Nvidia decided last Friday that it was “launching”a low-end 12GB version of its upcoming GeForce RTX 4080 graphics card so it could be renamed and released at a later date. This was good news for people who care about these things: The $899 12GB RTX 4080 and $1199 16GB RTX 4080 were vastly different cards with very different levels of performance. Giving them the same name would cause unnecessary frustration and confusion for buyers of a cheaper card.
The problem for GPU manufacturers is that Nvidia planned to release these cards in mid-November, and partners have already begun manufacturing and packaging them so they can be shipped to retailers. Gamers Nexus spoke to sources at two of Nvidia’s partner boards about some of these logistical hurdles, saying existing boxes for 12GB RTX 4080 cards are “collected and destroyed”and that Nvidia, “at least subsidizing the boxes, or part of them,”is subject to replacement.”The relabeled GPUs are supposed to be reintroduced or relaunched (or not released?) at CES in January 2023.
There will also be other costs for board partners, both for GPUs that have already been produced and those that will be produced after Nvidia decides on a name (Gamers Nexus says it didn’t, but that “4070”or “4070 Ti”seems most likely). GPU coolers usually have the card name and model number printed somewhere, sometimes prominently with programmable LEDs at the bottom. These coolers will either need to be renamed, reprinted, or replaced to replace the old RTX 4080 branding with the new one.
The BIOS on the cards will also need to be flashed in order for the GPUs to correctly identify themselves (both to drivers and operating systems) with the new model number, rather than showing up as RTX 4080 cards. Nexus gamers and its sources didn’t know for sure if Nvidia would also adjust the card’s specs to match the new model name, though Nvidia’s announcement last week makes that unlikely.
“The RTX 4080 12GB is a fantastic graphics card, but it’s misnamed,”reads the original blog post. Changing its specs just because the name changes could run the risk of making it less “fantastic”and likely spark the same kind of consumer backlash that prompted Nvidia to change the name in the first place.
Finally, Gamers Nexus reports that Nvidia will “also lower the price”of its rebranded GPU to reflect the new name. This can be tricky for partners who were already producing cards given their old retail price, especially as profit margins for these board partners are already quite low, reportedly. If you built GPUs for (say) $700 or $800 expecting to sell them for $900, you’ll only have so many opportunities to cut the price before you start losing money, and we don’t know if Nvidia will offer some kind of discount. or compensation for partners who have already purchased these GPU die.
Asked by Ars about compensation, an Nvidia spokesperson told us the company had “nothing to add.”
One partner that won’t be affected? EVGA, which ended its longtime relationship with Nvidia in September due to a perceived lack of communication as well as competition from Nvidia’s Founders Edition cards. There were other sides to this story – EVGA’s GPU profit margins were supposedly lower than some of Nvidia’s other board partners because they didn’t make their own PCBs or coolers, for example – but if you want to prove that Nvidia can be hard to work with, “renaming a GPU weeks before release and only partially compensating partners for problems”is a pretty good example.