NVIDIA to Discontinue GeForce GTX 16 Series in Early 2024

NVIDIA has decided to terminate the complete GeForce GTX 16 series GPU family by Q1 2024 and has notified AIBs of the decision.

NVIDIA Will Phase Out All GeForce GTX 16 GPUs by Q1 2024

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 16 series are the final remaining relics of the pre-RTX period when all GPUs were labeled with the "GTX" moniker. We haven't seen a graphics card in this series in over a year, and it was also a low-end design, the GeForce GTX 1630. However, the GeForce GTX 16 series is slated to enter the discontinuation phase in Q1 2024, which means that these GPUs will no longer be manufactured.

According to the Chinese Board Channel Forums, NVIDIA has declared plans to terminate its last GeForce GTX series. The GeForce GTX 16 GPU family contains several graphics cards, including the GTX 1660 SUPER, GTX 1660 Ti, GTX 1660, GTX 1650 Ti, GTX 1650 SUPER, and GTX 1630.

These graphics cards are quite popular in the mainstream and low-end segments since they are inexpensive and may deliver decent gaming performance in eSports titles and older games. However, these GPUs lack many technologies that have become standard in the NVIDIA GeForce ecosystem, such as Ray Tracing, DLSS, AV1, and many more.

These GPUs use the same Turing GPU architecture as the initial RTX family, the RTX 20 series, however, due to perf per dollar constraints, NVIDIA had to reduce feature support for these entry-level cards. You can enable ray tracing on these GPUs, but the performance will be subpar due to the lack of RT cores.

AIBs will continue to offer these cards until their supplies run out, and you'll be able to find some good prices on the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 16 series family at a variety of stores as well. In early 2024, NVIDIA will release a new GeForce GTX 3050 6 GB model to address the sub-$200 US market.

Nvidia Intends To Expand Its AI Development Efforts in Vietnam

Following a visit by the company's CEO, Nvidia, one of the market's top developers of artificial intelligence (AI) processors, revealed plans to expand relationships in Vietnam and establish a facility there, as per CoinTelegraph.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang stated that Vietnam is already a firm partner and home to millions of its clients, with Nvidia investing $250 million in the country. “Vietnam and Nvidia will deepen our relations, with Viettel, FPT, Vingroup, and VNG being the partners Nvidia looks to expand partnership with,” he stated.

Huang also said that Nvidia will contribute to local AI training and infrastructure. At the same event, Nguyen Chi Dzung, the Vietnamese Minister of Planning and Investment, emphasized the country's recent efforts to develop incentives and schemes to encourage investments in the AI and semiconductor industries.

According to the Vietnamese government, Nvidia intends to establish a center in the country to recruit "talent from around the world to contribute to the development of Vietnam's semiconductor ecosystem and digitalization."

This conference comes just a few months after US President Joe Biden conducted a historic visit to Vietnam, during which the two countries completed billions of dollars in economic deals and partnerships to promote the AI, semiconductor, and cloud computing industries.

During this summit, executives from major AI development companies such as Nvidia, Google, Intel, Boeing, Amkor, and Microsoft were present. Nvidia is at the center of the United States' AI manufacturing and development industry, and it has been impacted by the restrictions imposed by the United States on some foreign semiconductor chip markets.

Nonetheless, the business recorded $18 billion in revenue for the third quarter, citing generative AI as the key cause.

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