An RTX 3080 Ti 20 GB engineering pattern has been noticed on eBay for $2,000, proving Nvidia performs with all of the goodies we by no means get
Apart from cryptocurrency mining, GPU shortages, and Covid-19, what else does the 12 months 2021 elicit out of your reminiscence? The launch of the RTX 3080 Ti, in fact! This high-end card launched with almost as many CUDA cores, RT cores, and Tensor cores because the RTX 3090 for rather less cash, however it had one draw back: much less VRAM. Nicely, the RTX 3080 Ti that truly launched did anyhow. For an additional RTX 3080 Ti was made… the RTX 3080 Ti 20 GB.
Need proof? An engineering pattern of the RTX 3080 Ti 20 GB was simply listed on the market on eBay for $2,000 by consumer malumarbor, as noticed by our buddies at Tom’s {Hardware}.
You possibly can see the ten reminiscence chips on the rear of the PCB denoting the bump to twenty GB. The usual RTX 3080 Ti solely had 12 GB of reminiscence, with no reminiscence chips required on the reverse facet of the PCB. There’s additionally a sticker on the facet that reads: “Not on the market, for growth solely”.
It isn’t clear if the 20 GB card has really offered or not, or if the vendor acquired one other supply elsewhere, because the itemizing merely ended. Head to the eBay itemizing and hit ‘see authentic itemizing’ for all the small print.
The RTX 3080 Ti 20 GB is the graphics card we ought to have acquired in 2021. It was alleged with numerous specs, at the same time as many cores because the RTX 3090 at one level, however importantly was stated to characteristic 20 GB of GDDR6X reminiscence—solely 4 GB in need of the RTX 3090. But one thing modified; Nvidia had a change of coronary heart, deciding late within the sport to ditch the 20 GB config.
This transformation got here late within the day, as evidenced by one consumer noticing their RTX 3090 GPU has the code for the RTX 3080 Ti etched onto it and subsequently crossed out. Later, it was revealed that some cryptocurrency miners in Russia acquired their palms on the 20 GB card—the rise in reminiscence making it a candy deal for Ethereum mining that was massive on the time.
So, it is no shock to see an RTX 3080 Ti 20 GB present up on the market. This card very almost ended up on normal sale. Although even if you happen to did buy this very card, which its vendor claims is “totally practical and in mint situation”, you would not seemingly get very far. Nvidia by no means launched official drivers for it.
The vendor notes, “On the market is a uncommon RTX 3080 Ti FE developer/engineering pattern card. The cardboard is a traditional 3080 Ti, besides that it has 20 GB of VRAM as a substitute of 12 GB.
“Please observe, with a purpose to use the cardboard for gaming/3D workloads you could use a 3rd social gathering driver like NVIDIA-patcher because the official NVIDIA driver doesn’t assist this card.”
So, it’s kind of of a paperweight, however a really cool paperweight. I am certain GPU collectors are eager to get their palms on it, although $2,000 is some huge cash for a graphics card from a tumultuous and overpriced era.
An identical story to this one, Nvidia was rumoured to launch an RTX 4090 Ti again in 2023. This card equally by no means got here, although one consumer did discover one in a bin. Yep, Nvidia’s strongest graphics card of a GeForce era thrown into the trash. The place is the humanity?! Alas, the cardboard did not fairly handle to outperform its non-Ti variant, although it by no means had correct drivers made for it, both.
So, subsequent time you dream up some wild RTX 5090 Ti Tremendous…. that graphics card would possibly exist, it’d even come out, although it simply as seemingly will get canned earlier than its time.