Details Leak on Nvidia’s Upcoming GTX 1660, 1650 GPUs

Details Leak on Nvidia’s Upcoming GTX 1660, 1650 GPUs

Nvidia’s Turing refresh cycle has been continuing apace these past few months, with new lower-end GPUs replacing the Pascal holdovers from earlier in the cycle. GPUs like the GTX 1660 Ti lack the Turing-specific features like ray tracing and DLSS support, the 1660 Ti was also the only GPU of the family that comes with a significant improvement in performance per dollar as well as raw performance. As such, there’s interest in seeing if the 1660 and 1650 will replicate this trend.

New leaks from VideoCardz showcase both the new GPUs and the stats expected for the new hardware.

* means the part is technically unconfirmed. Bold text refers to updated data. Click to enlarge.
* means the part is technically unconfirmed. Bold text refers to updated data. Click to enlarge.

The 1650 is a bit more interesting. If the rumors of its configuration are accurate, the part looks positively underwhelming in comparison with the GPUs it will compete against. The bump from 768 GPU cores on the 1050 Ti to 896 on the 1650 will be welcome, but the RX 570 is an average of 1.42x faster than the 1050 Ti, and moving from 768 GPU cores to 896 is a gain of just 1.16x. That’s to say nothing of the RX 580, which has moved down to the <$200 price point and offers even more cores, memory bandwidth, and RAM to compete.

Assuming these are the configurations Nvidia brings to market, it doesn’t look as though the company intends to particularly challenge AMD below the $200 price point. To be fair, there isn’t much sign it needs to do so. The latest figures from Jon Peddie Research show AMD losing significant market share in Q4 2018 compared with Q3, and performing even more poorly against Q4 2017.

Data by Jon Peddie Research
Data by Jon Peddie Research

Clearly, holding on to the <$200 price points, even if AMD does it well, is no substitute for a competitive GPU stack top-to-bottom. Right now, that’s the one thing AMD doesn’t have. The price for a new Vega 56 has returned to $400 after a short discount, while a new Vega 64 runs $500. That’s simply not competitive against the current crop of RTX GPUs from Nvidia. Until AMD slashes its prices or brings Navi to market, it’s going to be effectively locked out of the higher band price segments.

Continue reading

Intel’s Raja Koduri to Present at Samsung Foundry’s Upcoming Conference
Intel’s Raja Koduri to Present at Samsung Foundry’s Upcoming Conference

Intel's Raja Koduri will speak at a Samsung foundry event this week — and that's not something that would happen if Intel didn't have something to say.

Rocket Lab’s Upcoming Reusable Rocket Is Designed for Deploying Mega-Constellations
Rocket Lab’s Upcoming Reusable Rocket Is Designed for Deploying Mega-Constellations

The company says its upcoming Neutron rocket will be ideal for deploying mega-constellations, and it'll have a reusable first-stage a la the Falcon 9.

Google Says Upcoming Pixel 5a Will Only Launch in US and Japan
Google Says Upcoming Pixel 5a Will Only Launch in US and Japan

Multiple reports claimed the chip shortage has forced some changes. Initially, sources said the phone was canceled altogether, but Google now confirms the 5a is coming but only to the US and Japan.

Windows Upcoming Redesign May Finally Include a New Settings App
Windows Upcoming Redesign May Finally Include a New Settings App

Microsoft will unveil the new OS, code-named Sun Valley, at an event on June 24. Although the company will probably focus on all the flashy whiz-bang new features, a new Settings app is reason enough to be excited.