It didn’t take long for the GeForce RTX 4070 to establish itself as one of the best graphics cards for gamers. However, according to new information from kopite7kimi (opens in new tab)the second variant of the GeForce RTX 4070, one of the most trusted leakers on the hardware scene, could already be in the pipeline.
Chip makers have been reclaiming silicon for years, but it’s no surprise today because wafer prices haven’t gotten cheaper. First he covers his GeForce RTX 3070 Ti which launched on GA104 silicon. Nvidia later recycled his faulty GA102 silicon and slipped it into the GeForce RTX 3070 Ti. However, his swap occurred a little over a year after the graphics card’s release. The GeForce RTX 4070 just launched last month, so it seems a bit early for Nvidia to bring out his second variant.
There are currently two theories. More obviously, Nvidia says it’s only recalling dies for expensive wafers. What else could an AD103 chip do with one of its memory controllers not working? Another rumor is that switching to a new die could pave the way for a GeForce RTX 4070 with 16 GB of memory. I claim there is.
The GeForce RTX 4070 currently utilizes AD104 silicon which houses 60 Streaming Multiprocessors (SM), but only 46 are enabled on the graphics card. Current rumors suggest that Nvidia may repurpose his AD103 silicon for his GeForce RTX 4070. The AD103 silicon that powers the GeForce RTX 4080 is larger than the AD104 die, so it’s a good replacement. The GeForce RTX 4070 only has 5,888 CUDA cores. In other words, the GeForce RTX 4070 AD103 disables just over half of the SMs.
Nvidia has received a lot of criticism, including from AMD, for only having 12GB of memory in its GeForce RTX 4070. Up-to-date his GeForce RTX 40 series graphics cards to reach the GeForce RTX 4080 tier starting at $1,199. This could lead Nvidia to release his GeForce RTX 4070 16GB. Gigabyte had previously listed his GeForce RTX 4070 16GB on their website, lending some credence to the theory.
Gamers will want the GeForce RTX 4070 16GB, which has increased VRAM requirements for the latest triple-A games. However, it’s unlikely to start, at least for now. For him to release a 16GB model this early will only anger his early GeForce RTX 4070 adapter. Don’t forget the 12GB GeForce RTX 4070 Ti. The regular GeForce RTX 4070 at $599 is already hard to swallow and adding memory only makes him an even higher MSRP. With the GeForce RTX 40-series product stack, all SKUs so far have premium price tags, so this isn’t a serious issue.
According to reliable sources, Nvidia is said to announce the GeForce RTX 4060 Ti this month. I’ve only seen retailer listings for 8GB models. However, a 16GB variant has also reportedly launched. The GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 16GB is set to hit the retail market in July, making it the cheapest 16GB Ada Lovelace SKU gamers can buy. Nvidia uses clamshell mode with VRAM and just puts the memory on both sides of the PCB, only a 128bit interface gives him 16GB.
Stay tuned for more details on the RTX 4060 Ti and whether or not we’ll see a 4070 16GB model. The RTX 3060 Ti, RTX 3070, and RTX 3070 Ti were all capped at just 8GB, but we fully expect the 8GB 4060 Ti to arrive, and the RTX 3060 has also launched in a 12GB model. rice field. So it’s not out of the question that lower tier parts have more VRAM available than higher tier parts.
