RTX 4000 rumor mill: AD104 is said to be close to the test phase

The upcoming AD104 is said to be Nvidia’s new mid-range chip, which is to be used on models such as the Geforce RTX 4070. Now the usually well-informed leaker “kopite7kimi” claims to have found out that the chip is about to start the test phase and has already completed the tape-out. The first chips should therefore already be in the packaging and should soon be back at Nvidia for validation.

RTX 4000: Nvidia expects gaming sales to drop for the time being due to the switch to the new architecture

There they are put through their paces and tested for stability and functionality before specific graphics cards with sensible and possible clock rates and various chip configurations are developed in the product creation phase. This process takes about four to five months and after that there should be several graphics cards available for sale in stores. In relation to the AD104, this would mean that a release in September or October is realistic. The big AD102, the basis of the rumored Geforce RTX 4090, on the other hand, has been in the test phase since April and could therefore come to the market faster.

There is no further information about the AD103, which is supposed to run an RTX 4080, although it could become one of the most interesting chips for gamers. Due to the large gap between the AD102 and AD104, it can be assumed that Nvidia will also want to use it for the release of the new graphics cards, since a correspondingly trimmed AD102 is uneconomical.

According to the 3DCenter colleagues, a release order of AD102, AD103 and then AD104 seems to make the most sense. The gap between the largest and smallest chip should be a maximum of two months, which Nvidia could artificially reduce, however. Since no release date has yet been set for the RDNA 3 models, Nvidia is not under direct pressure here either, but can approach the releases more flexibly.

Source: 3DCenter