Nvidia’s reportedly working with Samsung to create 7nm Ampere GPUs

Rumour has it that Nvidia plans to make the jump to 7nm in 2020, moving to Samsung’s 7nm EUV node instead of TSMC’s existing 7nm non-EUV offering. 

Today’s Nvidia Turing graphics cards a built using TSMC’s 12nm manufacturing node, a refined version of the company’s older 16nm process. The jump to 7nm will enable the company to create denser silicon with improved power efficiency and performance characteristics, enabling stronger next-generation product offerings. 

DigiTimes has stated that Nvidia will release 7nm EUV graphics cards using Samsung’s technology in 2020, utilising the green team’s planned Ampere graphics architecture. Nvidia has already been listed as a launch partner for Samsung’s 7nm node, but this report reaffirms Nvidia’s plans to not utilise TSMC’s technology for 7nm products.

It is likely that Nvidia will not replace their current lineup of 12nm Turing graphics cards until 2020, when their next-generation of 7nm graphics cards are ready. This presents AMD with an opportunity to better compete with Nvidia in the near-term, as it allows them to compete with Nvidia’s 12nm graphics cards using 7nm technology. 

Nvidia already has a strong relationship with Samsung, utilising their 14nm technology to manufacture their GP-107 chips, which were used to create Nvidia’s GTX 1050 and GTX 1050 Ti graphics cards.