NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 12GB to feature 8960 CUDA cores, 20% faster in mining than 10GB model

NVIDIA RTX 3080 12GB, more cores, faster memory, and better mining performance?

We have managed to obtain preliminary specifications of the upcoming RTX 3080 12GB SKU. 

As you might have read yesterday, the release date of RTX 3070 Ti 16GB and RTX 3080 12GB is now uncertain. Both cards were originally supposed to be announced on December 17th, with the launch date planned for January 11th. However, the RTX 3070 Ti 16GB does indeed appear to be pushed back until after Chinese New Year (February 1st). We do not know if the RTX 3080 12GB has been canceled or simply pushed back, but we can confirm that such GPUs were already distributed to board partners. One thing is clear though, the RTX 30 memory upgrade appears to be a direct response to Intel Arc Alchemist now expected in Q2 2022, so there is clearly no rush.

The upcoming RTX 3080 12GB will not only feature more memory, but also a wider 384-bit memory bus (which is required for such configuration), and as a result higher bandwidth (912 GB/s vs 760 GB/s on 10GB variant). Thanks to a faster memory, the card will be faster in ETH crypto mining. The official LHR (Lite Hash Rate) figures claim it will be 20% faster at 52 MH/s compared to 43 MH/s.

Moving on to CUDA core count. It was already known that this variant is to feature GA102-220 GPU, but it wasn’t clear whether it offers more cores than the 10GB variant. If it does, why even call this card the same as the 10GB model, and not RTX 3085 or RTX 3080 SUPER instead? Well, as it turns out, the RTX 3080 12GB will indeed have more cores, 8960 CUDAs to be exact (256 more cores, +2.9%).

It should be noted that 8960 CUDA core count was first mentioned by @kopite7kimi as a supposed configuration of RTX 3080 SUPER. To be honest, it would really make more sense to call this card ‘SUPER’. Spawning multiple configurations of the same SKU is never a good idea.

The memory upgrade comes at a cost. According to the specs, RTX 3080 12GB will have 340-350W TDP, almost as high as RTX 3080 Ti which offers more cores, but also the same memory configuration. The clock speeds are not mentioned, so one could assume they are the same as 10GB’s SKU, but we cannot confirm it at this time.

As mentioned earlier, RTX 3080 12GB might now launch somewhere in mid to late January. We expect to hear more from our sources soon on this SKU, so if there’s a significant development, such as a new release date, we will make a new post (even it changes again). Out of all desktop SKUs planned for Q1, the RTX 3090 Ti now has priority. However, one should also expect RTX 3050 around the same time.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30 High-End SKU Specifications
VideoCardz	RTX 3090 Ti	RTX 3090	RTX 3080 Ti	RTX 3080 12GB	RTX 3080 (10GB)
Picture	[ to be leaked ]			[ to be leaked ]
GPU	GA102-350	GA102-300	GA102-225	GA102-220	GA102-200
GPU Clusters	84	82	80	70	68
CUDAs	10752	10496	10240	8960	8704
RT Cores	84	82	80	70	68
Tensors/TMUs	336	328	320	280	272
Base Clock	TBC	1395 MHz	1365 MHz	TBC	1440 MHz
Boost Clock	TBC	1695 MHz	1665 MHz	TBC	1710 MHz
Memory	24 GB G6X	24 GB G6X	12 GB G6X	12 GB G6X	10 GB G6X
Bus	384-bit	384-bit	384-bit	384-bit	320-bit
Memory Clock	21 Gbps	19.5 Gbps	19 Gbps	19 Gbps	19 Gbps
Bandwidth	1008 GB/s	936 GB/s	912 GB/s	912 GB/s	760 GB/s
TDP	450W	350W	350W	~350W	320W
MSRP	TBC	$1,499	$1,199	TBC	$699
Release Date	January 2022	September 24th, 2020	June 3rd, 2021	January 2022 (?)	September 17th, 2020