Nvidia To Launch New Line Of Graphics Cards With Samsung 8nm Process This Month

Nvidia Corporation NVDA is out with a new line of graphics cards that it claims are two times faster than the predecessors.

What Happened: The company said in a statement, these second-generation Ampere RTX cards are designed using ray-tracing technology.

The chips for the upcoming launch will be built by Samsung Electronics using its 8nm process as opposed to the first generation of Ampere cards, according to Bloomberg. The first generation used Taiwan Semicon Conductor Mfg Co’s TSM 7nm process.

Nvidia said its GeForce RTX 30 series uses faster third generation Tensor Cores and new streaming multiprocessors to boost visuals and AI acceleration for gaming. They feature an HDMI 2.1 that supports 4k high refresh rate and 8k gaming.

The top-end model RTX 3090 is priced at $1,499 whereas the base model is $499, and are expected to release later this month.

Why It Matters: Since the ray tracing technology improves visual imagery during gameplay, the computing power requirements are much higher, which in turn reduces frame rate, as per Nvidia. The new RTX series addresses these issues faced by esports enthusiasts, gamers, and live streamers, the company said.

Nvidia’s competitor, Advanced Micro Devices Inc AMD recently released Radeon RX 5300 graphics card – a graphic processing unit that supports AAA, esports, and Virtual Reality titles.

Price Movement: After a 3.37% uptick during trading hours, Nvidia shares gained another 0.35% in the extended market hours to close at $554.80.

Photo courtesy: Nvidia Corp.