NVIDIA may push Kepler and Maxwell GPUs by a year

NVIDIA is pushing back the launches of its Kepler and Maxwell graphics architectures by roughly a year, rumors from the video card industry alleged on Friday. Originally slated for late 2011 and 2013, the respective 28 and 22/20 nanometer designs are now supposedly being moved to 2012 and 2014. The Digitimes sources believed that NVIDIA's fabrication partner TSMC wasn't producing good yields of 28nm parts and that Kepler wasn't running as quickly as hoped for.

Whether or not TSMC is having a manufacturing problem isn't as evident. Qualcomm's Krait-era Snapdragons are still due to ship in the fall, according to the contacts. AMD's own plans for Radeon HD 7000 graphics (Southern Island) as well as its Khrishna and Wichita processors are also still seen coming in the first six months of 2012.

Neither NVIDIA nor TSMC has commented on the rumors.

If true, they could push NVIDIA to roll out a minor revision of its existing architecture or base a new architecture on the current 40nm process. The move could have a ripple effect on computer makers looking to faster graphics to help spur sales of new systems.

By Electronista Staff

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AMD, computers, industry, peripherals, digital imaging, NVIDIA, Radeon, TSMC, Kepler, Maxwell, Khrishna, Wichita