NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB Graphics Card Specs Leak Out – 8960 Cores, 384-bit Bus & 20% Faster Than 3080 In Mining

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB graphics card is indeed real and coming to the market soon with upgraded specifications as reported by Videocardz.

At the heart of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB graphics card lies the GA102 GPU. The GA102 is one of the many Ampere GPUs that we have seen in the high-end gaming segment and is so far the fastest gaming GPU that NVIDIA has produced. The GPU is based on Samsung's 8nm custom process node designed specifically for NVIDIA and features a total of 28 Billion transistors. It measures at 628mm2 which makes it the 2nd biggest gaming GPU ever produced right below the Turing TU102 GPU.

For the GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB, NVIDIA has enabled a total of 70 SM units which results in a total of 8960 CUDA cores, a 3% increase over the standard RTX 3080. In addition to the CUDA cores, NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 3080 also comes packed with next-generation RT (Ray-Tracing) cores, Tensor cores, and brand new SM or streaming multi-processor units. The card is suggested to have a TDP of 350W.

In terms of memory, the updated GeForce RTX 3080 comes packed with 12 GB of memory and that too is the next-generation GDDR6X design. With Micron's latest and greatest graphics memory dies, the RTX 3080 can deliver GDDR6X memory speeds of 19.0 Gbps. That along with a bus interface of 384-bit will deliver a cumulative bandwidth of 912 GB/s or a 20% increase over the 10 GB variant.

As for the card itself, it is stated to launch in late January as suggested in a rumor from yesterday which mentioned that this card and the GeForce RTX 3070 Ti 16 GB have been delayed by NVIDIA and the only card to make it on time for launch on 27th January would be the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti. In terms of performance, the graphics card is expected to be just slightly faster in gaming with a 5 percent average boost but for miners, the card might hold a special spot as the updated memory will help it push crypto performance by up to 20% over the 10 GB variant. The card is stated to get 52 MH/s over the 43 MH/s that the LHR variant of the RTX 3080 produces. With that said, there are currently several LHR hacks and unlocks out in the market that can push the performance further up.

This would mean that the RTX 3080 12 GB is likely another card that would be going in the hands of miners first than gamers. The pricing is expected to be close to $999 US MSRP but we know that the actual price is going to be way higher than what MSRP's are these days. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB would also tackle Intel's high-end ARC lineup though that is only expected to be as fast as the RTX 3070 Ti.