Last month, Nvidia took an unprecedented step to “unlaunch” its upcoming RTX 4080 12GB SKU. While the GPU was due to launch on November 16, confusion around the naming scheme led to Nvidia pulling the plug. Well, at least partially. It now seems the GPU will live on and will now be known as the RTX 4070 Ti.
Let's step back and take a look at how we got here. Nvidia, for some reason, announced two GPUs with drastically different specs but the same model number, the RTX 4080 16GB and the RTX 4080 12GB.
That seems fine as the GPUs clearly state the difference between them is the memory. However, in reality, there are other major differences. Most notably, the RTX 4080 16GB also has 20% more mode CUDA cores than the 12GB.
Customers were rightly confused and Nvidia decided to delaunch the 12GB SKU. That means the RTX 4080 16GB will now launch on its own this month and be known as simply the “RTX 4080”.
Rebranding
Leakster kopite7kimi took to Twitter to say that Nvidia will relaunch the RTX 4080 12GB but it will be known as the RTX 4070 Ti. In fact, it seems that this was the name the company originally planned for the GPU.
Either way, it seems the GPU will eventually be available under a different name. However, Nvidia will no longer stick to the November 16 launch. Instead, the company will now release the product on January 5, according to the rumor.
This may be a manufacturing restriction where the company needs to change the model naming on cards that had already been built.
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