In a surprising last-minute change, Nvidia has decided to delay the upcoming launch of the Geforce RTX 4080 12GB card, admitting that having two 4080 cards is too “confusing.” Nvidia had originally scheduled both the RTX 4080 12GB and RTX 4080 16GB cards to release on November 16. In reaction, many fans believe that the 12GB GPU will likely be rebranded as the RTX 4070, which is what some say it should have been called in the first place.
Nvidia plans to rename the RTX 4080 12GB
That Nvidia has actually admitted to making a mistake with the name, in an official blog post no less, is a surprise:
The RTX 4080 12GB is a fantastic graphics card, but it’s not named right. Having two GPUs with the 4080 designation is confusing. So, we’re pressing the “unlaunch” button on the 4080 12GB.
Nvidia tries its best to cover its mistake by mentioning the long lines for the RTX 4090, but that it took this long for the company to realize this branding issue should raise an eyebrow or two. Any survey or focus test asking its audience about having two 4080 cards while nixing the 4070 should have had some people saying this is just silly. Fans commenting on the news on Twitter have remarked as much. That said, Nvidia has yet to announce what it will do with the 4080 12GB cards.
