A report from Tom’s Hardware states that NVIDIA’s next-generation GeForce GPUs, tentatively being referred to as the GTX 11-series, will include a new connector with enough bandwidth to support future VR headsets much higher resolutions and greater refresh rates.

According to a report by Tom’s Hardware, citing anonymous sources, Nvidia’s next generation of GPUs will be capable of 120Hz output at high resolutions over a single cable thanks to a new connector. The report states it could be a proprietary Nvidia connector, but doesn’t rule out the possibility of the HDMI 2.1 spec given HDMI’s status as a widely acceptable standard.

The latest high-end consumer headsets have displays that run at 90Hz with a resolution of 2,880 × 1,600 across both eyes, like the Vive Pro and Samsung Odyssey. Several new displays aimed at future VR headsets push those figures much higher, like the Google & LG display demonstrated earlier this year, which offers 4,800 × 3,840 at 120Hz, a significant jump in the amount of data that needs to not only be generated by the GPU, but then transmitted from the GPU to the headset.

In the past Nvidia has demonstrated strong support for VR and continues deep research in the field, so we wouldn’t be surprised to learn that the company is considering the needs of future VR headsets when it comes to its next generation of GPUs.

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As for when the GTX 11-series GPUs might actually launch: various rumors suggest the cards would be announced later this Summer, but Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang told reporters in June that the launch of the company’s next-gen GeForce cards would be “a long time from now,” but hasn’t given any detail on what a ‘long time’ means to the company.

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Ben Lang
Ben is the world's most senior professional analyst solely dedicated to the XR industry, having founded Road to VR in 2011—a year before the Oculus Kickstarter sparked a resurgence that led to the modern XR landscape. He has authored more than 3,000 articles chronicling the evolution of the XR industry over more than a decade. With that unique perspective, Ben has been consistently recognized as one of the most influential voices in XR, giving keynotes and joining panel and podcast discussions at key industry events. He is a self-described "journalist and analyst, not evangelist."
  • Jim Cherry

    Nvidia future proofing with a proprietary port. Thats just what everyone wants ;) just like gpp being the transparency we were all looking for.

  • Meow Smith

    “a long time from now,” but hasn’t given any detail on what a ‘long time’ means to the company.

    It means “we want for now to the very last moment you people to keep on buying the 10xx series gfx cards to make our shareholders and boss’s happy”.

    https://wccftech.com/nvidia-launching-next-generation-graphics-cards-at-gamescom-2018/

    • LopesPIpe

      Is Nvidia not launching new GPUs due to surplus stock of the 10 series?
      http://in.pcmag.com/nvidia-1/123614/news/is-nvidia-not-launching-new-gpus-due-to-surplus-stock-of-the

      • jj

        that contradicts the increase in prices of gpus due to miners buying them all out. Why would the ti be near 1000$ a third above its original price if demands were low.

        • Les Vega

          better check the price of gpu’s again bud your info is a few months old crypto miners have all but hung up their pickaxes and cheap 10 series gpu’s are everywhere.

          • Jistuce

            Thank god!

    • HybridEnergy

      Yea …ummm….I don’t think they have a problem selling those lol. Someone hasn’t been reading the news.

    • Invertex

      It’s more so that at the event where he said that, he wasn’t there to talk about the next GPU series. He wasn’t going to answer the question and derail the discussion.

    • mirak

      Nothing really justifies new gen, like new ports or protocols for be, or even concurrency from other brands.

  • A VR Enthusiastic

    .
    .
    NVIDIA Launching Next-Generation Graphics Cards At Gamescom 2018
    .
    https://wccftech.com/nvidia-launching-next-generation-graphics-cards-at-gamescom-2018/
    .
    .
    Gamescom 2018 which starts on August 21 – a Tuesday.
    .
    Update: https://twitter.com/IanCutress/status/1013042269799309312
    Anandtech’s Ian Cutress has confirmed the event and stated that NV’s event will actually take place on the eve of Gamescom – Aug 20.
    .
    .

  • Get Schwifty!

    Hmmmm…. wonder if Nvidia is considering making a VR headset ultimately…

  • HybridEnergy

    Having a 1080 ti the 11 series would have to be a significant jump. Not spending money to get a jump of only .2 in super sampling. I need a 40% + increase in VR performance over a 1080 ti.

  • quasi_anyon

    The biggest opportunity relates to SI, so no trivial change as it must have by-in from HMD and other display vendors, not to mention the cable length.

  • psuedonymous

    I doubt it would be HDMI-based. With all the various nonplanar transport schemes being mooted (foveated rendering, segmented transport, interlacing/chequerboarding/MUSE, etc) it would make much more sense to use the packetised DisplayPort (which already explicitly supports multiple transport streams and side-channel data) rather than hacking a pixel-clock format like HDMI. Plus, DP 1.5 is currently being finalised at VESA with a new higher symbol rate (likely to result in 64Gbit/s), while HDMI 2.1 is still barely beginning rollout and mostly achieves resolution increases through stream compression and subsampling (neither suitable for VR yet).

    Plus, Nvidia are just starting to roll out G-Sync HDR monitors which are bandwidth limited. I would not be in the least bit surprised to find out the G-Sync HDR panel controller is DP 1.5 pre-final capable, and Turing/Volta consumer cards to feature DP 1.5 pre-final output capability in order to drive them without the current subsampling.

    • This make sense.

      Also HDR would be so great for VR. Woah ;o

    • silvaring

      Thanks for the really informative comment, not sure if this means anything to you but its not often you see someone in a comments section take the time to really go into details about this kind of thing and it helps for people like myself who aren’t in any dev communities. Could you please detail a bit more why you think Stream compression / subsampling via HDMI 2.1 isn’t suitable for VR yet? Also is it likely that a Volta card could include both pre-final DP 1.5 and HDMI 2.1 or is that asking too much at this stage?

      • mirak

        Because you might want to send an uncompressed stream for the fovea part and a compressed stream for the outside area, and let the headset compose it.
        HDMI doesn’t have multiple streams has he said.

    • pseudonymous I too agree with you spending the time to explain your responses is a good thing. One thing not identified in why NVIDIA would create a custom connector is ensuring cable specification to handle a 64 GHz+ bandwidth. To many cable manufacturers are barely meeting the specs as we push into 4K+ at higher refresh rates.

  • JDawg

    Theory time: maybe it’s a new transmission standard that transmits Foveated Rendering in a special format to save bandwidth on the cables.

  • Cat of Many Faces

    Finally! Now i might be able to afford a gtx1070!

  • Jistuce

    I do hope the “new port” is just the next generation DisplayPort. HDMI simply isn’t very good, and the last thing we need is another proprietary nVidia-lockin format.

  • Sandy Wich

    But will it have extra HDMI support so multi display users can use VR and their Monitor at the same time without having to plug/unplug?

    ..For how much these things fkn cost, and how popular using a tv as a monitor is becoming you think it would be standard.

  • mirak

    The risk is that Nvidia kills a technology the same way they killed hardware physics.

  • Anyone thinking Pimax ‘8K’ X here?

  • Cool! The question is: when will we see that?

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  • Amit

    Nvidia looks to the future with a proprietary port. This is exactly what people want, like GPU is the transparency we all are looking for.