Nvidia pulled its 12GB RTX 4080 weeks before launch, leaving partners to destroy boxes

Ars Technica reported on 17 October 2022 that Nvidia had decided late the previous Friday to 'unlaunch' the lower-end 12GB version of its upcoming GeForce RTX 4080 so it could be renamed and released later. The $899 12GB card and the $1,199 16GB card had substantially different performance, and giving them one name risked buyer disappointment and confusion. Nvidia's own post said 'The RTX 4080 12GB is a fantastic graphics card, but it's not named right.'

The problem fell on board partners. Nvidia had planned a mid-November launch, and partners had already begun manufacturing and packaging the cards. Gamers Nexus reported that existing boxes were being 'collected and destroyed', that Nvidia was at least subsidising some of the replacement, and that coolers bearing the model name would need to be reprinted or replaced, and BIOSes re-flashed to the new model number. Relabelled cards were expected around CES in January 2023.

Gamers Nexus also said Nvidia would reduce the price to match the new name, which could squeeze partners who had built cards expecting to sell at $899 on already thin margins. Nvidia told Ars it had 'nothing to add' about reimbursement. Ars noted that EVGA had left Nvidia in September 2022, citing an alleged lack of communication and competition from Nvidia's own cards, and that renaming a GPU weeks before release and only partly compensating partners was a good example of Nvidia being difficult to work with.

Partners had to collect and destroy boxes and relabel coolers and BIOSes, and Nvidia reportedly cut the card's price and subsidised some boxes.

Nvidia gave two substantially different cards, at $899 and $1,199, the same RTX 4080 name.

The decision to rename came after partners had begun manufacturing and packaging the 12GB cards for a mid-November launch.

Names are printed on coolers, boxes and in BIOSes, so each had to be reworked or replaced.

A reported price cut after partners built cards for the old price threatened thin margins.

Naming two very different products the same causes backlash; reversing it late pushes the cost onto manufacturing partners.

Nvidia said it had nothing to add on reimbursement. The relabelled card was expected to be relaunched around CES in January 2023, most likely under a name such as 4070 or 4070 Ti according to Gamers Nexus.