Here's when and where to watch NVIDIA unveil its next-gen GeForce

NVIDIA's massively-hyped Ultimate Countdown to the Ampere GeForce RTX 3000 series reveal is nearly here, watch it right here!

@anthony256

Published Aug 31, 2020 8:30 PM CDT
Updated Nov 3, 2020 11:42 AM CST

21 minutes & 30 seconds read time

Can you believe we're finally here? We are just over 12 hours away from NVIDIA's big Ultimate Countdown event for the next-gen Ampere GeForce RTX 3000 series graphics card reveal.

NVIDIA will be streaming its Ultimate Countdown event directly through Twitch, which kicks off on September 1 @ 8AM PST. If you're elsewhere in the world, I'll include some times for you below:

USA - September 1 @ 8AM PDT
Canada - September 1 @ 11AM EDT
Australia - September 2 @ 1AM AEST
Russia - September 1 @ 6PM MSK
UK - September 1 @ 4PM BST

Watch it here: You can watch NVIDIA's huge Ultimate Countdown event for the GeForce RTX 3000 series on NVIDIA's official Twitch account.

Custom GeForce RTX 3000 graphics cards

We have been enjoying copious amounts of leaks on custom GeForce RTX 3000 series graphics cards, from ASUS, ZOTAC, and GAINWARD so far.

GAINWARD GeForce RTX 3000 series cards

GAINWARD has had the most-detailed leaks out of any of the AIB partners with the GeForce RTX 3000 series, where we have virtually every detail imaginable for their upcoming RTX 3090 and RTX 3080 in both Phoenix "GS" (Golden Sample) and non-GS graphics cards.

This is where we've found out that NVIDIA will be using the 7nm node, and not the 8nm node like previously thought. GAINWARD has some great-looking cooling going on with its Phoenix-branded graphics cards, with a wicked-looking backplate.

Here's when and where to watch NVIDIA unveil its next-gen GeForce 801

VIEW GALLERY - 42 IMAGES

Read more on GAINWARD's new GeForce RTX 3000 series graphics cards here.

ASUS GeForce RTX 3000 series cards

ASUS was the first custom GeForce RTX 3000 series card that we reported on, but then it was barely 24 hours ago that we were teased with what appears to be the GeForce RTX 3090 ROG Strix graphics card. It rocks a slick triple-fan, chunky cooler that I'm sure is going to keep that 24GB of GDDR6X memory and Ampere GA102 GPU nice and cool.

Here's when and where to watch NVIDIA unveil its next-gen GeForce 803

Read more on ASUS' new GeForce RTX 3000 series graphics cards here.

ZOTAC GeForce RTX 3000 series cards

There were a bunch of ZOTAC GeForce RTX 3000 series cards leaked a few days ago, with some really unique designs. The new flagship seems to be the GeForce RTX 3090 Trinity from ZOTAC, which has an interesting new design and triple-fan cooler.

Here's when and where to watch NVIDIA unveil its next-gen GeForce 802

Read more on ZOTAC's new GeForce RTX 3000 series graphics cards here.

Palit GeForce RTX 3000 series cards

Palit also has a bunch of new custom GeForce RTX 3000 series graphics cards on the way, with 171 different models. We might not see all of those models make it to market, but I'm sure we will see at least 50+ of them... all those custom Ampere cards make me drool.

Read more on Palit's new GeForce RTX 3000 series graphics cards here.

For comparison sake, these are older renders on the Founders Edition cards:

Here's when and where to watch NVIDIA unveil its next-gen GeForce 201

Here's when and where to watch NVIDIA unveil its next-gen GeForce 202

Here's when and where to watch NVIDIA unveil its next-gen GeForce 203

Here's when and where to watch NVIDIA unveil its next-gen GeForce 204

NVIDIA's new Ampere-based GeForce RTX 3080 is said to be around 15-25% better than the RTX 2080 Ti, which will be a big deal if the GeForce RTX 3080 is priced at $799. The slightly lower-end GeForce RTX 3070 will reportedly offer RTX 2080 Ti level performance for $599 -- which is going to really shake things up.

We should see NVIDIA's new GeForce RTX 3090 feature a huge 24GB of next-gen GDDR6X memory at 21Gbps, while the GeForce RTX 3080 will have 10GB of GDDR6X at 19Gbps.

Here's an easier break down for you:

GeForce RTX 3090: $1399
GeForce RTX 3080: $799
GeForce RTX 3070: $599
GeForce RTX 3060: $399

Here's when and where to watch NVIDIA unveil its next-gen GeForce 22

The very latest: RTX 3090 PCB + GDDR6X @ 21Gbps

The PCB of the RTX 3090: A juicy leak of the purported PCB of a custom variant of the GeForce RTX 3090 leaked out a few days ago. It is reportedly the COLORFUL iGame GeForce RTX 3090 Vulcan-X. You can see this model has 3 x 8-pin PCIe power connectors, unlike the RTX 3090 Founders Edition that should pack just a single 12-pin PCIe power connector.
Micron reveals RTX 3090 name, 24GB GDDR6X memory @ 21Gbps: I'm sure this is part of the marketing or else all of us tech media websites would be receiving calls from lawyers, but Micron revealed its next-gen GDDR6X memory that the GeForce RTX 3090 (it admits the card by name) will be clocked at a bonkers-high 21Gbps.

Here's when and where to watch NVIDIA unveil its next-gen GeForce 24

Here's when and where to watch NVIDIA unveil its next-gen GeForce 25

Wait, a 12-pin PCIe power connector?

12-pin PCIe power connector on Founders Edition ONLY: NVIDIA will be using a special new 12-pin PCIe power connector on its GeForce RTX 3090 Founders Edition graphics cards, something that I've confirmed with a few industry sources of mine now (to confirm the rumors floating around online).
Many, many 8-pin PCIe power connectors on custom AIB: But, custom GeForce RTX 3000 series graphics cards from AIBs like ASUS, COLORFUL, EVGA, MSI, etc will not be using the 12-pin PCIe power connector and rather multiple (2 and even up to 3 x 8-pin PCIe power connectors).

More reading:

Here's when and where to watch NVIDIA unveil its next-gen GeForce 444

Traversal coprocessor: We have had more leaks on NVIDIA's next-gen GeForce RTX 3000 series than any family of graphics cards before it, with an interesting "traversal coprocessor" on the new GeForce RTX 3080 and GeForce RTX 3090 graphics cards. You can read more on that here.
NVCache: Ampere is meant to have something called NVCache, which would be NVIDIA's own form of AMD's HBCC (High Bandwidth Cache Controller, more on that here). NVCache would use your system RAM and SSD to super-speed game load times, as well as optimizing VRAM usage. You can read more on NVCache here.
Tensor Memory Compression: NVCache is interesting, but Tensor Memory Compression will be on Ampere, and will reportedly use Tensor Cores to both compress and decompress items that are stored in VRAM. This could see a 20-40% reduction in VRAM usage, or more VRAM usage with higher textures in next-gen games and Tensor Memory Compression decreasing that VRAM footprint by 20-40%.

Here's when and where to watch NVIDIA unveil its next-gen GeForce 17

How fast is the GeForce RTX 3090? Freaking fast according to rumors, with 60-90% more performance than the current Turing-based flagship GeForce RTX 2080 Ti. We could see this huge performance leap in ray tracing titles, but we'll have to wait a little while longer to see how much graphical power NVIDIA crams into these new cards. You can read more on those rumors here.
Power hungry: As for power consumption, GA102 reportedly uses 230W -- while 24GB of GDDR6X (which we should see on the new Ampere-based TITAN RTX) consumes 60W of power. You can read more on that here.
Production begins soon: NVIDIA is reportedly in the DVT (or Design Validation Test) range of its new GeForce RTX 3000 series graphics cards. Mass production reportedly kicks off in August 2020, with a media event, benchmarks, and more in September 2020 as I predicted many months ago. More on that here.