NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 24GB May Replace 16GB Card Right After Christmas
Once again, the rumor mill is chirping about a GeForce RTX 5080 graphics card refresh with more VRAM. While nothing has been announced as of this moment, there are more smoke signals pointing to an upcoming model with 24GB of GDDR7 to replace the current 16GB model. Additionally, it's said NVIDIA plans to phase out both the GeForce RTX 5080 16GB and the GeForce RTX 5090D V2 in China within the next few months.
We've been hearing this rumor for over a year. Previously, prominent leakers like @kopite7kimi had claimed that a Super refresh for the top GeForce RTX 50 series models was coming, though so far, nothing of the sort has materialized. It's possible that NVIDIA shifted or delayed its plans as the market shifted towards AI factory build-outs.
Part of the reason why that matters is because memory chip prices have skyrocketed over the past year. It's been a brutal run for consumers on the hunt for a high-end graphics card upgrade, only to see certain SKUs become scarce and far more expensive than their launch MSRPs.
Same goes for certain other electronics, such as game consoles. Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo all issued rounds of price hikes over the past year for their current-generation systems, and one only needs to look at how difficult it is to find a PlayStation 5 Pro in stock at its already high $899.99 MSRP to see how challenging it's become.
Be that as it may, a GeForce RTX 5080 kitted with more VRAM may finally be right around the corner. According to a post on the ChannelGate WeChat account (affiliated with Board Channels), NVIDIA is accelerating a 24GB GeForce RTX 5080 for the Chinese market, with availability targeted around December 2026 to January 2027.
Here is the full post, translated by Google:
"NV will discontinue the RTX5090DV2 and RTX5080 16G series models for the Chinese market. In the future, the only flagship graphics card model for the Chinese market will be the RTX5080 24G series model. 1. The RTX 5080 16G series NV has cleared all GPU inventory and can be sold for about 2 months. By the time the new product is launched, the last batch of goods will be almost finished. 2. The RTX 5080 24G series NV is accelerating its launch, expected to be available around January, with December being the fastest and January being the slowest."
The report (spotted by WCCFTech) only mentions the Chinese market, so it's not clear what kind of rollout NVIDIA might be targeting, assuming the information is accurate in the first place. What's also curious is that only the GeForce RTX 5080 is mentioned. Previously, there were rumors for a broader refresh:
- GeForce RTX 5080 Super: 10,752 CUDA cores, 24GB GDDR7, 256-bit bus, 1,024GB/s bandwidth, 415W TGP
- GeForce RTX 5070 Ti Super: 8,960 CUDA cores, 24GB GDDR7, 256-bit bus, 896GB/s bandwidth, 350W TGP
- GeForce RTX 5070 Super: 6,400 CUDA cores, 18GB GDDR7, 192-bit bus, 672GB/s bandwidth, 275W TGP
A shift to 3GB memory chips would make this possible. Existing non-Super models employ 2GB memory chips. For example, the GeForce RTX 5080 as it exists right now is kitted with eight 2GB GDDR7 memory chips for 16GB of total VRAM, but switching to 3GB chips would bump the total to 24GB for a 50% increase.
If the rumored launch is true, then it's possible NVIDIA will make an announcement at CES.
