Nvidia’s last-minute 12GB RTX 4080 rebrand will be a pain for GPU makers

Late last Friday, Nvidia decided that it was "unlaunching" the lower-end 12GB version of its upcoming GeForce RTX 4080 graphics card so that it could be renamed and released at a later date. This was good news, for the people who care about this kind of thing—the $899 12GB RTX 4080 and $1,199 16GB RTX 4080 were substantially different cards with much different performance levels. Giving them both the same name could have created unnecessary disappointment and confusion for buyers of the cheaper card.

The problem for GPU makers is that Nvidia planned to launch those cards in mid-November, and partners had already started manufacturing and packaging them so they could be shipped out to retailers. Gamers Nexus has spoken with sources at two of Nvidia's board partners about some of these logistical hurdles, reporting that existing boxes for 12GB RTX 4080 cards were being "collected and destroyed" and that Nvidia "is at least subsidizing the boxes, or part of them, to be replaced." The relabeled GPUs will supposedly be reintroduced or relaunched (or un-unlaunched?) around CES in January 2023.

There will be other costs for board partners, too, both for GPUs that have already been produced and those that will be manufactured after Nvidia has settled on a name (Gamers Nexus says this hasn't happened, but that "4070" or "4070 Ti" seems most likely). GPU coolers usually have the card's name and model number printed on it somewhere, occasionally in a prominent place with programmable LEDs underneath. These coolers will either need to be rebadged, reprinted, or replaced to switch out the old RTX 4080 branding with the new branding.