Nvidia’s rumored RTX 4070 Ti has been the subject of yet more leakage, again from a graphics card maker. This time we’ve been treated to spilled images of PNY’s cards, and the full specs of the 4070 Ti – which will come as a relief to those who were concerned about recent chatter regarding a big slash in the CUDA Core count.
This latest rumor aired by VideoCardz – and let’s remember, it is just a rumor, albeit one backed up with a whole bunch of images of PNY’s RTX 4070 Ti models – shows its Verto boards, which have identical specs to the previous leak from Colorful: 2,310MHz base clock, 12GB GDDR6X VRAM (192-bit bus).
What we’re told additionally by the PNY leakage is that the boost clock is 2,610MHz, and we get that crucial CUDA Core loadout, which is 7,680.
All of this is exactly the same spec as the canceled RTX 4080 12GB, down to the last detail, including the exact same clock frequencies, so to put it another way – this again underlines that Nvidia has slapped the RTX 4070 Ti badge on the ditched lower-tier RTX 4080 graphics card.
Analysis: Hopeful signs – let’s just keep our fingers crossed for pricing
It’s not like this wasn’t expected, but what we also anticipated was that Nvidia might change things up a bit somewhere, just to show that it has done at least something to tune and make this a slightly different GPU to the one that unceremoniously got the boot. You know, tweak the clock speeds just a touch maybe.
Or as some suggested, cut the CUDA Cores a bit, or even a lot, because as we mentioned at the outset, there was a recent rumor that the 4070 Ti would slash the core count to 5,888 cores, a big drop from the full 7,680. Now, this doesn’t mean that can’t happen – maybe the earlier rumor is right. But this new one is weightier, coming from a retailer, complete with a bunch of images to give it more substance; though still, we must remain cautious around either possibility.
What could be the case is that the leaker who floated the 5,888 cores idea has heard info that actually pertains to the RTX 4070, the vanilla version – but we’re into the territory of pure guesswork here.
If you’re thinking: why would Nvidia need to tweak the RTX 4070 Ti to make it different to the banished 4080 12GB? Well, it’s to do with the price mainly. The previous thinking was that if Nvidia pitches the 4070 Ti a chunk lower than the $899 price tag of the 4080 12GB, then it’ll have people asking – why on earth was the latter unveiled with that asking price, then, if the 4070 Ti is pretty much the exact same card?
What it appears that Nvidia might be doing instead is cutting the price of the existing RTX 4080 16GB, something that’s needed for a number of reasons, stoking flagging sales being one of them, and competing better with the freshly unleashed AMD RX 7900 XTX, which (mostly) edges out the RTX 4080 at a lower price point (for gamers, anyway, ray tracing aside). Once the 4080 16GB costs less, then a cheaper price tag for the 4070 Ti compared to the canceled 4080 12GB obviously makes sense, even if it’s the same spec.
Clearly, Nvidia needs to do something to counterattack against the strong initial impression made by the 7900 XTX and making the RTX 4080 more competitive, then bringing in some upper-mid-range ammo in the form of a more affordable 4070 Ti, seems a likely plan. Then again, in the GPU world, sometimes sense goes out the window, so we’ll just have to wait and see. The rumored release date for the RTX 4070 Ti is January 5, so the graphics card is theoretically just a few weeks away now.
