NVIDIA Kepler Analysis: Another Masterpiece from the Architects of G80 or...?

The Kepler Lineup: High-End GK104, Low-End GK107 Split into 11 parts

As you already know, Kepler GPUs belong to GeForce 600 Series. However, not all 600 Series GPUs will be Kepler parts - some of them are still based on the Fermi architecture and will probably end up being replaced by the yet unannounced Kepler ASICs.

On the desktop side, NVIDIA is launching GeForce GTX 680 today, and that is the only desktop part being launched today. After NVIDIA builds an allocation of GK107 parts, you can expect the arrival of GT 600 series for desktop as well.Thus, there isn't much to write about the desktop part, since we have an in-depth review written by my colleague Anshel Sag. This in-depth page review reveals everything that desktop part has to offer.



In the world of mobile, there are plenty of activities; GeForce GT 640M was launched last week, after Acer started selling Aspire Timeline M3 ultrabooks earlier than agreed. There are multiple notebook design wins, but they're closely tied to the introduction of Intel Ivy Bridge series of processors. Unfortunately, the situation is not as simple as it could be. Intel has changed their mind on more than one occasion when it comes to introduction of 3000 series of Intel Core i5 and i7 processors. Intel's VP Sean Maloney said that Intel will introduce Ivy Bridge in two series; April and June. The high-end processors should be launched in April, while the lower-end dual-core parts should arrive in time for Computex Taipei. Until then, both AMD and NVIDIA will be limited to saying they have design wins, without a way to show them.

The mobile lineup is consisted out of no less than 10 models, based on three ASICs:

• 40nm Fermi: 610M, GT 635M, GTX 670M, GTX 675M
• 28nm Fermi: GT 620M, GT 630M
• 28nm Kepler: GT 640M LE, GT 640M, GT 650M, GTX 660M

Yes, you've read it correctly. NVIDIA taped out 28nm Fermi GPU silicon consisting out of two SM units: 96 CUDA cores are paired with a 128-bit memory controller, connecting to GDDR3 or GDDR5 memory. NVIDIA claims that both 40nm and 28nm Fermi silicon underwent extensive rearrangement of the new Performance/Watt mantra and that the new parts are significantly more efficient than the original Fermi parts.

The GK107 will serve as all of four notebook parts, but with different amount of enabled units. NVIDIA cites "up to 384"for all parts, while the memory controller is 128-bit and supports GDDR3 or GDDR5 memory. The GeForce GT 640M LE features up to 2GB GDDR3 memory, GT 640M, 650M and GTX 660M support up to 2GB of GDDR3 or GDDR5 memory.

We have a notebook based on GT 640M part and will be publishing the review shortly.