Nvidia cancels the unreleased 12GB RTX 4080, says “it’s not named right” | Digit

In September 2022, popular graphics chip maker Nvidia announced that it would release two GeForce RTX 4080 models. While one of these was the 12GB RTX 4080, the other was the 16GB RTX 4080. However, the company faced criticism when fans realised that the graphic cards that belong to the same series have a considerable difference in their performance. Now, Nvidia has decided to “unlaunch” the 12GB RTX 4080, stating that it is not named right.

Nvidia cancels 12GB RTX 4080 

In a press release, the California-based graphics card manufacturer Nvidia says that “the RTX 4080 12GB is a fantastic graphics card, but it’s not named right. Having two GPUs with the 4080 designation is confusing.” Adding to it, the company mentions, “we’re pressing the unlaunch button on the 4080 12GB. The RTX 4080 16GB is amazing and on track to delight gamers everywhere on November 16th.” It is important to highlight that the RTX 4080 15GB SKU was cancelled before its release.

As per the statistics released by the company, the 12GB RTX 4080 graphics card trailed behind the 16GB RTX 4080 by up to 30% while playing popular titles. The difference is also evident in the technical specifications of the graphics cards. While the 12GB RTX 4080 was supposed to come with 7,680 CUDA cores and a 192-bit memory bus, the 16GB RTX 4080 has 9,726 CUDA cores and a 256-bit memory bus. If players bought the 12GB RTX 4080 thinking that there are no differences between the graphics card except the RAM, they would have ended up being disappointed.   

Nvidia could keep it going with RTX 4090 and 16GB RTX 4080

Anyways, the RTX 4090 launch will keep up the hype for the company for now. The graphics card is Nvidia’s best chip and costs $1,599 or Rs. 1,55,000. Those who cannot spend that amount can go for the 16GB RTX 4080 at $1,199 or Rs. 1,16,000, which is still a capable graphics processor. It will be available in the markets from November 16th, 2022. As far as the cancelled card is concerned, Nvidia can relaunch it as the RTX 4070 or the RTX 4070 Ti.