Unannounced Ampere Graphics Cards Leaked By Gigabyte

Graphics card heavyweights Nvidia have potentially tipped their hand regarding new graphics card options from them that haven’t officially been revealed just yet.

The leak comes after the less-than-successful launch of the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080, which sold out almost instantly across every single retailer that promised to stock it day one. However, those that didn’t manage to snag day one RTX 3080 might be pleased to learn that Nvidia might be releasing more than the three initially revealed graphics cards in the Ampere lineup after all.

So, for those who don’t know, there are plenty of third-party companies who develop and retail versions of the RTX 3080 GPU for sale outside of Nvidia. Manufacturers like Asus, MSI, and Gigabyte all make their own versions of Nvidia’s graphics cards, which then go on sale to the public like anything else. Gigabyte, however, might have made a huge mistake.

The third-party graphics card manufacturer has leaked a few SKUs that point to the existence of three graphics cards we previously didn’t know about: the 3060 S, the 3070 16gb, and the 3080 20gb. The leak was spotted by Videocardz, and comes from Gigabytes own Watch Dogs: Legion code redeeming website (ironically, a game about hacking).

Let’s start by talking about the 3060. This card would obviously be less powerful than the 3070, but with the 3070 offering 2080 Ti beating performance, would it be too much for us to assume that the 3060 S would offer a level of in-game performance equivalent to the 2080 Ti – or even slightly above? So far, we are unsure on what the S on the end of the 3060 SKU means – but it could be referring to the fact that this is a Ti, or even a super version of the card, which of course suggests the existence of a regular version of the card.

Well, officially we know nothing so far. Unofficially, rumors are pointing towards the 3060 S having a CUDA core count of around 4,864 (compared to the 3070’s 5,888). It’s also expected to have a similar memory to that of the 3070, with an identical 16gb of GDDR6 ram baked into the card. As for the release date, lots of whispers are pointing at this card releasing in the same window as AMD’s new Big Navi graphics cards – which makes perfect sense, as they might sway a lot of potential buyers over to the Nvidia camp over AMD if the card is priced right.

Then there is the supposed 20gb version of the RTX 3080. If these leaks are in fact valid, and there is a version of the 3080 launching with 20gb of GDDR6X memory, then AMD could well see some serious competition in the affordable graphics card department. Whilst the regular 3080 is perfectly capable of delivering stable 4K gameplay with 120fps, an extra 10gb of processing power could see that performance lasts long into the future, with future games that take advantage of the processing power of these next-gen cards catered for very comfortably.

And of course, there is the SKU referring to the existence of a 16Gb version of the RTX 3070. Obviously, a beefier 3070 in the guise of an RTX 3070 Super would be huge news – the most affordable and the best ‘bang for your buck’ graphics card from Nvidia launching with a resilient and future proof memory load? That’s going to turn a lot of heads.

And it probably will garner a lot of attention – especially if the reveal and launch is timed as it is expected –alongside the new AMD graphics cards.

Basically, if you didn’t get your hands on an RTX 3080, and are feeling disappointed – don’t. It could pay off in the long run, just keep your eyes peeled and check back with PC Guide for all the latest news regarding Nvidia graphics cards announcements, leaks, and more.