Oddball MSI GeForce RTX 3080 with 20GB (320-bit) Memory Sells in China for Under $600

[btarunr]

With NVIDIA cracking the whip on the supply chain to pave the way for the next-generation RTX 40-series, we're seeing some very oddball graphics card hit the market as official/retail products. One such card in China is the MSI GeForce RTX 3080 Ventus 3X with 20 GB of memory. The card is neither based on the GA102-200 ASIC powering the original RTX 3080 with 10 GB of memory, nor is it based on the GA102-220 powering the RTX 3080 12 GB, but rather the "GA102-250," or at least the board description sticker says so. The card features 20 GB of memory across a 320-bit wid memory bus. Its core-config remains unknown.

The SKU positioned above the RTX 3080 12 GB, the RTX 3080 Ti, is powered by the GA102-225. VideoCardz discovered that the card lacks the LHR hardware-limitation for blockchain hashrates, which could be evidence that MSI had a special stock of graphics cards that it was directly selling to miners even while LHR-enabled cards were being pushed to the retail market. The card yields a hash-rate of 97.48 MH/s in the ETHASH test, proving the lack of the LHR block. The card also features display connectors. The leaker behind pictures of this card says that there may be as many as a 100 of these cards in circulation, priced around RMB 3xxx (USD $432 to $600).



View at TechPowerUp Main Site | Source

 

[Shou Miko]

A lot of 20GB variants was planned worldwide until Nvidia pulled the plug but even than some was leaked to the market in like Russa from what I know and now China too maybe it's a start for a card that was suppose to be that didn't got to be.

 

[bonehead123]

$432 to $600

Really nice prices for a card with these specs, but are the spywarez/loggers/backdoors included, or are those "features" extra, hahahah

 

[lexluthermiester]

One such card in China is the MSI GeForce RTX 3080 Ventus 3X with 20 GB of memory.

WTAF MSI? North America and the EU are your primary markets, while no love for us? Eh? Jerks..

 

[TheDeeGee]

How do you even obtain it with entire China always in lockdown 24/7.

 

[wolf]

my 3080 has 10240MB, double would be 20480MB , this shows 20196MB? hmmmm

 

[Jeager]

Loving these "ninja" pictures where the first bench is always related to mining

 

[R-T-B]

Really nice prices for a card with these specs, but are the spywarez/loggers/backdoors included, or are those "features" extra, hahahah

There isn't really any spyware in modern gpu drivers. Telemetry at worst.

Loving these "ninja" pictures where the first bench is always related to mining

The genie is out of the bottle there man.

 

[N3utro]

Wait that ETH goes to pos soon and 600$ for this will look like a bad joke

 

[Vayra86]

my 3080 has 10240MB, double would be 20480MB , this shows 20196MB? hmmmm

Its rounded down, duh.

Totally legit!

 

[Assimilator]

A lot fishy about this... there's zero need for different GPU silicon if all that's happening is the memory being doubled, and "GA102-250" is a higher model number than the GA102-225 used in the 3080 Ti which would imply a faster SKU, which obviously makes no sense. I'm calling BS until I see a GPU-Z screenshot.

 

[mahoney]

They sold them directly to miners that's why they were nowhere to be seen. Kopite posted leaks about this gpu in 2020 but they never came out so everyone thought the leaks were bs.
Celsius a crypto lending company that went bankrupt a few months ago apparently had close to 100k mining rigs in their inventory. Now imagine 1000s of these mining farms all over the world.

 

[R-T-B]

A lot fishy about this... there's zero need for different GPU silicon

Almost none of the GA102s are different silicon. They are just laser disabled in different configs.

 

[timta2]

How do you even obtain it with entire China always in lockdown 24/7.

Your comment makes it obvious that you need to do a better job at keeping up with current events and what's going on in the world.

 

[watzupken]

This would sell like hot cakes if they were released a year back. Now, I am not sure if people will still want to pay for cards that will be obsolete in another few months. Its got more VRAM for sure, but frankly speaking, most will be hard pressed to notice any difference between a 12GB vs 20GB version of the RTX 3080.

 

[W1zzard]

A lot fishy about this... there's zero need for different GPU silicon if all that's happening is the memory being doubled, and "GA102-250" is a higher model number than the GA102-225 used in the 3080 Ti which would imply a faster SKU, which obviously makes no sense. I'm calling BS until I see a GPU-Z screenshot.

MSI sticker looks as good as it gets

 

[StormLightningSL]

Where do I get one of these for $450? I want!

 

[Mussels]

So, partially faulty 3090s with a memory chip or two removed

 

[lexluthermiester]

So, partially faulty 3090s with a memory chip or two removed

That seems about right.

 

[Assimilator]

Almost none of the GA102s are different silicon. They are just laser disabled in different configs.

Yeah, I don't know what to call them... different versions? But that isn't really germane to my point that "GA102-250" makes zero sense in a product stack where higher-number versions indicate GPUs with higher capabilities. Going by the known GA102 versions, that would put it between a 3080 Ti (-225) but below 3090 (-300), which makes zero sense.

MSI sticker looks as good as it gets

Welcome to PRC, where anything that can be faked - including for clicks - will be.

So, partially faulty 3090s with a memory chip or two removed

That would make "GA102-250" believable, but then why market it as a 3080?

 

[defaultluser]

A lot of 20GB variants was planned worldwide until Nvidia pulled the plug but even than some was leaked to the market in like Russa from what I know and now China too maybe it's a start for a card that was suppose to be that didn't got to be.

well, the 16 Gigabit GDDR6X density chips took too long to become available, so these were waiting a long time!

now, its just clearance time for all these boards

 

[Dr. Dro]

my 3080 has 10240MB, double would be 20480MB , this shows 20196MB? hmmmm

Amount of available dedicated memory is always smaller than the absolute maximum capacity due to hardware reserved memory. For example, RTX 3090 has 24576 MB of memory, but dedicated video memory capacity is reported as 24348 MB when queried by software.

You will find that with your 3080, it should be just north of 10000 MB, or possible in the high 9900's depending on config.

 

[thegnome]

This might as well be a regular 3080 with some fake stuff for clicks.. Not very interesting unless it was a real prototype...

 

[jigar2speed]

Mining took so many good things away from gamers.

 

[W1zzard]

Amount of available dedicated memory is always smaller than the absolute maximum capacity due to hardware reserved memory. For example, RTX 3090 has 24576 MB of memory, but dedicated video memory capacity is reported as 24348 MB when queried by software.

Correct, and this "weird" number is reported by various APIs, so many tools use it. In GPU-Z I work around this by rounding up the number to the appropriate power of two value that matches the physical hardware configuration