As per a Digitimes report, NVIDIA may ditch Samsung to opt for TSMC’s 7nm process node in its future RTX 30 series graphics. Keep in mind that the report in itself doesn’t state whether the existing chips will be migrated to the smaller node or newer dies will be designed using it, but it’s the latter that’s more likely, and practical.
TSMC’s 5nm and 7nm node capacities have been fully booked till the end of 2020, and as such, newly launched parts may face shortages. The most prominent product mentioned in the report is the PS5 which is expected to receive volume production only in early 2021.
At present, all major chipmakers including Apple, Qualcomm, Mediatek, NVIDIA (A100), and all console-makers rely on the Taiwanese Foundry for their chip supply. The 7nm wafer capacity is pegged at 130K wafers per month, with a planned increase to 140K by the year’s end. The 5nm node, for which Apple is the only client at the moment is expected to cross the 100K wafers per month mark in the first half of 2021.
Considering the limitations of Samsung’s dated 8nm process (density, performance, and power), with AMD slated to launch its new RDNA flagship based on TSMC’s 7nm node, it’s possible (huge grain of salt) that Team Green has another GeForce part in the pipeline that uses the 7nm process and goes up against Big Navi next year. The existing RTX 3080/3070 parts won’t be shifted to the new node, as that would be highly impractical.
