The latest version of FinalWire's AIDA64 benchmarking and diagnostic software brings in support for Nvidia's unannounced GA102F graphics processor. The chip is cloaked in mystery as Nvidia seems to be rolling it out very late in Ampere's lifecycle, and it has never previously added letters to designations of its GPUs.
FinalWire's AIDA64 version 6.60.5933 beta can read GPU information for Nvidia's GA102F processor, according to release notes (discovered by @momomo_us). The release notes do not disclose what product will be powered by the GA102F or how the chip will be used, but it was important enough for Nvidia share its ID and specifications with FinalWire to include in AIDA64.
Being the world's largest supplier of graphics processing units with about 85% market share, Nvidia can afford the luxury of developing GPU silicon aimed at very specific market segments. Just recently Nvidia introduced its GA103 chip (featuring a 496 mm^2 die size) that was specifically for the laptop-bound GeForce RTX 3080 Ti, but which is also being used in the desktop GeForce RTX 3060 Ti. The design costs for such a chip are in the hundreds of millions of dollars range, but as it can be used in a wide range of products from enthusiast-grade gaming laptops to performance graphics cards, its design is well justified.
But Nvidia's GA102 is a massive 628 mm^2 graphics processor containing 28.3 billion of transistors, so its design costs are in the hundreds of millions and its re-spin costs are extremely high as well. Making a new revision of this chip a couple of quarters ahead of the rumored Ada / RTX 40-series launch is an extremely odd move, given GA102 is only used for a relatively limited range of products. Nonetheless, just a couple of weeks before the company is expected to launch its flagship GeForce RTX 3090 Ti GPU, AIDA64 has added GA102F support.
Perhaps GA102F is indeed a version of GA102 with some changes designed to improve yields of full-fat silicon and make the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti somewhat more practical from manufacturing point of view. Or maybe GA102F is a version of GA102 designed specifically for cloud datacenters and therefore prone to high temperatures and constant load. Another possibility is that this is a chip aimed at cryptocurrency mining that's been adjusted in some fashion — or potentially the opposite, a chip designed specifically not to do well at mining.
Assuming the GA102F ends up in cards for the PC gaming market, it will certainly compete with the best graphics cards. We expect more details will come to light in the coming weeks.
