Why now? Why? Are they just getting rid of lower binned dies?

@Chomiq
Not sure about “lower binned”, I feel like this gen barely anyone did any binning, ultra-special case of the Matrix aside, but might be the case that Palit had more AD103s than they expected still lying around and this is them attempting to turn those into at least SOME sales.

Well maybe other brands has got rid of their stock for Xmas, good opportunity for galax to fill the void since production has stopped two months ago… I guess it’s to target the customers who aren’t fussed about the newer upcoming gpus as long as they are getting a powerful card

y/A/w/N......

New cards can be released up to 4 or more years after a generation is released. New cards on the previous generation can be released even after a new generation has been released. Don't read too much into it.

I thought 4k series was retired till 5k comes out? Guess not? Engineers needed something to do in the meantime...

DavenNew cards can be released up to 4 or more years after a generation is released. New cards on the previous generation can be released even after a new generation has been released. Don't read too much into it.

That's true for lower tier cards, but I don't remember that happening with high-end, it usually gets discontinued as the new generation arrives because the new lower tier performs as well and is cheaper to produce. And in fact, there were reports in late Q3 / early Q4 that 4090s and 4080 die production was discontinued, so they may just be launching a cheaper model to clear out excess stocks of chips more easily, which means that it will be rather short-lived.

Clearing out old stock with a new facelift, that's all.

Hopefully AMD pulls their balls together this round, could use a little competition on the pricing side.

Old cards can be released years later...

Biostar unveils white edition Radeon RX 580 2048SP, six years after original launch - VideoCardz.com
RX580 2048SP launched Oct 2018. Biostar releases this card on Sep 13, 2024

MSI introduces GeForce RTX 3050 Ventus 2X XS in white - VideoCardz.com
Geforce 3050 launched January 2022. MSI releases this card on Nov 13, 2024

Again don't read too much into old cards being released years later. It happens. It's not special.

Edit: Here is another one.
ASUS introduces low-profile GeForce RTX 3050 BRK series - VideoCardz.com
Again years after release.

Really, releasing a new card based on something that will be out of sale in a few months. I can all ready see rtx 4090 is out sold many places all ready.

Makes very little sense in my opinion.

DavenOld cards can be released years later...

Biostar unveils white edition Radeon RX 580 2048SP, six years after original launch - VideoCardz.com
RX580 2048SP launched Oct 2018. Biostar releases this card on Sep 13, 2024

MSI introduces GeForce RTX 3050 Ventus 2X XS in white - VideoCardz.com
Geforce 3050 launched January 2022. MSI releases this card on Nov 13, 2024

Again don't read too much into old cards being released years later. It happens. It's not special.

Edit: Here is another one.
ASUS introduces low-profile GeForce RTX 3050 BRK series - VideoCardz.com
Again years after release.

It seems that either the RX 580 was massively overproduced, or the chips are being recycled, or that chip has remained very cheap to produce.

For the 3050 it's not comparable, it's always been a low tier GPU and is still in NVIDIA's line-up without a successor to take its place. It's the same with the 710, 730 and 1030 which occupy the $50 to $120 segments. It's not the same with the high tiers. You won't find a new 3070, 3080 or 3090 models being released today for instance. A new 4080 model today can only mean a cost optimization to clear out inventory of chips before the new generation, which won't have a long shelf life.

TomgangMakes very little sense in my opinion.

As mentioned above, it's most likely that they have inventory of 4080 Super chips to clear out, and it's easier to clear it out with a cheaper model, which is exactly what this is. They're not going to be trying to clear it out with designs that have $200 markups from more expensive heatsinks, shrouds, fans, backplates and RGB, when the next generation is around the corner. Especially if they end up having to sell them at a loss (but less of a loss than outright throwing the chips away).

TomgangReally, releasing a new card based on something that will be out of sale in a few months. I can all ready see rtx 4090 is out sold many places all ready.

Makes very little sense in my opinion.

"New" card means they can market said card as "new" and potentially generate more interest/sales than baking the remaining stock into existing models that apparently no one cares about anymore. Makes enough sense to me.

Creating a new variant at this point in time while not adjusting price by much, is to me, just well, silly.
If they really wanted to clear stock fast enough in order for the RTX5000 series to take over, they would have discounted RTX3000/4000 GPU's for very good prices during this festive season.

ChomiqWhy now? Why? Are they just getting rid of lower binned dies?

AD103 sold abysmally. Far too expensive for far too much of its shelf-life.

Rich gamers with no budgetary constraint just bought a 4090 and the 4080 at $1200-1300 was a complete joke for most people because it was more than twice the price of a 4070 and nowhere near twice the performance. If you couldn't afford a 4090 then you cared about value, and the 4080 was one of the worst-value GPUs in living memory. It's been cut down far too much from the 4090 to be of interest to compute/AI/simulation/rendering productivity loads, and it's far too expensive for any gamer who isn't dealing with an effectively unlimited budget. Just get a card that's 40% the price and offers most of the performance.

Even though the 4080S is $200 cheaper on paper than the original 4080, it's even worse relative value because in the real world, 4080S models start from the same $1200-ish of a 4080, and you can get 80% of that performance from a $575 4070S. In relative terms, the 4080S is even worse value than they godawful price/$ of the original 4080.

So yeah, partners have ridiculous stocks of unsold AD103 and they're finally trying to shift it all over Christmas before it gets massively devalued by the 50-series launch.