Prototype NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti with 16 GB memory surface

NVIDIA plans RTX 3070 Ti with 16GB VRAM confirmed by leaked prototype

A rare graphics card has recently been discovered.

Some of the rumors are true. Just as we were expecting news of the 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 have ever been released.

NVIDIA RTX 3070 Ti prototype with 16GB memory, Source: MEGAsizeGPU

NVIDIA has canceled the RTX 3070 Ti 16GB model that was supposed to be equipped with a GA104-401 GPU. This card was supposed to feature the same GPU specs as the 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, but as we know, the competitor’s card has been delayed for about half a year.

NVIDIA RTX 3070 Ti prototype with 16GB memory, Source: MEGAsizeGPU

The GPU-Z software shows a base clock of 1590MHz and boost at 1800MHz, that’s respectively 25 and 30MHz faster than the 8GB RTX 3070 Ti. The output also shows that the card uses GDDR6 memory instead of GDDR6X. This means less bandwidth (512GB/s vs. 608GB/s).

As we can see, this card is not a custom model, but rather a prototype using the RTX 3070 Ti Founders Edition design. The only thing that doesn’t look right is the SKU logo that reads RTX 3070.

NVIDIA RTX 3070 Ti prototype with 16GB memory, Source: MEGAsizeGPU

The leaker hasn’t shared any performance numbers for this card, but one can see that it works with existing drivers so this shouldn’t really be an issue. This card is almost certainly a prototype that somehow escaped from NVIDIA HQ’s captivity. Interestingly, this leak appears just days away from the launch of the RTX 4070 Ti with 12GB of memory.

Source: MEGAsizeGPU