When you have been planning to purchase a brand new 40-series Nvidia GPU this 12 months, you may want to save lots of up much more cash than deliberate. That’s as a result of the GPU producer has confirmed its plans to “unlaunch” the beforehand deliberate, and cheaper, 12GB RTX 4080 mannequin. As an alternative, now, solely the costlier and quicker 16GB RTX 4080 will launch subsequent month.
Just a few weeks in the past, following many rumors and far hypothesis, Nvidia lastly introduced its subsequent collection of high-end PC graphics playing cards. The plan then was to launch two completely different flavors of RTX 4080 GPUs in November: the 16GB RTX 4080 ($1199) and a 12GB RTX 4080 ($899). It additionally introduced a $1600 4090 throughout that very same occasion. These costs went over about in addition to you may count on, with many claiming they have been too costly. And now the “most cost-effective” of those new, dear playing cards isn’t even launching subsequent month.
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As introduced at present by Nvidia, the corporate is “unlaunching” the 12GB RTX 4080. It claims it’s because, whereas the cardboard is “implausible,” it’s too “complicated” to have two completely different GPUs which might be each designated “RTX 4080.” This echoes criticism that arose from many shoppers after the current 40-series bulletins; many advised that the clearly decrease specs of the 12GB RTX 4080 have been extra akin to a theoretical “4070” or “4079” card.
Kotaku has contacted Nvidia concerning the cancelation and the way forward for the 12GB RTX 4080 mannequin.
“So, we’re urgent the ‘unlaunch’ button on the 4080 12GB,” mentioned Nvidia in a brief assertion posted on the corporate’s official web site. “The RTX 4080 16GB is superb and on monitor to please avid gamers all over the place on November sixteenth.”
After all, it’s onerous to not see this transfer as a means for Nvidia to push extra of its clients—lots of whom have been holding off on shopping for a brand new GPU for a number of years now whereas playing cards remained onerous to purchase—into spending more cash on a pricier card. And whereas preliminary previews of the cheaper 12GB 4080 had proven it to be significantly slower than the costlier 16GB model, it was nonetheless good to have at the very least one choice that price below $1,000. However that’s now gone. What is going to occur stays to be seen, however maybe Nvidia will truly find yourself rebranding the 12GB RTX 4080s into 4070s.
