NVIDIA GeForce GTX Titan II Maxwell Super Graphics Card Spotted

NVIDIA's Maxwell graphics processing unit generation was supposed to be designed on the 20nm manufacturing process, but with TSMC having big problems with the node, this won't happen. Thus, even the top chip, the one that will be used on the GeForce GTX Titan II, will be built on the 28nm technology instead.

Admittedly, we aren't totally sure that NVIDIA's next-generation top-end graphics card will be called Titan again, but since we've already had a Titan, Titan Black and Titan-Z (dual-GPU), it is highly likely. The Santa Clara, California-based IT player hasn't actually released any information about the card, or really gone into detail about the Maxwell GPU range as a whole. However, it wasn't able to completely conceal all evidence that a Maxwell-based successor to the GeForce GTX Titan Black was in the works. A shipping manifest has been discovered, one that mentioned a video card powered by the GM200 A1 graphics processing unit. Previously, we’ve heard reports that NVIDIA will start the next-generation video board series with the GM204 Maxwell, which will power the GeForce GTX 880 Ti, GTX 880, GTX 870, and GTX 860.

The fact that the new manifest mentions the GM200, which is supposed to be held in reserve for a good while, implies that a Titan board is what we should be looking forward to here. The discovery of the manifest, along with the knowledge that the GM200 will be built on the 28nm process, does, however, debunk the other half of the rumor surrounding the Maxwell line (the one that said NVIDIA would jump to 16nm). Anyway, the GM200 will probably measure around 620 square millimeters, which is quite large even among high-end GPUs. Inside, there will be 4,000 shader processors (probably) and a 512-bit memory interface.

Below you can see a picture of a PCB that was leaked earlier this week, but whose identity was unknown at the time. There seem to be two 6-pin PCI Express power connectors and one 8-pin port available, suggesting a truly high power consumption, not that it's a surprise, although it does make one wonder how much energy a dual-GPU Maxwell card will need. This is even more perplexing considering that energy needs are supposed to go down the more technology advances, instead of up. It is possible that the “Titan II” and the aforementioned GeForce GTX 880 are one and the same unit. However, the 700 series does have a GTX 780 Ti, yet the Titan Black is better than it, so it can actually go either way.

NVIDIA GeForce GTX Titan II PCB (possibly)
Image credits to Guru3D

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