NVIDIA delays 20 nm Maxwell chips

It appears that there are some good and some bad news on the horizon for users of powerful 3D graphics cards. According to the latest information that surrounds NVIDIA the US GPU maker has delayed the release of its first 20 nm GPU, used in the Maxwell family, for late 2014 and more likely for early 2015.

The reason for the delay is hidden in TSMC – a partner of NVIDIA which in fact makes all NVIDIA GPUs. TSMC is simply not ready for mass production of 20 nm chips. Although the company plans to start making 16 nm chips by the end of 2014, its 20 nm process is still not mature enough for production of very complex chips like modern GPUs.

This is definitely some bad news for NVIDIA as the company hoped it would release the Maxwell generation on the new 20 nm tech process but apparently this will not happen that soon. Current Maxwell cards are made on 28 nm tech process but the lack of 20 nm technology will likely make NVIDIA delay the release of additional Maxwell chips, hence video cards on the new technology will become popular only in late 2014 or in 2015.

Of course this is good news for AMD as this company still makes GPUs on 28 nm tech process. In addition owners of NVIDIA cards can rest assured that they will have modern GPUs for some more time.

Source: Wccftech