We don’t know a whole lot about the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4000 series cards. Unfortunately, no one does at the time of writing this article.
However, there is some information we’ve managed to gather about this new generation of GPUs.
We also consider NVIDIA’s previous GPU lineup, the RTX 3000 series, and the performance improvements over the RTX 2000 series. This helps us visualize the potential of the RTX 4000 GPUs.
If you are interested in what the next generation of NVIDIA graphic cards will bring, this article contains the information you are looking for.
Let’s get right into it!
Updates +
- November 29, 2021: Reworked grammar throughout entire article.
- November 22, 2021: Added a cleaner introduction.
- November 15, 2021: Added new release date information.
- November 12, 2021: Added performance leaks.
- November 3, 2021: Optimized readability.
- October 28, 2021: Reworked certain paragraphs for clarity.
- October 18, 2021: Added new information for the RTX 3090 Ti and updated some RTX 4000 related information.
- October 12, 2021: Added new information for RTX 3000 Super SKUs and RTX 4000 release date.
- October 4, 2021: Added specifications table for AD102 and other useful information.
- September 28, 2021: Made a few grammar corrections.
- September 20, 2021: Added more information regarding the release date.
- September 2, 2021: Added new leaks regarding the release date of Ada Lovelace.
Table of ContentsShow
Release Date
Currently, there is no official information regarding the release date of the following NVIDIA GPU lineup. So, what do we do know so far?
Well, there is something in the works for sure. Judging by NVIDIA’s GPU history and the pattern of their GPU releases, the RTX 4000 series is almost certainly already in development.
Based on NVIDIA’s official architecture roadmap, Ampere Next (or Ada Lovelace) has a planned 2022 release. By 2024, they believe they will have Ampere Next Next ready, which is supposedly the RTX 5000 series.
The latest leak by kopite7kimi claims that the RTX 4000 series could show up in Q3 of 2022. However, we are not sure whether kopite7kimi refers to a summer release or announcement. It could be either.
NVIDIA’s Stopgap
It still feels early for the RTX 4000 series, considering the relatively recent 3070 Ti and 3080 Ti releases.
But wait, NVIDIA is planning more!
Circulating rumors hint towards RTX 3000 Super GPUs that will release at the end of 2021 or early 2022.
The above leak by kopite7kimi shows the specs of the entire lineup. Highlights include increased CUDA cores, VRAM memory, and an upgrade to GDDR6X from GDDR6 non-X (excluding the 3060S).
Greymon55, another reliable leaker, also claims that all next-gen GPUs will be released by October 2022.
Specifications
As mentioned previously, no official info is available for the RTX 4000 series, but there have been some leaks. Currently, the only concrete information is its codename: Ada Lovelace.
The Ada Lovelace microarchitecture will be on a 5nm fabrication process, a giant leap from the 8nm Ampere (Samsung) chips. A smaller microarchitecture will result in two significant benefits: more performance for a lot less power.
Thanks to the 5nm architecture, Nivida gets those benefits by cramming more transistors onto the chip.
Leaks suggest an increase of more than 7500 CUDA cores from the GA102 (3090, 3080) chip. This includes almost double GPC (Graphics Processing Clusters), 7 to 12, and 30 more TPC (Texture Processing Clusters). That’s a massive bump in specifications, considering the Ampere chip had an increase of just 1 GPC from the Turing 102 chip.
GA102 and AD102 (rumored) specification comparison table:
| GPU | GA102 | AD102 |
| Architecture | Ampere | Ada Lovelace |
| Process | 8nm | 5nm |
| CUDA Cores | 10752 | 18432 |
| TFLOPs | 35.6 | 81? |
| Graphics Processing Clusters | 7 | 12 |
| Texture Processing Clusters | 42 | 72 |
| SKUs | 3090, 3080 Ti, 3080 | 4090?, 4080?, 4080 Ti/Super? |
| Total Graphics Power | ~350W | 400W+? |
| Release Date | September 2020 | Q4 2022 |
It’s too early to guess the power usage of Ada Lovelace, but most signs suggest higher TGP, TBP, and TDP. Whether this means up to 400W or even 500W, we can’t yet know.
Allegedly, AD102’s target frequency is 2.2GHz, which is theoretically around 81 TFLOPS (FP32). That is more than double in comparison to Ampere’s flagship (RTX 3090). A real good sign.
Performance
There are currently no public benchmarks to determine the performance of the RTX 4000 series, but we have a few rumors to share.
Greymon55 has again provided some insight. Based on their claims, these new GPUs should bring double the performance and double the power consumption.
Should this be acceptable? We welcome 2x performance, but doubling the performance consumption can be a problem.
Price
With the info we currently have, it is impossible to guess how the pricing will look. However, since AMD’s RX 6000 series is on par with the RTX 3000 series in terms of performance (in some cases even better), NVIDIA will most likely stick with the exact pricing as Ampere.
So, the 4060 should be around $330 while the 4070 and 4080 for $500 and $700 respectively. We’re unsure about the 4090/Titan, though. Those two would cost more than $1000.
Unfortunately, there have been talks that the jump to 5nm from TSMC could be a lot more expensive than we expected. For example, the previously mentioned Twitter leak by kopite7kimi was a response to nerdtechgasm’s suggestion that 5nm NVIDIA is going to be very expensive for consumers.
Scalping & Price Increases
If you have recently been searching for a new graphics card for your system, you have probably been disappointed several times. GPUs with a $500 MSRP are on retail stores like Amazon or Newegg for more than $1000.
The $700 RTX 3080 is frequently on sale by scalpers for $1500 on the second-hand market.
Such a level of scalping is possible due to the global shortage of semiconductor chips in 2021. The world’s largest semiconductor manufacturers, TSMC and Samsung, struggle to keep up with the demand.
When the semiconductor industry goes back to normal, we cannot know. However, the shortage is expected to last throughout 2021 and perhaps even 2022.
Right now, you might be wondering: will this kind of scalping affect the RTX 4000 series?
This is a great question and quite a concerning one. Fortunately, TSMC has already begun investing to increase its manufacturing capacities. In addition, Samsung is also planning to build a new chip manufacturing factory in the US.
There are also rumors that the USA is planning to invest $37 billion in the chip-making industry.
We will keep you updated if there is any further information released about the future NVIDIA GPU lineup.
