Should you have been planning to purchase a brand new 40-series Nvidia GPU this yr, 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 a substitute, now, solely the dearer and quicker 16GB RTX 4080 will launch subsequent month.
A number of 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 totally 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 anticipate, with many claiming they have been too costly. And now the “least expensive” of those new, expensive playing cards isn’t even launching subsequent month.
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As introduced as we speak by Nvidia, the corporate is “unlaunching” the 12GB RTX 4080. It claims it’s because, whereas the cardboard is “unbelievable,” it’s too “complicated” to have two totally different GPUs which can be each designated “RTX 4080.” This echoes criticism that arose from many shoppers after the current 40-series bulletins; many prompt 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 in regards to the cancelation and the way forward for the 12GB RTX 4080 mannequin.
“So, we’re urgent the ‘unlaunch’ button on the 4080 12GB,” stated Nvidia in a brief assertion posted on the corporate’s official web site. “The RTX 4080 16GB is wonderful and on observe to please avid gamers in every single place on November sixteenth.”
In fact, it’s onerous to not see this transfer as a approach 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 extra money on a pricier card. And whereas preliminary previews of the cheaper 12GB 4080 had proven it to be significantly slower than the dearer 16GB model, it was nonetheless good to have no less than one choice that price beneath $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.
