NVIDIA has chosen which of its two upcoming RTX 4080 GPUs is better.
The popular tech giant has recently announced it is "unlaunching" its 12GB RTX 4080 GPU as it found its designation confusing to itself and its customers.
You may remember that NVIDIA announced the two GPUs in mid-September during its GTX 2022 keynote address, per Engadget.
NVIDIA 12GB RTX 4080 GPU 'Unlaunching' Details
NVIDIA mentioned in its announcement that it is "unlaunching" ( read as canceling) its 12GB RTX 4080 GPU due to its name, which has caused confusion to itself and its customers.
"The RTX 4080 12 GB is a fantastic graphics card, but it's not named right," NVIDIA said in its announcement.
NVIDIA's concern about customer confusion is a well-founded one. According to a report from CNET that cited a thread from the r/pcgaming subreddit, the NVIDIA community found that the upcoming GPU series' numbers "doesn't add up," causing it to push back against the launching of the confusing GPU - a request NVIDIA eventually listened to and granted.
Additionally, the specifications of the 12GB model are vastly different from its 16GB counterpart in the amount of available RAM.
Polygon reported that while both models have GDDR6X memory, the 16GB model has 9,728 CUDA cores while its 12GB counterpart only has 7,680 - that's a 26% difference.
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The RAM in the 12GB model is also found to be slower due to its lower memory bandwidth. As such, the 12GB variant could be considered an entry-level RTX 4080 GPU rather than a high-end RTX 4080 GPU, as one Redditor found.
Performance-wise, the 12GB model can't keep up with its 16GB counterpart. NVIDIA's own benchmarks reveal that the former GPU is performing 30% better than the latter GPU in most well-known games, which could be a deal breaker for gamers expecting a similar performance apart from RAM-dependent operations.
As a result of the RTX 4080's "unlaunching," the company made its 16GB GeForce RTX 4080 GPU the sole high-end model of the GTX 4080 Series.
A separate Engadget article mentioned that It is unclear if NVIDIA will relaunch the 12GB RTX 4080 GPU in the future, as it didn't elaborate further when asked.
However, there is a good chance that NVIDIA will permanently cancel the 12GB RTX 4080 GPU, which means it won't release a renamed version to consumers in the future.
NVIDIA 16GB RTX 4080 GPU Price And Release Date
With its 12GB counterpart unlaunched, the 16GB GeForce RTX 4080 GPU will be the only high-end 4080 model sold to consumers come November.
According to Gizmodo and the GPU's page, the GPU will be available to consumers worldwide on Nov. 16 and will come with a starting price of $1199.
NVIDIA mentioned that interested customers should expect that the GPU will sell like hotcakes if the queues and enthusiasm for the GeForce RTX 4090 are an indication of what's to come.
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