Nvidia's 2020 GPUs Will Reportedly Use Samsung’s 7nm EUV Process

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Nvidia RTX 2080 & 2080 TI

According to a new report from a Japanese news source, Nvidia will manufacture its 2020 GPUs using Samsung’s 7nm EUV process. Late last month we also learned that IBM intends to build its 7nm Power processors on the same Samsung process.

Last October, Samsung announced that it started risk production of 7nm EUV chips. The risk production seems to be ahead of schedule as it was initially scheduled to start early 2019.

Nvidia is currently using TSMC’s 12nm process for its latest GPU cards. In a previous report by DigiTimes, Nvidia was rumored to use TSMC’s non-EUV 7nm process for its cards in 2019, but that may no longer be the case if Nvidia plans to use Samsung’s 7nm EUV process in 2020.

It’s possible Nvidia could use TSMC’s 7nm process in 2019 for some of its products and Samsung’s 7nm EUV for others in 2020, but that may not make too much practical sense, as it would make its product line-up complicated to design.

Nvidia may also feel that its position won’t be threatened that much if it sticks to 12nm in 2019. AMD's Navi GPU architecture is rumored to launch on TSMC’s 7nm process in 2019, but only the mid-range GPU cards are planned for this year. If AMD doesn’t have a 7nm high-end GPU planned for this year, then Nvidia has little reason to switch from the 12nm process at the high-end competition-wise. 

Samsung was the first company to bet on the EUV lithography process, and it looks like it will also be the one to reap the most benefits early on, as competitors, such as TSMC and Intel, delay their switch to EUV.

Lucian Armasu
Lucian Armasu
Lucian Armasu is a Contributing Writer for Tom's Hardware US. He covers software news and the issues surrounding privacy and security.
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9 Comments Comment from the forums
  • DataMeister
    At first I thought you were talking about a low end GT 2020 graphics card.
    Reply
  • hang-the-9
    That ^ is exactly what I thought it was about also
    Reply
  • hannibal
    So Nvidia would skip the normal 7nm... Sounds sensible to them!
    AMD 7nm is not here yet, so Nvidia can skip that prosess and save money by going directly to next version.
    Reply
  • JamesSneed
    I will be curious what Nvidia's plans are after January 9th when AMD announces at CES whatever they are doing this year. It may not change but depending on what AMD is planning I sure could see them making a straight 7nm die shrink of the 20xx series for 2019 or not. I wouldn't be surprised if Nvidia have people working on that already with the possibility of dumping the idea before tape in/outs so its mostly down to wasted man hours.
    Reply
  • kinggremlin
    21644008 said:
    I will be curious what Nvidia's plans are after January 9th when AMD announces at CES whatever they are doing this year. It may not change but depending on what AMD is planning I sure could see them making a straight 7nm die shrink of the 20xx series for 2019 or not. I wouldn't be surprised if Nvidia have people working on that already with the possibility of dumping the idea before tape in/outs so its mostly down to wasted man hours.

    It's already known what they will do. Release a 2060RTX/GTX and continue down the stack. What's more intriguing is if they plan to release anything highend this year. It's not practical to make chips any bigger on the current process, and the RTX Titan is the full chip, so there is nothing in the portfolio for Nvida to just drop on the market. With the luke warm reception to the RTX release, I can't see Nvidia releasing nothing better in 2019 and letting the bad press linger for a whole year. RTX would really benefit from 7nm. There's nothing wrong with the technology, it just needs more hp to make it go, and 7nm will allow for significant core count increase.
    Reply
  • JamesSneed
    21647567 said:
    21644008 said:
    I will be curious what Nvidia's plans are after January 9th when AMD announces at CES whatever they are doing this year. It may not change but depending on what AMD is planning I sure could see them making a straight 7nm die shrink of the 20xx series for 2019 or not. I wouldn't be surprised if Nvidia have people working on that already with the possibility of dumping the idea before tape in/outs so its mostly down to wasted man hours.

    It's already known what they will do. Release a 2060RTX/GTX and continue down the stack. What's more intriguing is if they plan to release anything highend this year. It's not practical to make chips any bigger on the current process, and the RTX Titan is the full chip, so there is nothing in the portfolio for Nvida to just drop on the market. With the luke warm reception to the RTX release, I can't see Nvidia releasing nothing better in 2019 and letting the bad press linger for a whole year. RTX would really benefit from 7nm. There's nothing wrong with the technology, it just needs more hp to make it go, and 7nm will allow for significant core count increase.

    Yeah I meant the unknown. The known stuff is the borning normal every day continue to release the lower end products. The unknown like like when 7nm will come from Nvidia or if Nvidia will have large price cuts etc. They are not nailing that down with a date at all for 7nm. I highly suspect they are gearing up to do it sooner if they need to or hold off if they feel they don't. My bet is if Navi starts eating into the low to mid range sales we will see a straight 7nm die shrink of the 20xx RTX GPU's end of 2019.
    Reply
  • DataMeister
    The unknown is how they will price them or what models and capabilities will be at the lowest end.
    Reply
  • LordVile
    Would laugh so hard if Navi comes out and does to Nvidia what Zen is doung to Intel.
    Reply
  • JamesSneed
    21657216 said:
    Would laugh so hard if Navi comes out and does to Nvidia what Zen is doung to Intel.

    Yeah I have the CES keynote bookmaked :) I just hope the force a price adjustment otherwise we wait big Navi or for Intel in 2020.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bibZyMjY2K4
    Reply