Are you worried that Nvidia will save money on the VRAM for the RTX 5080 GPU? New rumor suggests a superior 24GB version is also arriving
It was recently rumored that Nvidia’s RTX 5080 would get 16GB of VRAM – speculation that didn’t go over well with PC gamers, as it’s an amount no better than the RTX 4080 – but new news from the rumors suggests that the next generation graphics card could also arrive in a 24 GB flavor.
This is according to Polymorph, a member of the Chiphell forum (as noted by Wccftech), which claims that Nvidia plans to release a 24GB VRAM version of the RTX 5080 later, following in the footsteps of the original 16GB model.
If this is true, a 24GB VRAM option would make Nvidia’s graphics card much more attractive and future-proof.
As it stands, 16GB of VRAM with a 256-bit bus doesn’t feel like a compelling upgrade in terms of memory. And while it’s true that moving to GDDR7 memory, as rumored elsewhere, would be an improvement over the RTX 4080 (with GDDR6X) – bringing better bandwidth and improved power efficiency, among other things – we don’t think this is enough .
That’s true for many PC gamers too, given the reaction to the 16GB video RAM rumor when it surfaced recently.
A waiting game
So why (theoretically) choose a 16GB and 24GB split for the VRAM with the RTX 5080 – and why wait to ship the latest, beefier version?
Wccftech reminds us that GDDR7 will initially ship in 2 GB memory modules, with 8 and 16 of those modules for the RTX 5080 and RTX 5090 respectively, giving us a 16 GB (and 32 GB) loadout.
Eventually, however, GDDR7 memory will also be available in 3GB modules, so that could potentially lead to 8 of these in the RTX 5080, for a total of 24GB (the 256-bit memory bus would remain the same).
All of this is theory, of course, and alternatively Nvidia could take a different approach and use a GB202 (RTX 5090) chip in the more powerful version of the RTX 5080, using a 384-bit memory bus and 24 GB of VRAM.
Be that as it may, Polymorph tells us that the RTX 5080 24GB will apparently come – or at least is currently planned – but it won’t arrive one way or another, possibly not until after GDDR7’s 3GB modules are in mass production .
Clearly the RTX 5080 with 24GB of VRAM would be much more attractive, especially considering the 5090’s 32GB VRAM fitment. We guess the concern is how much of a price increase Nvidia could implement for a second version of the RTX 5080 coming later appeared as an upgrade over the original 16GB version – which itself may be pricey.
It’s important to remember that all information about Nvidia’s RTX 5000 series remains rumors and speculation. We won’t know the concrete details until Nvidia unveils the next generation of Blackwell graphics cards, with a rumored launch date of CES 2025 in January (that’s been the idea for a while).
Memory isn’t the only concern for the RTX 5080, as there are also concerns about power consumption (and that goes for the RTX 5090 as well).
Via VideoCardz
