It’s been a while since we’ve seen new graphics cards from Nvidia. Over the last year or so, we’ve been on the edge of our seats trying to follow what Nvidia is up to with its next-gen graphics architecture, with speculation around three different codenames – Volta (an architecture some high-end GPUs are already using), Ampere and Turing – and exactly how these architectures fit in with Nvidia’s gaming-focused (GeForce GTX) GPUs going forward.
Thankfully, that wait is nearly over.
Most of the speculation right now is pointing to an August or September release, with an announcement happening next month at either Hot Chips on August 20 or Gamescom the following day on the 21st. This is based on rumors that Nvidia has sent out event invites for Gamescom to the press, so it’s looking like that may be where Nvidia announces the GTX 1180.
No matter what happens, keep this page bookmarked, as we’ll update it with any further information that surfaces.
Cut to the Chase
- What is it? Nvidia’s next-generation flagship graphics card
- When is it out? Possibly July 2018
- How much will it cost? About the same, if not more than the GTX 1080
Nvidia GeForce GTX 1180 release date
The GTX 1180 first popped up on our radar thanks to a Tom’s Hardware report that it would show up in July. That’s not going to happen though, as the only GTX 1180 news we got at Computex 2018 was Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang saying it wouldn’t be coming for a ‘long time’.
However, it’s not exactly clear what Huang meant when he said that. We’ve seen a wave of speculation suggesting that the GTX 1180 may be releasing in September, with more shaky rumors suggesting a release at the very end of next month. We’re not sure how accurate these rumors are, but the sheer saturation of these rumors seems to suggest the announcement might actually happen at Gamescom. Like, for real this time.
Either way, we’re pretty sure the GTX 1180 is coming out this fall, and we’ll update this article as soon as we hear more.
Nvidia GeForce GTX 1180 price
This is where things might get a little tricky, and it’s also where we’ve seen little speculation. With the current segment of 10-series GPUs, Nvidia changed the way they charged for its reference cards by renaming them “Founders Edition”, putting an advanced blower-style cooler and vapor chamber cooling system in them and charging $100 more for it.
This approach worked really well for Team Green, so we expect it to do the same this time around. This would put the pricing of the GTX 1180 around $699 (about £520, AU$920), but we could see them raising the price to $749 (about £560, AU$990) or even higher.
For reference, the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti and Nvdia GTX 1080 came with a starting prices at $699 (£679, AU$1099) and $599 (£600, AU$925), respectively.
However, we’re sure we’ll find out exactly what Nvidia will be charging for its new GPU in the very near future either way.
Nvidia GeForce GTX 1180 specs
This is the exciting part of the article. In May, the reported specs of the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1180 were spotted in the TechPowerUp GPU database, and it is looking juicy.
This next-generation card, if this ‘spec speculation’ is to be believed, is more powerful than even the Nvidia Titan Xp, the most powerful consumer graphics card Nvidia has ever made.
We believe that the GTX 1180, whenever it shows up, will be running GDDR6 memory, and that’s backed up by a PCB using GDDR6 spotted by a reddit commenter. Now, we’re not sure if this points to the Turing-backed GTX 1180 or to a Tesla card, but it does suggest that the memory on the next generation of GPUs will be much more powerful.
Running at 200 watts and manufactured with a new 12nm process, the GTX 1180 will pack 3,584 CUDA cores, 224 TMUs (texture mapping units), 16GB of GDDR6 VRAM and a rated Floating Point 32 (FP32) performance of a whopping 13 Teraflops.
Compared to 2016’s GTX 1080, with its 2,560 CUDA cores, 160 TMUs, 8GB of GDDR5 VRAM and 8.7 teraflops of FP32 performance, you’re looking at massive performance gains.
And, it doesn’t even end with the reported specs for the GTX 1180 either, as we’ve also seen rumored specs for the lower-end GTX 1170 pop up on Wccftech. The lower tier card will reportedly run with 2,688 CUDA cores, 168 TMUs, 8-16GB of GDDR6 VRAM and 9.75 Teraflops of FP32 performance.
This means, even if you can’t afford the GTX 1180, you can still beat out the last-generation flagship at a bargain price.