14 DAY TRIAL // The green-themed video product company stationed in Santa Clara, California hasn't exactly detailed its plans for the midterm, but there is enough data floating on the Internet to know how long the GK104 graphics processing unit will last before it makes way for its successor.
The GK104 graphics processing unit (with 1,536 CUDA cores in eight groups of 192) originally lied at the heart of the GeForce GTX 680 high-end video card.
However, it has since been used in the GeForce 700 series as well, like the GeForce GTX 760 (Ti) and GTX 770 SKUs (stock-keeping units), with just the GK110 standing above it (384-bit interface, 2,304 CUDA cores).
Essentially, the GK104 has been a great force on the video card market, driving even the top-tier segment for a fair amount of time. Thus, its successor has large shoes to fill.
Admittedly, one could say that NVIDIA has been softening the soil as far as customer expectations are concerned, by introducing the Maxwell architecture early, without passing on from 28nm technology and by means of mid-range (mediocre really) video cards (GTX 750 / 750 Ti).
Nevertheless, the high-end Maxwell generation has to debut sometime, and it appears that NVIDIA will repeat what it did for the Kepler architecture.
Which is to say, it will keep the GM200 in reserve (the one that will replace the GK110) and base the best of its first Maxwell range on the GM204 instead.
According to SemiAccurate, there will be four GM204 Maxwell-based video boards in the first wave: GeForce GTX 880 Ti, GTX 880, GTX 870, and GTX 860.
That is only half of the mind-stretching report, however. The other half is the supposed generational leap that Maxwell will enact, manufacturing-wise.
Initially, NVIDIA (like AMD for that matter) was waiting for TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) to start 20nm semiconductor production. That was the node it was betting on.
However, TSMC failed to get the 20nm process off the ground in time, making it impossible for the video technology companies to release their next-gen GPUs as planned in 2014.
Because of this, NVIDIA could decide to skip the 20nm node entirely and build the Maxwell GM204 (and the GM200) on the 16nm technology instead. Fairly amazing if true, seeing as how the GeForce GTX 880 is supposed to debut in the third quarter of this year (2014).
It is also possible that this year's Maxwell will be designed on 28nm, and only the wave set for Q1 2015 to make the great leap. Either way, Maxwell-based products will outgun Kepler by a fine margin.