Nvidia’s new graphics cards from the Ada Lovelace series have been criticized for their high prices since they were first released. The Geforce RTX 4080 is also an unpopular topic in the community, since Nvidia originally offered a recommended retail price of 1.469 $ suggested and in reality this price was a good deal higher for the board partners.
Exactly this graphics card should now become a little cheaper in production thanks to a new GPU revision – but you shouldn’t have high expectations of the price effects.
New GPU lowers costs – performance remains unchanged
The AD103-300 GPU is currently installed in the RTX 4080. Soon, Nvidia will ship new models that instead feature a GPU labeled AD103-301
According to Twitter user HKEPC, the main difference will be a comparator that was placed on the circuit board on older models. This is now integrated in the new GPU and therefore the new graphics cards require fewer components.
The board partners can thus save costs in the production of the new RTX 4080. At the same time, one can basically assume that the performance will remain unchanged.
link to Twitter content
What is a comparator? A comparator is an electronic circuit component that compares two electrical signals and outputs the result of the comparison as a third signal. The result of the comparison can be either greater than, equal to, or less than.
A common use case for a comparator is to monitor voltage readings to ensure they are within a specified range. What exactly the comparator in the RTX 4080 is used for is not clear. Irrespective of this, an integrated unit is cheaper to produce than one that has to be installed separately on the PCB.
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Will the RTX 4080 finally be cheaper?
If you are now looking forward to a cheaper RTX 4080, you should rather lower your expectations again. According to HKEPC, the cost savings for board partners and Nvidia are more in the cent range and are therefore not really worth mentioning for end users. For a real price reduction you have to be patient. Unfortunately, the price of the recently released RTX 4070 Ti does not make Nvidia’s pricing strategy particularly optimistic.
We are currently conducting another survey and want to know from you how interested you are in the currently very expensive graphics cards. Please use the following link to participate and cast your vote:
Tech poll: Are you keeping your hands off the new graphics cards?
How much cheaper would the RTX 4080 have to be for you to be interested in it? Have you already bought the graphics card instead or is it not an option for a purchase? Feel free to write it in the comments!