GeForce GTX 580? Boring. Radeon 6900-series? Old news. It looks like the latest GPU buzz has already moved-on to the next generation, and that means one thing - 28nm.
For NVIDIA this is Kepler, and apparently TSMC has already sent early samples back to the company's engineers for evaluation. The source is suggesting that these are low-end parts - bearing the designation GF1x9 - though this shouldn't come as too much of a surprise. Manufacturing on a new process will almost always result in a low yield so a smaller, less complex chip should mean that a greater number of them are viable.
With the next generation GeForce GPUs being sampled despite not being expected to ship until at least autumn 2011, you'd be forgiven for thinking NVIDIA had a head start. Apparently not, though, as another source (thanks to DjiXas for the tip) is suggesting that AMD's gearing up to launch its 'Southern Islands' GPUs in the second quarter of next year.
Not a lot is known about the GLOBALFOUNDRIES-sourced chips that are likely to make up the Radeon HD 7000-series, but it was believed that they would launch in the second half of the year, around the same time as Kepler. However, this rumour suggests that the manufacturer was keen to shift the release date to maintain a competitive advantage over NVIDIA.
With both graphics cards still so far away, an awful lot can change before launch, and even if the rumours are true now the facts could easily change. The only thing we know for sure is that, as ever, there's something new just around the corner.
