updated 03:15 pm EDT, Tue September 21, 2010
NVIDIA Kepler to be 3X more efficient than Fermi
As part of its GPU Technology Conference, NVIDIA today provided a brief glimpse at its future graphics architecture, Kepler. The design will replace the Fermi core of today's GeForce 400 series and should calculate about five gigaflops of per watt, or more than three times the 1.5 gigaflops of Fermi hardware. Both the redesign as well as a shrink in the assembly process from 40 nanometers to 28 should reduce the need for extra cooling and power in notebooks and other hardware in tight spaces.
The first Kepler hardware isn't due to ship until 2011 but will already be in production by the end of 2010.
In the longer term, NVIDIA also has Maxwell, which will replace Kepler sometime in 2013. It wouldn't say which process would be used to make the future design but estimated that it would triple speeds per watt again, to about 15 gigaflops. Upgrades to Kepler are coming before Maxwell keep the architecture relevant in 2012.