NVIDIA plans for RTX 3070 Ti with 16GB VRAM confirmed by leaked prototype
A rare graphics card has been discovered lately.
Some rumors do turn out to be true. Just as we were expecting news on RTX 3090 Ti in late 2021, NVIDIA was also preparing RTX 3080 12GB and RTX 3070 Ti 16GB graphics cards. Only two out of three were eventually released.
NVIDIA RTX 3070 Ti prototype with 16GB memory, Source: MEGAsizeGPU
NVIDIA canceled the RTX 3070 Ti 16GB model which was supposedly equipped with GA104-401 GPU. This card was to feature the same GPU specs as RTX 3070 Ti 8GB except for a higher memory capacity and different clocks. It was speculated that this might be NVIDIA’s response to the upcoming Intel Arc A770 16GB GPU, however as we know the competitor’s card was pushed back by almost half a year.
NVIDIA RTX 3070 Ti prototype with 16GB memory, Source: MEGAsizeGPU
The GPU-Z software shows a base clock of 1590 MHz and boost at 1800 MHz, this is 25 and 30 MHz faster than RTX 3070 Ti 8GB. The output also shows that the card uses GDDR6 memory instead of GDDR6X. This means that the bandwidth is lower (512 GB/s vs 608 GB/s).
As we can see, this card is not a custom model, but rather a prototype using RTX 3070 Ti Founders Edition design. The only thing that does not look right is the SKU logo, which reads RTX 3070.
NVIDIA RTX 3070 Ti prototype with 16GB memory, Source: MEGAsizeGPU
The leaker did not share any performance figures for this card, but one can see that it works with the current drivers so that shouldn’t really be a problem. This card is almost certainly a prototype that somehow escaped from NVIDIA HQ captivity. Interestingly, this leak appears just days away from RTX 4070 Ti launch with 12GB memory.
Source: MEGAsizeGPU