NVIDIA Teases Next-Gen Blackwell B100 GPUs: More Than 2x the Performance of the Hopper H200 & Scheduled for 2024
NVIDIA, during its SC23 Special Address, gave us a sneak peek of the upcoming Blackwell architecture. As per NVIDIA, the Blackwell-based B100 will pack more than double the performance of the current Hopper H200. Moreover, these GPUs will arrive in 2024, possibly at NVIDIA’s next GTC Keynote on March 18, 2024.
NVIDIA Blackwell to Offer 2x More Performance Than Hopper
It is important to note that Hopper is the server counterpart of Ada Lovelace. Both architectures launched in parallel, but are designated for different work segments. Likewise, the successor to Hopper is termed Blackwell. We are unsure, however, if the GeForce RTX 50 series will actually be called Blackwell, but that’s yet to be seen.
As per NVIDIA, the B100 based on Blackwell demolishes the Hopper H200 in the GPT-3 175B interface performance benchmark. From what we can see, the graph moves up exponentially, therefore we’re likely looking at a 2-3x increase, even more depending on the specific workload.
Continuing the trend of packaging state-of-the-art memory technologies with each generation, the current H200 offerings from NVIDIA feature 10TB/s HBM3e memory. Sadly, Blackwell could very well break this trend since Micron has no plans for HBM4 until at least 2025. Samsung, however, can be a viable alternative.
Just like Ada Lovelace ‘RTX 40’ resembles Augusta Ada King, an English mathematician, and writer, Blackwell is coined after David Harold Blackwell, a key contributor to the game theory, probability theory, and information theory.
The Blackwell series of AI GPUs are expected to use TSMC’s 3nm process which will offer significant efficiency improvements. Not much is known as of yet, apart from the naming scheme which indicates that the GB2XX wildcard has been reserved for GeForce GPUs.
In addition to B100, NVIDIA has also officially revealed plans for a follow-up chip termed the X100, set to arrive in 2025. X100 will be segmented into X40 for Enterprise and GX200 (CPU + GPU Superchip). Speaking of Superchips, Blackwell will also see such treatment with the GB200, expected to launch at the same time as the base B100 GPU.
Release Date
Blackwell will arrive next year, likely at the GTC Keynote in March, similar to how Hopper was revealed. But hold your horses, we probably will not see any GeForce-related products at the event so that’s a bummer.
The GeForce RTX 50 series is scheduled for 2025 as per a previous roadmap. Are you waiting for the RTX 50 Series or will you settle for an RTX 40 GPU? Tell us in the comments.
Source: NVIDIA
