Nvidia Ampere release date, price, specs and performance

There’s been as surge of leaks and rumours for the upcoming Nvidia Ampere graphics cards, suggesting we’re not far from an official reveal. With potential details for specs, performance and design dropping, we may already have a decent idea of how the next-gen GPUs are shaping up. 

The latest potential rumours (via renowned leaker @KkatCorgi) suggests Nvidia Ampere will feature a 627mm² die, which is smaller than the current RTX 2080 Ti. This would make sense considering Nvidia is supposedly making the switch to Samsung’s 8nm node. That said, the leaker has clarified they are not 100% confident the information is correct, so retain some scepticism for now.

We’ve also potentially had our first glimpse of an Nvidia Ampere graphics card, with a leaked image (provided by Videocardz) apparently showing the Asus ROG Strix GeForce RTX 3080 Ti, featuring a triple-fan design and an RGB light strip. The Founders Edition design is still very much a secret though.

The specs and performance data have also seemingly leaked via a 3DMark Time Spy benchmark test (spotted by HardwareLeaks.) The leak suggests an unnamed Nvidia Ampere GPU has a boosted clock speed of 1935MHz and a 30.98% performance improvement over the current Founders Edition RTX 2080 Ti graphics card.

Various reports also suggest Nvidia will double down on ray tracing, which makes a lot of sense given PS5, Xbox Series X and AMD Big Navi will all be embracing the technology this year.

There’s still no official release date for Nvidia Ampere, but a report from DigitTimes claims it could launch in September. The report does not provide a source, but we still reckon it could be accurate since it lines up so nicely with previous rumours.

Keep reading for more in-depth rumours and leaks for the upcoming Nvidia Ampere graphics cards.

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Nvidia Ampere release date – When will Nvidia launch RTX 3080 and RTX 3070?

Nvidia Ampere graphics cards could launch on 17 September 2020 according to Chinese publication IThome.

While IThome has clarified that it’s impossible to know whether this information is accurate, it does back up previous reports that had cited September as the launch window for Nvidia Ampere.

Tweaktown claims the Nvidia Ampere graphics cards will be officially revealed in August and then launch in the following month. With Computex now officially cancelled for 2020, Nvidia will likely host its own digital event to reveal the next-gen graphics cards.

Related: AMD Big Navi

Nvidia Ampere price – How much will RTX 3080 and RTX 3070 cost?

There are very few rumours regarding price so far, which is to be expected since Nvidia likes to set the price at the latest possible time to undercut the competition.

A Wccftech report claims that Nvidia is looking to make the RTX 3080 and RTX 3070 slightly cheaper than their Turing counterparts in a bid to make ray tracing accelerated cards more appealing to a mass market. With the RTX 2080 Ti graphics card currently costing over £1000, that comes as no surprise.

Buy the RTX 2080 Ti from Scan Computers for £1,077.98

Related: Intel Core i5-10600K review

Nvidia Ampere specs

Nothing is confirmed regarding Nvidia Ampere specs so far, but there has been plenty of rumours. It was expected that Ampere would use TSMC’s 7nm process, but new reports suggest Nvidia will actually use Samsung’s 8nm process instead. This is according to renowned leaker @kopite7kimi, but it’s still worth retaining a bit of scepticism for now.

If the 8nm process rumour is accurate, then it explains why reports suggest Nvidia has ramped up the power draw for Ampere graphics cards in order to see a sizeable performance jump.

A report from HardwareLeaks also claims there will initially be three models of the Nvidia Ampere GPU:

• GA102 with 24GB of VRAM
• GA102 with 12GB of VRAM
• GA102 with 10GB of VRAM

It’s expected that the most powerful of the trio will be Titan flavoured, and designed for servers rather than for fitting inside gaming PCs. The other two could be the RTX 3080 Ti and RTX 3080, although there has been suggestions that an RTX 3090 exists too.

A benchmark data leak suggests one of these cards will see a 1935MHz boost clock speed, which isn’t a massive jump from the current Turing offerings. There’s no need to worry though, as the same leak claims the Ampere card still sees impressive gains on the RTX 2080 Ti thanks to improved architecture efficiency.

Related: Ray tracing explained

Nvidia Ampere performance

A recent 3DMark Time Spy benchmark leak suggests an unnamed Nvidia Ampere GPU is 30.98% more powerful than the Founders Edition RTX 2080 Ti. That’s a sizeable performance jump, and should help big budget AAA games perform better for 4K gaming.

Nvidia is also rumoured to be intensifying its efforts on ray tracing, which makes a lot of sense since both the PS5 and Xbox Series X will support the technology and likely increase the awareness and demand for the realistic light-rendering feature. 

Wccftech reports that, “Ampere’s ray tracing cores will be faster, more power efficient and Ampere GPUs will have more of them as compared to Turing.” 

It remains to be seen whether Ampere will actually improve the ray tracing visuals, or simply enhance the frame rate performance when the technology is activated. But with an increasing number of upcoming games confirming support for ray tracing, Nvidia already has a greater platform for success than it did with its Turing GPUs. 

Nvidia Ampere design

Recent leaked images (seen above) supposedly showed off an Nvidia RTX 3060 card.

The ‘leaked’ images were posted to a Chinese forum Chiphell, showing the RTX 3060 next to an unidentified graphics card. We’re not convinced these graphics cards are legitimate though, as they don’t feature the same attention-to-detail styling as previous cards, while one also sees the “RTX 3080” in an upside-down position in relation to the PCIe power connector.

It’s very possible these are just early production models, but either way, it’s highly likely that final Nvidia Ampere cards won’t end up looking like this.

Another leaked image has shown off the supposed Asus ROG Strix GeForce RTX 3080 Ti. This leak seems more legitimate, but while it features a triple-fan design, that doesn’t necessarily mean the Founders Edition version will too, as third-party cards often see numerous design modifications.

The leaked image does suggest that a launch is imminent though, with Ampere expected to be revealed as early as next month. Stick to Trusted Reviews for the latest information.

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