Nvidia’s RTX 40-Series 'Ada' AD102 GPU Begins Testing Phase: Report

Nvidia is expected to launch its next-generation GPU family codenamed Ada Lovelace this fall, so it's about time for the company and its partners to start testing the new graphics processors. Apparently, this is exactly what they are doing, according to the well-known and incredibly accurate leaker Kopite7Kimi.  

"Let's turn our attention to GPU," tweeted kopite7kimi. "AD102 has started testing." 

Typically, a GPU bring-up takes a little more than a year, so assuming Nvidia is on track to release its GeForce RTX 4080/4090 graphics boards this fall, it should have obtained the first samples of its AD102 processors last summer. Of course, by now, the chip and its drivers should be ready for internal and external testing, so while we cannot verify whether the tweet is absolutely accurate, the information at least looks logical. 

Previous unofficial leaks about Nvidia's Ada Lovelace GPUs indicate that Nvidia is maximizing the performance of its new family, which is going to lead to a further increase in GPU power consumption and, therefore, the usage of 12+4-pin auxiliary PCIe power cables. 

Ada Lovelace is Nvidia's next-generation GPU architecture for gaming graphics processors (so expect GeForce RTX 4000-series to be among the best graphics cards around), as opposed to the company's Hopper family, which is designed primarily for high-performance computing (HPC) and artificial intelligence applications.  

It is expected that Nvidia's GeForce RTX 4000-series 'Ada Lovelace' GPUs will be made using one of TSMC's N5 (5 nm-class) fabrication technologies. Therefore, it is reasonable to expect them to offer performance uplift compared to existing GeForce RTX 3000-series 'Ampere' GPUs both because of architectural improvements and a considerably more advanced fabrication technology, which allows Nvidia to pack in more transistors and increase clocks while keeping power consumption in check. 

Nvidia has not formally confirmed the release of its next-generation GeForce RTX 4000-series 'Ada Lovelace' GPUs this year. However, the company tends to introduce all-new GPU families every two years, so it is about time to launch its next-gen breed of GeForces in 2022.