It appears that the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1160, 1170, and 1180 release date is sooner than you might think. According to emails from the company to its partners (via WCCFtech) there will be four GPUs from Nvidia released between August to October. Three of them will be the aforementioned Nvidia GeForce GTX 1160, 1170, and 1180, while the fourth appears to be an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1180+. As per the report, all four GPUs will be for desktop PCs first, which is at odds with other speculation that Nvidia may push laptop variants to begin with. They will be available in reference and custom designs.
Interestingly, the email also confirms that Nvidia was overstocked with 10-series GPUs. Furthermore, board partners are still making the transition from manufacturing GeForce 10-series to the new 11-series chips. If true, you can expect a price drop on the Nvidia 10-series range in the run up to the launch.
The lack of new GPUs from Nvidia coupled with a slowdown in Bitcoin mining is hurting Nvidia's partners. According to the latest earnings report from Gigabyte - a Taiwanese motherboard and graphics card manufacturer has seen a slump in earnings thanks to weaker than expected GPU demand. According to recent estimates, Gigabyte's GPU earnings have halved, if not more. This has resulted it being down by $6 million (approximately Rs. 41 crore and 9 lacs)in the second quarter of the year from $10 million (around Rs. 68 crore and 49 lacs)in the first quarter, with its non-GPU interests holding steady as usual.
Should You Buy an Nvidia 10-Series GPU Right Now?
"As Gigabyte's non-GPU business is less volatile and accounted for 49 percent of total revenue in Q1 and, investors should be able to conclude that graphics card revenue dropped to the tune of 50 percent plus from Q1 to Q2," observes Seeking Alpha which goes on to suggest that weak Bitcoin mining and gaming demand has hit the company hard.
With the likes of MSI slated to release their quarterly earnings this week, Gigabyte is the first to reveal how badly the lack of new product from Nvidia has hit its ecosystem of partners. June 2018 was the weakest revenue month for Gigabyte since December 2016.
If you're a fan of video games, check out Transition, Gadgets 360's gaming podcast. You can listen to it via Apple Podcasts or RSS, or just listen to this week's episode by hitting the play button below.
For details of the latest launches and news from Samsung, Xiaomi, Realme, OnePlus, Oppo and other companies at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, visit our MWC 2025 hub.