Nvidia will relaunch the 12GB RTX 4080 with a different name and pricing at a later time, report says

Nvidia announced last week that it was canceling the 12GB GeForce RTX 4080 that was supposed to arrive in stores next month with a 16GB sibling. It is now being reported that the actual GPUs originally planned to be sold as 12GB RTX 4080 will have to wait in warehouses for a while, as Nvidia adjusts its plans for the card's name and pricing.

The report comes from Gamers Nexus, citing sources from Nvidia partners, that the GPU maker plans to launch the renamed 12GB RTX 4080 at a different price. The timeline for its relaunch is still unknown. But the same report said it would take Nvidia a few months to deal with the effects of canceling its original plans and renaming the product. This then makes CES 2023 in January the potential venue to reintroduce the graphics card.

It appears that the new name for the 12GB RTX 4080 is not set in stone yet, but "RTX 4070" is reportedly one of the options, or it could be introduced as a Ti-branded card. The report did not mention specific details on the reduced pricing, but it is worth noting that the card was originally priced at $899.

To recap, Nvidia issued a statement last Friday, saying it was "unlaunching" the 12GB RTX 4080 to avoid "confusing" its customers. It is not strange for the company to sell two versions of a graphics card with the same name. But doing so for the RTX 4080 range would have made the impression that the biggest difference between the cards was the memory capacity, which was not the case.

The 12GB RTX 4080's CUDA cores were only at 7680, while its 16GB version was a more powerful counterpart with a 9728 core performance. The good thing was Nvidia recognized this issue and heeded the customers' feedback, which led to the unlaunching of the 12GB RTX 4080.

"The RTX 4080 12GB is a fantastic graphics card, but it’s not named right. Having two GPUs with the 4080 designation is confusing," the company said in a blog post. "So, we’re pressing the 'unlaunch' button on the 4080 12GB." The 16GB RTX 4080 will still arrive in stores on Nov. 16 starting at $1,199.

While these changes are generally favorable for consumers, Nvidia's last-minute announcement to halt the 12GB RTX 4080's launch has led to significant logistical challenges for its partners. Gamers Nexus said the 12GB RTX 4080 was in boxes bearing its contested name and was already "ready to go."

Since its cancellation, the company has reportedly asked its partners to gather the printed boxes and destroy them or send them to recycling centers. Nvidia is said to be "subsidizing the boxes, or part of them," following the cancellation. But Nvidia partners still have more work to do (that would also cost them money) since the RTX 4080 name was most likely printed on parts of the already-assembled graphics cards.

Photo by Christian Wiediger on Unsplash