After photos of a shipping container holding Nvidia’s rumored RTX 3080 Ti were spotted this week, VideoCardz leaked new information about the upcoming card. The card is rumored to launch May 26 for $999, and it will feature 12GB of VRAM and a redesigned GPU that will reportedly limit the cryptocurrency mining hash rate.
You can see a leaked photo of this redesigned GPU below. It’s the GA102-225, which is built off the existing GA102 GPU inside the RTX 3080 and 3090. Alongside the 3080 Ti, leakers claim that Nvidia will rerelease its entire Ampere line with updated graphics cores in May and those cards will feature a cryptocurrency hash rate limiter and Resizable BAR support.
Although Nvidia hasn’t confirmed anything, we’ll likely see updated Ampere cards with the hash rate limiter. Nvidia has its CMP (Cryptocurrency Mining Processor) cards after all, which the company is able to sell at ludicrous prices.
That would be good news for gamers and enthusiasts, especially with how good the RTX 3080 Ti is for mining. Alongside the photo of the GPU, VideoCardz also obtained a screenshot of the mining performance of the upcoming card. The image shows an Ethereum mining hash rate of 118.9 MH/s, which is much higher than most other cards on the market. However, the particular sample used in the screenshot was optimized to deliver higher memory speeds and lower TDP.
Outside of the mining performance, the screenshot shows a base clock speed of 1,365MHz and a boost clock of 1,665MHz, and it confirms the 12GB of VRAM and 10,240 CUDA cores that have been rumored. The clock speed is a step down from both the RTX 3080 and 3090, likely to give it a unique space in the market in-between Nvidia’s high-end cards.
By all accounts, the RTX 3080 Ti looks like an RTX 3090 with half the video memory, which is great. The RTX 3090’s high memory and high price make it tough to justify for all but the most intensive graphics and 3D workloads. The RTX 3080 Ti looks to offer a nice middle ground, matching the 3090 in almost every way, but with an appropriate amount of memory for gaming.
If that remains true, a $500 reduction in price from the $1,499 RTX 3090 seems like a good deal. Then again, $1,000 is no small sum of money for a graphics card. Thanks to a worsening supply issue, scalpers are likely to have a heyday with the new card, which could increase the prices even more.
The RTX 3070 Ti was also rumored to launch in May, but the latest reports suggest it will launch in June. The card is rumored to come with 6,144 CUDA cores and 8GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus. It will launch for $499.
