Nvidia’s RTX 4080 is said to have new tweaks on the GPU, which could bring down costs — but unfortunately, any price cuts are likely to be very small, if they happen at all.
Tom’s Hardware (opens in a new tab) Flagged this rumor – and treated it with caution, like anything from a constantly rotating factory – originated in Hong Kong EPC (opens in a new tab) (Hong Kong technology website) claims that while the current RTX 4080 graphics card is built on the AD103-300 chip, Nvidia will use a slightly different GPU in the future, namely the AD103-301.
Now, Tom’s points out, there’s more evidence that this is actually happening: Graphics card maker Galax labels the GPU as “AD103-300/301” in its RTX 4080 product details listing.
also, graphics card (opens in a new tab)which also noted this, tells us that another card manufacturer, Gainward, also lists a newer GPU variant, the AD103-301, in its product specs.
Two independent third-party graphics card manufacturers mentioned this new feature on the GPU in their specifications, and it seems likely that this is actually happening–this has yet to be confirmed by Nvidia, of course.
HKEPC further claims that the inbound RTX 4070 (the vanilla version of the RTX 4070 Ti, which has just been unveiled) may also take the approach of two different chips, in this case, the theoretical AD104-250 and AD104-251. The difference is that The former is said to use a comparator circuit, while the latter does not and will use a different circuit board, potentially reducing the card’s manufacturing cost.
The same goes for the RTX 4080 and the new AD103-301, which will likely bring down the cost of building it (known in the industry as a BOM or bill of materials). The key question is, if all of this applies to two or one of the GPUs, how much cheaper would the second variant actually be?
Analysis: Does this mean cheaper graphics cards — or is it a false hope?
HKEPC estimates that assuming the cost gap between the different versions of the RTX 4070 could be as little as $1 in terms of bill of materials, which is obviously a small amount and probably won’t have much of an impact on the price consumers pay. Sources utilized by VideoCardz also claim that any cost difference will not be significant.
We haven’t given any numbers on the potential difference in the cost of manufacturing the RTX 4080 version, but the new AD103-301 will likely bring the cost down even more, perhaps meaning that the card does become less expensive for consumers. However, this is likely a similarly very small reduction in BOM, which certainly won’t affect the price of the RTX 4080’s second spin.
Time will tell, but given Nvidia’s stance on overall Lovelace GPU pricing, it’s hard to be optimistic.
Another question is the change to the RTX 4080 chip, will this affect performance? The rumor mill asserts very clearly that it won’t, that the AD103-301 chip won’t perform any higher than the existing AD103-300. This makes sense, since Nvidia may be careful not to make those who have already paid for an RTX 4080 regret it and throw a lot of cash at it.
The overall result of this could be that the graphics card has the same level of performance — or is so similar that it’s negligibly similar — and saves the motherboard manufacturer a small amount that may not be passed on to the consumer. Expect a more favorable situation from a cost standpoint though, so if you’re in the market for a high-end GPU, please advise.
