Whenever a popular GPU manufacturer puts out a new generation of hardware, the discussion quickly evolves past what the current cards can do and straight into what the next generation of chips will be capable of. Nvidia hasn’t put out a new consumer GPU series since the Pascal architecture launch with the GeForce 10 chips back in 2016, but if recent spottings at the EEU certification office are anything to go by, next-gen gaming GPUs could be entering their final stages of development.
There’s quite a bit of information to unpack with any EEU (Eurasian Economic Union) listing, but the general rule is that going through the EEU is one of the final steps electrical components go through before being allowed to go on sale.
Spotted by VideoCardz user Komachi, the site reports that based on the evidence provided, it looks as if Nvidia is preparing at least three new GPUs for the consumer market – but not all of these will be GeForce products typically used in gaming.
This is all merely speculation at the minute, but the countless numbers thrown up by the EEU filings are understood to denote cards in the gamer-centric GeForce line alongside the Quadro and Tesla brands usually reserved for professional workloads. Consumer-grade GPUs are thought to be those within the 699 number range, with the second set of numbers thought to denote a specific GPU like a potential GTX 1150 or 2050 depending on how Nvidia chooses to name the new series of cards. From there, the third and fourth number sequences are expected to relate to less important board variations; like how many display ports are onboard.
It’s still anyone’s guess at the minute, but the conclusion made by VideoCardz is that Nvidia has at least 3 gamer-grade GPUs going through the EEU right now with the PG150 set having more variations than both PG160 and PG180. The Quadro/Tesla side of things paints a similar picture, too, with the PG150 line having more individual SKUs.
Any way we look at this should be taken with a grain of salt, but with no new GPU architecture release aimed at PC gamers in over two years, we’ll ready to take any hint we can get. Nvidia does have its annual GTC conference coming up in October, but that’s a place usually reserved for the AI and Deep Learning sectors.