Nvidia next-gen GPUs are likely to use Samsung’s 7nm EUV node

It is starting to look increasingly likely that we won’t be seeing any 7nm graphics chips from Nvidia in 2019, at least on the consumer side, with reports coming in that the GPU giant will be a launch partner for Samsung’s planned 7nm EUV node, placing the launch of Nvidia’s post Turing graphics cards in a 2020 timeframe. 

What differentiates Samsung’s 7nm EUV node from TSMC’s current 7nm node is its utilisation of EUV (Extreme Ultra Violet) technology, which TSMC plans to implement in their 7nm+ process. In simple terms, EUV lithography uses light with a much smaller wavelength to help offer more precise details into silicon, making chip production more accurate while allowing smaller process nodes to be created. 

Moving to a newer process node offers several benefits, from the ability to pack more transistors and features into small chip designs to increased performance and power efficiency characteristics. This change alone should allow Nvidia’s next-generation products to outperform Turing, even without major tweaks to their underlying GPU architecture.  

While Nvidia has primarily used TSMC for the past few product generations, the company is no stranger to Samsung’s process tech. Nvidia’s GTX 1050 and GTX 1050 Ti are both based on Samsung’s 14nm silicon, Samsung’s low power GT 1030 also uses Samsung lithography.