NVIDIA could relaunch the GeForce RTX 4080 12GB series using the RTX 4070 Ti name early next year

Beyond the inflated prices, the launch of the NVIDIA RTX 4000 graphics accelerators has also been overshadowed by the withdrawal of the just-revealed GeForce RTX 4080 12GB model, in a rare gesture of consideration to NVIDIA fans admitting that the simultaneous launch of two RTX 4080 versions could cause confusion among users. In reality, it’s all about greed again, with NVIDIA’s marketing team actually trying to sneak an inferior product under the umbrella of a better-rated brand to justify the overinflated launch price.

We can only assume that NVIDIA’s unpublished performance tests have conclusively shown that the GeForce RTX 4080 12GB would not be competitive enough against either the competition offered by AMD, and probably not against the current GeForce RTX 3080/3090 offering that NVIDIA is trying to clear out of saturated inventories of unsold GPU units.

Meanwhile officially unconfirmed benchmarks seem to show that the next higher series, the GeForce RTX 4080 16GB, is only a few percent faster than the former top-of-the-line GeForce RTX 3090 Ti, and that’s at a comparable price point if you’re taking a good look at the offerings already in retail stores.

Running out of alternatives, NVIDIA looks set to rename the GeForce RTX 4080 12GB series to the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti. Already in OEM warehouses, the graphics accelerators will be quickly labeled and put into new boxes, and will be released under the new name as early as 2023. Certainly, the name change will also come with a price cut, which Nvidia will decide based on market conditions, specifically, the reception experienced by AMD’s new generation Radeon RX 7900 graphics accelerators.

According to performance data also provided by Nvidia, the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti will be 25-35% slower than the GeForce RTX 4080 16GB model, thus delivering a performance level comparable to the current GeForce RTX 3080 or 3080 Ti series, but at a lower power consumption and slightly more competitive price.

What is certain is that the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti is based on the AD104 chip and not the AD102 used with the high-end AD104 GeForce RTX 4080 16 GP and RTX 4090 24GB series. Therefore, the RTX 4070 series is completely justified.