NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Now Rumored For February Launch With 20GB GDDR6X
In our GeForce RTX 3080 review, we were plenty impressed with the card's overall performance, and its relatively quiet operation was the cherry on top. NVIDIA has since launched three other Ampere cards—GeForce RTX 3090, 3070, and 3060 Ti—and more are on the way. One of them is the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti, and it now sounds like it will debut in February 2021.
Keep in mind that the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti is not an official SKU. NVIDIA has made no official mention or confirmation of the card's existence or pending launch. However, there have been plenty of leaks and rumors, including listings within the Eurasian Economic Commission's (EEC's) website by NVIDIA's add-in board partners, and a reference within HP's driver code.
On top of that, AMD came out swinging with its Radeon RX 6000 series, with all three of its cards—Radeon RX 6900 XT, 6800 XT, and 6800—touting 16GB of GDDR6 memory. In contrast, the GeForce RTX 3080 wields 10GB of memory, albeit of the faster GDDR6X variety. So, we are fairly confident that a Ti model with more memory is in the works, as has been rumored.
As to when it will arrive and how much memory it will have, Igor Wallossek from Igor's Lab claims to have heard from several sources that NVIDIA is eyeballing a launch after the Chinese New Year. The sources say the end of February would be the earliest debut, and it is possible the card could launch even sometime later.
NVIDIA may not be in a big rush because (A) stock is so scarce as it is, relative to demand, and (B) the GeForce RTX 3080 is generally faster than the Radeon RX 6800 XT, despite the memory disadvantage (albeit not across the board).
The sources also reiterate what we have heard before, which is that the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti will arrive with 20GB of memory (presumably GDDR6X as well). This could help with higher resolution gameplay, though it will be interesting to see if the card also boasts more CUDA cores, for more of a performance punch over the non-Ti model. NVIDIA just has to be careful to find balance between it and the GeForce RTX 3090, so as not to cannibalize the higher end part.