WCCF: GTX 980 Ti with GM200-310 Maxwell Core Could Launch by Computex

[csbin]

http://wccftech.com/nvidia-gtx-980-ti-gm200-310-maxwell-launch/

A report by KitGuru (via PCGamesHardware) states that the rumored GM200 powered GPU, the GTX 980 Ti, could launch at the Computex trade show next month. The report also states that sales will start immediately after the announcement which means we are not looking at a paper launch rather than the actual event. The Geforce GTX 980 Ti will feature the Maxwell GM200-310 core, which will most probably be the cut down form and should be priced to compete with the upcoming Red launches.


We are going to be looking at 6GB of GDDR5 Memory and a much decent price tag as compared to the TITAN-X. Initial rumors put the launch date by May 26th but if this new report is true than it could extend to the early weeks of June. Something I have pointed out before is, that the launch date of the GTX 980 Ti is an ephemeral matter. No matter how authentic the report is, it cannot be relied on for the simple reason that Nvidia does not need to launch GTX 980 Ti until AMD goes ahead with its next gen lineup – and even then when it feels like it. It can simply postpone or change the road map in anyway that it so wants.


This is why it is entirely within the realm of possibility that it might decide to postpone the GPU further and push it forwards to a July launch. Given below is the specification table of the GTX 900 series and the new Titan graphic card from Nvidia. There have been no price confirmation about the GTX 980 Ti but it should naturally be more than the 980 and less than the TITAN-X (duh). If someone were to ask me to speculate on the exact price then I would wager on a value around ~$750.

 

[railven]

Odd name, I wonder if any thing can be determined from it.

Reminds me of the what was it? GTX 560-240 core or some stupid name? A cut down GTX 570.

Welps, now to wait for price and performance info.

 

[lehtv]

GTX 560-240 core or some stupid name?

560 Ti 448 Cores

 

[destrekor]

Odd name, I wonder if any thing can be determined from it.

Reminds me of the what was it? GTX 560-240 core or some stupid name? A cut down GTX 570.

Welps, now to wait for price and performance info.

980 Ti is an odd name?

The "GM200-310" isn't involved in the name of the retail product at all, that's simply the part name. Much like the Titan X's GM200-400 or the 980's GM204-400.

 

[LTC8K6]

Is it possible that it will have Samsung's new GDDR5 chips?

If it did, what advantages would that give?

They are somewhat higher bandwidth, and fewer of them are required.
Wiki:

As of January 15, 2015, Samsung Electronics announced in a press release that it had begun mass production of "8 Gb" (8 * 10243 bit) GDDR5 memory chips based on a 20 nm fabrication process. To meet the demand of higher resolution displays (such as 4K) becoming more mainstream, higher density chips are required in order to facilitate larger frame buffers for graphically intensive computation, namely PC gaming and other 3D rendering. Increased bandwidth of the new high-density modules equates to 8 Gbit/s per pin x 170 pins on the BGA package x 32-bits per I/O cycle, or 256 Gbit/s effective bandwidth per chip.

Press release:
http://www.samsung.com/global/business/semiconductor/news-events/press-releases/detail?newsId=13921

 

[railven]

980 Ti is an odd name?

Not what I was referring to.

The "GM200-310" isn't involved in the name of the retail product at all, that's simply the part name. Much like the Titan X's GM200-400 or the 980's GM204-400.

Well aware of that, but when they cut down say a GF100/GF110 for the card below it didn't get a weird name like GF100-180.

Just curious if we can interpret anything from the "310" portion of the name, my example was the GTX 560 Ti-480.

 

[destrekor]

Well aware of that, but when they cut down say a GF100/GF110 for the card below it didn't get a weird name like GF100-180.

Just curious if we can interpret anything from the "310" portion of the name, my example was the GTX 560 Ti-480.

I'd say the only thing to interpret is that it will be a cut-down GM200 or otherwise a lesser product (even if only marginally, though it will have fewer SMMs I suspect), otherwise it would carry the GM200-400 production name.

310 makes no sense in terms of core count, unlike on the 560 Ti-448, which was an accurate core count. It's simply a production code identifying it as a "lesser" chip to the GM200-400.

This is similar to the GK110-300-A1 of the 780 vs the GK110-400-A1 of the Titan. The 780 Ti was a GK110-425-B1 while the Titan Black was a GK110-430.

 

[MrTeal]

Not what I was referring to.



Well aware of that, but when they cut down say a GF100/GF110 for the card below it didn't get a weird name like GF100-180.

Just curious if we can interpret anything from the "310" portion of the name, my example was the GTX 560 Ti-480.

Actually, if you believe Wikipedia the code name for the GPU in the GTX 580 was GF110-375-A1, the GTX 570 was GF110-275-A1 and the GTX 560 Ti448 was GF110-270-A1.

 

[railven]

I'd say the only thing to interpret is that it will be a cut-down GM200 or otherwise a lesser product (even if only marginally, though it will have fewer SMMs I suspect), otherwise it would carry the GM200-400 production name.

310 makes no sense in terms of core count, unlike on the 560 Ti-448, which was an accurate core count. It's simply a production code identifying it as a "lesser" chip to the GM200-400.

This is similar to the GK110-300-A1 of the 780 vs the GK110-400-A1 of the Titan. The 780 Ti was a GK110-425-B1 while the Titan Black was a GK110-430.

MAkes sense, guess I'm just antsy for real info (from either camp).

Actually, if you believe Wikipedia the code name for the GPU in the GTX 580 was GF110-375-A1, the GTX 570 was GF110-275-A1 and the GTX 560 Ti448 was GF110-270-A1.

Ah, i was no aware of that, though I should have figured. Wonder if we can determine the number of units cut off by the cut down names?

Oh well, would just be speculation, guess wait for real info.

 

[imaheadcase]

Its prob just going to be a 980 with hither clocks at more ram. Nothing dashingly new.

 

[exar333]

Its prob just going to be a 980 with hither clocks at more ram. Nothing dashingly new.

This would be very surprising, and probably unlikely. The current 980 isn't cut-down at all (full-die GM204) and I don't think a 8GB version with slightly higher clocks would be a compelling option at all.

The question is probably more HOW much of a cut-down from the Titan X the 980Ti will be. Full GM200, or maybe ~90% with better clocks and 1/2 the memory.

 

[destrekor]

This would be very surprising, and probably unlikely. The current 980 isn't cut-down at all (full-die GM204) and I don't think a 8GB version with slightly higher clocks would be a compelling option at all.

The question is probably more HOW much of a cut-down from the Titan X the 980Ti will be. Full GM200, or maybe ~90% with better clocks and 1/2 the memory.

If it's a full GM200, I wouldn't expect the GPU to have a different product code. Different PCB configuration and clock rates don't justify a GPU product code name change. It could be a minor difference, like fewer Cuda cores but otherwise full SMM configuration, but that would seem to have a smaller product number difference. To me, that code suggests they have probably cut four SMMs from the full GM200. That would leave the 980 Ti with 20 SMMs compared to the 16 SMMs of the 980. That seems like a fair step up, whereas having 24 SMMs in the 980 Ti compared to the 16 of the 980 seems like a misnomer to even refer to it as a 980. 20 SMMs would be a smaller but worthwhile step up, and still leave room for a 985 or something, unless they won't ever produce a GTX 900-series fully-enabled GM200, which would be very strange.

 

[Headfoot]

My guess is they have both a cut down (16 or 18 SMMs) and a full die version ready to go and they are waiting on reliable information on where AMD's will land. Then they'll name and package whichever version matches it. They may have already done so given they probably have better info than the public at large. I'm sure nvidia wants to release a 16 SMM version that would match AMD to keep the Titan dollars flowing, but I'm also sure they'll release a full version to match AMD if need be. nvidia does not like not having the fastest single GPU

 

[LTC8K6]

Rumors have a 980Ti and a 980Ti Metal Edition?

 

[therealnickdanger]

Full GM200, 6GB, higher clocks, $699. Titan X will live on as the unchallenged master with 12GB for all that "visual compute" that gamers love to do.

 

[Despoiler]

This is one heck of a game of poker if both companies are going into the same event not knowing what cards the other is going to play. Normally we see one release first and the other counter.

 

[Noctifer616]

This is one heck of a game of poker if both companies are going into the same event not knowing what cards the other is going to play. Normally we see one release first and the other counter.

I think both companies know what is within the realm of possibility. A 980ti would unlikely be larger than a Titan X, so expect Titan X performance with higher clocks.

On AMD said it's probably the Tonga architecture with bigger chip.

Both companies can make estimates in this situation. Next year with new architectures and a new process nodes is going to be far more interesting.

 

[Headfoot]

I'm sure given the huge levels of employee cross hiring in the GPU EE field that both companies know each others future major product lines through the grapevine unless they've taken some very particular secrecy measures (e.g. like Eyefinity)

 

[railven]

Rumors have a 980Ti and a 980Ti Metal Edition?

Well they brought back the Ti moniker. Guess next is the 980 Ultra slotting in at $800, full GM200 with 6GB of VRAM, 980 Ti sits at $650 like old Ti, and 980 occupies $500 spot.

 

[wasabiman123]

I so hope that the new cards are at 700$ or less, no more please >_>
If it's a cut down Titan I hope it's closer to 600, or that the 980 price drops to closer to 450 or 400$

 

[exar333]

Well they brought back the Ti moniker. Guess next is the 980 Ultra slotting in at $800, full GM200 with 6GB of VRAM, 980 Ti sits at $650 like old Ti, and 980 occupies $500 spot.

I know it sounds crazy, but I would also happily pay an extra $50 for a completely voltage/temp/freq unlocked SKU from NV.

The fact that AMD doesn't lock you out like NV does has me leaning team red, if options are similar in price and performance...hacking my BIOS and installing custom profiles does not really interest me.

 

[tviceman]

Well they brought back the Ti moniker. Guess next is the 980 Ultra slotting in at $800, full GM200 with 6GB of VRAM, 980 Ti sits at $650 like old Ti, and 980 occupies $500 spot.

I think this will happen. GM200 is so freaking huge, there is no way they are getting enough yields to fill only 2 desktop SKU's. 980 TI will be cutdown 6gb GM200, 980 ULTRA will be 6gb fully unlocked. I think the 980 will get a $100 price drop to $450, 980 TI will be $599, and Ultra would be $749-799. All depending on Fiji price/$ of course.

 

[Serandur]

If they don't have a full GM200 SKU for under ~$750 immediately, what are the chances they will after Fiji hits?

 

[rci2990]

oh the beating my poor f5 button is gonna be undertaking in a few weeks.

 

[Stuka87]

Well they brought back the Ti moniker. Guess next is the 980 Ultra slotting in at $800, full GM200 with 6GB of VRAM, 980 Ti sits at $650 like old Ti, and 980 occupies $500 spot.

But they never used Ti and Ultra at the same time. Ultra was brought in for the FX series up until they reset their numbering and went from the 9000 series to the 200 series.

Although I suppose there is no reason they could not use both at the same time now.