Nvidia cancels the November launch of the 12 GB RTX 4080 and could rename it

Nvidia has announced that the GeForce RTX 4080 12 GB graphics card will not go on sale in November alongside the 16 GB model. The company decides not to release this variant after some users noted their dissatisfaction with having two GPUs with the same name but different specifications and uneven performance. The GeForce RTX 4080 12 GB, whose price was going to be 1,099 euros, could return with another name.

“The RTX 4080 12GB is a fantastic graphics card, but it doesn’t have the right name,” says Nvidia in a statement. “Having two GPUs labeled 4080 is confusing. So let’s hit the ‘unlaunch’ button on the RTX 4080 12GB.” This movement does not affect the RTX 4080 16 GB at all, which will meet its schedule and will go on sale on November 16 in exchange for 1,469 euros. The GeForce RTX 4090 24 GB is now available for 1,959 euros. In both cases the prices are for the Founders Edition.

Despite the same name, the two cards have different specifications. The GeForce RT 4080 (12GB) has 7,680 CUDA cores, 639 TFLOPS Tensor, 92 TFLOPS RT, 40 TFLOPS Shader, a clock speed of 2.31/2.61 GHz, and a memory width of 192 bits. For its part, the GeForce RTX 4080 (16 GB) has 9,728 CUDA cores, 780 TFLOPS Tensor, 113 TFLOPS RT, 49 TFLOPS shader, a clock speed of 2.21/2.53 GHz and a memory width of 256 bit.

according to their own benchmark from Nvidia, the RTX 4080 16GB is 24-30% faster than the 12GB variant. For example, in Microsoft Flight Simulator the RTX 4080 12 GB reaches 121 FPS, while the RTX 4080 16 GB goes up to 147 FPS. The difference is similar in titles like A Plague Tale: Requiem and F1 22, but more pronounced in Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered (144 FPS vs 175 FPS). In all cases, the titles are executed in 3840×2160 (4K) resolution, maximum graphics and with DLSS 3 activated.

Nvidia has not communicated when it plans to relaunch the RTX 4080 12 GB under a new name. Canceling its launch serves to avoid confusion, but it also removes the least expensive option to make the jump to the next generation of RTX. It will have to wait. For those looking for something more affordable, the previous generation models have not lost their appeal (because of their performance and the price of the new cards), while the RTX 4060 should appear over time.