Is the RTX 4070 Ti just a rebranded RTX 4080 12GB?
Short answer: yeah, probably
➡️ The Shortcut Skinny: RTX 4080 lite
❌ Nvidia cancelled the 12GB RTX 4080 over confusing name
👀 A GPU with the same specs was leaked on a manufacturer site
💸 RTX 4070 Ti will likely be around $899
When Nvidia announced the RTX 4080, there were originally two models of the second-best GPU: the 16GB version that eventually came out in November and a 12GB version that the company ceremoniously cancelled. But from the looks of it, that 12GB graphics card could be rebranded and released soon.
Nvidia’s big issue with the 12GB RTX 4080 is the same problem I had with it – the naming was confusing for a graphics card so much weaker than the, well, other RTX 4080 out there. Now, rumors point to the canceled GPU becoming the RTX 4070 Ti – despite the fact we don’t even have a regular RTX 4070 yet.
You see, before it was taken down, VideoCardz spotted a product page for an RTX 4070 Ti that was uploaded by third-party components maker Colorful. The apparent leak suggests that the RTX 4070 Ti will be a graphics card based on the AD104 GPU, with 12GB of VRAM and a 285W GPU – the same spec as the canceled RTX 4080 12GB.
Further reports suggest that the RTX 4070 Ti will be cheaper than the original RTX 4080 12GB price of $999 as well. Wccftech, for instance, has an anonymous tip that the new graphics card will be $899, but I’d take that with a grain of salt – even if that’s the price that’d be competitive with the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT.
All of this remains to be seen, but for anyone that wants an Nvidia graphics card but doesn’t want to shell out more than a thousand bucks for a 4080 or 4090, it seems you won’t have to wait much longer.
Where is the RTX 4070?
So that kind of explains where the Nvidia RTX 4070 Ti is, but we still don’t know what’s going on with the, well, RTX 4070. For the past … forever, Nvidia has released its xx70 variant right alongside the xx80 graphics card. But with Ada Lovelace, it seems the company wanted to only launch its most expensive cards and let anyone with a budget less than a month of rent settle for last-generation tech.
Nvidia definitely isn’t the only company doing this, AMD did the same with the Radeon RX 7900 XTX and Radeon RX 7900 XT. Team Red’s launches are only slightly more palatable because its GPUs are slightly less expensive. But who knows whether or not those graphics cards are going to have competitive performance.
CES 2023 is right around the corner, though, and I can only hope that both AMD and Nvidia decide to launch more affordable graphics cards there, so more people have a chance to build the best gaming PC they can afford. Because let me tell you, the best PC games aren’t getting any easier to run, and even with upscaling tech like DLSS and FSR, more powerful GPUs are needed. Especially if ray tracing continues to be a selling point for games.