Is NVIDIA cheating its customers with the RTX 4070 GDDR6?

A new GeForce RTX 4070 model would be in the pipeline from NVIDIA. This planed graphics card would swap its current memory for slower GDDR6. This would be due to problems in the production of GDDR6X chips and the risk of shortages.

NVIDIA, the most valuable company on the stock market ahead of Microsoft and Apple, is reportedly preparing a new RTX 4070 model. While waiting for the RTX 50 to be decided between 2024 and 2025, the manufacturer would like to expand its current generation of graphics cards .

Already spotted for some time (last October), this card would be a little special. The GeForce RTX 4070 in question would be far from great and could even represent a decrease in performance. As the industry faces a shortage of GDDR6X memory chips, NVIDIA would be forced to launch a model using GDDR6. Basically just a rumor, it seems that this RTX 4070 will eventually come to fruition. The Galax brand would have, in fact, leaked the new model. An RTX 4070 with reduced memory

This new graphics card, however, raises some questions, particularly regarding its performance but also its place in the NVIDIA catalog. Logically slower, the bandwidth should be reduced, however, given the packaging of Galax, this detail might not be apparent at first glance.

While the GDDR6X shortage would be due to a chip production defect, NVIDIA and the OEM could hide the fact that this new RTX would be less efficient. According to the leaked visuals, there is no indication on the graphics card box that it uses GDDR6 memory. This detail is particularly important since it could create confusion among potential buyers. While the specifications of the card would be relatively identical, this RTX 4070 would use a still unknown AD104-251 GPU.

However, the transition to GDDR6 still gives an indication of the expected drop in performance. Memory speed would increase from 21 Gbps to 20 Gbps and bandwidth would be reduced to 480 GB/s (previously 504 GB/s). Will the RTX 4070 GDDR6 replace GDDR6X? ©NVIDIA If the reduction seems small, it will definitely have an effect on performance. We must hope that this will be as small as possible. Finally, it would be good practice for NVIDIA and Galax to be transparent and communicate clearly about this new graphics card.