Wednesday, September 21st 2022
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ICYMI, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 12GB Uses 192-bit Memory Bus
Amid the fog of rapid announcements and AIC graphics card launches, this little, interesting detail might have missed you, but the new GeForce RTX 4080 12 GB graphics card announced yesterday; features a memory bus-width of just 192-bit, which is half that of the RTX 3080 12 GB (384-bit). The card uses 21 Gbps GDDR6X memory, which at 192-bit bus-width, works out to just 504 GB/s bandwidth. In comparison, the RTX 3080 12 GB uses 19 Gbps GDDR6X memory, which at 384-bit bus width, produces 912 GB/s. In fact, even the original RTX 3080 with 10 GB of GDDR6X memory across a 320-bit bus, has 760 GB/s on tap.
The bigger RTX 4080 16 GB variant uses 256-bit memory bus, but faster 23 Gbps GDDR6X memory, producing 736 GB/s of memory bandwidth, which again, is less than that of the original 10 GB RTX 3080. It's only the RTX 4090 that has an unchanged amount of memory bandwidth over the previous generation—1008 GB/s, which is identical to that of the RTX 3090 Ti, and a tad higher than the 936 GB/s of the RTX 3090 (non-Ti). Of course, memory bandwidth is no way to compare the RTX 40-series from its predecessors, there are a dozen other factors that weigh into performance, and what matters is you're getting generationally more memory amounts with the RTX 4080-series. The RTX 4080 12 GB offers 20% more memory than the RTX 3080, and the RTX 4080 16 GB offers 33% more than the RTX 3080 12 GB. NVIDIA tends to deliver significant performance gains with each new generation, and we expect this to hold up.
The bigger RTX 4080 16 GB variant uses 256-bit memory bus, but faster 23 Gbps GDDR6X memory, producing 736 GB/s of memory bandwidth, which again, is less than that of the original 10 GB RTX 3080. It's only the RTX 4090 that has an unchanged amount of memory bandwidth over the previous generation—1008 GB/s, which is identical to that of the RTX 3090 Ti, and a tad higher than the 936 GB/s of the RTX 3090 (non-Ti). Of course, memory bandwidth is no way to compare the RTX 40-series from its predecessors, there are a dozen other factors that weigh into performance, and what matters is you're getting generationally more memory amounts with the RTX 4080-series. The RTX 4080 12 GB offers 20% more memory than the RTX 3080, and the RTX 4080 16 GB offers 33% more than the RTX 3080 12 GB. NVIDIA tends to deliver significant performance gains with each new generation, and we expect this to hold up.
81 Comments on ICYMI, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 12GB Uses 192-bit Memory Bus
Example: you need at least an 850 W PSU to run RTX 4090.
Anyway, 2 kinds of 4080 so low.
NV will go in flames for that, and for good reasons.
can't say I'm a fan of multiple 4080's with different configurations though.
They're clearly testing brand loyalty here. it's up to consumers to decide if nvidia was right or not.
I for one don't see any need to buy a GPU that is faster than a 3090. There's simply no software that demands it.
Game development is still sticking to cross-gen titles due to console shortage. Everything is still just PS4-era games with RT glitter on top at best, and the top-end 2020 cards run through those at 4k120 with ease (considering the widespread of temporal solutions like FSR2 and DLSS2).
I really hope the reason the marketing so far has been focused on DLSS is because DLSS reduces the requirements on the memory bus, and they found a way to cut costs and only lose performance in non-nvidia sponsored engines...
Also 1060 3GB and 5GB cards already happened back then. One with cutdown cores and the other cut down memory bus compare the the 6GB.
All those sold like hot cakes. The 4080 12GB is just a combination of both, a logical step for Jensen.
Maybe Nvidia assumed higher clockrate GDDR6X would exist by now and they're stuck with a lower bitrate bus that assumed higher clocked VRAM would compensate?
They've probably got a 40x0 super lineup ready and waiting when that VRAM comes out...
More just purely, if it has less shaders and less memory bandwidth, if it can equal performance vs a 384-bit GDDR6X subsystem, then that's certainly something
Just... please don't make us pay more, for less. Please.
64-128-256-512
or
96-192-384
The chip is designed from the start for one of the variants.
:kookoo:
But waiting for full 4080 reviews should coincide with RDNA3 and I can choose based on something less... Insane.
I know the older titles should pretty much run well even on older cards, but that's not always the case.
You can bog down any card with just 11 year old Skyrim and high enough textures and mods.
And of course VR. On titles like DCS. No DLSS to help you, you need raw power and lots of memory to push high resolution of HP Reverb G2 or Valve Index in DCS and other sims that don't change their graphics engines often.