I stumbled upon this article today. It has slides from NV basically saying that 28nm is more expensive than 45nm. In the past, we've always had smaller nodes cost less. Now, we're seeing a reversal in trend and it looks like if things keep going the way they are, GPUs will always cost more and more.
But, knowing this, everything makes sense. It explains why big Kepler isn't here and why it might never be feasible at a reasonable consumer price. It explains why NV has made the sudden shift from big, powerful dies to smaller, more efficient ones. It also explains why AMD never plans on releasing a big die. Most important of all, it explains why 7970 is $550 and GTX 680 is $499 when the both have die sizes which would put them in the mid-range market segment.
http://www.extremetech.com/computin...y-with-tsmc-claims-22nm-essentially-worthless
What do you guys think? I think it means that the era of cheap 300mm GPUs is done. Also that we're done pushing for lower nodes. Why would anyone want to move to a lower node if it's going to cost more? And do you think this is a TSMC thing or a laws of physics thing? It doesn't seem like Intel is having problems, but a CPU has far fewer transistors.
But, knowing this, everything makes sense. It explains why big Kepler isn't here and why it might never be feasible at a reasonable consumer price. It explains why NV has made the sudden shift from big, powerful dies to smaller, more efficient ones. It also explains why AMD never plans on releasing a big die. Most important of all, it explains why 7970 is $550 and GTX 680 is $499 when the both have die sizes which would put them in the mid-range market segment.
http://www.extremetech.com/computin...y-with-tsmc-claims-22nm-essentially-worthless
What do you guys think? I think it means that the era of cheap 300mm GPUs is done. Also that we're done pushing for lower nodes. Why would anyone want to move to a lower node if it's going to cost more? And do you think this is a TSMC thing or a laws of physics thing? It doesn't seem like Intel is having problems, but a CPU has far fewer transistors.