Report: 20nm Nvidia Maxwell Possibly Delayed
Unconfirmed report says 20nm Maxwell will have to wait for TSMC to be ready.
Nvidia's 28 nm GTX 750 Ti is built with Maxwell ArchitectureThe Swedish website Sweclockers.com has posted a report that could disappoint, namely that the 20 nm Maxwell-based graphics cards have been delayed.
All of the current generation graphics cards are built on the 28 nm lithography process. The report states that TSMC is not yet ready for full-scale 20 nm GPU production. According to the report, the delay is set to last until the beginning of 2015, though it doesn't rule out that we might be seeing the first 20 nm graphics cards before the end of the year.
That said, there are already graphics cards out with the Maxwell architecture – the GTX 750 and the GTX 750 Ti. These cards are still built on the 28 nm production process though, which is likely why Nvidia has branded them under the 700 series of products.
For now, this is the first instance where we've heard of this specific delay, and we haven't seen it go around much yet, so it might just be hogwash. Oh, and the report was published on March 31, so no need to point out that it might be an April Fools' joke – sorry guys.
Nvidia stuck to its policy of not commenting on rumors or unannounced products.
Yes as they are the FAB that both go through. With how large the GPUs are becoming these days as well, the yields are probably lower than expected, as normally is with new process technology.
You do realize that it is a ton cheaper to go through a third party than to do it themselves, right? Look at 14nm. Intel built a new FAB and it cost $5 billion just to build it. Add in the costs for R&D and what TSMC charges is probably a fraction of that.
As well, who is to say that AMD or NVidia would do any better? They would run into yield issues as well since even Intel runs into it and they are considered the best in the business.
Wow, 90 days? And I'm assuming you didn't just make the purchase, so... I'm just honestly curious about where people are getting this from?
You do realize that it is a ton cheaper to go through a third party than to do it themselves, right? Look at 14nm. Intel built a new FAB and it cost $5 billion just to build it. Add in the costs for R&D and what TSMC charges is probably a fraction of that.
Agreed! But it should be noted that NVidia could never afford to fab. They are a small company (by Wall Street standards). In a good year they may profit half a billion dollars, give or take a couple hundred million. TSCM is fairly big, but it takes contracts from Nvidia, AMD(profitable again), Apple, ect... only combined can they afford 20nm.