NVIDIA’s plans for the RTX 3070 Ti with 16GB VRAM have been confirmed by a leaked prototype.
Some rumours are proven to be true. NVIDIA was preparing RTX 3080 12GB and RTX 3070 Ti 16GB graphics cards at the same time we were expecting news on the RTX 3090 Ti in late 2021. Only two of the three were ever released.
NVIDIA has cancelled the RTX 3070 Ti 16GB model, which was supposed to have a GA104-401 GPU. This card was supposed to have the same GPU specs as the RTX 3070 Ti 8GB, but with more memory and different clocks. It was speculated that this was NVIDIA’s response to the upcoming Intel Arc A770 16GB GPU, but as we know, the competitor’s card was delayed by nearly a year.
NVIDIA RTX 3070 Ti prototype with 16GB memory, Source: MEGAsizeGPU
According to the GPU-Z software, the base clock is 1590 MHz and the boost clock is 1800 MHz, which is 25 and 30 MHz faster than the RTX 3070 Ti 8GB. The output also indicates that the card employs GDDR6 memory rather than GDDR6X. This results in a lower bandwidth (512 GB/s vs 608 GB/s).
This card, as we can see, is not a custom model, but rather a prototype based on the RTX 3070 Ti Founders Edition design. The only thing that is off is the SKU logo, which reads RTX 3070.
NVIDIA RTX 3070 Ti prototype with 16GB memory, Source: MEGAsizeGPU
The leaker did not provide performance figures for this card, but it appears to work with the current drivers, so that shouldn’t be a problem. This card is almost certainly a prototype that escaped from NVIDIA headquarters. Surprisingly, this leak comes just days before the release of the RTX 4070 Ti with 12GB of memory.
Source: MEGAsizeGPU
