In a surprising but somewhat welcome move, Nvidia has decided to pull the plug on the 12GB RTX 4080 due to launch in November. Or rather they're "unlaunching" it. Turns out that having two graphics cards with the same name but different specs is confusing.

There's also the criticism that has been leveled at the RTX 4080 12GB, but that's not mentioned in the official announcement. You would expect it has been heard though.

Here's the full text from the brief article posted on the GeForce Blog:

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. The RTX 4080 16GB is amazing and on track to delight gamers everywhere on November 16th.

If the lines around the block and enthusiasm for the 4090 is any indication, the reception for the 4080 will be awesome.

There's a couple of things to digest here. One is that Nvidia has heard its fans, and the press, and the idea that the RTX 4080 12GB is more like an RTX 4070 than the full-fat, 16GB RTX 4080. And that's confusing enough. It's not like buying a phone with a different level of storage. But it doesn't say it's canceled. The good news is of course that the 'true' RTX 4080 is still on track to launch next month on November 16. And if the gains shown generation-over-generation on the RTX 4090 are anything to go by, it's going to be awesome.

The RTX 4090 launch also seems to have gone quite well. Online sales we could see were stripped bare pretty quickly, but seeing folks lined up for a hot new piece of tech still warms the old nerd heart. As for what happens now with the 12GB RTX 4080, well, who knows. Maybe it'll resurface in 2023 as the RTX 4070 everyone always thought it should be.

Source: Nvidia