Nvidia is launching a new version of the RTX 3080 graphics card that bumps up the video memory from 10GB to 12GB. But it seems the product will cost $1,200 or more, far surpassing the $699 starting price for the original RTX 3080.
Nvidia quietly mentioned the product launch in Tuesday’s release for the Nvidia Game Ready driver. “A version of a GeForce RTX 3080 graphics card with 12GB GDDR6X memory is available from our GPU partners starting today, with driver support available through GeForce Experience and on Nvidia’s driver download page,” Nvidia said.
Along with the higher video memory, the new RTX 3080 model also features a modest boost to the computing cores, from 8,704 to 8,960. In addition, the memory interface bandwidth is going up from 320-bit to 384-bit.
Hence, the new model closely matches the RTX 3080 Ti, a GPU that originally started at $1,199, but has since ballooned to $1,479 or higher. It too comes with 12GB of video memory and a 384-bit memory interface, but has 10,240 computing cores.
However, Nvidia refrained from releasing pricing information on the new RTX 3080 12GB model. Instead, Nvidia is telling interested customers to contact third-party GPU vendors. A company spokesman also told PCMag there will be no Founders Edition model either.
So far, we’ve only seen EVGA release US pricing for the new RTX 3080, and the company is asking customers to pay a shocking $1,249 or $1,299 for the card.
MSI is also releasing six versions of the RTX 3080 12GB. According to a German retailer, one of the cards has been listed at 1,699 Euros ($1,922).
The pricing alone will disappoint anyone still struggling to buy a desktop graphics card during the ongoing chip shortage. However, Nvidia plans on launching a lower-powered RTX 3050 card starting at $249 on Jan. 27. With any luck, it’ll be available at major retailers, unlike Nvidia’s recent attempt to revive the RTX 2060.