Nvidia announces new RTX 3080 with 12GB of memory

Nvidia is launching a new 12GB model of its RTX 3080 today. Initially revealed in Nvidia's latest GeForce drivers, the new 12GB model goes on sale today from select board partners and offers 2GB more memory than the original 1080 RTX 3080.

A memory bump is welcome, especially as it was a source of concern during our initial review of the RTX 3080 in 2020. It also matches the 12GB found on the RTX 3080 Ti. This new RTX 3080 model also includes 8960 CUDA cores, which is about 3 percent more than the original. The increased memory also means this GPU has 10 percent more cumulative bandwidth than the original 384GB version, thanks to a wider 384-bit memory bus.

Nvidia is still recommending a 750W power supply, but this 12GB RTX 3080 draws an additional 30 watts of power, up to a total of 350 watts, compared to the 320W draw on the original RTX 3080.

It's a relatively minor upgrade compared to the original RTX 3080, and it's guaranteed to be just as difficult to buy in stores. Nvidia's new 12GB RTX 3080 comes just days after the company announced the new RTX 3090 Ti and $249 RTX 3050 with faster memory and better performance. The budget RTX 3050 offers ray tracing and DLSS support at a more affordable price, assuming you're going to snag one at the retail price. Nvidia is promising to reveal more details about the RTX 3090 Ti later this month.

The price of the RTX 3080 12GB will largely be decided by on board partners, so we look forward to hearing further announcements from vendors to determine the price of this new GPU.