Originally Posted by
Rollo
Not necessarily.
There are scenarios where it would make perfect sense.
Selling 300mm chips for $500 is more profitable than selling 500mm chips for $500, more per wafer.
Yields of 500mm chips at current state of 28nm process might make the chips impossible to sell at a price where projected demand will make them profitable to produce.
If the imagined 500mm chip's successor is on schedule, it is a good gamble to sell only more profitable 300mm chips. If AMDs next gen is beaten by the imagined held back 500mm chip, that can be released and the successor held while its successor is worked on. Or if AMDs product beats the imagined 500mm chip, the successor can be released. Either eway, NVIDIA wins and got to sell the 300mm chip at high end prices.
Along the same lines, if the imagined 500mm chip wins next gen, they got to sell two chips for $500 or more instead of one, and push back the R&D cycle.
Could be the market doesn't want 500mm chips any longer. Since ATi introduced their "smaller, less power" business model their fans have been all over teh intarebz yelling about how "smaller, less power" is the "way to go". Maybe that, coupled with good cypress/barts sales, and market research has convinced NVIDIA to change focus.
Last but not least, if the product product line is all based on smaller chips thaat beat your competitor, more profit.
I'd say I can come up with a lot of reasons a "done" product should not be released.
And of course it could be all along the GK104 was designed to be this gens "high end chip", we'll never know. Fortunately it gives us a level of performance and features that are worth buying.