Nvidia Cancels Least expensive PC Graphics Card, Leaving Solely Priciest

When you had been planning to purchase a brand new 40-series Nvidia GPU this 12 months, you would possibly want to save lots of up much more cash than deliberate. That’s as a result of the GPU producer has confirmed its plans to “unlaunch” the beforehand deliberate, and cheaper, 12GB RTX 4080 mannequin. As an alternative, now, solely the costlier and quicker 16GB RTX 4080 will launch subsequent month.

A couple of weeks in the past, following many rumors and far hypothesis, Nvidia lastly introduced its subsequent sequence of high-end PC graphics playing cards. The plan then was to launch two completely different flavors of RTX 4080 GPUs in November: the 16GB RTX 4080 ($1199) and a 12GB RTX 4080 ($899). It additionally introduced a $1600 4090 throughout that very same occasion. These costs went over about in addition to you would possibly anticipate, with many claiming they had been too costly. And now the “most cost-effective” of those new, dear playing cards isn’t even launching subsequent month.

Learn Extra: Nvidia’s New 40-Sequence PC Graphics Playing cards Are Too Rattling Costly

As introduced right now by Nvidia, the corporate is “unlaunching” the 12GB RTX 4080. It claims it’s because, whereas the cardboard is “improbable,” it’s too “complicated” to have two completely different GPUs which are each designated “RTX 4080.” This echoes criticism that arose from many customers after the current 40-series bulletins; many prompt that the clearly decrease specs of the 12GB RTX 4080 had been extra akin to a theoretical “4070” or “4079” card.

Kotaku has contacted Nvidia concerning the cancelation and the way forward for the 12GB RTX 4080 mannequin.

“So, we’re urgent the ‘unlaunch’ button on the 4080 12GB,” mentioned Nvidia in a brief assertion posted on the corporate’s official web site. “The RTX 4080 16GB is superb and on observe to thrill players all over the place on November sixteenth.”

After all, it’s exhausting to not see this transfer as a means for Nvidia to push extra of its prospects—a lot of whom have been holding off on shopping for a brand new GPU for a number of years now whereas playing cards remained exhausting to purchase—into spending extra money on a pricier card. And whereas preliminary previews of the cheaper 12GB 4080 had proven it to be significantly slower than the costlier 16GB model, it was nonetheless good to have at the very least one possibility that price beneath $1,000. However that’s now gone. What’s going to occur stays to be seen, however maybe Nvidia will truly find yourself rebranding the 12GB RTX 4080s into 4070s.