NVIDIA may very well be preparing their Maxwell based GM204 GPU as spotted in a leak posted by Videocardz. The leak which shows shipment data from Zauba.com (via 3DCenter) lists several GPUs along with their naming codes which means that NVIDIA may be currently testing their next generation graphics processing units.

NVIDIA Maxwell GM204 GPU Spotted In The Wild, Kepler GK210 In Works

The first chip spotted is the GM204 GPU which is based on NVIDIA's Maxwell architecture. How do we know if its based on Maxwell architecture? Simple, the naming scheme and the 'M' moniker which is used to represent the specific architecture of the chip is used for the Maxwell generation of GPUs, e.g. GM107 (GeForce Maxwell), GK 104 (GeForce Kepler, GF104 (GeForce Fermi). The chip is codenamed GM204-GB3-256 which is pretty interesting since it brings up some speculation, the 256 at the end could mean a 256-bit bus interface which might seem true since NVIDIA's GM204 predecessor, the GK104 featured a 256-bit bus or it could just be one of those odd naming schemes (GK104-225-A2).

It is not confirmed what process would the GeForce Maxwell GM204 GPU would be based on but if the card is planned for launch in early 2H 2014 then we will be looking at a 28nm architecture otherwise we will most likely see 20nm Maxwell GPUs. We recently reported how AMD is going to stick with 28nm across their products this year so they same may be true for NVIDIA. Both companies can wait and perfect their 20nm GPUs for launch next year. The new Maxwell cards would be released as the GeForce 800 series as reported several times before since the GeForce 700 series is over crowded with several GK110 chips. The first two GPUs, presumably the GTX 880 and GTX 870 could both be based on the GM204 GPU but that remains to be seen until officially confirmed. NVIDIA did release their first GeForce Kepler cards on the GM104 architecture and only launched their higher performance GK110 a year later as the GeForce GTX Titan and now we have a lineup that has several GK110 cards.

Their are three chips which NVIDIA plans to launch with their Maxwell architecture (note that not all of these would be launched during the same time and we will see variation in launch):

NVIDIA GM200 (Maxwell Architecture, High-Performance for Telsa/Quadro Arrives later for Cosnumers, Successor of GK110)

(Maxwell Architecture, High-Performance for Telsa/Quadro Arrives later for Cosnumers, Successor of GK110) NVIDIA GM204 (Maxwell Architecture, High-End Consumer, Successor of GK104, First GeForce 800 Series Products likely to feature)

(Maxwell Architecture, High-End Consumer, Successor of GK104, First GeForce 800 Series Products likely to feature) NVIDIA GM206 (Maxwell Architecture, Performance Minded, Successor of GK206, Mid-Range GeForce 800 Series products to feature)

(Maxwell Architecture, Performance Minded, Successor of GK206, Mid-Range GeForce 800 Series products to feature) NVIDIA GM107/207 (Maxwell Architecture, Entry Level, Successor of GK107, Entry Level GeForce 800/700 Series To feature, Already introduced on GTX 750 Ti / GTX 750)

The other chip which has been spotted is the GK210 and codenamed as the GK210-INT5156-A1 ,GK210-885-A1, GK210-CS1-A1. There are no details on this chip but Videocardz mentions that this chip could end up in the upcoming GeForce GTX Titan Z or the Quadro-Z / Tesla-Z products which could be Dual-GK110 variants aimed for the professional market. NVIDIA has also used such branding schemes on their existing products as they called the Tesla K40 chip as the GK180 "GeForce Atlas" whereas it was just a better binned GK110. So it could be the same thing since NVIDIA is done with GeForce Kepler and they are making nothing new when it comes to GPUs for the Kepler generation, cards are another thing.