Earlier this week, it was revealed that Nvidia has started using new revisions of their AD103 and AD104 graphics processors in their GeForce RTX 4080 and GeForce RTX 4070 add-in boards (AIBs).Some thought the new revisions would reduce power consumption and improve yields, potentially impacting the cost of the actual card. Igor’s laboratory claims that newer GPUs only have a built-in comparator for the fan, which has little impact on the AIB cost of the bill of materials (BOM).
Nvidia’s AD103-300 (used in the GeForce RTX 4080) and AD104-250 (used in the GeForce RTX 4070 and RTX 4070 Ti) graphics processing units require graphics card manufacturers to add a comparison circuit.Fan PWM signal with actual value according to Igor’s laboratoryThe new AD104-251 and AD103-301 integrate the comparator into the GPU, so the AIB no longer needs to have an external comparator circuit.
The comparator circuit is so cheap that removing it won’t have a significant impact on the BOM cost of the actual graphics card, but board makers probably want to remove it to save some money. . However, the savings from this deletion are probably not passed on to the end user. In fact, the manufacturer is reluctant to lower the price as he will have to develop new his PCB designs for the AD104-251 and AD103-301 GPUs, which is costly.
In fact, it’s pretty amazing that Nvidia decided to use newer silicon revisions to fix minor bugs like invalid comparators (as we know from unofficial reports, assuming this happened ). Given how complex modern GPU designs are, graphics processor developers are more likely to implement fixes that improve yield, or at least reduce variability. On the other hand, in both scenarios, chip designers prefer making small tweaks to the process technology itself rather than making changes to the actual silicon.
Nvidia has not officially disclosed the differences between the AD103-251 and AD104-301 and AD103-250 and AD104-300 GPUs, so any information on this should be viewed with caution. Also, the integrated comparator may not be the only change. For now, it looks like the new chip offers the same performance as the old one, so there’s no need to definitely get the new chip.
After all, all GeForce RTX 4070 Ti and GeForce RTX 4080 graphics boards are still among the best graphics cards available today.
