The Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 Ti 16GB graphics card is rumored to be due for a formal unveiling in the near future, ahead of a release in early 2022.
While we won't know for sure until Nvidia announces the details, this rumored new 16GB version of the existing Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 Ti (pictured above) makes a lot of sense — and would help alleviate some of the skyrocketing demand for high-end GPUs we've seen over the past two years.
GPU supply will hopefully rise to meet it in 2022, as Nvidia has said it plans to have enough hardware on the market to satisfy demand by then. Releasing variants of existing cards, like the GeForce RTX 3070 Ti 16GB, would be one good way to achieve that. Of course, whether such a card would be good enough to appeal to folks still searching for the next big Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 restock remains to be seen.
Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 Ti 16GB: Release date rumors
While we won't know for sure when or if the RTX 3070 Ti 16GB is coming out until Nvidia confirms it, we've seen some pretty compelling evidence that the company plans to ship the card in early 2022.
That's the best evidence we've seen yet that a 16GB variant of the RTX 3070 Ti is coming, though it's not the first time we've seen such a card crop up in company documentation.
Near the end of 2020 (not long after the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 was announced) we saw a Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 Ti leak which revealed what appeared to be a 16GB variant of the RTX 3070 Ti available in a gaming desktop. That card never materialized, and given how badly the global supply chain and semiconductor supply have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, it would make sense for Nvidia to have delayed its launch.
The company may also have initially planned to release it, decided against it, and then returned to the idea again after witnessing how badly demand for RTX 30-series cards outstripped supply.
Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 Ti 16GB: Price speculation
We haven't yet seen any reputable leaks about what you might expect to pay for a Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 Ti 16GB. However, it's a pretty safe bet that you'll pay at least $599, as that's what the current RTX 3070 Ti 8GB retails for — if you can find one in stock.
Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 Ti 16GB: Specs
If the leaked documents obtained by Videocardz are accurate, we should expect the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 Ti 16GB to have 6,144 CUDA cores and 16GB of GDDR6X RAM with a memory speed of 19 Gbps. Other than the difference in memory size, that's the same specs as the current RTX 3070 Ti 8GB.
No details have yet emerged about clock speeds, power draw or other specs. However, if it's anything like the already available (though hard to find) RTX 3070 Ti 8GB, the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 Ti 16GB will likely have a base clock speed of 1.58GHz and a boosted clock speed of 1.77 GHz.
Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 Ti 16GB: Performance
Armed with the tidbits of info that have leaked so far, we can begin to estimate how powerful the RTX 3070 Ti 16GB will be relative to its siblings. For starters, it should be more performant than the existing RTX 3070 Ti with its 8GB of RAM, since the new card will have double the memory.
When compared against the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090 vs 3080 vs 3070 vs 3060, we can see that a 16GB RTX 3070 Ti would certainly be beefier than the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070, but perhaps still less performant than the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 with its 8,704 CUDA cores and 10GB of GDDR6X RAM.
The question comes down to how much of a difference the 16GB of memory will make, and we'll have to wait until we see some benchmarks to know for sure.
Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 Ti 16GB: Outlook
While we don't yet know for sure that Nvidia will release a 16GB variant of the GeForce RTX 3070 Ti, we've seen enough leaks from reputable enough sources to believe it's pretty sure thing. And frankly, the company is under so much pressure to satisfy demand for high-end graphics cards right now that it makes sense to release new versions of existing cards.
Remember, this is the same company that resurrected some outdated GeForce cards earlier this year to try and satisfy demand. And though Nvidia is tipped to be releasing a new line of RTX 40-series GPUs in 2022, as well as an RTX 3050 that could be built to prevent cryptomining, that might well not happen until the latter half of the year, so it would make sense for the company to try and meet demand with new GPU releases in January. We expect to see the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 Ti 16GB among them.
Of course, Intel's first Arc laptop GPUs are available now: Here's what you need to know about the first wave of competing GPUs from Intel, and when you should expect to see Arc desktop GPUs that might rival Nvidia's GeForce RTX 3070 Ti 16GB.
