VRAM boosted RTX 30-series cards likely shelved, RTX 3090 Ti reportedly forging ahead
Who needs VRAM when you can’t get a GPU anyway.
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
More casualties in the wake of the chip shortage are cropping up, with some of Nvidia’s higher memory card versions being the latest to hit the chopping block.
According toIgor’s Lab, sources have revealed that the releases of theNvidia RTX 3070 Ti16GB andRTX 308012GB are postponed. The cards wererumoured to be on the horizon for a while now, with the official announcement said to be coming up in just a few days on December 17. Instead, sources are saying now only the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti will be shown off at CES, and sources are saying they’ll be up for purchase just before Chinese New Year. I have no idea how much those bad boys will be going for but I suspect the price would probably make me cry.
Given the current state of things, it’s not too surprising the memory upgrades to those GPUs are being dropped for now. Any half decent graphics card will fly off the market, and the little boost in VRAM probably isn’t going to change that. We finally saw the boosted 12 GB variant of the RTX 2060 hit stores andthe price leaves a lot to be desired.
There’s no chance the upgraded RTX 3070 or RTX 3080 would be releasing with a more budget mindset, and why bother when Nvidia can flog the standard versions already just by sneezing about them with such high demand. If you’re really desperate to see anRTX 3070with 16 GB of VRAM, wellthis modder has you covered anyway.
Best CPU for gaming: the top chips from Intel and AMDBest graphics card: your perfect pixel-pusher awaitsBest SSD for gaming: get into the game ahead of the rest
Another point of speculation is Nvidia could be waiting to see AMD’s hand. Everyone in the silicon scene is under the crunch and keeping wary eyes on their competitors. Partner relations are also strained, so it could just be a case of green waiting to get a sneaky look at blue.
In the coming weeks as CES and other brand announcements flood in after the holidays, it’s likely we’ll know more about Nvidia and AMD’s plans for any upcoming cards. AMD’s is set for January 4, andmay just surprise us with some cool hardware. Plus, we’ve heard aboutbeefy cards coming to Asus laptopsto be announced. Though who knows how much any of these things will wind up costing us, or whether or not we’ll be able to buy them in the first place.
The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals
Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.
Hope’s been writing about games for about a decade, starting out way back when on the Australian Nintendo fan site Vooks.net. Since then, she’s talked far too much about games and tech for publications such as Techlife, Byteside, IGN, and GameSpot. Of course there’s also here at PC Gamer, where she gets to indulge her inner hardware nerd with news and reviews. You can usually find Hope fawning over some art, tech, or likely a wonderful combination of them both and where relevant she’ll share them with you here. When she’s not writing about the amazing creations of others, she’s working on what she hopes will one day be her own. You can find herfictional chill out ambient far future sci-fi radio show/album/listening experience podcastright here.
No, she’s not kidding.
Intel’s Battlemage GPUs rumoured to arrive in December, well ahead of AMD and Nvidia’s next-gen chips
Nvidia’s upgrading GeForce Now’s $10 tier with 1440p and Ultrawide resolutions, but the only extra Ultimate users get is a new 100-hour play limit
I desperately hope Dragon Age: The Veilguard, Baldur’s Gate 3 and Disco Elysium inspire more RPG devs to reject the traditional drip, drip, drip of DLC and expansions
