We’re rounding the home stretch now, with Nvidia’s next-generation, GTX 1180 card expected to debut at the very end of July. Anonymous sources also tell Tom’s Hardware that Nvidia will use a new VR-friendly connector that will provide much higher refresh rates over a single connection than previously available.
Here’s everything we know about Nvidia’s upcoming GPU platform.
What kind of performance will GTX 1180 have?
According to TweakTown, the card will be capable of playing 4K games at 120Hz to 144Hz. This kind of speed makes sense, given that Nvidia is also pushing out a series of 144Hz, 4K gaming monitors this summer and it needs a card to power them.
What about VR support?
According to our sources, GTX 1180 will be capable of outputting up to 120Hz to VR headsets at high resolutions over a single cable. To support this high refresh rate, Nvidia will use a new connector. Our main source suggests that it will be a proprietary Nvidia connector.However, given that the new HDMI 2.1 standard supports this kind of refresh rate and that headset manufacturers prefer industry standards, we think there’s a strong possibility that it will use HDMI.
How much will GTX 1180 cost?
TweakTown guestimates that there will be two variants, a less expensive $999 card and a $1,499 model with more RAM on board. Our sources say that pricing will be higher than the GTX 1080 Ti which carries a $699 MSRP. Nvidia’s Titan Xp card, its current high-end consumer GPU, goes for $1,200.
What will the new chips be called: GTX 1180 or GTX 2080?
The chips will be based on the Turing platform, but Nvidia hasn’t announced a brand name. We’ve seen conflicting rumors that state that the new cards will be called either the 11-series or the 20-series, though lately most sources refer to it as the GTX 1180. In other words, the high-end card will be called either the GTX 1180 or GTX 2080. Considering that we’re moving on from the 10 series, the GTX 1180 makes more sense, and we think it is much more likely.
When will the GTX 1180 come out?
We originally reported that the Founder’s Edition (aka Nvidia’s 1st party GPU) of the new card would be announced in July. Recently, TweakTown’s Anthony Garreffa reported a precise launch date of July 30th. According to anonymous industry sources, the original launch date was supposed to be mid-July but there was a two week delay, which makes the July 30th date plausible.
Third-party cards won’t arrive until September at the earliest. Our sources say that OEMs were just briefed on the new card specs last week (June 5 – 10). Considering that the process takes about three months, September seems likely. Laptop versions of the cards will come later in the year.
New Quadro cards based on Turing could debut at Siggraph in August.
How long will it take for third-party vendors to make their Turing cards?
Third-party GPU vendors such as MSI, Gigabyte and Asus will be later to market than Nvidia’s first-party cards, because they have to go through a number of validation steps. We expect these cards to arrive no earlier than September. For any card they make (even AMD cards), OEMs have to follow these procedures:
| BOM Release | Bill Of Materials Release | Start |
|---|---|---|
| EVT | Engineering Validation Test | 1-2 weeks |
| DVT | Design Validation Test | 2 weeks |
| WS | Working Sample | 1-2 weeks |
| EMI-Test | Electromagnetic Interference Test | less than week |
| PVT | Production Validation Test | 2-3 weeks |
| PVT Sorting | ||
| PPBIOS | Final BIOS | a few days |
| Ramp & MP | Mass production and shipping | a few days |
However, on top of these steps (which may also apply to AMD third-party cards), Nvidia has its own “Green Light” program which adds some extra quality-assurance. These steps include
| Phase/Step |
Description |
|---|---|
| Specs and Guidelines |
Partner gets the program guidelines and specifications |
| CDP creation |
Partner submits CDP (Virtual Customer Design Project) to Nvidia |
| CDP approval | Nvidia reviews the CDP and approves it |
| Design approval | Partner submits mechanical design (graphics card shell) and the board design files |
| Sampling |
Nvidia ships chip samples to partner. |
| Acoustic approval |
Partners without acoustic labs provide board samples to Nvidia. Otherwise, partner generates dB(A) curves. |
| Green Light approval |
Partner conducts the Green Light review using the special software (VBIOS and driver) and submits the result to Nvidia
Option 1: Option 2: |
| Box art approval |
Partner provides the box art to Nvidia for review (must comply the GeForce GTX brand guidelines) |
| Mass production |
After all approvals the partner can start the mass production. No further changes of the Green Light approved design are allowed |
Of course, our information comes from a series of anonymous sources, rumors and estimates based on typical production processes. We reached out to Nvidia, but the company declined to comment.
What will the GTX 1180 have inside?
Our sources haven’t shared technical details, but tech site Wccftech reported in April that the 1180 could have 3,584 CUDA cores, a clock speed of 1.6 to 1.8-GHz and 8 to 16GB of GDDR6 memory. The site also claimed that the card would have a TDP of 170 to 200 watts.
What about the GTX 1170?
In May, Wccftech also shared some rumored specs for the rumored GTX 1170 (the successor to the GTX 1070). It is said to have 2,688 CUDA cores and also have 8 to 16GB of GDDR6 memory. Its clock speed could range from 1.5 to 1.8-GHz and its TDP is alleged to be 140 to 160 watts.
Tom’s Hardware Germany provided the original, German-language article on this topic. Igor Wallossek contributed to this report.