While the Nvidia GeForce RTX 50-series cards that were announced this week at CES 2025 have initially wooed us with somewhat reasonable pricing and frame generation magic, they haven't been showstoppers on the memory front. That's especially the case given it looks like AMD's RX 9070 graphics cards will have 16 GB of VRAM and presumably be cheaper than Nvidia's 16 GB cards.
However, if a recent MSI packaging mistake (via Videocardz) and Gigabyte listing mistake (via Videocardz) are anything to go by, the milquetoast memory configs of most of the 50-series cards—not terrible by any stretch, but nothing to write home about—might have only been a recent change. And, moreover, these "mistakes" might signify future RTX 5080 GDDR7 configs.
In a video which now seems to have been changed or shortened, MSI reportedly showed RTX 4080 Vanguard Launch Edition packaging that claimed 24 GB of GDDR7 RAM for the card—8 GB more than it actually has. Judging by the product page for this graphics card, MSI seems to have corrected this packaging to say 16 GB of GDDR7 memory.
It's important to note that 24 GB capacity, 32 Gbps speed GDDR7 memory should be available from Micron at some point, so this specific configuration—combining both MSI and Gigabyte "mistakes"—makes sense. This memory will use 3 GB modules to make up the 24 GB total, with a presumed 256-bit bus width (8x 3 GB modules, each 32 bits wide).
If this memory capacity and speed was initially planned but then scrapped—perhaps to keep prices lower or because the memory might not be in mass production yet—it could be on the table for a 50-series Super refresh down the line.
