It did not take lengthy for the GeForce RTX 4070 to place itself as one of many greatest graphics playing cards for players. Nevertheless, in line with new data from kopite7kimi (opens in new tab), one of many extra credible leakers within the {hardware} scene, a second variant of the GeForce RTX 4070 might already be within the pipeline.
Chipmakers have been salvaging silicon for ages, and rightfully so these days since wafer costs don’t get any cheaper. Take the GeForce RTX 3070 Ti, initially launched with the GA104 silicon. Nvidia would later recycle faulty GA102 silicon and slip them into the GeForce RTX 3070 Ti. Nevertheless, the die-swap occurred a little bit over a yr after the graphics card’s launch. The GeForce RTX 4070 simply got here out final month, so it appears a bit early for Nvidia to place out a second variant.
At the moment, there are two theories. The extra apparent says Nvidia is simply salvaging dies because of expensive wafers — what else can it do with AD103 chips the place one of many reminiscence controllers would not work? The opposite rumor claims that switching to the brand new die may pave the best way for a GeForce RTX 4070 with 16GB of reminiscence.
The GeForce RTX 4070 at the moment makes use of the AD104 silicon that homes 60 Streaming Multiprocessors (SMs), however solely 46 are enabled on the graphics card. The present rumor is that Nvidia might repurpose the AD103 silicon for the GeForce RTX 4070. The AD103 silicon, which powers the GeForce RTX 4080, is larger than the AD104 die, so it is a greater than sufficient substitute. The GeForce RTX 4070 solely has 5,888 CUDA cores, that means a GeForce RTX 4070 AD103 would have barely greater than half of the SMs disabled.
Nvidia has acquired a lot criticism, together with from AMD, for under incorporating 12GB of reminiscence on the GeForce RTX 4070. AMD gloated that its Radeon 16GB graphics playing cards begin from $479 (now), whereas shoppers do not get the identical quantity of reminiscence on the newest GeForce RTX 40-series graphics card till they hit the GeForce RTX 4080 tier, which begins at $1,199. This might gas Nvidia to launch a GeForce RTX 4070 16GB. Gigabyte had beforehand listed a GeForce RTX 4070 16GB on its web site, lending some credence to the speculation.
Avid gamers would most likely prefer to see a GeForce RTX 4070 16GB with the rising VRAM necessities from trendy triple-A video games. Nevertheless, not less than at this level, it is unlikely that one will launch. Releasing a 16GB mannequin this early would solely anger early GeForce RTX 4070 adopters — and let’s not overlook the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti, which additionally has 12GB. The common GeForce RTX 4070, at $599, is already exhausting to swallow, and including extra reminiscence would solely push the MSRP even larger. Though that would not be a extreme subject with the GeForce RTX 40-series product stack since each SKU to this point carries a premium price ticket.
In keeping with a dependable supply, Nvidia will allegedly announce the GeForce RTX 4060 Ti this month. We have solely seen retailer listings for an 8GB mannequin; nevertheless, a 16GB variant is reportedly launching too. The GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 16GB, seemingly hitting the retail market in July, would be the most cost-effective Ada Lovelace SKU with 16GB that players should buy. Nvidia may use clamshell mode on the VRAM and simply put reminiscence on each side of the PCB as effectively, which might enable for 16GB with solely a 128-bit interface.
We’ll have to attend to seek out out extra concerning the RTX 4060 Ti and whether or not or not a 4070 16GB mannequin is forthcoming. We totally count on to see an 8GB 4060 Ti, and the RTX 3060 additionally launched with a 12GB mannequin despite the fact that the RTX 3060 Ti, RTX 3070, and RTX 3070 Ti have been all restricted to simply 8GB. So it is not out of the query for a decrease tier half to be obtainable with extra VRAM than larger tier components.