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
24G is 24G. Double that of 12G..
You are just saying the same thing, people buying those stupidly overpriced gpus is what shows they don't think before they buy, they are compulsive buyers that happen to have money to waste.
The problem is that NVIDIA appears to be going backwards in terms of perf/dollar. It looks more and more credible to me that they frontloaded the 4090 because the 4090 is where they put the bulk of their generational performance increase. So sure, the 4090 looks good if you compare it to previous halo cards that were an absolutely terrible value--and no one ever pretended otherwise, by the way. Everyone acknowledged that 80 and below were where the value lies, yet all of a sudden the 4090 releases and we're supposed to fall all over ourselves congratulating NVIDIA for releasing a $1600 Ada card that handily beats a ludicrously overpriced Ampere card whose MSRP was based on a concurrent and unprecedented GPU shortage.
But the 3090 and its Ti used the same die as the 3080. Any projections we discuss must take that into account; in other words, we can't depend on the lower tier cards to perform at traditional levels, relative to the halo product. NVIDIA's own charts bear me out on that, at least so far.
I'm glad they relented on the goofy naming scheme for the $900 "4080," but it isn't obvious that that this card won't come back with a different name and at an equally ridiculous price--or, as some in this thread have suggested, perhaps this card will just disappear entirely for a long time, while NVIDIA burns off its remaining stock of Ampere. Either way, the $1200 version of the 4080 doesn't exactly look like a value king, either, ATM. It looks like it will give you fewer frames per dollar than its predecessor, once you strip away the hocus pocus about "DLSS 3.0"--which is nothing of the kind, incidentally; 3.0 has nothing to do with the extant versions of DLSS, and it's far less useful. The name implies that 3.0 (interpolation, "fake" or visual-only FPS) is better than 2.0 (upscaling, real FPS), which is nonsense.
NVIDIA isn't just comparing apples to oranges in this case; they're selling you a single grape and telling you that it's the hottest new thing in orange technology.
That could be another reason that NVIDIA led with the 90 card, this time--DLSS 3.0 looks better visually at higher frame rates. Essentially they're selling you a feature that purports to raise frame rates dramatically, and thus a feature that would logically appeal most to lower-end consumers, but the feature really only works well when you already have high frame rates (and when you have an extremely high refresh rate monitor to take advantage of the extra AI-generated frames; since these frames don't reduce input latency, any of them above your monitor's max refresh are pointless).
And I'm not fanboying for AMD here, either. You'd think this situation presents a great opportunity for AMD to seize the day with aggressively priced products, but I'll believe it when I see it. NVIDIA sure doesn't seem to be worried. For the moment, I suppose at least Intel's getting a breather to refine Arc's drivers. Remember when we all lamented the timing of Intel's launch? Well, Big Blue may not have to worry about next-gen competition at their current price bracket any time soon. A third credible player in this market can't come soon enough.
You can also undervolt the 285w, no efficiency gain here.
And I agree on the 24gb, if you must know you have way more memory than you need.
On any other occasion, the 4080-12gb will do just fine, with way less power and heat, and will be the better choice for most if both are price equivalent.
Someone has to sue their asses and put an end to this once and for all.
I wonder why would they do that though.
No VRAM in-game warnings, no lower textures resolution - cheating by nvidia driver, no questionable future-proofing.
So the only gpu worth it for 4xxx series is the 4090 if you got a 3070 or equivalent
www.pcgamesn.com/nvidia/dlss-3-no-rtx-4000-requirement
Wonder how true?
Edit: in either case, DLSS 3.0 with frame injections isn't exactly what I care or want. Raw performance with raw visuals instead.
if you have a RTX 4090 24gb you get 65% increase in Frame rates from DLSS 3
if you have a RTX 4080 16gb you get 132% increase in frame rates from DLSS 3
if you have a RTX 4080 12gb you get 150 % increase in frame rates from DLSS 3
there a drop off as you get to a bigger & more powerful cards....
Wonder if they did this all on purpose. Ignore anything less than a 4090 or just grab a 30 series card.
The way I see it, eventually we'll end up with lacklustre feature/performance trimmed $350-$500 SKUs which is hardly something to be excited about. For me, 40-series is just tiresome, over-hyped and in its current SKU formation financially inaccessible for 99.9% of game-dedicated consumers. Obviously its early days... but its not looking pretty!