Friday, October 14th 2022
NVIDIA Cancels GeForce RTX 4080 12GB, To Relaunch it With a Different Name
NVIDIA has decided to cancel the November 2022 launch of the GeForce RTX 4080 12 GB. The company will relaunch the card under a different name, though it didn't announce the replacement name just yet. The naming of the RTX 4080 12 GB was cause for much controversy. With the RTX 40-series "Ada," NVIDIA debuted three SKUs—the already launched RTX 4090 which is in stores right now; the RTX 4080 16 GB, and the RTX 4080 12 GB. Memory size notwithstanding, the RTX 4080 12 GB is a vastly different graphics card from the RTX 4080 16 GB.
The RTX 4080 12 GB and RTX 4080 16 GB didn't even share the same silicon. While the 16 GB model is based on the larger "AD103" silicon, has 9,728 CUDA cores, and a 256-bit wide GDDR6X memory bus; the RTX 4080 12 GB is based on the smaller "AD104" silicon, has just 7,680 CUDA cores (21% fewer CUDA cores); and a meager 192-bit wide GDDR6X memory bus. This had the potential to confuse buyers, especially given the $900 price. With criticism spanning not just social media but also bad press, NVIDIA decided to pull the plug on the RTX 4080 12 GB. The company will likely re-brand it as a successor to the RTX 3070 Ti, although then it will have a hard time justifying its $900 price-tag. The RTX 4080 16 GB, however, is on track for a November 16 availability date, with a baseline price of $1,200.
Source:
NVIDIA
The RTX 4080 12 GB and RTX 4080 16 GB didn't even share the same silicon. While the 16 GB model is based on the larger "AD103" silicon, has 9,728 CUDA cores, and a 256-bit wide GDDR6X memory bus; the RTX 4080 12 GB is based on the smaller "AD104" silicon, has just 7,680 CUDA cores (21% fewer CUDA cores); and a meager 192-bit wide GDDR6X memory bus. This had the potential to confuse buyers, especially given the $900 price. With criticism spanning not just social media but also bad press, NVIDIA decided to pull the plug on the RTX 4080 12 GB. The company will likely re-brand it as a successor to the RTX 3070 Ti, although then it will have a hard time justifying its $900 price-tag. The RTX 4080 16 GB, however, is on track for a November 16 availability date, with a baseline price of $1,200.
423 Comments on NVIDIA Cancels GeForce RTX 4080 12GB, To Relaunch it With a Different Name
This shows how much Nvidia are taking the piss. You can see the marketing boardroom with folk giggling about what they were going to release. They knew it was a 4070 in spec but thought, "hey, let's just try and pretend its another 4080 model, even though it's way inferior."
I don't normally get annoyed at Nvidia (up until now) - they are after all a business with shareholders but when they pull this sort of shit, it's just a symptom of a disconnect with consumer reality.
Those can come next year when AMD gpus are available, 3000 series are depleted and they will have to rescale prices anyway, so they also avoid the embarassment of launching a 70 class card at $900
How about, the 4070!!
Jokes aside, my guess is that they'll end up calling it the 4070 Super or Ti (12GB) above a vanilla 4070 (8GB).
This really makes their marketing department look clueless.
Perhaps now it will be a 4070 after all, but they're going to have to explain why it's $900 instead of $500. If I had to guess, the explanation from Nvidia will be "F*CK YOU ALL, GIVE US YOUR MONEY" :)
They really are fucking idiots.... I can't shake that feeling that RT was the trigger for all this bull. Forget inflation, war, shortages or mining. They invested heavily on something that, like many recent tech developments, is way too expensive for normality, and inspired primarily by greed by creating a new artificial problem for GPUs to solve on the fly.
I mean the marketing strategy supports it, the way it was launched supports it, the overall respect to gamers and game content supports it, and the specs of every gen in succession support it, along with their pricing. Things get ugly fast.
Now get you renamed 4080-12GB at the same cost and feel much better about it...
Remind me of good old Rage Against the Machine - killing in the name of :rockout:
Rock on, bitches
They can do a 4070 super ti with 4080 dies later on depending how the market evolves (availability, competition, 5000 series timing, etc..)
So many 4080-12GB carton boxes with wrong letters on it in a snap.
What a shitstorm.
also, current stock pricing is inflated because of shops trying to capitalize on fomo
What they should do is call the 4080 12 GB the 4060, the 16 GB the 4070, release the real 4080 with 16 or 20 GB in between the current 4080 16 GB and the 4090. Price the new 4080 at $900 max, the 4070 at 700 and the 4060 at 500. That would be a strong offense against the Radeon onslaught that’s coming.