Nvidia's GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Allegedly Heads To U.S. Retailers

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New Ampere is on the way!

GeForce RTX 3080 Ti
GeForce RTX 3080 Ti (Image credit: Lok LOK/Facebook)

Facebook user Lok LOK has snapped various photographs of shipping boxes with MSI graphics cards that are reportedly heading to the U.S. One of the boxes seemingly contains MSI's unreleased GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Ventus 3X 12G OC, lending credence to the rumors of GeForce RTX 3080 Ti's arrival in May.

However, the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti isn't the only SKU that MSI is sending to Los Angeles. Nvidia's flagship GeForce RTX 3090 is also part of the shipment although we couldn't see the exact model of the graphics card. The other photographs also showed a few boxes of MSI's Radeon RX 580 Armor 8G OC and GT 710 2GD3 LP. Both graphics cards are outdated by today's standards, but given the ongoing shortage, anything is better than nothing. Furthermore, the Radeon RX 580 is still the one of the best mining GPUs that money can buy.

According to the latest rumors, the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti could arrive with 10,240 CUDA cores, 80 RT cores and 320 Tensor cores. The leaked photographs paint the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti with 12 GB of memory, putting to rest the ongoing debate of hether it would come with 12GB or 20GB. The memory chips should be GDDR6X clocked at 19 Gbps. Across the rumored 384-bit memory interface, the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti should be good for a memory bandwidth up to 912.4 GBps.

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MSI GPU Shipment
MSI GPU Shipment(Image credit: Lok LOK/Facebook)

There is strong but unverified information that Nvidia is reworking its Ampere silicon to put a halt to Ethereum mining. If that's the case, the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti, which is reportedly based on the GA102 die, will debut with Nvidia's reveamped silicon with improved anti-mining mechanisms. Word around town is that once mining activity is detected, the algorithm slashes the hash rate down to 50%.

While Nvidia's GeForce RTX 3090 can go toe-to-toe with AMD's Radeon RX 6900 XT, the Ampere offering also costs $500 more. Nvidia has a respectable Ampere lineup, but the chipmaker doesn't have anything that competes in the $1,000 bracket. The reason for the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti's existence is to face Radeon RX 6900 XT at the $999 price mark.

If you've been hunting for a high-end Ampere graphics card, we encourage you to keep your eyes peeled in the upcoming weeks. We don't know just how many units are en route to the U.S. but they'll likely sell out fast. The reality of the matter is that the graphics card shortage doesn't look like it'll improve anytime soon. What little of the graphics cards that make their way to U.S. retailers will in all probability sell out quickly.

Zhiye Liu
Zhiye Liu
News Editor and Memory Reviewer

Zhiye Liu is a news editor and memory reviewer at Tom’s Hardware. Although he loves everything that’s hardware, he has a soft spot for CPUs, GPUs, and RAM.

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35 Comments Comment from the forums
  • The main issue here might be "Scalpers" again grabbing any GPU they can find and then sell them at exorbitant prices afterwards. But given the $999 USD price tag, I hope this time scalper bots don't end up buying all these cards from e-tailers.

    But like you have already mentioned, the GPU shortage/supply issue is more likely going to be a huge deciding factor, instead of scalping. I honestly don't think these will retail for $1K USD though. I expect an even higher price tag for these custom cards.
    Reply
  • eichwana
    Those boxes contain the entire stock allocated to the US.
    Reply
  • velocityg4
    Metal Messiah. said:
    The main issue here might be "Scalpers" again grabbing any GPU they can find and then sell them at exorbitant prices afterwards. But given the $999 USD price tag, I hope this time scalper bots don't end up buying all these cards from e-tailers.

    But like you have already mentioned, the GPU shortage/supply issue is more likely going to be a huge deciding factor, instead of scalping. I honestly don't think these will retail for $1K USD though. I expect an even higher price tag for these custom cards.
    Don’t worry. The card makers are catching on. Making mostly new SKUs of the cards. Bringing retail prices up to scalper prices.

    I was a Microcenter yesterday buying a new mobo, CPU, RAM and SSD. Thought I’d check if I’d be lucky and come across new cards in stock.

    Low and behold there was a big stack of 6700XT and 6900XT. I thought I’d lucked out and be able to buy retail. Building my system in one fell swoop.

    Then came the price $850 for the 6700xt and $1850 for the 6900XT. I thought surely this is wrong. I found Microcenterold listings for the same cards for nearly half $480 for the 6700xt.

    The clerk informed me these are new SKUs. The old SKUs simply aren’t being made. Looking at the boxes. They changed the color. These were Sapphire cards.

    If you’re wondering why you keep seeing announcements of new revisions of cards. Cards which sell out immediately. Wondering why they’re wasting time with this. It’s to release new SKUs at much higher prices. At least that’s my take.
    Reply
  • Giroro
    Metal Messiah. said:
    But given the $999 USD price tag, I hope this time scalper bots don't end up buying all these cards from e-tailers.
    A $1500 price tag hasn't stopped them from continuing to buy up every 3090. The $2000+ price tags on partner cards hasn't stopped them either. Because the mining value means people think they will still be profitable when they buy one at $3,000.
    I think at current rates, a $3000 RTX 3090 will pay for itself in something like 8-10 months, assuming crypto doesn't crash after a few months again - like the last bitcoin bubble.

    But don't worry, the 3080 Ti FE will be available in limited quantities from Best Buy for a low low MSRP, designed to undercut the 3090 at $1499.98.
    Very generous of them, since scalpers are going to flip them for $3000 - and they will sell. With that memory configuration, they will mine almost exactly the same value as a 3090.
    But why people think it's an investment to pay miners to slowly take their money, I'll never understand.
    Reply
  • peachpuff
    Who in their right mind labels a shipment of the hottest pc components like that? Do they want it to go missing?
    Reply
  • Quarkzquarkz
    The question is will the current 3080s and 3090s skyrocket in price even more since there's no mining restrictions on them?
    Reply
  • sepuko
    Honestly, who, apart from miners and scalpers gives a damn about new GPU stock anymore? With those prices the only accessible cards are 2 generations old and totally inadequate. I'm stuck with my 1050ti because its price is now fcking higher than what I bought it for new in 2017! What the actual flying fck. Not even talking about the fact that in some countries the retailers sell at scalper prices because they can. So really, not even luck can help you. There's shortage of production capacity for semiconductors globally and it will soon be as expensive to buy a computer as it was in the f*cking 90s, these fabs need a lot of time to build and set up. Did you hear about Conexant? Prepare for motherboards to go up in price as well as have shortage there and this goes for both desktop and laptops.
    Reply
  • sizzling
    Quarkzquarkz said:
    The question is will the current 3080s and 3090s skyrocket in price even more since there's no mining restrictions on them?
    Don’t see why? It’s not like miners are holding off buying the 3080 or 3090 now so why would a card that has been crippled for mining have any influence to miners?
    Reply
  • LolaGT
    Marking cards up to scalper prices helps do what, exactly?

    Helping the stupid making a dumb decision that a 400 dollar card is a great deal now that you can buy one for 1000 from a store?
    Reply
  • I am simply amazed at the number of stupid people who would buy these cards at these prices

    That’s what you would call more money than brains
    Reply