Here's the first picture of the 4 nm "AD104" silicon powering what would have been the $900 GeForce RTX 4080 12 GB, and upcoming RTX 4070-series graphics cards. The third largest GPU based on the "Ada Lovelace" graphics architecture, the AD104 looks tiny. This is because it has roughly half the die-area of the AD102, estimated to be around 295 mm² (compared to 608 mm² of the AD102), which means its transistor count should be less than half, with older reports pinpointing it to 35.8 billion. The RTX 4080 12 GB was supposed to max out the AD104 silicon, enabling all 60 streaming multiprocessors (SM) physically present.

The AD104 with 60 SM hence has 7,680 CUDA cores, 60 RT cores, 240 Tensor cores, 240 TMUs, and 80 ROPs. NVIDIA has generationally narrowed the memory interface (compared to the GA104 and TU104), down to 192-bit GDDR6X. Its predecessors such as the GA104 feature 256-bit wide memory interfaces. NVIDIA is overcoming the memory bus width "deficit" by giving SKUs based on the silicon higher memory speeds (21 Gbps or more); and architecture-level improvements such as larger on-die caches. NVIDIA is reportedly planning to launch an AD104-based SKU early January 2023. VideoCardz reports that could be the RTX 4070 Ti, a re-branding of the RTX 4080 12 GB.

It turns out that NVIDIA didn't just cancel (unlaunch) the GeForce RTX 4080 12 GB last week, but also shelved the SKU until it is needed in the product stack. This is probably because NVIDIA intended to sell it at $900, and will find it difficult to justify a xx70-class SKU at this price-point. A Moore's Law is Dead report goes into the possible reasons NVIDIA shelved the RTX 4080 12 GB, and why it won't be rebadged as the RTX 4070.

The RTX 4070, although expected to be based on the same AD104 silicon as the RTX 4080 12 GB, won't have the same configuration. The RTX 4080 12 GB maxed out the AD104, enabling all 7,680 CUDA cores on the silicon. It's likely that the RTX 4070 will have fewer CUDA cores, even if it retains the 192-bit memory interface and 12 GB memory size. The memory clock could be changed, too. The RTX 4080 12 GB was essentially NVIDIA trying to upsell the successor of the RTX 3070 Ti (maxed out GA104) as an xx80-class SKU, at a higher price-point. Moore's Law is Dead also showed off possible designs of the RTX 4070 Founders Edition, revealing a compact design with many of the same design improvements implemented with the RTX 4090 FE. This card comes in a strictly 2-slot design.

Two sets of possible specifications of the upcoming performance-segment NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 "Ada" graphics card has hit the rumor-mill, according to kopite7kimi, a reliable source with NVIDIA leaks. The first set of specs sees the card feature 12 GB of 21 Gbps GDDR6X memory (possibly over a 192-bit wide memory bus), as many as 7,680 CUDA cores, a typical board power of 285 W, and an internal SKU code of "PG141-SKU340/341." It makes sense for 12 GB of memory across a 192-bit memory bus to be a logical choice for NVIDIA (as opposed to the previous-gen RTX 3070 with its 8 GB of 14 Gbps GDDR6 across 256-bit); as it allows the company to achieve a 50% memory size increase gen-over-gen, while reducing the number of memory chips on the card from 8 to 6 (by using six 16 Gbit GDDR6X chips).

The second set of specs doing rounds is the "PG141-SKU336/337," consisting of 7,168 CUDA cores, 10 GB of 21 Gbps GDDR6X memory across what we're assuming could be a 160-bit wide memory bus (five memory chips), and 250 W typical board power. The same source also claims that the SKU340/341 could have a performance target of over 11000 points in Time Spy Extreme, while the SKU336/337 could be designed with at least 10000 points in mind. It's quite possible that the second configuration is that of the RTX 3060 Ti-successor SKU. Given NVIDIA's top-down approach to product launches, we could expect performance-segment SKUs only toward the end of 2022, or early-2023.

The upcoming generation of graphics cards from NVIDIA look set to feature significantly higher power budgets than their predecessors according to a recent claim from leaker Kopite. The RTX 4090 has been rumored to feature a TDP above 400 W for some time and this latest leak indicates that the RTX 4080 may also ship with an increased power requirement of 420 W. This RTX 4080 (PG139-SKU360) would represent an increase of 100 W compared to the RTX 3080 with power rises also expected with the RTX 4070 and RTX 4060. The RTX 4070 could see a power budget as high as 400 W if NVIDIA chooses to use GDDR6X memory for the card while the RTX 4060 is rumored to see a 50 W increase to 220 W at a minimum. The preliminary rumors indicate a launch date for these cards in late 2022.