‘Unlaunched’ RTX 4080 12GB relaunched as NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti at cheaper price

Back in September last year, NVIDIA launched their latest generation of RTX 40 series graphics cards, featuring the RTX 4090 and not one, but two wildly different RTX 4080 models: an RTX 4080 with 16GB of VRAM and another with 12GB of VRAM. This led to a lot of criticism over the confusing naming scheme, and NVIDIA eventually relented by ‘unlaunching‘ the RTX 4080 12GB.

That wouldn’t be the last we heard of the RTX 4080 12GB though. At CES 2023, NVIDIA has finally relaunched the GPU, but this time as the more appropriately named GeForce RTX 4070 Ti instead. In fact, a quick look at the specs show that this new GPU is identical in all but name to the unlaunched graphics card, featuring 12GB of GDDR6X VRAM, 7,680 CUDA cores, a 2.31GHz base clock and a 2.61GHz boost clock along with a 192-bit memory interface width and a 285W TDP. It’ll also come with features previously announced for RTX 40 series cards such as DLSS 3.

According to NVIDIA, those of you using flagship cards from yesteryear such as the GeForce GTX 1080 Ti or even the GeForce RTX 2080 will see the RTX 4070 Ti as a ‘tremendous upgrade’, with up to 12x the performance of the GTX 1080 Ti. It also trumps last generation’s RTX 3080, with NVIDIA claiming between double to over triple the performance in 1440p gaming, while also using roughly two thirds the power consumption.

Perhaps the part PC gamers would’ve wanted to hear the most is that the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti is now priced cheaper that what it would’ve been if it was released as the RTX 4080 12GB instead. NVIDIA says that the RTX 4070 Ti will have a recommended retail price of USD799 globally, with the recommended retail price in Malaysia being RM4,150. That’s still incredibly expensive of course; just a few years ago a price tag like that would be able to snag you an 80-class graphics card rather than a 70-class GPU.

There won’t be a Founders Edition version of the RTX 4070 Ti either, so you’ll have to wait for their partners such as Asus, Galax, Gigabyte, MSI, Palit, Zotac and more to bring them to the market, with a 5 January launch date for the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti. Also announced during CES 2023 meanwhile was the mobile GeForce RTX 40 series, ranging from the GeForce RTX 4050 up to the GeForce RTX 4090 for everything between entry level content creation laptops to the most powerful mobile workstations out there; laptops powered by these GPUs should appear as early as next month.