NVIDIA today sneaked in a major update to its high-end GeForce RTX-30 "Ampere" series with the new RTX 3080 12 GB. Based on the same 8 nm "GA102" silicon as the original RTX 3080 (10 GB), the RTX 3080 Ti, the RTX 3090, and the upcoming RTX 3090 Ti, this SKU maxes out the 384-bit wide GDDR6X memory interface of the silicon, giving it 12 GB of 19.5 Gbps GDDR6X memory, resulting in a memory bandwidth of 912 GB/s, compared to 760 GB/s of the RTX 3080 (10 GB), and its 320-bit memory bus.

Memory isn't the only upgrade, the RTX 3080 12 GB gets a few more CUDA cores. With 70 out of 84 streaming multiprocessors (SM) enabled, the GPU gets 8,960 CUDA cores. In comparison, the RTX 3080 (10 GB) has 68 SM and 8,704 CUDA cores. This results in a Tensor core and TMU count of 280, and RT core count of 70. NVIDIA is positioning this SKU in between the RTX 3080 and the RTX 3080 Ti, and real-world prices of the card can be as high as $1,700, if not higher. TechPowerUp has several RTX 3080 12 GB graphics cards, but our editor and graphics card reviewer, W1zzard, is on a much-needed skiing holiday in the Alps, since we got no heads-up on this launch, and no marketing materials to help us understand the product. Hopefully NVIDIA puts out a public GeForce driver update later today, and we'll use it to test the cards we have. Expect our reviews to go live next week.