GeForce RTX 4070 hardware specification confusion continues as Nvidia is reportedly considering two different boards

Nvidia is reportedly launching the GeForce RTX 40 “Lovelace” GPUs in October. So, we are still a few months away before we start hearing official hardware specifications from Nvidia directly. Until then, leaks are all we have and if the latest from kopite7kimi is true, the specifications of the RTX 4070 are not final as Nvidia is considering two versions of the card.

We have seen quite a few rumored specs of the RTX 4070. From a card that could outperform an RTX 3090 Ti to a board that may match the RTX 3090, the rumored hardware profile of the RTX 3070's successor is still up in the air. According to leaker kopit7kimi, Nvidia may be reviewing two versions of the RTX 4070. One version, the PG141-SKU340/341, allegedly represents the full implementation of the AD104 GPU with 7,680 CUDA cores and a total card power of 285 W. The TimeSpy Extreme score of this SKU is rumored to be closer to 11,000.

The second version, the PG141-SKU336/337, supposedly features 7,168 CUDA cores and a total card power of 250 W. Kopite suggests the TSE score of this board to be less than 10,000. In other words, if the SKU336/337 RTX 4070 pans out, it will match the RTX 3090 in performance.

Aside from the performance delta, the major difference between the two RTX 4070 SKUs is the memory configuration. The SKU340/341 supposedly enjoys 12 GB of GDDR6X VRAM operating at 21 Gbps and a 192-bit wide bus for a total bandwidth of 504 GB/s. On the other hand, the SKU336/337 has 10 GB of GDDR6X VRAM also running at 21 Gbps, a 160-bit wide bus, and a total bandwidth of 420 GB/s, 84 GB/s less than the former.

So why are there two versions of the RTX 4070 this close to launch? VideoCardz posits that Nvidia will most probably base the RTX 4070 Founders Edition around one of these SKUs while leaving the other for AIB partners for “semi-custom” designs. There is also the possibility of Nvidia launching the weaker design as the vanilla RTX 4070 card and following it up with an RTX 4070 Ti using the SKU with the full AD104 GPU.

Whatever Nvidia decides to do, one thing is pretty clear: the RTX 4070 will most likely be the sweet spot for PC gamers looking to adopt Lovelace.

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