It looks as though Nvidia is about to enter the next generation. Given that the RTX 3090 was launched in September 2020, it means a whole year has passed since a new GPU was launched by the company. While the tech world is still experiencing shortages, it has not stopped the big conglomerates from making announcements and pushing products. Now it looks as though the next series of graphics cards may be in development and ready for launch next year.
A number of sources speculate that Nvidia is already beginning work on its RTX 4000 series, with a possible release date of "next October," as well as the RTX 30 Super refresh cards coming "early 2022." The rumor states that the next GPU will be codenamed "Lovelace," but it seems as though, at least according to a tweet from a user called Greymon55, that the October release window could be referring to the next generation of graphics cards in general, and not specifically the RTX 4000 products.
While rumors of the Nvidia "Lovelace" have been flying around for a little while now, this is the first time that a potential release date has been mentioned. A few months back, it was suggested by Greymon55 that the up-and-coming hardware would likely be using the TSSC 5nm process nodes. For some perspective on that, Nvidia's 3000 series uses Samsung's 8nm, while AMD's 6000 series uses a TSMC 7nm. Outside these vague details, not much is known about what the next generation of Nvidia RTX cards will be like in terms of performance or specifics.
Of course, it's worth saying at this stage that these are just rumors. There has been no official word yet from Nvidia about its possible 4000 series. However, if true, it's possible that Nvidia will be looking to release three SKUs for the October period, which sources label as AD102, AD104, and AD106. Rumors of AMD developing its RX 6900 XTX could be why its rival company may be getting ready to push out new versions of its 30 series, and why there are talks of the next generation of graphics cards doing the rounds.
On top of that, both AMD and Nvidia will have to compete with a new combatant entering the GPU ring. A few weeks ago, Intel announced it would be launching its own range of graphics cards that could rival the other two heavyweights. Whether or not it will be able to keep up with the next generation of tech remains to be seen.
Source: VideoCardz, PCGamesN