Graphics card makers not optimistic about 28nm GPUs

DigiTimes spoke to AIB (add-in-board) makers and heard they're conservative about upcoming 28nm GPUs from AMD and NVIDIA. The firms fear yield rate issues may re-occur in TSMC's 28nm process, and worry about weakening demand for graphics cards and lower-than-expected gross margins.

Compared to the makers' eagerness for the previous-generation GPUs, graphics card makers are rather conservative about the upcoming 28nm chips due to concerns such as TSMC's weak 40nm process yield rate issues may re-occur in its 28nm process and weakening demand for graphics cards and lower-than-expected gross margins.

Since high-end discrete graphics cards are currently seeing weakening sales, while demand for mid-range and entry-level graphics cards is gradually being replaced by AMD and Intel's GPU-integrated processors, demand for discrete graphics cards is only expected to become weaker, the sources noted.

NVIDIA's 28nm Kepler GPUs may arrive by the end of the year, while AMD's 28nm Radeon HD 7000 series is anticipated in Q1 2012.