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RTX 3080 20GB or RTX 3080 Ti Could Be Coming in 2021

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Nvidia's counter to the Radeon RX 6900XT?

Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Founders Edition
(Image credit: Nvidia)

An RTX 3080 Ti or RTX 3080 20GB graphics card might be on the horizon. Hkepc has reported that a RTX 3080 Ti might be in the works for Nvidia, with reportedly a GA102-250-KD-A1 GPU core and a 320-bit memory bus with 20GB of GDDR6X. All with a potential release of January 2021 at $999.99. 

We also learned today that MSI has copyrighted "GeForce RTX 3080 20GB" badging for several of its graphics card lineups, indicating Nvidia might also be working on a high capacity VRAM variant of the RTX 3080, which is currently one of the best graphics cards. 

However, it's possible that MSI copyrighted this name just in case Nvidia makes an RTX 3080 20GB.

So it seems that Nvidia may be working on both an RTX 3080 Ti and a RTX 3080 20GB, or just a RTX 3080 Ti. We won't know unless the vendor makes an official announcement.

Would an RTX 3080 20GB make sense from Nvidia's perspective? Sort of. A 20GB RTX 3080 would expand the card's longevity, particularly if you plan on gaming at high resolutions and playing the latest AAA titles.

A 20GB RTX 3080 would also serve as a good content creation GPU, where VRAM capacity is just as important as GPU horsepower. 

One problem, though is cost. GDDR6X is already more expensive than GDDR6, and with 20GB of it, the 3080 20GB would for likely cost much more than an AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT and too close to any RTX 3080 Ti.

On the other hand, n RTX 3080 Ti at $999.99 with the same fully unlocked GA102 core as the RTX 3090 could be appealing. If Hkepc is correct about the 3080 Ti's specs, it'd be a real competitor to the RX 6900 XT. The 3080 Ti will reportedly have more VRAM, RT accelerated cores, tensor cores and Nvidia's NVENC ASIC for capturing high-quality gameplay with near-zero performance loss, which the 6900 XT lacks. However, based on the unconfirmed Nvidia specs, the RX 6900 XT may have the upper-hand in power efficiency. 

11 Comments Comment from the forums
  • jkflipflop98 27 November 2020 18:34
    Reading about GPUs these days is akin to reading about unicorns. It would be awesome if only they were real. . .
    Reply
  • HyperMatrix 27 November 2020 18:41
    Admin said:
    On the other hand, n RTX 3080 Ti at $999.99 with the same fully unlocked GA102 core as the RTX 3090 could be appealing.

    The RTX 3090 is not fully unlocked. It has 10496 cores enabled. Fully unlocked GA102 has 10752 cores. Currently only the Ampere Quadro card with 48GB GDDR6 memory is using a fully unlocked die.
    Reply
  • HyperMatrix 27 November 2020 18:44
    jkflipflop98 said:
    Reading about GPUs these days is akin to reading about unicorns. It would be awesome if only they were real. . .

    It’s not bad in North America. I’ve already had 2 reservations for RTX 3090s pop up. (ASUS ROG Strix oct 28, EVGA FTW3 Nov 3rd). And another 3 popping up next week.
    Reply
  • Kamen Rider Blade 27 November 2020 18:47
    HyperMatrix said:
    The RTX 3090 is not fully unlocked. It has 10496 cores enabled. Fully unlocked GA102 has 10752 cores. Currently only the Ampere Quadro card with 48GB GDDR6 memory is using a fully unlocked die.
    That sucks that nVIDIA isn't willing to sell a Fully Unlocked GA102 to consumers as a 3090Ti variant.
    Reply
  • ajr1775 27 November 2020 19:10
    It's a shame they didn't ship the current 3080 with 16GB of GDDR6X. The X variant is not that much more expensive then GDDR6. The 3070 should have gotten the 10GB. Very sad.
    Reply
  • spongiemaster 27 November 2020 19:14
    Kamen Rider Blade said:
    That sucks that nVIDIA isn't willing to sell a Fully Unlocked GA102 to consumers as a 3090Ti variant.
    When did Nvidia announce this?
    Reply
  • spongiemaster 27 November 2020 19:17
    ajr1775 said:
    It's a shame they didn't ship the current 3080 with 16GB of GDDR6X. The X variant is not that much more expensive then GDDR6. The 3070 should have gotten the 10GB. Very sad.
    It's almost impossible to get a 3080 in its current configuration. Nvidia made the right call. A 20GB 3080 also wouldn't have been $700 so they still would need the 10GB version to fill that price slot.
    Reply
  • hannibal 27 November 2020 19:50
    Kamen Rider Blade said:
    That sucks that nVIDIA isn't willing to sell a Fully Unlocked GA102 to consumers as a 3090Ti variant.
    Who knows, maybe there will be 3090ti at $1999! It would be cool!
    ;)
    The problem with full 3090ti is the same as with amd 6900xt. Both cards would/will be very limited and rare! If you think that is hard to find 3080 or 6800xt, it is nothing compered to 6900xt or suposed 3090ti.
    Reply
  • Conahl 27 November 2020 23:52
    Kamen Rider Blade said:
    That sucks that nVIDIA isn't willing to sell a Fully Unlocked GA102 to consumers as a 3090Ti variant.
    maybe they are saving that for the real titan card :LOL::LOL::LOL::LOL::LOL::LOL:
    Reply
  • CorbeauNoir 28 November 2020 01:52
    Oh boy, I just barely had a 3080 drop into my lap and I already feel like I screwed up! I love it! :D
    Reply