Soaring metaverse company NVIDIA, leading producer of graphics cards and creator of Omniverse, a next-generation collaborative simulation software, have recently cancelled some of their new series of graphics cards. Gamers and super-consumers around the world have been eagerly awaiting the arrival of the 40XX series, but unfortunately they might have longer to wait.
With graphics cards expected to play a major part in running high-fidelity simulations, NVIDIA is a company to keep an eye on as they’ve been building key infrastructure–both hardware and software–involved in many next level projects around the world.
A Metaverse Misnomer
The recently announced 12 GB 4080 has been nothing short of a disappointment. Planned to be released alongside the 16 GB 4080, many were confused by the two devices sharing a name, when the only difference seemed to be the reduced memory size; 12GB vs 16GB.
However, the company’s announcement created controversy when gamers and fans alike noticed the differences went beyond just the 4GB difference in memory. The 12GB 4080 GPU’s other specs were also lower: With a different chip design, the 12GB 4080 has a worse memory interface and less CUDA cores, making the 4080 name something of a misnomer with a tangibly worse performance than it’s big brother, the 16GB 4080.
At least, NIVIDA were quick to realize their mistake: In a recent blogpost aptly titled ‘Unlaunching the 12GB 4080’, they agreed it would be momentarily cancelled, citing that the card’s big brother, the “RTX 4080 16GB is amazing and on track to delight gamers everywhere on November 16th”. Many fans are expecting to see the worse 12 GB 4080 to be.later re-released under a different name: the 4070, in line with previous series’ RTX 3070. In any case, the 12 GB 4080 came it a few hundred dollars cheaper than it’s more powerful counterpart: $899 vs $1,119 well makes up the difference in architecture between the cards.
Melting the Metaverse: The RTX 4090Ti
While the 4080 feud might seem controversial, these twin cards haven’t been the only NVIDIA hardware to fan the flames of controversy. The highest end of NVIDIA’s next series, the RTX 4090 Titan, has reportedly been cancelled as well.
According ro reports, the 4090 Titan is so powerful it’s been melting itself and destroying coupled Power Supply Units (PSUs). Coming in at a rumored $2000 dollars, that’s a lot to spend on a device so powerful it turns itself into a pool of molten plastic. Using a whopping 600-700W, it’s no surprise the 4090Ti was also tripping power breakers in tests.
For the time being, gamers and GPU fans will have to settle with the 4090, a slightly worse–but still giant–model coming in at $1499. For that price, you could get a high-end gaming PC in its entirety rather than just a next-level GPU. Even still, the next series of NVIDIA’s GPUs are expected to aid in delivering high-fidelity graphics seamlessly–if you’re willing to fork out the cash.
