Skip to main content

Nvidia’s Super GPUs look powerful but could make its lineup a confusing mess

Image used with permission by copyright holder

The next couple of months are an exciting time for anyone looking to upgrade their graphics card. First off, AMD is set to release its new RX 5700 GPUs, which are a fantastic challenge to Nvidia’s RTX 2070 and 2060. But Nvidia has some new “Super” technology to reveal too.

Recommended Videos

Although little has been officially announced (outside a mysterious teaser trailer), new rumored leaks suggest it will be a full refresh of its RTX line. That would be great for potential buyers looking for more power and better value, but it could make Nvidia’s graphics card line increasingly confusing to figure out.

The existing line up of current-generation Nvidia graphics cards is segregated, but relatively easy to understand. At the entry level you have the GTX 1650, 1660, and 1660 Ti, none of which have dedicated ray tracing (RT) cores, nor tensor cores for deep learning super sampling. Its RTX cards which do have those additional hardware features, include the RTX 2060, 2070, 2080, and at the top of the pile, the 2080 Ti and Titan RTX. But WCCFTech suggests that this line up of cards could be set to almost double in size with the introduction of new “Super” RTX GPUs.

Something super is coming…

Its sources claim that these cards will be Super editions of the 2060, 2070, 2080, and 2080 Ti, with new graphics chips with additional CUDA cores and revised memory counts. The 2080 Ti Super will reportedly be a brand new chip with unlocked power, allowing for up to 300 watts if third-party board partners want to give it. The Super 2080 will use the 2080 Ti chip, we’re told, but with 3,072 rather than 4,352 CUDA cores and 8GB of GDDR6.

Next in the line is the 2070 Ti Super, which will be slightly more powerful than the 2070 Super, which has 2,560 CUDA cores and 8GB of GDDR6. The 2060 Super is said to use a variant of the 2070 GPU, but with fewer CUDA cores.

This might make some sense if these new cards were replacing the current lineup of RTX cards and simply offering greater performance for the same or similar price to combat AMD’s RX 5700 launch. But these cards will reportedly be sold alongside the older, price-dropped, original RTX cards.

That would turn the lineup into one that includes, an RTX 2060, 2060 Super, 2070, 2070 Ti Super, 2080, 2080 Super, 2080 Ti, and 2080 Ti Super. While that might read well enough as a list, for potential buyers it could be exceedingly confusing. Is the original RTX 2070 better than the 2060 Super? What happens when you throw in overclocked, third-party versions of these cards? There could be some serious performance overlap and if prices aren’t too distinct, then what’s to help buyers differentiate them?

In theory, this should kick off a pricing war with AMD, which could bring down this generation of graphics cards to more reasonable levels. But with so many cards to pick from with close performance and near-identical naming conventions, it could make the GPU market pretty confusing before it gets better. Please Nvidia — just make this a simpler, would you?

Jon Martindale
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Jon Martindale is a freelance evergreen writer and occasional section coordinator, covering how to guides, best-of lists, and…
AMD GPUs are supposed to be plentiful, but good luck finding one
Various AMD RX 9000 series graphics cards.

It's clear that AMD hit the jackpot with its recent RX 9070 XT and non-XT GPUs. The pair quickly climbed up every list of the best graphics cards, and perhaps more importantly, received a warm welcome from the GPU market at large (and thus sold out immediately). A new leak tells us that AMD is shipping lots of GPUs to try to keep up with the demand -- and yet they're still not in stock.

The information comes from Moore's Law Is Dead on YouTube, who claims to have spoken to a major online retailer about RDNA 4 stock levels. Both Nvidia and AMD have been in a pretty dire place since the release of their latest graphics cards, with many people referring to the RTX 50-series as a "paper launch." The cards just sell out too quickly and too many people are left trying to find one.

Read more
Nvidia might once again delay the GPU gamers want most
Two RTX 4060 graphics cards stacked on top of each other.

If a GPU is yet to be announced, can we consider it to be delayed? Maybe, maybe not, but if you trust leakers, Nvidia's upcoming best graphics cards for gamers on a budget are seemingly stuck in limbo. The RTX 5060 and the RTX 5060 Ti are said to be delayed once again, and gamers might have to wait for quite a long time to get their hands on one of the new RTX 50-series GPUs.

This grim update comes from Board Channels, which is a website frequented by people who claim to be affiliated with Nvidia's add-in board (AIB) partners. According to the report, the RTX 5060 Ti (in both its iterations, meaning the 8GB and the 16GB models) will now launch in mid-April, followed by the RTX 5060 in mid-May. Nvidia is said to have notified its AIBs about these delays.

Read more
Even AMD is surprised by how fast it’s gaining on Nvidia
Several AMD RX 9000 series graphics cards.

AMD's RX 9000 series quickly joined the ranks of the best graphics cards, and it appears that its success came as a surprise to everyone -- yes, even AMD itself. At a recent roundtable in Japan, the company revealed that its market share skyrocketed recently, reaching a whopping 45% in Japan. Although this refers to Japan, it's easy to imagine that AMD is gaining on Nvidia globally, too, although there are a few things to consider here.

AMD's Yoshiaki Sato and Saki Suzuki shared a couple of updates during a Team AMD Roundtable held in Japan, which was later shared by ASCII. AMD was joined on stage by representatives of its many board partners, including ASRock, Asus, Gigabyte, MSI, PowerColor, and Sapphire. AMD's add-in board partners (AIBs) reportedly shared that they wanted to make and sell more Radeon graphics cards, but were being held back due to a lack of GPUs. To this, AMD's Sato replied: "AMD isn't used to selling [this many] graphics cards."

Read more