Technology company Nvidia introduced its new line of graphics cards in October, but so far it has only released one model. The flagship RTX 4090 card launched on October 12, while the RTX 4080 is coming out this week (on November 16 to be exact).
Originally, Nvidia said it would launch two different GeForce RTX 4080 cards: one equipped with 16 GB of memory, and another boasting a smaller 12 GB of memory.
The RTX 4080 12 GB was scrapped after an outcry by PC gamers and Nvidia fans, and rumors now suggest this will be rebadged, and launched early next year as the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti.
Actually, a tweet by a known leaker who uses the handle “MegasizeGPU” on Twitter claims the card will go on sale on January 5 next year. It’s likely, then, that Nvidia will be making some sort of announcement at next year’s Consumer Electronics Show, as CES 2023 runs between January 5 and January 8.
Lending some credence to this rumor is an earlier tweet by leaker Kopite7Kimi claiming that the RTX 4080 12 GB would be turned into the RTX 4070 Ti.
Available January 5th pic.twitter.com/UUzFbPjGWY
— MEGAsizeGPU (@Zed__Wang) November 10, 2022
The thing is, will the upcoming GeForce RTX 4070 Ti have the same specs as the “unlaunched” RTX 4080 12 GB or will these be different?
It seems Nvidia wouldn’t be changing the specs given the limited amount of time between it announcing it had cancelled the RTX 4080 12 GB and the (very early) 2023 launch of the RTX 4070 Ti, so it’s likely there won’t be any changes spec-wise.
Another hint is the fact that the “Ti” version of cards such as the GeForce RTX 3070 arrived later than the regular version, and here Nvidia is apparently putting out the RTX 4070 Ti before the vanilla RTX 4070 arrives, so it’s likely that the company is doing this to prevent all those RTX 4080 12 GB from gathering dust in warehouses for too long…
There’s also the matter of price: will Jensen Huang’s company stick to the $899 US dollar price of the cancelled RTX 4080 12 GB or lower it for the card’s supposed January 2023 launch?
A $899 US dollar price tag seems excessive for a “70” series card – the GeForce RTX 3070 Ti, for instance, has a manufacturer suggested retail price or MSRP of $599 US dollars, so it’s likely Nvidia will lower the RTX 4070 Ti launch price to something more reasonable… (but then, it might not).
Of course, this is all rumors and speculation for the time being, and until there’s an official announcement from Nvidia, we don’t know for sure whether a GeForce RTX 4070 Ti card is coming in January 2023. But those looking to pick up a powerful (and hopefully more affordable) RTX 40 series card can at least rejoice in the fact that the Nvidia might be gearing up to release more of its RTX 40 series cards pretty soon.
Read more: Nvidia “unlaunches” its controversial GeForce RTX 4080 12 GB card
GeForce RTX 4080 graphics card (Nvidia Corporation)