If you lived through the insanity that was the GPU shortage, you might be tempted by the current prices of graphics cards. Don’t be.
We just got yet another sign that Nvidia might soon be launching the RTX 40 Super refresh, and with three new GPUs set to come out next month, there might be better options right around the corner that could adjust the entire GPU landscape in terms of pricing.
There have been plenty of rumors about the upcoming RTX 4070 Super, RTX 4070 Ti Super, and the RTX 4080 Super. While Nvidia itself hasn’t said anything on the matter just yet, it’s set to hold a special keynote at CES 2024 on January 8, so the confirmation might just be a short three weeks away. Now, ITHome published some predictions as to when the three GPUs might come out once they’re announced. Of course, take this with a healthy dose of skepticism, although even if the dates don’t match up exactly, it’s likely that we’ll see all three cards in the first quarter of 2024.
The first card to come out is said to be the RTX 4070 Super, rumored to hit the shelves on January 17. As per the speculation, the RTX 4070 Ti Super would follow on January 24, and lastly, the RTX 4080 Super would come out a week later — on January 31.
Of course, the specs of all these cards remain unconfirmed. Initially, the prediction was that we’d get a sizeable upgrade with the RTX 4070 Super and the RTX 4080 Super, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. According to VideoCardz, the RTX 4070 Super will sport 7,168 CUDA cores (versus 5,888 on the excellent RTX 4070) and retain the same 12GB memory configuration.
The RTX 4070 Ti Super is shaping up to be the most interesting addition to the lineup, because this is the only card that is said to be getting more VRAM and switching to a different GPU. Rumor has it that the RTX 4070 Ti Super will sport the AD103-275 GPU, 8,448 CUDA cores, and 16GB VRAM — that’s a significant increase from the 4070 Ti (12GB). These specs put it much closer to the RTX 4080 than the RTX 4070 Ti.
Lastly, the RTX 4080 Super gets a bump in core counts, maxing out the AD103 chip with 10,240 CUDA cores. It’s said to retain 16GB VRAM, too. If these specs check out, we’re looking at a really small upgrade over the existing RTX 4080. Perhaps Nvidia will use this as an opportunity to fix the fact that the 4080 is pretty terrible value and will come out with a price adjustment this time around.
Whether these three new GPUs will become instant hits all depends on the pricing. Nvidia is known for its cutthroat pricing strategy, so it’s hard to hope for huge discounts. However, it’s still worth waiting for the announcement on January 8. It’s possible that after the launch of the Super refresh, the older models will see some price cuts, and even if not, you could get something better for the same or similar price. The GPUs that are currently available shouldn’t go up in price, but they might drop, so waiting until the new year really makes sense.
