Last week NVIDIA made the decision to cancel their upcoming GeForce RTX 4080 12GB. One may guess the reason behind this, but it is likely because of backlash on social media since the initial announcement. The big reason for this backlash was that the RTX 4080 12GB is a much different card than the RTX 4080 16GB. Not only do they have two different VRAM sizes, but they are actually based on two different GPUs with different configurations. While NVIDIA going ahead with the RTX 4080 16GB, the RTX 4080 12GB has been basically unlaunched till further notice.
While many gamers were speculating that NVIDIA would rebadge the RTX 4080 12GB as the RTX 4070 that does not appear to be the case. While the RTX 4070 will be based off the same AD104 silicon as the RTX 4080 12GB it won’t have the same configuration. The RTX 4080 12GB maxed out the AD104 silicon, enabling all 7680 CUDA cores. The RTX 4070 will have fewer CUDA cores and and the memory clock could be changed as well.
The RTX 4080 12GB was basically NVIDIA trying to sell the successor to the RTX 3070 Ti at a higher price point and if they simply rebadge this card as the RTX 4070 it will prove they were just trying to upcharge their customers. So the RTX 4080 12GB is shelved for now and we are not sure when or what it will be released as.
