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With hype building for the next generation of Nvidia GeForce GPUs, RTX 4000 series rumors speculation certainly has momentum behind it. At a time when the best graphics cards for gaming have been incredibly challenging to get your hands on, hopes are high for the Ampere successor to deliver now we appear to be on the other side of the pandemic.
From all we’re able to discern about the RTX 40 series, it’s looking like the upcoming GeForce generation will be built on Lovelace architecture, continuing the naming conventions set by both Turing (RTX 20 series) and Ampere (RTX 30 series). Below we’re bringing you everything we know about possible RTX 40 specifications, potential release windows, and what to expect from Nvidia’s latest GPU line.
What could the RTX 40 Series release date be?
No official RTX 40 series release date has been announced or uncovered as of yet. However, given the fact that the RTX 30 series was launched in September, we’re anticipating a similar time frame for its successor – September 2022. This is consistent with the launch window of the RTX 20 series, which dropped in September 2018, roughly two years before Ampere debuted.
The first of the RTX 30 series to be released after the announcement was the RTX 3080, so it stands to reason that the RTX 4080 could lead the charge out of the gate, with both stronger (RTX 4090) and weaker models (RTX 4060, RTX 4070) to follow afterward. With Ampere, the RTX 3070 and RTX 3060 Ti followed later; the former launched in October and the latter in December of the same year.
There has been a two-year time gap between Nvidia GeForce graphics card generations ever since the days of the GTX 600 series in 2012, with every successor line arriving in sequence with this pattern (GTX 900 series in 2014, GTX 1000 series in 2016, RTX 20 series in 2018, RTX 30 series in 2020).
What will the RTX 40-Series price be?
If we take the two previous RTX graphics card series into consideration, then the RTX 40 series price could be consistent with the trends we’ve observed for the past four years. Ampere debuted with the RTX 3080 at $699 with the RTX 3070 and RTX 3060 Ti coming in at $599 and $399 respectively. This follows the trends of the RTX 2070 and 2080 to a T, with both dropping at the same $699 / $599 price points – the RTX 2080 Ti was launched at $1,199.
If the RTX 40 series price follows this same structure then we can discern that the RTX 4070 could cost $599, with the potential price point of the RTX 4080 being $699. As for budget graphics cards, the RTX 2060 and RTX 3060 launched at very similar price points of $329 and $349. This leads us to believe that an entry-level Lovelace GPU at release could cost around the $350 mark, however, should there be a minor increase, it’s possible that figure could be closer to $375 – $400.
How much more powerful could the RTX 40 series be?
One of the more prevalent, and consistent, RTX 40 series rumors has related to increased power consumption and vastly improved performance in the flagship model. Certain online sources have claimed that a proposed RTX 4090 could feature 71% more CUDA cores than the BFGPU. Wccftech (opens in new tab) reported that the RTX 4090 may have 18,432 CUDA cores as opposed to the RTX 3090’s 10,496. This would theoretically mean double the ray tracing performance, as defined by prominent leaker Moore’s Law is Dead (opens in new tab).
However, with such an increase in performance comes the need for substantially more power, as it has been alleged by the likes of Notebook Check (opens in new tab) that the RTX 4090 could have a 600W TGP, roughly double that of what the RTX 3090 needs. This means you might need a 1500w Gen 5.0 PSU in order to accommodate for the substantial power draw of the latest GPUs.
Credible hardware leaker @kopite7kimi (opens in new tab) on Twitter has reported on a potential of five different desktop processors with the graphics processors of AD102, AD103, AD104, AD106, and AD107 which has supposedly come about due to the data breach Nvidia suffered recently. From the information, this leak claims that the five GPUs releasing will follow a very similar pattern to Ampere:
- AD102 – 18,432 CUDA cores and a 384-bit memory bus (RTX 4090?)
- AD103 – 10,752 CUDA cores and a 256-bit memory bus (RTX 4080?)
- AD104 – 7,680 CUDA cores and a 192-bit memory bus (RTX 4070?)
- AD106 – 4,608 CUDA cores and a 128-bit memory bus (RTX 4060?)
- AD107 – 3,072 CUDA cores and a 128-bit memory bus (RTX 4050?)
The increase in bandwidth brought about by PCIe 5.0 is going to show just how much faster Lovelace is going to be over Ampere, despite the alleged dramatically increased power consumption. Considering the possibility of RTX 4090 requiring 600w power. Current PCIe 8-pin power connectors only supply 150w max, so that’s a huge jump up for sure. You’ll need one of the best gaming PCs to fully take advantage of the RTX 40 series.
It’s important to note that only Intel 12th gen processors, some of the best CPUs for gaming, have support for PCIe 5.0 and DDR5, which is going to be used in tandem with Lovelace to push the power potential. It’s likely that Ryzen 7000 will be out, or nearing release when we do get an appearance from the RTX 40 series, though. We’ll see nearer to the RTX 40 series release date.
Will the RTX 40 series be more available than Ampere?
The poor availability of Ampere, and overall graphics card shortage, have many wondering just how available the RTX 40 series is going to be. Originally reported by PCMag (opens in new tab), a recent Nvidia investors event saw Nvidia CFO Colette Kress address the current shortages: “Even during this period of COVID and supply constraints, it’s been interesting because it’s given us the opportunity for gaming to continue to sell both the current generation (RTX 3000) as well as the Turing generation (the RTX 2000 series)”.
From this quote, we can theorize that it’s a strong possibility both Ampere and Lovelace could co-exist at the end of 2022 and throughout the early months of 2023. What’s more, Kress was also quoted saying how: “We will continue to work on supply. I think we’ll be in a good supply situation in the second half,” in relation to graphics card stock improving towards the end of the year. If it’s true, this is certainly a good sign of things to come, and we’ve seen GPU prices slowly decline since the start of 2022 as well, meaning the RTX 40 series could launch in a substantially healthier fashion.
Ultimately, though, we’ll believe it when we see it. Considering the RTX 3070 prices and RTX 3080 prices right now, having widespread availability of Lovelace GPUs for MSRP upon release would be nothing short of miraculous. With the RTX 3090 Ti on the horizon, the launch of the BFGPU refresh will be a good indication as to the authenticity of these comments when that model releases in the near future.
We’ll be bringing you more on the RTX 40 series release date and price as soon as the information is hot off the presses. Until then, you can find current generation GPUs inside some of the best gaming laptops and cheap gaming PCs, too.
Get your setup ready for Lovelace with the best gaming monitor, best gaming keyboard, and best gaming mouse.
