NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 16 GB & RTX 4080 12 GB Rumored To Launch At The Same Time

NVIDIA is now rumored to launch not one but two variants of its GeForce RTX 4080 graphics card with 16 GB & 12 GB memory capacities. The latest rumor comes from MEGAsizeGPU who stated the two graphics cards in his previous leak and it looks like Kopite7kimi does seem to believe that NVIDIA launching two RTX 4080 variants might be possible.

NVIDIA Rumored To Launch GeForce RTX 4080 In 16 GB & 12 GB Flavors At The Same Time

Following yesterday’s rumor, it was stated that NVIDIA was working on two NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 graphics cards. One variant was to feature 16 GB GDDR6X VRAM & a 12-layer PCB while the other variant was said to feature a 12 GB GDDR6X VRAM configuration and a 10-layer PCB design. The first card will be aimed primarily at an AIC and Reference design while the second model will only be an AIC variant.

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 12 GB is also rumored to utilize a PCB different than the RTX 4080 16 GB variant. Now if we compare this to NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 3080 lineup, we will see that the green team also had two variants of their previous card, one with a 10 GB configuration which launched in 2020, and the other with 12 GB memory and that launched in 2022. The second variant was only limited to AIC models and never saw a Founders Edition launch. AICs also dictated the prices of the card as NVIDIA had no official MSRP mentioned at launch. But the memory configuration wasn’t the only thing that changed between the two cards.

The RTX 3080 10 GB & 16 GB featured different core configurations too with the 12 GB variant adding more cores, more VRAM, and a bigger bus interface. The same is expected as the case for the RTX 4080 series. But instead of waiting for a year or more to get the 16 GB variant, it looks like both the 12 GB & 16 GB flavors would be available at launch. The RTX 4080 is indeed real and was leaked out just a few days ago with its updated and thicker shroud design.

Kopite7kimi believes that the RTX 4080 12 GB will be getting the PG141-SKU340/341 PCB which will suggest that the card might end up with the AD104 GPU core but it doesn’t make sense since their will be a huge core configuration difference between the 12 GB and 16 GB model if that was going to happen. What’s more likely is that the AD104 and AD103 GPUs could be pin-compatible on the same PCB and both the 12 GB and 16 GB models might end up using the AD103 die with the 12 GB variant being slightly cut-down to a 192-bit bus and lower cores.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 ‘Expected’ Specifications

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 is expected to utilize a cut-down AD103-300 GPU configuration with 9,728 cores or 76 SMs enabled of the total 84 units whereas the previous configuration offered 80 SMs or 10,240 cores. While the full GPU comes packed with 64 MB of L2 cache and up to 224 ROPs, the RTX 4080 might end up with 48 MB of L2 cache and lower ROPs too due to its cut-down design. The card is expected to be based on the PG136/139-SKU360 PCB.

As for memory specs, the GeForce RTX 4080 is expected to rock 16 GB GDDR6X capacities that are said to be adjusted at 23 Gbps speeds across a 256-bit bus interface. This will provide up to 736 GB/s of bandwidth. This is still a tad bit slower than the 760 GB/s bandwidth offered by the RTX 3080 since it comes with a 320-bit interface but a lowly 10 GB capacity. To compensate for the lower bandwidth, NVIDIA could be integrating a next-gen memory compression suite to make up for the 256-bit interface.

For power, the TBP is now set to be rated at 340W, a 20W increase from the previous 320W spec that we got. This brings the TBP to the same ballpark as the existing RTX 3080 graphics card (up to 350W). Now it is not known whether the other RTX 40 series graphics cards will also be getting the faster GDDR6X memory treatment but we know that Micron has commenced full mass production of up to 24 Gbps GDDR6X memory modules so they have to go somewhere.

• NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 “Expected” TBP – 340W
• NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 “Official” TBP – 350W

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 and RTX 4070 graphics cards will be amongst the first graphics cards besides the RTX 4090 to launch to gamers. The RTX 4090 is so far expected to launch on October 22 but an unveiling is expected at NVIDIA’s GTC keynote later this month.