NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 4070 GPUs have now started showing up with cut-down AD103 dies as the green team utilizes its poorly binned dies.
NVIDIA Decides To Use Unutilized AD103 Chips In The GeForce RTX 4070 GPUs, -42.5% Cores Versus Full Die
The change was detected by TechPowerUP, who received an inquiry from a reader about his GPU not showing up on GPU-Z, an application by the outlet. The variant in question was MSI RTX 4070 Ventus 3X E 12 GB OC, one of the mainstream models in the market. When examining the GPU, TechPowerUP realized that it had a different GPU chip mounted onto the PCB, and instead of the AD104, the larger AD103 was found onboard, which was why the GPU didn't appear on GPU-Z.
The modification in the onboard silicon means that you are looking at reduced shaders since an AD103-based GeForce RTX 4070 would require 46 out of 80 shaders enabled, -42.5% of the total units. Moreover, trimming the memory interface would also be necessary, and as shown in the updated GPU-Z screenshot, this was indeed the case. It's important to note that mounting the AD103 GPU would not negatively impact the overall performance, and the average consumer would feel no change unless he tinkers with GPU-Z. The benchmarking tool has been updated to support the new configuration as well.
- AD103 GPU Full Die: 10,240 Cores / 80 SMs / 379mm2 Die / 100%
- AD103 RTX 4070 GPU: 5,888 Cores / 46 SMs / 379mm2 Die / 57.5%
- AD104 RTX 4070 GPU: 5,888 Cores / 46 SMs / 294mm2 Die / 76.6%
While we are unaware of whether this move is an official one from NVIDIA or probably performed by a board partner, in this case, MSI, the utilization of AD103 is certainly for economic puroses as there are several AD103 GPUs that didn't meet the requirements for RTX 4070 Ti & RTX 4080 GPUs.
Because the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 is a relatively more popular GPU in the market, it might be clever for NVIDIA/AIB partner to think of this move, and we might see similar modifications moving ahead as well since Team Green may have started preparations for the next generation of GPUs.
News Source: TechPowerUP
