Nvidia has no plans to let AMD or Intel steal the show. Number one in the sector of graphics cards for personal computers and servers, with more than 80% of market share firmly held, the American brand currently burns its GPU chips in 8 nm (for the very popular GeForce RTX 3000, in particular) by Samsung Foundry. For its next generation of graphics chips, the group nevertheless wishes to change its engraving technology, passing, like its competitors, to the Taiwanese giant TSMC – the largest independent foundry in the world.
Still, to take advantage of the 5 nm engraving of this “new” subcontractor, already employed by Apple, Qualcomm and soon AMD, Nvidia will probably have to extend the tickets. As reported by our colleagues from 01Net, the firm is said to have already planned to invest a total of $ 6.9 billion in a contract with TSMC. The goal ? Reserve enough wafers (these silicon wafers from which the semiconductors are cut) engraved in 5 nm for its future graphics cards.
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By putting that sum on the table, Nvidia has a good chance of catching the attention of TSMC, whose various factories are operating at full speed amid global shortages of components. This amount would in fact be greater than what the founder’s other large customers are spending to benefit from this famous 5 nm engraving, offered on a large scale by TSMC for more than a year.
For Nvidia, the issue is of prime importance: it is to stay ahead of the curve while competition is back in the graphics card market.
With its RDNA2 graphics architecture, AMD has indeed succeeded in making up a good part of the delay accumulated against Nvidia on the technological level … and in the course of 2022, the firm will switch to its new RDNA3 design, which is even more efficient. A new design which will take advantage of TSMC’s 5nm engraving.
Nvidia therefore has every interest in swapping the 8 nm engraving of its current chips for a more efficient protocol for its next generation of GPUs. With 5 nm engraving, the firm would be able to maximize the number of transistors on its GPUs while improving their energy efficiency. A point that Nvidia has not been able to address sufficiently with its current graphics cards.
Remember that in 2022, Nvidia will also have to face an additional competitor: Intel. In the coming weeks, the firm will launch consumer graphics cards based on its new “ARC Alchemist” chip. The latter should for its part be engraved in 6 nm by TSMC.
We’ll probably know more about Nvidia’s plans in the next few hours. The firm will hold a press conference on January 4 as part of CES 2022.