Nvidia is said to launch the Geforce RTX 3080 Ti in January 2021

Expectations for Nvidia’s launch of the Geforce RTX 3000 series graphics cards were sky high in advance, and after the launch of the first three models, demand has far exceeded the number of graphics chips Nvidia and the company’s manufacturing partner Samsung have managed to produce. However, not everything is gold and green forests in Nvidia’s camp, as AMD with the Radeon RX 6000 series looks to offer tougher resistance than expected.

As preliminary reports indicate, AMD is investing in offering a larger amount of graphics memory in all Radeon RX 6000 cards, which are equipped with 16 GB GDDR6. Nvidia certainly equips the Geforce RTX 3080 and RTX 3090 top cards with faster GDDR6X memory, but the RTX 3080 still lands in a smaller amount of memory of 10 GB compared to AMD’s alternatives. Nvidia’s response to the shortcoming appears to be upgraded Ti models with just more memory.

According to a report from the Chinese technology site HKEPC, the upgraded model Geforce RTX 3080 Ti will arrive as soon as January 2021, where the specifications point to a graphics card that plants itself between the monster card Geforce RTX 3090 and the slightly simpler performance card RTX 3080. The information comes from an unnamed partner (AIB) in Taiwan, which indicates both the circuit and the capacity to be expected.

The information indicates that the RTX 3080 Ti is at the same level as the top card RTX 3090 in terms of the number of CUDA cores, which measures 10,496. The graphics circuit in question is the same GA102 used in RTX 3090. According to the report, the only noticeable difference between the two should be in the amount of graphics memory and the width of the memory bus. Here, the newcomer takes the step down from 24 GB GDDR6X in RTX 3090 to 20 GB in RTX 3080 Ti.

Geforce RTX 3080 Ti vs sibling models and Radeon RX 6900 XT

* The specifications come from leaked information and may be considered speculative until requested to be confirmed.

The memory bus is in turn scaled down from 384 bits in the RTX 3090 to the same 320 bits used in the current Geforce RTX 3080. The report does not list the graphics memory speed, but the memory bandwidth comes closer to the 760 GB / s available with the RTX 3080 versus the 936 GB / s that RTX 3090 can handle. The TDP level also sticks to the RTX 3080 with 320 watts.

In terms of price level, the Geforce RTX 3080 Ti is stated to be priced to compete with AMD’s upcoming flagship Radeon RX 6900 XT, as the stated price tag is the same 999 USD or approximately SEK 10,800 including VAT. The duo thus puts themselves a bit below RTX 3090, which costs USD 1,490 or approximately SEK 16,800 including VAT.

The performance of the Radeon RX 6900 XT against its Geforce RTX 3000 competitors will be revealed on November 18, 2020, when AMD’s graphics card on the RDNA 2 architecture will go on sale. If the report turns out to be true, Nvidia’s counterpart Geforce RTX 3080 Ti will be launched in January 2021.

Read more about Nvidia’s Geforce RTX 3000 series: