NVIDIA’S NOT-SO-NEW GeForce RTX 3080 12GB graphics card has arrived with pretty much zero rejoicing. The poor old thousand-dollar GPU has taken a beating from professional commentators and PC-using proles alike. And I get it. Another megabucks card destined to line the pockets of scalpers and miners? Gimme a break. What I’m not so sure about is the kicking Nvidia has also been taking for daring to launch the 3080 12GB.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m no fan of Nvidia’s corporate culture, in general. It has long been the prickliest, most thin-skinned of the major tech players, getting into more pointless spats and having a greater propensity to do things like blacklisting members of the media for perceived transgressions than its rivals, Intel and AMD.
I understand the particular derision reserved for the RTX 3080 12GB. For starters, it’s a reminder that the 3080 should have had 12GB from the get-go. At the same time, it’s another expensive new GPU that barely moves the needle for performance, just like the RTX 3070 Ti, RTX 3080 Ti, and RTX 3090 Ti.