NVIDIA RTX 50 series rumored to double the performance of RTX 40 series: Specs, expected performance, and more

The upcoming NVIDIA RTX 50 series graphics cards from NVIDIA are anticipated to make use of the latest Blackwell GPU architecture, which will be a big step over the previous generation RTX 40 Ada Lovelace series GPUs. Recently, YouTubers RedGamingTech and Moore's Law Is Dead made detailed videos on the speculations of the upcoming NVIDIA RTX 50 series graphics cards.

This article will list the rumored specs, performance comparisons, and models of the NVIDIA RTX 50 series Blackwell graphics cards.

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NVIDIA RTX 50 series 'Blackwell' GPU rumors: Release date, specs, performance, and more

NVIDIA is developing a new graphics card architecture called Blackwell to replace the current one, named Hopper. In addition to the previously leaked GB100 GPU, we now have information about another consumer-grade GB102 GPU. Some reports claim that Blackwell GPUs will be released in 2024, but more information will likely be revealed only at NVIDIA GTC 2024.

Last year, famous leaker kopite7kimi claimed that the Blackwell series GPUs would also feature a monolithic die. YouTuber Moore's Law Is Dead also mentioned that NVIDIA was not worried about AMD's chiplet strategy. While AMD might go full chiplet with RDNA4, NVIDIA will stick to the monolithic die.

Over the years, we have seen shrinkage in NVIDIA's process nodes. Turing was based on TSMC's 12nm node, Ampere used Samsung 8nm, and the current Ada Lovelace graphics cards use TSMC's 4N node. TSMC has also received great success while developing the 3nm node, which they started mass manufacturing during the last quarter of 2022. Hence, we can expect NVIDIA's upcoming Blackwell GPUs to be based on the 3nm node.

Kopite7kimi has suggested that Blackwell may have a 512-bit SKU, but it's been a while since NVIDIA used that configuration. The last time they used a 512-bit card was almost 14 years ago in the GTX 285.

While some lower-end cards might feature GDDR6X memory, most of the NVIDIA RTX 50 series GPUs are expected to feature GDDR7 memory. Samsung is already working on a much more efficient GDDR6W memory technology, and it's safe to expect the arrival of GDDR7 by 2024.

The speculations of RedGamingTech also mention:

• The continuation of PCIe Gen 5
• Clock frequency target over 3GHz
• Huge overhaul to the CUDA architecture
• Advanced denoising technology
• More focus on ray tracing

Here are the two rumored models of NVIDIA RTX 50 series GPUs:

The rumored GB 100 and GB 102 models (Image via RedGamingTech/YouTube)

Rumors also mention that the Blackwell series will receive almost 2x performance upgrades over Ada GPUs. This is similar to the upgrade in RTX 40 series GPUs over the RTX 30 series.

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Leakers and tech experts are actively analyzing NVIDIA's research and development patterns to gather clues about the upcoming Blackwell GPUs. However, as noted by kopite7kimi, it is still too early to discuss the next generation of NVIDIA GPUs, so tech enthusiasts will have to wait for more leaks.