Despite rumors of a 20GB version of the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 and a 16GB take on the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 being in the works, it now appears that these two upgraded graphics cards have been cancelled.
According to Videocardz, two independent sources have said the upgraded Ampere-based GeForce graphics cards, which were due to be launched in December, have been canned. That means the GeForce RTX 3000-series will remain made up of a trio of graphics cards, including the mighty GeForce RTX 3090, until 2021.
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There’s no definitive reason for the cancellation of the boosted GeForces, but Videocardz speculated it could be down to problems getting enough GDDR6X video memory for the graphics cards. Given Nvidia appeared to struggle to get enough GeForce RTX 3080 cards to the market — getting one is still a problem at the moment — it would be a bold move to then release more cards into the market, especially as the RTX 3070 hasn’t even launched yet.
All that being said, there was never any concrete evidence that models of the RTX 3080 and RTX 3070 with more VRAM were indeed coming. All we heard was some reasonably solid rumors sprinkled with some speculation.
Upgraded versions of these graphics cards would be one way to answer AMD Big Navi and the Radeon RX 6000 series graphics cards, which are due to be revealed October 28. Big Navi is expected to give the RTX 3080 a run for its money, and potentially undercut it in price. Meanwhile, the rest of the new Radeon graphics cards could challenge the less powerful Nvidia GPUs.
However, Nvidia is very likely to release a GeForce RTX 3060 early next year, as it did the same with the GeForce RTX 2000-series. And that graphics card could be a mid-range powerhouse that treads the line between compelling gaming performance and a competitive price. We suspect that graphics card will be the one AMD will be most worried about.
We’ll have to wait until next week to see what AMD has to officially offer on the next-gen graphics card front. And then we’ll need to see what Nvidia does as a retort. Either way, we’re hoping this will spark more innovation in the graphics card arena and give PC gamers more compelling graphics cards to snap up at better prices.
