NVIDIA will ensure it stays in the limelight with product launches spaced out in the coming months meaning a monster GPU may soon be unveiled to beat the GeForce GTX 1080 Ti. With the new GPU said to be faster than the Titan X, the $1,200 top slot is now vacant unless NVIDIA comes up with the full-fat GP102 GPU with faster memory to fill in the slot.
NVIDIA just recently unveiled the fastest graphics card in the market, the GeForce GTX 1080 Ti in the GDC event last week. The said chip and the Titan X are both based on the NVIDIA GP102, but only cut down in some areas. The Titan X, in particular, has some functional units of the said GPU that were disabled meaning that a fully-enabled one will even edge out the current fastest card in the market. In short, a full-fat GP102 with the updated memory of the GTX 1080 Ti can potentially be faster and more powerful.
The GTX 1080 Ti is already faster than the Titan X even though it has the same number of CUDA cores enabled or 3,584 out of a total of 3,840. The 1080 Ti is only cut down in some areas or specifically has fewer render output units and uses the 352-bit memory interface while the Titan X use the 384-bit memory interface. However, NVIDIA added a faster GDDR5X memory into its latest GPU to compensate for the narrow memory bus. It also used a slightly higher frequency than it used with the Titan X.
NVIDIA claims that the tweaks resulted to a 35 percent faster GPU as compared to previous-generation GTX 1080. The $699 GTX 1080 Ti has managed to overshadow the $1,200 Titan X, which more likely will lose its market value in the GPU market. This means that NVIDIA's top-of-the-line $1,200 slot is now vacant and logic says that the green team will most likely fill in the spot in the coming months.
Only a full-fat GP102 with faster 11-gigabit per second memory on the GTX 1080 Ti as compared to the Titan X's 10-gigabit per second can fill in the $1,200 vacancy according to Motley Fool. Though pricey, it could still find a market on gamers willing to invest on the best gaming performance possible. The most likely time for its unveiling could be NVIDIA's annual GPU Technology Conference in May. The green team has already expressed its desire to launch new graphics cards in the said event.
In other related news, NVIDIA's AIC partners are already coming up with their own versions of the GTX 1080 Ti starting with Asus with custom graphics called Strix OC and Turbo Series. The Strict OC will more likely feature more overclocking though it seems unimaginable to squeeze more out of that NVIDIA GP102 according to Fudzilla. MSI also released a teaser albeit with no other details other than featuring its well known Twin Frozr V1 Cooler. Meanwhile, Inno3D is the only once to make an official announcement of its own custom GTX 1080 Ti which will be equipped with the iChill X3 and X4 Coolers.
