Previous rumors about October or November have turned out to be untrue

Aug 1, 2014 07:48 GMT  ·  By

NVIDIA may have been forced to redesign its Maxwell graphics processing unit architecture for 28nm instead of 20nm manufacturing technology, due to the production SNAFU at TSMC, but it seems to have done it with good grace.

The Maxwell line of NVIDIA GPUs was always expected to debut in the third or fourth quarter of the year (2014), but when the architecture switch came to light, it was generally assumed that a delay would occur.

There was even a point where more than a few people expected the Maxwell line to have been delayed to December, or even January 2015. That would have meant a long time of waiting for the GeForce GTX 880.

Now, though, a new report has emerged, one that says none of those fears will come to fruition. Indeed, it's as if NVIDIA expected the TSMC yield problems and prepared, in advance, a 28nm-based redesign of the architecture.

Or maybe it just has experience with adapting, since this isn't the first time the foundry has had problems with meeting NVIDIA's and AMD's demand.

On the flip side, this also invalidates a previous rumor about an August release. Whatever the case, it is now expected that the GeForce GTX 880 will arrive in September. Not October, not November, but in September. So we suppose that it will start shipping around IFA 2014.

The reference board has been validated, bearing the name of PG401. It is a reference board for GM204-400, which is the graphics processing unit that will power the GTX 880 add-in adapter.

According to VideoCardz, the Santa Clara company has planned a big event for major press members around the world, with live streaming and everything. Just when this paper launch will happen is anyone's guess though. Also, availability of the card will not be immediate, though it should still ramp up before September's end.

The GeForce GTX 880 has a board design similar to the GeForce GTX 770 instead of GTX 780, but it will definitely succeed the latter. Specifications are still under wraps, but 4 GB of GDDR5 VRAM and 256-bit memory interface are almost a given. 8 GB models may be launched as well by OEMs. The price should hover at around $450 / €450, which actually isn't that unreasonable.

No clue yet on whether or not the NVIDIA Maxwell-based GeForce GTX 880 graphics card will ship with free games. That's more AMD's gig, but NVIDIA may add one or two titles just for the sake of it.