14 DAY TRIAL // We've had a lot of conflicting and not quite conflicting leaks, rumors, and reports about NVIDIA's Maxwell-based graphics adapter series, but now we may have finally figured out the exact timeline of the product line, or at last the flagship GeForce GTX 880.
Although the adapter might not even be called that. Yes, it will bear the GTX 880 moniker, but also the G1 (generation 1 we suppose, suggesting that maybe there will be a 20nm-based version later, in 2015).
So the full name of the upcoming flagship video card is, supposedly, GeForce GTX 880 G1. This much can be gleamed from reports posted by EXPReview and WCCFtech.
More important, though, is a certain entry on NVIDIA's Gamescom 2014 page, where the company says that it will show how “GeForce GTX graphics cards and NVIDIA technologies bring PC gaming to new dimensions.”
This will, apparently, be the company's “grand finale” at Gamescom 2014, the trade show taking place from August 13 to 17 in Cologne, Germany.
There is still a fair chance that NVIDIA is only hyping the world up for a simple PR session where it will talk about grand “plans” but not release anything immediately awe-inspiring.
Nevertheless, with all the controversy surrounding the Maxwell brand, it would be strange if the Santa Clara, California-based company didn't at least show a demo or two.
And yes, we do mean controversy. The Maxwell architecture made an odd debut with the GeForce GTX 750 (Ti) cards early this year, effectively breaking the ice on the mainstream market.
Not long after, it was revealed that TSMC had problems with the 20nm manufacturing process, so neither NVIDIA nor AMD could release their next generations of graphics cards this year, or even in early 2015.
This forced them to redesign their new architectures for the same 28nm process as the current generation (Kepler for NVIDIA).
After that, no one could really agree on when the Maxwell-based cards, the GTX 880 in particular (or GTX 880 G1 now), would come forth. Some said it would be in November, others said October, and recently it was September. Some even said the card would be launched at Gamescom.
Now, the most likely outcome is that the board will receive a paper launch at the Germany show this month but only start shipping in October. Presumably, Gigabyte already has its versions prepared, equipped with the coolers found on the Strix series.