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Nvidia has decided to unlaunch its RTX 4080 (12GB) GPU. The company took the alternative root even before the release of the GPU. In their blog post, the company did not explain its intricate reason for the decision apart from stating that it had some naming confusion.
Why Nvidia is Un-launching RTX 4080 12 GB
On September 2021, Nvidia gave an official announcement of their three new GPU. The company named the first model RTX 4090; the two subsequent models were RTX 4080.
In the announcement, RTX 4080 would come in two forms. The first form would be a 16GB RTX 4080, while the second one is a 12GB RTX 4080. Given that the two RTX 4080 models have implicit functionality differences, the company felt that their names were somehow confusing.
Therefore, the company Nvidia has decided to unlaunch the 12GB RTX 4080 model before its release into the market. During their announcement, Nvidia set the RTX 4080, 16 GB, at $1,199, while the latter would cost $899.
Features of RTX 4080 Cards
During their introduction, Nvidia gave a clear set of differences between the two versions of RTX 4080.
- First and foremost was memory capacity. One of the cards would avail a 16GB memory capacity while the other one could only offer 12 GB memory capacity.
- The second difference in their feature is the CUDA core capacities. In this accord, 12GB RTX 4080 has 7,680 cores, less than its counterpart, 16GB at 9,728 cores.
- Additionally, the RAM speed in both RTX 4080 differ. Although the two models use the same RAM technology, RTX 4080 16GB has faster RAM capacity than RTX 4080 12GB.
Looking at the above differences, we can presume that Nvidia has seen clear indications that 12GB can not be a variant of the 16GB GPU. Thus the company has decided to cancel the release of RTX 12GB ahead of its November 2022 launch period to deal with the naming issue.
This cancellation has left players with two expensive GPU choices since RTX 4090 sells at $1,599. While buyers would have been looking forward to the cheaper version, they can only hope for future revelations. And at the time, Nvidia has not shared any news regarding the restocking and naming of the RTX 4080 12GB GPU.