Photograph credit score: Tommy Jones
All these years after NVIDIA initially debuted the RTX 3080 Ti in 2021, just a few prototype samples of unreleased variants have begun to look in used listings on-line. These are primarily engineering samples, or pre-production {hardware}, that have been created to check designs earlier than deciding what to mass produce. One in all them has piqued folks’s curiosity as a result of it options 20GB of GDDR6X RAM as a substitute of the standard 12GB.
It seems that NVIDIA contemplated this greater reminiscence configuration sooner or later, as evidenced by leaks from 2020-21 pointing to a reminiscence model that might have been designed for compute actions or mining that required extra VRAM.
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The usual retail RTX 3080 Ti has a 384-bit reminiscence bus, nonetheless this pattern model is lowered to 320-bit to accommodate the extra reminiscence. Meaning you’ll have much less general bandwidth than with the abnormal card, and general efficiency can be someplace between the usual 3080 Ti and the 3090. However, in keeping with clients, when you’ve got this card up and operating, it yields good outcomes, and the 20GB of reminiscence gives some extra leeway whenever you push your workloads previous that 12GB.
At first look, these samples look like an identical to a typical RTX 3080 Ti Founders Version, however with the proper instruments, akin to GPU-Z, you possibly can inform it’s a 20GB mannequin with a special machine ID. Some adverts even embody a inexperienced ‘growth solely’ sticker on the cardboard, indicating that these playing cards have been meant for NVIDIA’s inner testing and can be returned to the manufacturing unit as soon as licensed.
So, should you plug one in every of these playing cards in, it’ll output video with none difficulties. The issue is that customary NVIDIA drivers received’t set up since they don’t acknowledge the machine. Consequently, customers must depend on third-party fixes so as to add the lacking machine ID, after which they’ll run drivers akin to 581.94.
The draw back is that you’re by yourself for assist, and if NVIDIA releases a brand new driver, it could break the fixer, leaving you with a card that won’t function till the neighborhood fixes the problem. In fact, reselling one in every of these playing cards with out being very particular about what you’re promoting dangers irritating the one who buys it and expects it to work instantly, thus prompting a return.
The eBay gross sales present some clues as to how a lot these things are genuinely price. One in all these prototype playing cards offered for roughly $2,000 in 2025. Proper now, you possibly can purchase one for wherever between $900 and $2,000, relying on the situation and who’s promoting it.
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