Chinese publication IThome reported today that Nvidia is ostensibly discontinuing the GeForce RTX 2070, RTX 2070 Super, RTX 2080 Super, and RTX 2080 Ti. We've reached out to Nvidia, but the chipmaker has told us that it doesn't comment on rumors or speculation.
If we look at it objectively, it makes sense to start phasing out Turing-powered models to dedicate resources for the new and upcoming Ampere graphics cards. If Nvidia's continues to use the same development cycle for Ampere, the chipmaker should already have working samples of Ampere. And if things progress as they are, mass production would likely commence in August.
IThome's next claim is a bit controversial, though. The media alleges that Nvidia has purportedly suggested that its partners raise the prices on the aforementioned Turing graphics cards at the beginning of this month. The rumored reasons behind the chipmaker's recommendation are the rising interest in cryptocurrency mining and insufficient supply on TSMC's part. As a reminder, TSMC manufactures the Turing silicon for Nvidia on the foundry's 12nm FinFET process node. However, TSMC also has many other big-name clients, including Apple, AMD, and Qualcomm, so the foundry's services are always in high demand.
Nvidia might start gradually withdrawing the GeForce RTX 2080 and RTX 2080 Ti graphics card from the market to make way for the next best thing. If the information is accurate, the chipmaker could announce the GeForce RTX 3080 and RTX 3080 Ti in September, which is the rumored month for Ampere's launch. IThome thinks that the announcement will take place on September 17, but the new outlet wouldn't swear by it though.
