-claims-nvidia-turing-gpus-will-land-in-march/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/matthew-wilson/rumours-are-conflicting-as-new-report-claims-nvidia-turing-gpus-will-land-in-march/#respond Wed, 14 Feb 2018 18:33:35 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=364176 The graphics card rumour mill has been spinning back up recently, with reports claiming that Nvidia's next gaming graphics cards will be here in less than two months time under the name ‘Ampere'. However, a wrench was thrown into the works today thanks to the folks at Reuters, who claim that new gaming GPUs from …

The post Rumours are conflicting as new report claims Nvidia ‘Turing’ GPUs will land in March first appeared on KitGuru.]]>
The graphics card rumour mill has been spinning back up recently, with reports claiming that Nvidia's next gaming graphics cards will be here in less than two months time under the name ‘Ampere'. However, a wrench was thrown into the works today thanks to the folks at Reuters, who claim that new gaming GPUs from Nvidia are in fact on the way, but are being made under the codename ‘Turing'.

Speaking with various industry analysts, Reuters has heard that Nvidia's competitive advantage in the gaming GPU market is going to increase in the coming months. Apparently, Volta will be moved into gaming GPUs this year under the new codename ‘Turing'. This GPU is expected to be unveiled in March, though it wasn't specified whether the reveal would take place at the Game Developer Conference or the Graphics Technology Conference, which occur a week or so apart from another.

Up until this point, we had only heard rumours coming out of Germany, claiming that Nvidia's new gaming GPU architecture would be called ‘Ampere'. The sources on these Ampere rumours were somewhat flimsy, whereas Reuters is a more high-profile US news outlet. With that in mind, the Reuters report may be the more likely one to turn out to be true.

Obviously, Nvidia hasn't announced anything official yet, so this information is all heavily planted in rumour territory at the moment. Still, hopefully we'll hear more information next month, when GDC and GTC roll around.

KitGuru Says: While I'm generally enthusiastic about all tech, nothing gets me going quite like a new graphics card launch. The rumour mill is spitting out conflicting information at the moment, but hopefully more light will be shed on this in the coming month. 

The post Rumours are conflicting as new report claims Nvidia ‘Turing’ GPUs will land in March first appeared on KitGuru.]]>
https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/matthew-wilson/rumours-are-conflicting-as-new-report-claims-nvidia-turing-gpus-will-land-in-march/feed/ 0