Nvidia’s next-generation GeForce graphics cards may be delayed, and Blackwell gaming GPUs may also see higher power draw than Team Green originally planned, most notably the RTX 5090.
If Wccftech According to reports, this reportedly follows changes Nvidia has had to make on the other side of the Blackwell equation, namely its data center GPUs, which will reportedly have a knock-on effect on consumer graphics cards.
Chinese technology site MyDrivers tells us – and add a fair amount of skepticism to that, a heavy dose we’d suggest – that supply chain sources indicate that production of RTX 5000 graphics cards is now being delayed due to changes made to improve GPU chip yields (meaning not producing too many bad chips and not wasting silicon).
We’re not given a timetable for the arrival of Blackwell gaming GPUs, only that there’s a delay. The changes Nvidia has made, by the way, are thermal tweaks and apparently include a redesign of the “upper metal layer and bumps of the GPU die.”
That’s translated text, we should note, but you get my point: a tweak was needed to mitigate thermal issues in datacenter chips, and this design change also impacts Blackwell gaming chips.
Kopite7kimi also weighs in on this story, sharing a post on X explaining that the leaker recently heard more details about Blackwell GeForce GPUs and that the range will have “some increase” in power consumption – presumably due to the changes mentioned above?
I know someone recently got the details from GeForce or Blackwell. Both have an increase in power consumption, with higher SKUs increasing more.September 3, 2024
The leaker believes that the higher-end Blackwell graphics cards will see a bigger increase in power consumption, particularly the RTX 5090 – but again, add enough spice.
Analysis: What happened to the rumors of a super-slim flagship GPU?
Unfortunately for those eager to see Nvidia’s Blackwell gaming graphics cards as soon as possible, this news of a partial chip redesign isn’t an isolated incident of news about a potential delay for RTX 5000 GPUs.
We’ve heard this a few times before, and the theory that Nvidia wants to prioritize AI chips over GeForce makes a lot of sense – gaming cards aren’t where the big wins lie, after all. And it’s not like Nvidia needs to rush to maintain gaming GPU dominance in terms of performance, either, since AMD’s next-gen RDNA 4 graphics cards aren’t expected to compete above the mid-range space.
So a CES 2025 reveal for the RTX 5090 and 5080—which have been persistently rumored to be the first two products to debut with Blackwell—is looking increasingly likely. (Though don’t rule out a later-this-year launch entirely, as previously thought—not yet, anyway.)
As for the higher power consumption suggestion, we’ve rumbled on this before as well, and the idea that the flagship RTX 5090 could run at 500W of power. However, according to Kopite7kimi in the above thread on X, it’ll be higher than that previous rumor – quite a bit higher. Someone replies that the RTX 5090 could run at 550W of power, and the leaker says it’ll be higher than that. So, are we looking at a 600W flagship for Blackwell, or are we approaching that level?
This isn’t inconceivable after all – big performance leaps are being promised for the RTX 5090. And it’s not exactly going to be a concern for most people, with only the most dedicated PC enthusiasts buying an Nvidia flagship GPU (at a price point that’s more than the average gamer’s entire PC). Power consumption increases should be a lot less further up the Blackwell range, as noted, but it’s still a worrying hint of an increase in this department across the cards.
What’s also interesting is that this very much runs counter to previous rumors that claimed Nvidia would be making the RTX 5090 a much slimmer graphics card compared to the RTX 4090 – and how that might work in terms of a slimmer cooling solution, but with a power draw of over 550W. There’s something not quite right there, in other words, but we’ve always had a hard time believing some of the theories surrounding the miraculously slim RTX 5090 – only time will tell.
