Nvidia surprised the media and consumers and announced last Friday that it will “unlaunch” the 12GB GeForce RTX 4080, the entry-level card among the first announced during the launch of the RTX 4000 family. Since launch, the solution has been heavily criticized for name, price and expected performance, with several users suggesting that the GPU should be released as an RTX 4070.

In the midst of a successful launch of the RTX 4090, which made one of the biggest leaps from one generation to the next despite its high price, Nvidia was heavily criticized for the strategy it adopted with the RTX 4080. The high-performance card it was divided right at launch with 16GB and 12GB VRAM versions. However, unlike what was seen in the past, the difference in performance between the two versions was stark, according to tests.

Numbers released by Nvidia itself indicated that the 12GB RTX 4080 could be up to 30% slower than the 16GB variant, although it could achieve 10% to 20% advantages over its predecessor – the difference is normally seen from one level to another, as between a RTX 3070 and an RTX 3080, and is the result of the higher CUDA core count of the most powerful model: 9,728 cores, versus 7,680 cores of the most basic model, a loss of 21%.

This was also added to the slower memory with a much lower bandwidth (736 GB/s, compared to 504 GB/s) and the use of the AD104 chip instead of the AD103 presented in the 16 GB version. All the evidence, mainly highlighting the chip commonly used in the company's 70 series, led consumers and the media to believe that this should be the RTX 4070, generating jokes and criticism, mainly due to the exorbitant price of 899 US dollars (~R$4,750). .

The specialized media believes that we will indeed see the return of the solution, possibly under the much more appropriate name of the GeForce RTX 4070. It is important to note that there are also vehicles that believe that the GPU will be known as the RTX 4070 Ti, depending on the company's plans, which would avoid a possible conflict with the original 4070 project and would allow room for the price not to be drastically reduced, if it actually is cut.

Despite the uncertainties and the embarrassing situation, Nvidia's response was well praised, even more so because it was unprecedented for the brand and unusual in the industry. Furthermore, the team is confident with the launch of the 16GB RTX 4080, now confirmed for November 16th, ensuring that the card “it’s fantastic” It is “will bring joy to gamers around the world”, a situation that could actually come to fruition if massive jumps similar to those presented by the RTX 4090 occur.

The public and media weren't the only ones caught off guard by the last-minute decision – custom license plate manufacturers (AIBs) weren't expecting news of the cancellation either. Proof of this are several advertisements for the 12GB RTX 4080, and the presence of variants on the companies' official websites. For companies, the unexpected change is delicate considering the enormous amounts of money invested in manufacturing and logistics.

Luckily for the AIBs, according to research by the Gamers Nexus channel, Nvidia would not have abandoned its partners and would bear the cost of the packaging to be collected and adjusted, or even destroyed. This is yet another indication that the card is being reissued not only because of the modification of the cases, but also because of the expenses involved in manufacturing the GPUs.

The alert, however, is for consumers who should keep an eye on the resale of RTX 4080 12GB models: There is a possibility that some units will be sold at higher prices due to the bad faith of resellers with questionable histories, if the markdown from Nvidia and AIBs is not done properly.

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