It didn't take long for the GeForce RTX 4070 to position itself as one of the best graphics cards for gamers. However, according to new information from kopite7kimi, one of the more credible leakers in the hardware scene, a second variant of the GeForce RTX 4070 may already be in the pipeline.
Chipmakers have been salvaging silicon for ages, and rightfully so nowadays since wafer prices aren't getting any cheaper. Take the GeForce RTX 3070 Ti, initially launched with the GA104 silicon. Nvidia would later recycle defective GA102 silicon and slip them into the GeForce RTX 3070 Ti. However, the die-swap occurred a little over a year after the graphics card's launch. The GeForce RTX 4070 just came out last month, so it seems a bit early for Nvidia to put out a second variant.
Currently, there are two theories. The more obvious says Nvidia is just salvaging dies due to pricey wafers — what else can it do with AD103 chips where one of the memory controllers doesn't work? The other rumor claims that switching to the new die could pave the way for a GeForce RTX 4070 with 16GB of memory.
The GeForce RTX 4070 currently utilizes the AD104 silicon that houses 60 Streaming Multiprocessors (SMs), but only 46 are enabled on the graphics card. The current rumor is that Nvidia may repurpose the AD103 silicon for the GeForce RTX 4070. The AD103 silicon, which powers the GeForce RTX 4080, is bigger than the AD104 die, so it's a more than adequate substitute. The GeForce RTX 4070 only has 5,888 CUDA cores, meaning a GeForce RTX 4070 AD103 would have slightly more than half of the SMs disabled.
Nvidia has received much criticism, including from AMD, for only incorporating 12GB of memory on the GeForce RTX 4070. AMD gloated that its Radeon 16GB graphics cards start from $479 (now), while consumers don't get the same amount of memory on the latest GeForce RTX 40-series graphics card until they hit the GeForce RTX 4080 tier, which starts at $1,199. This could fuel Nvidia to release a GeForce RTX 4070 16GB. Gigabyte had previously listed a GeForce RTX 4070 16GB on its website, lending some credence to the theory.
Gamers would probably like to see a GeForce RTX 4070 16GB with the increasing VRAM requirements from modern triple-A games. However, at least at this point, it's unlikely that one will launch. Releasing a 16GB model this early would only anger early GeForce RTX 4070 adopters — and let's not forget the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti, which also has 12GB. The regular GeForce RTX 4070, at $599, is already hard to swallow, and adding more memory would only push the MSRP even higher. Although that wouldn't be a severe issue with the GeForce RTX 40-series product stack since every SKU so far carries a premium price tag.
According to a reliable source, Nvidia will allegedly announce the GeForce RTX 4060 Ti this month. We've only seen retailer listings for an 8GB model; however, a 16GB variant is reportedly launching too. The GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 16GB, seemingly hitting the retail market in July, will be the cheapest Ada Lovelace SKU with 16GB that gamers can purchase. Nvidia could use clamshell mode on the VRAM and just put memory on both sides of the PCB as well, which would allow for 16GB with only a 128-bit interface.
We'll have to wait to find out more about the RTX 4060 Ti and whether or not a 4070 16GB model is forthcoming. We fully expect to see an 8GB 4060 Ti, and the RTX 3060 also launched with a 12GB model even though the RTX 3060 Ti, RTX 3070, and RTX 3070 Ti were all limited to just 8GB. So it's not out of the question for a lower tier part to be available with more VRAM than higher tier parts.
