Report suggests Nvidia could launch improved RTX 3000 GPUs produced on TSMC's 7 nm node in 2021

Nvidia’s RTX 3000 gaming GPUs are produced on Samsung’s 8 nm nodes that are not seeing great yields right now, which is clearly limiting the supply. Nvidia has made it clear that the RTX 3000 shortages are going to last until at least early 2021, but team green is not just sitting idly waiting for the supply to catch up to demand. A new Chinese report now suggests that Nvidia could be ditching Samsung for TSMC in 2021, yet it is not clear if this switch will benefit the RTX 3000-series or if it is planned for some intermediary generation in between Ampere and the next gen “Hopper” GPUs.

According to DigiTimes, Nvidia has already booked significant production capacity on TSMC’s 7 nm nodes for 2021, as TSMC recently lowered the prices on the 7 nm wafers. Additionally, Nvidia is looking to diversify risk seeing that TSMC’s 7 nm nodes are superior to Samsung’s 8 nm ones when it comes to yields. This suggests that Nvidia may actually release improved versions of the RTX 3000 GPUs with lower TGPs and slightly increased performance. The report also notes that Nvidia is expected to be one of TSMC’s key clients contributing to the high utilization rate of the 7 nm nodes throughout 2021.

Previous reports pointed out that Nvidia also booked 5 nm production capacity at TSMC and this is probably meant for the upcoming "Hopper" GPUs rumored to release exactly 1 year after the Ampere models. The 2-year release schedule appears to have been reduced to 1 year, since AMD is strongly signaling that it is ready to match Nvidia’s gaming GPUs this year. Team red already has plans to release Navi 21’s successor produced on the 5 nm TSMC nodes at the end of 2021, and Nvidia is most likely not willing to give the competition a head start.