Nvidia restarts GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB production to get rid of excess Ampere stock

With the Ada Lovelace RTX 4000 series of graphics cards slated to launch soon, Nvidia has been trying hard to get rid of excess stock by offering hefty discounts. In yet another bid to empty shelves, Nvidia is bringing back a questionably-specced graphics card, the GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB. The move comes shortly after the SKU was discontinued mere months after its January 2022 reveal.

Twitter leaker MEGAsizeGPU (via Videocardz) has learned from industry sources that Nvidia has too many GA102 GPUs lying around in its inventory. It isn't surprising, given that the increased demand for graphics cards during the mining craze has since died down since cryptocurrencies went belly up. Ideally, Nvidia shouldn't have too much getting rid of its GA102 stock. After all, it does power a litany of graphics cards ranging from the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti to the original GeForce RTX 3080.

The GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB is one of Nvidia's more questionable Ampere releases For starters, there was never an official MSRP for the card, allowing sellers to charge exorbitant amounts for it. It offers an extra 2 GB of VRAM along with additional CUDA cores (8,960 vs 8,704 on the base RTX 3080), and a faster 384-bit memory bus. The bump-up comes with an increased TGP (350 Watts) and a lower base clock.

Now that the GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB is back in production, one can expect to see it sold at attractive prices. Ideally, one would be better off waiting for the RTX 4000 series for its unparalleled performance uplift and overclocking abilities. However, it wouldn't be entirely unwise to buy a GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB now, provided that you get a good deal on it, as one could potentially have to wait until 2023 for the GeForce RTX 4080 and RTX 4070 to hit shelves.

Buy the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Ti on Amazon