The GeForce RTX 3080 12GB ends up as a bit of an odd product. Nvidia says the RTX 3080 12GB was requested by its AIB partners, and while it didn't say exactly how that conversation went down, we can imagine some of the brainstorming behind the scenes. "You know, we have a lot of GA102 chips where all 12 memory controllers are perfectly fine but where we can't hit the necessary 80 SMs for the 3080 Ti. Rather than selling these as an RTX 3080 10GB, what if we just make a 3080 12GB? Then we don't have to directly deal with the supposed $699 MSRP."
That may not be exactly what happened, but it certainly feels that way. MSI has produced a graphics card that effectively ties the RTX 3080 Ti in performance, even though it has 10 fewer SMs and needs more power to get there. If a rose by any other name would smell as sweet, an RTX 3080 Ti by any other name will cost as much. And on paper at least, it does.
We're not certain how many 3080 12GB cards are being produced, but in some ways it doesn't even matter. Nvidia and AMD can sell nearly every GPU they can manufacture at prices that are typically 50–100% higher than normal, and the faster the card, the higher the price. Creating a second 3080 SKU — or maybe even a third 3080, if the 20GB variants eventually get the green light — won't result in anyone making less money. Conversely, it also likely won't result in lower prices for anyone looking for a GPU upgrade.
MSI's RTX 3080 12GB Suprim X delivers a lot of performance plus some extras, all for a price that may or may not end up being just as high as the RTX 3080 Ti. Fundamentally, if we had a choice between a 3080 Ti and the 3080 12GB for roughly the same price, we'd go for the 3080 Ti. After a bit of tweaking, it should ultimately deliver higher performance, but that's contingent on being able to acquire either of these GPUs.
MSI does deliver substantially better cooling than the 3080 Ti Founders Edition, or even the non-Ti FE card, and that's also something to consider. Nvidia talked a lot about upgrading the cooling and creating a better reference design with Ampere back at launch, but after 18 months of using and testing various Ampere GPUs, we're confident that there's little to no benefit to be had by getting a Founders Edition when it comes to cooling. And now, it seems there's little chance we'll even see the reference designs for sale at Best Buy, unless we're willing to fork out $199 extra for the Totaltech plan — which so far only scalpers seem excited about.
Maybe later this year GPU prices will return to some semblance of normal. If that were to happen, we'd expect the RTX 3080 12GB to cost more like $899–$999, based on the 3080 10GB's starting point of $699. Except, we're far more likely to see the next generation Ada Lovelace RTX 4080 and similar cards before we see any RTX 3080s going for under $1,000. This naturally means RTX 40-series GPUs are likely to be priced much higher than their 30-series counterparts, similar to what happened with the RTX 20-series launch in 2018. We can hope that won't be the case, but hoping never managed to get anyone a new GPU as far as we're aware.
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