The Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 12GB version has been reportedly uncovered, but it appears that the company has stepped back in due to the proverbial pressure and made an unplanned decision.
Nvidia (opens in a new tab) announced that it will uninstall the 12GB RTX 4080. According to the official post, the reason for the unlaunching is that the RTX 4080 12GB is a fantastic graphics card, but its not named right. Having two GPUs with the 4080 designation is troubling.
However, the 16GB version of the graphics card is still going on sale for a release in November 16th, with the announcement stated that it is remarkable and on track to delight gamers everywhere.
What happened with the RTX 4080 12GB?
The 12GB RTX 4080 was reportedly rolled out, although the 16GB version had a similar starting price: $899. Considering the 16GB version, we even discovered that the graphics cards used two different chips: the 16GB has the AD103 GPU chip, while the 12GB has the AD104 chip.
Not only that, but the 4080 boasts 2,048 less CUDA cores, less cache memory, and a reduced bus width. This would most likely result in a performance difference of 20-25% between the 12GB and 16GB versions. And there have been leaked benchmarks from Overclock3D that suggested performance difference.
Many believe the 12GB 4080 is a 4070 in disguise, with an overinflated price point. Despite the lack of performance and the fact that Nvidia had canceled its launch with a redesign ahead of its launch, there is plenty of credit to that theory. Hopefully, a similar magnitude will not happen again.