These are rumors and leaks, yes there is nothing confirmed, okay, but if we stick to the sources where they come from, there is reason to be concerned if what has been said is finally coming true. And it is that although AMD and NVIDIA will compete on equal terms thanks to TSMC’s 5nm node, but … All that glitters is not gold, as we warned there has months.
More than 400 watts on a GPU and with a new lithographic process
You have to go back a few years with dual GPUs to see how a single PCB could consume a huge amount of watts with the fully standard graphics card. Back then we were talking about a secret SLI or CrossFire, now with AMD we have to talk about the first MCM GPU in desktop history (the Instinct MI200 is officially the first in history).
In the meantime, the data we are going to offer from NVIDIA corresponds to a monolithic GPU, but with monstrous performance like AMD. To be precise, we are talking about Navi 31 and AD102, which have already undergone the final touches of their architecture and design, so the engineers have the data on the table, fresh and at the same time not very satisfied with the data. of consumption.
To give us an idea of the dimensions of the commented chips, it is rumored that Navi 31 would be a dual core / matrix GPU, with some 600/650 mm2, all without counting the MCD. It is therefore estimated that the total size of the GPU itself would be approximately 800 mm2
NVIDIA would win the consumer battle again
On the other hand, the AD102 being a “traditional” monolithic GPU would have an already more common size of 600 mm2. The problem in consumption is not logically the size, but what can be understood in this field with a lithographic process as advanced as that of the TSMC 5 nm.
We are talking about 15360 Shaders for Navi 31 and nothing less than 18432 Shaders for AD102, which according to the leaks would mean around 450/480 watts for the AMD GPU and around 420/450 watts for the NVIDIA GPU.
Logically the question is, how do you plan to dissipate such an amount of heat with a surface that hasn’t grown too much? As of yet, no image of the radiator of either of the two cards has been leaked, but if they were already throwing the house out the window with these latest designs, what remains to be seen must undoubtedly be be the panacea.
The downside to this is that given the price of TSMC’s 5nm wafer (the rumor would be over $ 17,000 at the moment) and the incredible heatsink they must have (R&D, materials and qualities), what is certain is that they will not be cheap, even if they are supposed to double the performance compared to RTX 3000 and RX 6000.
For now, let’s know a bit and be patient, as there is still almost a year left to launch, at least in theory.
