NVIDIA has officially confirmed that it is unlaunching the GeForce RTX 4080 12 GB graphics card while the 16 GB variant is on track for a November launch.
NVIDIA Cancels GeForce RTX 4080 12 GB Graphics Card, RTX 4080 16 GB On Track For November Launch
While the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 graphics card has seen positive reviews from across the tech community, there was a lot of controversy regarding the GeForce RTX 4080 16 GB and the 12 GB models. The controversies stemmed from the fact that the RTX 4080 16 GB was priced at $1199 US while the RTX 4080 12 GB has priced at $899 US and the price-to-performance ratio between the 2 cards was simply out of line. In recent benchmarks, NVIDIA showed that the RTX 4080 16 GB was up to 30% faster than the RTX 4080 12 GB.
The RTX 4080 12GB is a fantastic graphics card, but it’s not named right. Having two GPUs with the 4080 designation is confusing.
So, we’re pressing the “unlaunch” button on the 4080 12GB. The RTX 4080 16GB is amazing and on track to delight gamers everywhere on November 16th.
If the lines around the block and enthusiasm for the 4090 is any indication, the reception for the 4080 will be awesome.
To sum things up based on the official benchmarks:
- RTX 4090 vs RTX 4080 16 GB at Native 4K = 50% Faster
- RTX 4080 16 GB vs RTX 4080 12 GB at Native 4K = 28% Faster
- RTX 4080 12 GB vs RTX 3090 Ti at Native 4K = 11% Slower
As you can see, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 and RTX 4080 16 GB are the only two cards that are fairly ahead of the RTX 3090 Ti, the Ampere flagship.
The RTX 4080 12 GB was around 11% slower yet NVIDIA priced the model at $899 US which is a very bad value considering the RTX 3090 and 3090 Ti can be found for around $800-$1000 US in the retail market and much lower than that in the 2nd hand used marketplace. NVIDIA may have thought that by using RT and DLSS figures, they could've shown a better performance positioning for the card but that didn't work out well, and hence, we are now seeing the official cancellation of the 12 GB RTX 4080 graphics card.
I don't know what to think of the whole Ada '80' segment now.
🟢RTX 4080 16GB= 33% higher MSRP vs 3080 12 GB
🟢RTX 4080 16GB= 71% higher MSRP vs 3080 10 GBGTX 680 - $499
GTX 780 - $549
GTX 980 - $549
GTX 1080 - $599
RTX 2080 - $699
RTX 3080 - $699
RTX 4080 - $1199— Hassan Mujtaba (@hms1193) October 14, 2022
The cancellation of the RTX 4080 12 GB also means that now we will see the biggest price hike for a "80" class GPU ever in more than a decade. Since the launch of the GTX 680, NVIDIA's 80-class price has seen a maximum 40% hike to $699 US (RTX 2080 & RTX 3080). With the RTX 4080 16 GB, the price is bumped up by an insane 71% in a single generation. So it will be hard to recommend a 80-class graphics card and that too a Non-Ti part for such a high price.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 16 GB 'Official' Specifications
The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 16 GB graphics card is expected to utilize a cut-down AD103-300 GPU configuration with 9,728 cores or 76 SMs enabled of the total 84 units whereas the previous configuration offered 80 SMs or 10,240 cores. While the full GPU comes packed with 64 MB of L2 cache and up to 224 ROPs, the RTX 4080 might end up with 48 MB of L2 cache and lower ROPs too due to its cut-down design. The card is expected to be based on the PG136/139-SKU360 PCB. The graphics card is said to offer a peak clock rate of 2505 MHz.
As for memory specs, the GeForce RTX 4080 is expected to rock 16 GB GDDR6X capacities that are said to be adjusted at 22.5 Gbps speeds across a 256-bit bus interface. This will provide up to 720 GB/s of bandwidth. This is still a tad bit slower than the 760 GB/s bandwidth offered by the RTX 3080 since it comes with a 320-bit interface but a lowly 10 GB capacity. To compensate for the lower bandwidth, NVIDIA could be integrating a next-gen memory compression suite to make up for the 256-bit interface.
- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 16 GB "Official" TBP - 320W
- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB "Official" TBP - 350W
For power, the TBP is now set to be rated at 340W, a 20W increase from the previous 320W spec that we got. This brings the TBP to the same ballpark as the existing RTX 3080 graphics card (up to 350W). The maximum BIOS TGP is said to be rated at 516W. Now it is not known whether the other RTX 40 series graphics cards will also be getting the faster GDDR6X memory treatment but we know that Micron has commenced full mass production of up to 24 Gbps GDDR6X memory modules so they have to go somewhere.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 12 GB 'Official' Specifications (Now Cancelled)
The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 will also feature a 12 GB variant that is expected to utilize the AD104-400 GPU configuration with 7,680 cores or 60 SMs enabled which is the full-fat SKU. The GPU will be packing 48 MB of L2 cache and features a 192-bit bus interface so that's why we are getting up to 12 GB of GDDR6X capacities. The memory is said to be running at 21 Gbps speeds for a memory bandwidth of 504 GB/s. The card is said to be clocked at a 2610 MHz boost clock however the peak frequency will be higher.
- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 12 GB "Official" TBP - 285W
- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 10 GB "Official" TBP - 320W
For power, the TBP is now set to be rated at 285W which is a 35W decrease versus the RTX 3080 10 GB model. The card is expected to offer better performance than the RTX 3080 but given the specs cut over the 4080 16 GB, there will be a big gap between both models. The maximum BIOS TGP is said to be rated at 366W.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 40 Series Official Specs:
| Graphics Card Name | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 D | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Ti | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GPU Name | Ada Lovelace AD102-300 | Ada Lovelace AD102-250 | Ada Lovelace AD103-300 | Ada Lovelace AD104-400 | Ada Lovelace AD104-250 | Ada Lovelace AD106-350 | Ada Lovelace AD107-400 |
| Process Node | TSMC 4N | TSMC 4N | TSMC 4N | TSMC 4N | TSMC 4N | TSMC 4N | TSMC 4N |
| Die Size | 608mm2 | 608mm2 | 378.6mm2 | 294.5mm2 | 294.5mm2 | 190.0mm2 | 146.0mm2 |
| Transistors | 76 Billion | 76 Billion | 45.9 Billion | 35.8 Billion | 35.8 Billion | 22.9 Billion | TBD |
| CUDA Cores | 16384 | 14592 | 9728 | 7680 | 5888 | 4352 | 3072 |
| TMUs / ROPs | 512 / 176 | TBD | 320 / 112 | 240 / 80 | 184 / 64 | 136 / 48 | TBD |
| Tensor / RT Cores | 512 / 128 | 456 / 128 | 304 / 76 | 240 / 60 | 184 / 46 | 136 / 34 | TBD |
| L2 Cache | 72 MB | 72 MB | 64 MB | 48 MB | 36 MB | 32 MB | 24 MB |
| Base Clock | 2230 MHz | 2280 MHz | 2210 MHz | 2310 MHz | 1920 MHz | 2310 MHz | 1830 MHz |
| Boost Clock | 2520 MHz | 2520 MHz | 2510 MHz | 2610 MHz | 2475 MHz | 2535 MHz | 2460 MHz |
| FP32 Compute | 83 TFLOPs | TBD | 49 TFLOPs | 40 TFLOPs | 29 TFLOPs | 22 TFLOPs | 15 TFLOPs |
| RT TFLOPs | 191 TFLOPs | TBD | 113 TFLOPs | 82 TFLOPs | 67 TFLOPs | 51 TFLOPs | 35 TFLOPs |
| Tensor-TOPs | 1321 TOPs | TBD | 780 TOPs | 641 TOPs | 466 TOPs | 353 TOPs | 242 TOPs |
| Memory Capacity | 24 GB GDDR6X | 24 GB GDDR6X | 16 GB GDDR6X | 12 GB GDDR6X | 12 GB GDDR6X | 8-16 GB GDDR6 | 8 GB GDDR6 |
| Memory Bus | 384-bit | 384-bit | 256-bit | 192-bit | 192-bit | 128-bit | 128-bit |
| Memory Speed | 21.0 Gbps | 21.0 Gbps | 23.0 Gbps | 21.0 Gbps | 21.0 Gbps | 18.0 Gbps | 17.0 Gbps |
| Bandwidth | 1008 GB/s | 1008 GB/s | 736 GB/s | 504 GB/s | 504 GB/s | 288 GB/s (554 GB/s Effective) | 272 GB/s (453 GB/s Effective) |
| TBP | 450W | 425W | 320W | 285W | 200W | 160-165W | 115W |
| Price (MSRP / FE) | $1599 US / 1949 EU | 12,999 RMB (China-Only) | $1199 US / 1469 EU | $799 US | $599 US | $399-$499 US | $299 US |
| Price (Current) | $1599 US / 1859 EU | 12,999 RMB (China-Only) | $1199 US / 1399 EU | $799 US | $599 US | $399-$499 US | $299 US |
| Launch (Availability) | 12th October 2022 | 28th December 2023 | 16th November 2022 | 5th January 2023 | 13th April 2023 | 24th May / 18th July 2023 | 29th June 2023 |
As per the older schedule, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 16 GB and TX 4080 12 GB were supposed to launch in November but it looks like only the 16 GB model will be available on 16th November & the RTX 4080 12 GB might relaunch as a different card, under a different name, sometime later.
