'%20x='0'%20y='0'%20height='100%25'%20width='100%25'%20%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20xlink%3Ahref='data:image/jpg;base64,/9j/2wBDAAYEBQYFBAYGBQYHBwYIChAKCgkJChQODwwQFxQYGBcUFhYaHSUfGhsjHBYWICwgIyYnKSopGR8tMC0oMCUoKSj/2wBDAQcHBwoIChMKChMoGhYaKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCj/wgARCAAGAAoDASIAAhEBAxEB/8QAFQABAQAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAABAf/2gAIAQEAAAAAkwP/xAAUAQEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAF/9oACAECEAAAAA//xAAUAQEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD/9oACAEDEAAAAB//xAAeEAABBAIDAQAAAAAAAAAAAAADAQIEEQUGABJBgf/aAAgBAQABPwDUtZPs0PGhAUNEnEhnPJtz3LSO7J8Wq5Iw+BYcrQY8zhI5UYpJC9lTy695/8QAGxEAAQQDAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAQACAxESIcH/2gAIAQIBAT8AfM8zYXqulf/EABYRAQEBAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAABEAAf/aAAgBAwEBPwB1v//Z'%3E%3C/image%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Nvidia announced their latest RTX 4080 and RTX 4090 cards at the Geforce Beyond event. Notably, the lower-tier RTX 4080 is getting two variants with varying VRAM capacities. This includes 12 GB and 16 GB editions.
Like every year, the company will be launching reference card editions for fans who want the original designs from the manufacturer itself. On the official product page, Nvidia revealed that the latest GPUs will also receive Founders Edition designs.
However, among the three cards available in the RTX 40 series, one is not getting the Founders Edition variant. This card will only get AIB designs.
More details on the cards, including dimensions and TDP, have been officially unveiled. Both RTX 4090 and the two 4080 editions will be 304mm long and 107mm wide. Like most RTX 30 series graphics cards, the 40 series designs will take up to three slots. This is only applicable to the FE editions of these graphic units.
One RTX 4080 graphics card will not get a FE design
As mentioned above, Nvidia has opted out of making reference designs for the lowest-end Lovelace GPU, which is the 12 GB variant of RTX 4080. The company unveiled this information on its official website. Furthermore, the card doesn't have an official length, width, or slot count.
Commenting on this development, Nvidia stated:
"The GeForce RTX 4090 and 4080 GPUs will be available as custom boards, including stock-clocked and factory-overclocked models, from top add-in card providers such as ASUS, Colorful, Gainward, Galaxy, GIGABYTE, Innovision 3D, MSI, Palit, PNY and Zotac."
With the RTX 30 series, Nvidia produced Founders Edition versions for every graphics card down to the RTX 3060 Ti. However, their decision to skip the reference version of a high-end RTX 40 series GPU leaves some explaining to do.
One reason could be that RTX 4080 isn't the flagship offering in its segment. The higher-end 340 W 16 GB variant might be designed to utilize the full potential of the AD103 chip inside. Thus, skipping the Founders Edition might help in cost cutting efforts.
The Founders Edition variant is a popular and low-cost edition of GPUs that brings in more sales due to its availability. During the chip shortage, only the FE editions of the graphics cards were sold at MSRP, while AIB partners designed models that went for twice the maximum price.
Skipping the Founders Edition variant will thus deprive gamers of the pricing advantage. Since RTX 4080's 12 GB variant will be a high-end card with a $899 price tag, one might have to pay a king's ransom if scalping plagues the market again.
