In brief: No one asked for it, but Nvidia will be launching a few new RTX 3000 series graphics cards in the coming weeks. Whether or not you'll be able to purchase one of the new models at a decent price is another story, but we can only hope the situation will improve by the end of 2022.
Back in October, the rumor mill was abuzz about the existence of an RTX 3090 Ti that could arrive in early 2022. A new report from Videocardz seems to confirm this, as the publication saw embargoed documents that indicate Nvidia is coordinating with AIB partners for a January 27 launch date.
The same documents also indicate the company is preparing to unveil an RTX 3070 Ti with 16 gigabytes of VRAM on December 17, with retail availability set for January 11. This won't be any faster than the existing GeForce RTX 3070 Ti, as it's still based on the same GA104-401 GPU with 6144 CUDA cores.
As for the RTX 3090 Ti, it's expected to be based on the GA102-250 GPU with 10,752 CUDA cores --- 256 more than the RTX 3090. The VRAM size is the same 24 gigabytes, but it will reportedly run at 21 Gbps thanks to improved Micron chips. However, the downside is that the new RTX 3090 Ti could end up with a TGP of 450 watts --- 100 watts more than the standard RTX 3090.
Videocardz says the RTX 3050 will arrive on the same day as the RTX 3090 Ti, but details around it are scare at the moment. Some speculate it will be on par with the refreshed RTX 2060 12 GB in most scenarios, but a bigger concern will most likely be around availability – more on that in our monthly update.