Nvidia’s next-gen RTX 4000 graphics cards have seen new information come out of the rumor mill, leaving some people wondering how the RTX 4070 will shape up.
This comes courtesy of Kopite7kimi, a regular hardware leaker on Twitter, who dropped some new alleged spec details regarding the top three Lovelace GPUs, as well as a nugget of pricing information – take all this with the usual heightened sense of skepticism, mind.
Some updates. RTX 4090, AD102-300, 16384FP32, 384bit 21Gbps 24G GDDR6X, RTX 4080, AD103-300, 10240FP32, 256bit (?18Gbps 16G GDDR6?), RTX 4070, AD104-275, 7168FP32, 160bit 18Gbps GDDR6 10G. And DO NOT expect a lower suggested retail price.June 23, 2022
The leak related to the flagship matches what the leaker told us just over a week ago, which is that the RTX 4090 will have a slightly increased CUDA Core count of 16,384. When that detail was first omitted, the leaker phrased it in terms of this “maybe” the case, so this seems to be a suggestion that they are now more sure of this configuration (as opposed to the long-rumored 16,128 cores).
The memory load of the flagship Lovelace graphics card will probably be 24 GB GDDR6X (21 Gbps, with a 384-bit memory bus).
Kopite7kimi also informs us that the RTX 4080 will have 10,240 CUDA cores with 16 GB of VRAM, although it is not certain whether that will be GDDR6 or GDDR6X (and a 256-bit memory bus). And as for the RTX 4070, which theoretically works with 7,168 CUDA cores and 10 GB of video memory, which will be GDDR6, with a 160-bit bus (we’ll get to that).
We’re also told in stern terms not to expect lower asking prices (recommended retail or MSRP) than we’ve seen with the current generation of RTX 3000 graphics cards.
Finally, in a follow-up tweet, Kopite7kimi outlines the assumed power consumption levels, pinning the RTX 4090 at 450W (as was previously the case) and the RTX 4080 at 420W (with a question mark added here), with the RTX 4070 set to 300W. Pull.
Analysis: Reality Check of Prices – and Concerns About the RTX 4070
Was anyone really expecting lower price tags? We certainly weren’t, because when these graphics cards first launched, if they have anything like the rumored performance bumps, they’ll be in high demand. And check out the demand for Nvidia’s current GPUs: At Newegg, the entire top 30 best-selling cards are made up entirely of Nvidia models, with no AMD board in sight, a sad state of affairs when it comes to pricing competition. . (And that, of course, is why Nvidia’s graphics cards aren’t dropping in price as quickly as Team Red’s RX 6000 GPUs).
The other point regarding pricing is that the rumor mill believes Nvidia will also be the first to hit the market with next-gen products, so given the general demand situation and the first release of the new GPUs, it’s hard to imagine. that’s a situation where Team Green would be looking to go easy with MSRPs. In fact, we would expect a slight price increase for all the reasons mentioned above, at least on some models at launch.
Okay, price aside, there’s some big nuggets of spec info here, and that includes the RTX 4070 with just 10GB of GDDR6 VRAM with a 160-bit bus, which has some people worried that it might look underpowered in that regard. (not to mention the expectation of a 12GB loadout being reserved for a future 4070 Ti).
In all fairness, though, we’d be cautious about putting too much stock in this bit of rumor here, as it seems a bit of an odd route for Nvidia with the memory configuration. Time will tell, although of course the claimed 300W power consumption doesn’t indicate a weak sauce RTX 4070 – that’s almost reaching RTX 3080 levels (320W).
As for the RTX 4090 and 4080 with 450W and 420W, the former seems to be something of the recent consensus reached on the GPU vine, while the latter seems very close to the flagship power consumption. Again, this could of course be wrong – it’s telling that the leaker marks that 420W figure with a question mark, and that’s the only place one appears with the rumored TBPs – but it’s possible. As we discussed earlier, the RTX 3080 and 3090 had the same 30W difference (350W and 320W respectively), so this isn’t without precedent.
What’s interesting to note, however, is that Kopite7kimi recently claimed a 99% confidence level in that 420W forecast for the RTX 4080, and yet a question mark has been added here – which seems like a step back from that previous confidence level.
All of this just underscores how shaky and fickle these theories are on the rumor mill. In summary, let’s stay calm for now and don’t jump to conclusions, because the launch of the RTX 4000 is not far off, and we could even have an official reveal – or at least some firmer rumors – in a relatively short time.