A rumored $999 RTX 3080 Ti will launch in January to take on the Radeon RX 6900 XT

[midian182]

Rumor mill: There have been plenty of rumors about potential “Ti” versions of Nvidia’s Ampere series, mostly regarding the RTX 3060 Ti. The company hasn’t confirmed any Ti cards yet, but that hasn’t stopped new claims arriving, the latest of which points toward an RTX 3080 Ti that sounds quite intriguing, and could rival AMD’s upcoming Radeon RX 6900 XT.

Hong Kong-based hardware site HKEPC writes that the RTX 3080 Ti will cost the same $999 as the upcoming flagship Radeon RX 6000 card, which, according to AMD, ties with or beats the Nvidia RTX 3090 at 4K and outperforms it at lower resolutions, all while being at least $500 cheaper.

The alleged RTX 3080 Ti could give people pause before opting for AMD’s most expensive RDNA 2-based product. Team green’s card is said to be a cut-down version of the RTX 3090, featuring the same 10,496 CUDA cores, 328 Tensor cores, 82 RT cores, and GA102 GPU, the latter of which is also found in the RTX 3080.

Some downgrades from the RTX 3090 could be a memory reduction from 24GB of GDDR6X to 20GB of GDDR6X, but clocked at the same 19.5 Gbps. Interestingly, there were rumors of a 20GB version of the RTX 3080, but a report last month claimed that card and a 16GB RTX 3070 had been canceled by Nvidia.

RTX 3080 Ti FE:
PG133-SKU15,
GA102-250-KD-A1,
20GB GD6X,
the same FP32 count as 3090, 10496FP32,
the same MEM speed and TGP as 3080,
no NVLINK.

— kopite7kimi4virgil (@kopite7kimi) November 4, 2020

Elsewhere, the RTX 3080 Ti could use a 320-bit memory bus rather than the 384-bit interface found in the RTX 3090 and have a slower bandwidth—760 GBps vs. 936 GBps. It will lack it’s big brother’s NVLink, though the 320W TDP remains.

The RTX 3080 Ti is rumored to launch sometime during January 2021, around one month after the Radeon RX 6900 XT’s December 8 release date. Nvidia says 3080/3090 shortages will last until next year, so a new card could help the situation, assuming it doesn't also get snapped up in bulk by bots.

If a previous claim is to be believed, the RTX 3080 Ti won’t be the first Ampere Ti card—an RTX 3060 Ti will supposedly drop on December 2.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/87567-rumored-999-rtx-3080-ti-launch-january-take.html

 

[paul1122]

Everyone get ready for that exciting .5 seconds you'll have to buy one that is being announced 2 months before it happens!

 

[Irata]

Wouldn‘t that make the 3090 look very silly though ?

 

[R00sT3R]

January?

So, should be able to actually buy one in...September?

 

[Endymio]

Wouldn‘t that make the 3090 look very silly though ?

Lower bandwidth memory, and probably much less of it. The article claims 20GB for the Ti, but I wouldn't be surprised to see it slot in at 12GB or so.

 

[neeyik]

January?

So, should be able to actually buy one in...September?

Availability could be even worse, if Kopite is right. The GA102 chip is currently used in the RTX 3080, 3090, and A6000. Each model uses chips from a different bin off the GA102 production line:

3080 - 6 GPCs, 34 TPCs, 68 SMs, 10 memory controllers
3090 - 7 GPCs, 41 TPCs, 82 SMs, 12 memory controllers
A6000 - 7 GPCs, 42 TPCs, 84 SMs, 12 memory controllers (a full GA102 die)

Kopite's claiming the following:

3080 Ti - 7 GPCs, 82 SMs, 10 memory controllers

The number of 3090-spec dies with 2 defective memory controllers can't be all that high, given that they take up a relatively small area on the chip. When you look at the die itself, it's pretty clear what takes up the bulk of the area:

Each column is a GPC, containing six sets of TPCs, with each of those housing 2 SMs (each comprising 4 processing blocks). If one assumes a normal distribution for the die defects across the die surface, then the vast majority of them will hit the TPCs.

So it would make more sense to offer the following as a 3080 Ti:

7 GPCs, 36 to 38 TPCs, 72 to 76 SMs, 10 memory controllers

That way you get better shader performance that the standard 3080, and you can mop up a lot of TPC-defective dies in the process. Even if they have 12 functional memory controllers, you could easily disable two.

 

[VitalyT]

Team green’s card is said to be a cut-down version of the RTX 3090

It would take a chainsaw to cut down that monstrosity to an acceptable size. But if they opt to keep the encasing, it'll be a failure right there. When it comes to the size of RTX 3090, nVidia clearly lost marbles there.

 

[R00sT3R]

Availability could be even worse

This whole Ampere launch is an ongoing debacle and I say that as someone who is more than happy with his RTX 2080 and had no plans to upgrade.

Here in the UK, the two main retailers, Scan & OcUK have well over 10,000 GPU's on back order, and are only reducing that by a few hundred each week.

Its absurd.

 

[Achaios]

NVIDIA tried to pull an Intel, or alternatively a "GTX 580 1.5GB" with the RTX 3080.

"It doesn't need much more memory than 8GB" they said.

Thanks to AMD, this statement came back to bite them "where the sun don't shine".

Served them right.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

Yes, lets make a FOURTH card on a die we already cant make enough of for the most cut down version, the 3080. That will surely solve the problem!

Even if this card were very competitive with the 6900xt, AMD wouldnt have to touch the price of their card, since Nvidia will have 0 stock to sell.

 

[neeyik]

Yes, lets make a FOURTH card on a die we already cant make enough of for the most cut down version, the 3080. That will surely solve the problem!

Actually it could do - at the moment, only 3 specific die configurations from the entire production line of GA102 chips goes into products. The more that can be used in other SKUs, the better. It won't ease availability of the 3080 and 3090, but it will give more people chance to access the RTX 3000 series.

 

[RedGuard]

Everyday I open up the RTX 3080 saved tab and see these $699 cards being displayed for 1000 euros minimum. And the $499 RTX 3070 is 780 euros at the lowest.

Yeah, I don't think we'll see a $999 RTX 3080ti.

 

[yeeeeman]

The only reason anyone would buy this over rtx 3089 is the bigger vram. Otherwise, rtx 3080 with a small oc is equal to rtx3090.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

Actually it could do - at the moment, only 3 specific die configurations from the entire production line of GA102 chips goes into products. The more that can be used in other SKUs, the better. It won't ease availability of the 3080 and 3090, but it will give more people chance to access the RTX 3000 series.

The 3080 is more cut down then this 3080ti would be. If they cant make enough dies for the 3080, introducing another sku that isnt as cut down is not going to magically increase stock. Unless you are suggesting Nvidia is refusing to cut down defective 3090s into 3080s, which is just silly, the whole point of the 3080 is that it isnt a full 3090 die.

This would work if the new GPU was further cut down then the 3080, using dies that would otherwise be useless, but that is not what nvidia is doing.

 

[neeyik]

The 3080 is more cut down then this 3080ti would be. If they cant make enough dies for the 3080, introducing another sku that isnt as cut down is not going to magically increase stock.

The 3080 has one GPC and two memory controllers disabled - the rest of the die is fully functional. That's a very specific die configuration.

However, if Nvidia created a 3080 Ti that used dies with all GPCs enabled, but with varying amounts of TPCs enabled, it could potentially have better availability than either the 3080 or 3090, as there might be more dies available that would fit such a configuration.

So will there wouldn't be more 3080 and 3090 cards in stock, a 3080 Ti using the configuration described above could possibly have better stock levels.

 

[Nobina]

Imagine paying for RTX 3090 and then Nvidia comes out with the 3080 Ti. Kinda what happened to RTX 2080 Ti owners when RTX 3070 was announced.

 

[wiyosaya]

This is an interesting article title, Nvidia pursuing AMD in the GPU space? "The times, they are a-changin" Bob Dylan.

 

[Squid Surprise]

Imagine paying for RTX 3090 and then Nvidia comes out with the 3080 Ti. Kinda what happened to RTX 2080 Ti owners when RTX 3070 was announced.

No, it’s kind of like paying for a Titan before the 980Ti came out... or the Titan before the 1080Ti came out... Nvidia is kind of known for this...

 

[Avro Arrow]

You know, I have to hand it to nVidia... The way they screw over people who buy things like the Titan, RTX 2080 Ti and RTX 3090 for gaming is a source of endless entertainment for me, especially when you see guys in forums acting like they're something special because they bought one (or even TWO) of these cards.

I have been laughing my butt off throughout the entire reading of this article thinking about the fools that paid the extra $800 to compensate for their lack of phallic volume. Having said that, I still wouldn't get the RTX 3080 Ti or the RX 6900 XT because they're still terrible values. The RTX 3080 Ti should push the price of the RX 6900 XT down though because, you know, 20GB of GDDR6X looks better to the average Joe than 16GB of GDDR6 and that will give nVidia a competitive advantage at that level (for the maybe 1000 cards that will be sold in total..lol).

If you're a person who bought the RTX 3090 for gaming, don't crow about it because people who know tech will read it as "I'm a NOOB with tiny genitals!".

 

[Sherwoodnt]

I realize that there is a productivity use for 3090’s, but I get the sense that people are buying these cards for gaming. Isn’t there really no benefit right now for these high end cards in gaming? Do we expect that to change prior to a 4000 series assuming that is 2 years out?

 

[Gmachine]

Nvidia saw that AMD now has a great offering this time around and just saw how silly they were in selling their high end card at ridiculous prices, the only way to save face is to try and turn the 3090 into something less ridiculously expensive by renaming the dialed down version that is the 3080ti.

All the more reason to go with AMD this time around, it should teach Nvidia to be a little more reasonable with how they treat their customers.

Once again, Dr Lisa Su's leadership has created immense value for the tech industry as a whole. Thanks AMD

 

[Avro Arrow]

Wouldn‘t that make the 3090 look very silly though ?

I dunno, I kinda thought that the RTX 3090 already looked pretty silly without help.

This just makes nVidia look like crooks and the people who bought the RTX 3090 for gaming look like absolute fools.

 

[meric]

Wouldn‘t that make the 3090 look very silly though ?

Yes but I doubt Nvidia would kill off their 3090 so easily with this move. One thing comes to my mind: If Nvidia activates "pro features" for 3090, maybe that would be an argument.
On the other side, I expect more contenders from AMD'S side too. Similar to Ti or Super models of Nvidia.

 

[Dimitrios]

Everyone get ready for that exciting .5 seconds you'll have to buy one that is being announced 2 months before it happens!

or you can buy a Delorean and do 88MPH in HOMEDEPOT parking lot and go back in time to buy the cards.

 

[sreams]

Imagine paying for RTX 3090 and then Nvidia comes out with the 3080 Ti. Kinda what happened to RTX 2080 Ti owners when RTX 3070 was announced.

Except for the *way* different time-lines.