Yes, rumor has it that the RTX 4000 consumer series (codename Lovelace) will be produced by TSMC on a 5nm mode. The RTX 4000 is once again supposed to become a monolithic design while AMD is supposed to apply their chiplet design from the Ryzen CPUs to the Radeon RX 7000 series.
It will be the first consumer multicore GPU if that is the case (ignoring pseudo multicore as in cards that had two chips on the same PCB, connected via bridges back some years ago).
It will be quite interesting to see who comes out on top next generation. Will AMD get the inherent between-chips-latencies and other multicore challenges (scheduling of tasks etc.) under control right from the start?
nVidia, btw, has also been working on multicore designs for years and the professional RTX 4000 cards (codename Hopper) might be the first to use it but consumer multicore on nVidia cards is not expected to happen before the RTX 5000 series.
The performance increase for both, AMD and nVidia, is expected to be very substantial. If that turns out to be true, it will be even harder to get a RTX 4000 card.
As for why I'm upgrading, well, I'm a techie nerd and a SINK (singe income no kids) so why not?
Quirks and all but I enjoy new tech like ray-tracing, DLSS and I have a 4K@144Hz screen now (huge 43" one). I'm a self-confessing graphics whore and I also enjoy sims like DCS World or MSFS which can never have enough horse power.
The days where we get a fully new GPU generation in the same year or maybe after 12 - 18 months seem to be over. It's always more like 20 - 27 months now.
You can get decent money for your old card on eBay so an upgrade to the next gen is quite affordable (before CoVid and crypto madness at least).
I have no problem spending that kind of cash on my hobby every two years or so. My only other hobbies are the gym and running/biking which are pretty low maintenance in financial terms (my gym is €19.99/month).
