NVIDIA's next-next-gen R100 and GR100 GPUs could be named after astronomer Vera Rubin

NVIDIA is cooking right now as it always is, working on the next-gen Blackwell GPU architecture that will debut in 2024, while we're hearing early rumbles of the next-next-gen Rubin GPU architecture that will drop in 2025.

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NVIDIA's GPU roadmap teasing "X100" in 2025 (source: NVIDIA)

We've already heard about NVIDIA's upcoming 2025 GPU architecture as "X100" and its two siblings in "GX200" and "GX200NVL" on NVIDIA's 2024 GPU roadmap. Now we've got leaker "kopite7kimi" on X, where the leaker tweeted out a reply to a tweet about astronomer Vera Rubin, tweeting "Miss the Golden Age of Exploration". Which, with the capitalized letters, spelling "GAME," too.

NVIDIA has been constantly dominating the AI GPU industry with its current H100 AI GPU and upcoming beefed-up H200 AI GPU, which are both based on the Hopper GPU architecture. After that, we'll see the release of the next-gen Blackwell GPU architecture, powering the B100 AI GPU and GB200 AI GPU throughout 2024 and beyond.

After that, NVIDIA had already teased next-next-gen X100 and GX200 AI GPUs where the "X" really could be an "R" for Rubin, Vera Rubin, who was an astronomer in the United States who made important discoveries about how fast galaxies rotate. Rubin discovered the predicted and observed angular motion of galaxies were different, showing that dark matter exists.

• Read more: NVIDIA's next-gen GB200 'Blackwell' GPU listed on its 2024 data center roadmap

It looks like the future Rubin GPU architecture could be just for data centers in the form of new AI GPUs, while the gaming GPU side of things might get something different. This happens, as we haven't seen the Hopper GPU architecture on the gaming GPU side of things, with it powering the fastest AI GPUs on the planet. Rubin seems to be following in Hopper's footprints, powering the next-next-gen AI GPUs of 2025 and beyond.

We don't know if NVIDIA will be using the Rubin GPU architecture for its next-next-gen GeForce RTX 60 series graphics cards, but I guess we'll know more about that in the coming months, especially with 2024 right around the corner.