A driver device ID list from HP posted on LaptopVideo2Go (opens in new tab) (via Sweclockers (opens in new tab)) appears to confirm rumours that have been circulating for a while now: The Nvidia RTX 3080 Ti really is on the way. This isn't the only unreleased card to appear in HP's list either, with desktop and mobile variants of the RTX 3070, RTX 3060, and RTX 3050 also apparently on the way. None of these cards has officially been announced or even confirmed by Nvidia, but it sure looks like a whole lot more Ampere SKUs are on the way.
The driver list from HP doesn't make a direct reference to the GPU names, but the separate public PCI ID list (opens in new tab) can be used to cross-reference these IDs to produce the more recognisable names. For instance, this is where you'll find 2205 is a reference to the GA102 [GeForce RTX 3080 Ti].
The RTX 3080 Ti will sit somewhere between the $699 Nvidia RTX 3080 (opens in new tab) and the $1,499 Nvidia RTX 3090 (opens in new tab). No exact specifications are known at this point, but it's believed the RTX 3080 Ti will have 9,984 CUDA cores (78 streaming multiprocessors), compared to the RTX 3080's 8,704 CUDA cores (68 SMs) and the RTX 3090's 10,496 (82 SMs).
One of the more intriguing rumours doing the rounds is that the RTX 3080 Ti will have 20GB of VRAM. If true, this would eat into the market of the RTX 3090, although at the same time it could be seen as a formidable answer to the AMD RX 6800 XT (opens in new tab), which packs 16GB as opposed to the RTX 3080's 10GB. There's not a lot between the RTX 3080 and the RX 6800 XT in gaming terms, but the fact AMD's card packs more memory could be seen as advantageous further on down the line. And will at least unpick one of its key marketing points.
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Though the RTX 3080 Ti could purely be a $999 card unleashed to bury the AMD RX 6900 XT, tipping up with higher performance, more memory, and an identical price point. Though we struggle to see the worth in AMD's top GPU right now, so whether an Nvidia rival is necessary is another question entirely.
Back to the list, and there are plenty of other cards listed, include an RTX 3070 Ti and two variants of the RTX 3060, one with 6GB of VRAM and one with 12GB. There are also the mobile SKUs of the RTX 3060 and RTX 3050 (possible with Max-Q variants as well). There's no indication of when any of these new GPUs will actually land.
There's also the slight issue of ongoing stock shortages (opens in new tab) to contend with in the meantime, although it may just be that having more SKUs will enable Nvidia to use up the chips it actually has. Either way, it looks like Nvidia is set to fill out its Ampere stack as we head into 2021.
