It was a “half surprise” for most of us when we learned of Nvidia’s reversal leading to the cancellation of the RTX 4080 12GB. This umpteenth episode concerning the fluctuations of the Nvidia roadmaps is not really a first with cards never launched or sometimes nipped in the bud almost at the last moment. We remember the potential RTX 3080 Ti 20Gb cancelled in extremis even if in this last case, Nvidia never made an official announcement. But the case of this 4080 12Gb seems more problematic because officially the card should arrive in November at the distributors. This implies that the green partner brands have already produced the cards and that they are even mostly packaged.
If there seems to be no doubt that the card should finally be released in a while with a different name (RTX 4070 or 4070Ti?), the costs of this “rebadging” will still weigh on the finances of the partners involved with Nvidia. We are obviously talking about the packaging stamped 4080 12Gb, the human manipulation consisting in taking the cards out of the boxes but also probably a flash of the bios of the cards to make this RTX 4080 12Gb disappear for good.
Given the tension that seems to reign between the brands and Nvidia, the company quickly communicated by indicating that a financial compensation would be granted to the brands. A way to lower the temperature temporarily.
