Please note that this post is tagged as a rumor.
Before we begin I want to make clear it that I’m only posting this story because BenchLife stories are usually correct (in the past they released many Intel and AMD slides, which turned out to be true). However I’m still not convinced, especially about the name: GTX 1080 (I would rather expect GTX 1800, which corresponds to Quadro naming schema).
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 has GP104 GPU but no HBM2?
BenchLife are very specific in their post about few things (which is not very common for rumors). First of all they claim Jen-Hsun will announce Pascal architecture in April. They further report that NVIDIA is planning to launch GeForce GTX 1080 in May, shortly before Computex.
Most importantly though the new flagship would not have HBM2 memory. Card is allegedly equipped with 8GB GDDR5X memory, which basically means HBM2 will have to wait for Pascal GP100. Now does it make sense? Technically yes, because mass production of HBM2 modules is not expected to begin sooner than third quarter. FinFET GPU production is probably doing much better than HBM production, so NVIDIA could have taken a safe route that would protect them from any possible issues with HBM production. So rather than wait for new memory chips, NVIDIA is going to use known technology and focus exclusively on new power efficient 16nm FF node.
Now, going back to GTX 1080, the leakers also claim to know display output configuration, which is DisplayPort x2, HDMI x1, DVI x1. Not only that, they also say that GTX 1080 has one 8pin power connector (so the maximum power consumption would not exceed 225W).
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 (GTX 1800) would launch on May 27th, which is just 4 days before Computex, allowing AIB partners to show their cards at the event. The problem about the date is that it’s not Tuesday or Thursday and I don’t remember NVIDIA releasing anything on Friday.
Well anyway, to sum up, this is what BenchLife rumor looks like in a nutshell:
NVIDIA Pascal rumors
- Pascal launch in April;
- GTX 1080/1800 launch in May 27th;
- GTX 1080/1800 has GP104 Pascal GPU;
- GTX 1080/1800 has 8GB GDDR5X memory;
- GTX 1080/1800 has one 8pin power connector;
- GTX 1080/1800 has 1x DVI, 1x HDMI, 2x DisplayPort;
- first Pascal board with HBM would be GP100 (Big Pascal)
| Possible NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1800/1080 GP104 Pascal Specifications | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| GeForce GTX 1080 GeForce GTX 1800 | GeForce GTX TITAN X | GeForce GTX 980 Ti | |
| Picture |  |  | |
| GPU | 16nm FinFET | 28nm | 28nm |
| GP104 | GM200-400 | GM200-310 | |
| CUDA Cores | TBC | 3072 | 2816 |
| TMUs | TBC | 192 | 176 |
| ROPs | TBC | 96 | 96 |
| Memory Bus | 256-bit | 384-bit | 384-bit |
| Memory | 8GB GDDR5X | 12GB GDDR5 | 6GB GDDR5 |
| TDP | TBC | 250W | 250W |
| Launch Date | May 2016? | March 2015 | June 2015 |
| Power Connectors | 1x 8pin | 1x 6pin; 1x 8pin | 1x 6pin; 1x 8pin |
| Display Outputs | 1x DVI, 1x HDMI, 2x DP | 1x DVI, 1x HDMI, 3x DP | 1x DVI, 1x HDMI, 3x DP |
Source: BenchLife
