Nvidia’s next-gen RTX 4000 graphics cards have seen some new information emerge from the rumor mill, which has some people questioning how the RTX 4070 will shape up.
This comes courtesy of Kopite7kimi, a regular hardware leaker on Twitter, who released some new spec details pertaining to the three main Lovelace GPUs, as well as a nugget of pricing information – take all of this with the usual 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, 71686FP302, 1bit. And DO NOT expect a lower MSRP.June 23, 2022
The leak regarding the flagship lines up with what the leaker already told us just over a week ago, namely that the RTX 4090 will have a slightly increased CUDA Core count of 16,384. When this detail was first dropped, the leaker expressed it in terms of this “maybe” the case, so this seems to be a suggestion that they’re more secure in this setup now (as opposed to the much-rumored 16,128 cores). .
The Lovelace main graphics card’s memory load will supposedly be 24GB of GDDR6X (21Gbps, with a 384-bit memory bus).
Kopite7kimi also informs us that the RTX 4080 will have 10,240 CUDA cores with 16GB of VRAM, although whether it will be GDDR6 or GDDR6X (and a 256-bit memory bus) is uncertain. And as for the RTX 4070, which theoretically will run with 7,168 CUDA Cores and 10GB of video memory, which will be GDDR6, with a 160-bit bus (we’ll come back to that).
We’re also told in stark terms that we shouldn’t expect lower prices (Recommended Reseller or MSRP) than what we’ve seen with current-gen RTX 3000 graphics cards.
Finally, in a follow-up tweet, Kopite7kimi outlines the supposed power consumption levels, pegging the RTX 4090 at 450W (as was the case before) and the RTX 4080 at 420W (with a question mark added here), with the RTX 4070 set to draw 300W.
Review: Pricing Reality Check – and RTX 4070 Concerns
Was anyone really expecting lower prices? We certainly weren’t, as when these graphics cards were first released, if they have anything like the performance rumors they’re going to be in high demand. And look at how demand is for Nvidia’s current GPUs: at Newegg, the entire top 30 best-selling cards are entirely Nvidia models, with no AMD card in sight, a sad state of affairs when it comes to price competitiveness. . (And of course that’s why Nvidia’s graphics cards aren’t dropping in price as fast as Team Red’s RX 6000 GPUs).
The other point regarding pricing is that rumor has it that Nvidia will also be the first to market high-end products, so given the general demand situation, and releasing its new GPUs first, it’s hard to imagine a situation where the Team Green would be looking to go easy with MSRPs. In fact, we would expect a slight price increase for all of the above reasons, at least with some models at launch.
Okay, prices aside, there are 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 about the lack of power in this regard ( not to mention the anticipation that a 12GB load is being reserved for a future 4070 Ti).
Honestly, though, we’d be wary of putting too much stock in this particular part of the rumor here, as it seems like a bit of an awkward path for Nvidia with the memory configuration. Time will tell, although the supposed 300W power consumption doesn’t point to a weak RTX 4070 sauce, of course – this is almost hitting RTX 3080 (320W) levels.
As for the RTX 4090 and 4080 launching at 450W and 420W, the former appears to be something of the recent consensus reached on the GPU vine, while the latter seems very close to the power consumption of the flagship. Again, this could be wrong, of course – it’s saying the leaker marks this 420W figure with a question mark, and that’s the only place it pops up with the TBPs rumors – but it’s possible. As we discussed before, the RTX 3080 and 3090 had the same 30W difference (350W and 320W respectively), so this is not unprecedented.
However, what’s interesting to note is that Kopite7kimi recently claimed a 99% confidence level in that 420W prediction for the RTX 4080, and there’s still a question mark added here – which seems like a step back from the RTX 4080 level. previous trust.
All of this just underlines how unstable and fickle these rumor factory theories tend to be. To sum it up, let’s keep quiet for now and not jump to conclusions, because the RTX 4000’s release isn’t too far away, and we might even have an official reveal – or at least firmer rumors – in a relatively short time.