But Igor's Lab claims that the new GPUs only have a built-in comparator for fans, which will have little effect on bill-of-materials (BOM) AIB costs.

For those who came in late, Nvidia's AD103-300 (used for GeForce RTX 4080) and AD104-250 (used for GeForce RTX 4070 and RTX 4070 Ti) graphics processing units require makers of graphics cards to add a comparator circuit to make sure the fans spin at the right speed. It does this by comparing fans PWM signal with actual values.

Igor's Lab said the new AD104-251 and AD103-301 integrate the comparator into the GPU, which means that AIBs no longer need to carry external comparator circuitry.

Comparator circuitry is cheap as chips so removing it will not change the graphics cards’ costs significantly. Board makers will make a tiny saving but will probably trouser the money saved.

Nvidia has not disclosed differences between its AD103-251 and AD104-301 or its AD103-250 and AD104-300 GPUs. The integrated comparator may not be the only change, it is just the only one spotted by Igor. It looks like the newer chips offer the same performance.