Nvidia bans factory overclocking of cheaper RTX graphics cards

Soon it’s time for Nvidia’s new graphics cards Geforce RTX 2080 and RTX 2080 Ti, which will be the first with that architecture “Turing” for ordinary consumers. Due to delays, the Geforce RTX 2080 will be the first to hit the market, and the more powerful model will not be released until a week later.

Via Techpowerup, information is now appearing that Nvidia has given each model two different device IDs, something that the company has not done for previous launches. For Geforce RTX 2080 Ti, for example, it is about TU102-300 and TU102-300-A and what distinguishes them is that models without “A” must not be overclocked from the factory.

The designation TU102-300-A is intended for factory overclocked models from both partner manufacturers and Nvidia, while the TU102-300 is for cheaper models that will be around the recommended price tag. However, both can be overclocked manually by the user after purchase, but it is likely that the more expensive ones have circuits with better potential for the purpose.

In all probability, the division of models also means that there will be no factory-overclocked graphics cards available at Nvidia’s target prices. The consequence is believed to be that those who stick to these prices will be cheaper models with less expensive coolers.

The designation TU102 refers to the circuit of the same name used for the RTX 2080 Ti and one of several aspects that characterizes it is the size, with a circuit silence of 752 mm². Under the hood are a total of 18.6 billion transistors and 4,352 CUDA cores, which is accompanied by 11 GB of GDDR6 memory with a base frequency of 1,350 MHz and a turbo frequency of 1,545 MHz.

Nvidia Geforce RTX 2080 Ti and RTX 2080 are available for pre-booking via Nvidia’s website, and they will be launched on 27 and 20 September respectively. The prices for the graphics cards in the Swedish online store are SEK 13,999 and SEK 9,199, respectively, for models in the Founders Edition version.

For models from partner manufacturers, the target prices of 999 and 699 USD apply for Geforce RTX 2080 Ti and RTX 2080, respectively. This corresponds to approximately SEK 11,200 and 7,800, respectively, including VAT.