NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti slated for November 17th launch: NVIDIA gunning for the midrange market?

A Videocardz report indicates that NVIDIA might be planning on launching the midrange GeForce RTX 3060 Ti as early as November 17th. The purported Ampere card will feature 4864 CUDA cores, a significant step down from the GeForce RTX 3070, and a lower 180W TDP. 

The GeForce RTX 3060 Ti looks positioned to offer GeForce RTX 2070 Super or better levels of performance, with superior Ampere ray-tracing, at a significantly lower US$399 price point. As a lower-priced alternative to halo products like the GeForce RTX 3080 and GeForce RTX 3090, the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti should move volume, assuming NVIDIA is able to meet demand with an adequate supply of chips, something it hasn't been able to do with other Ampere parts.

The timing of the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti launch is also interesting as it comes within the launch timeframe of AMD's Big Navi cards. Considering that even the Radeon RX 6800 is priced at US$579, the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti is certainly not being prepped as a competitor to AMD's top-tier offerings. Rather, it could well be NVIDIA's value play in the midrange.

This would be an interesting role reversal, considering that AMD's own US$399 Radeon RX 5700 XT occupied a similar position last year: a value-oriented second-tier part that conceded ray performance to the GeForce RTX 2080 Super and GeForce RTX 2080 Ti.