Nvidia surprised many in the tech community this week by announcing a new line of RTX 40 Super graphics cards that promise better performance at lower prices compared to the existing RTX 40 series. The new GPUs offer consumers more affordable high-end gaming hardware options.
Nvidia Further Expands Flagship RTX 40 Series With Super Variants
At CES 2023, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang revealed the company’s new GeForce RTX 40 Series Super GPUs, consisting of the RTX 4080 Super, RTX 4070 Ti Super, and RTX 4070 Super cards [1]. The new graphics processors deliver improved performance over the standard RTX 4080, RTX 4070 Ti, and RTX 4070 at surprisingly lower price points in an apparent bid to compete with rival AMD’s recent Radeon 7900 and 7800 card launches [2].
The Super card pricing in particular has generated excitement among gaming and hardware enthusiasts, as early leaks suggested much lower costs relative to performance gains compared to Nvidia’s initial RTX 40 series pricing last fall [3]. The pricing strategy indicates Nvidia aiming to capture more mainstream and budget-focused market share with the 40 Super series refresh while still pushing the high-end envelope for elite gamers.
Key Details on RTX 40 Super Series Models and Pricing
Full specifications for the new RTX 40 Super lineup leaked just days before Nvidia’s formal CES 2023 unveiling. Here is a summary of the key details known about each card so far:
| GPU | Price | CUDA Cores | Boost Clock | Memory | Memory Bandwidth | Power Connectors |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RTX 4090 | $1599 | 16,384 | 2520 MHz | 24GB GDDR6X | 1008 GB/s | 450W 16-pin |
| RTX 4080 Super | $799 | 10,240 | 2610 MHz | 16GB GDDR6X | 816 GB/s | 300W 16-pin |
| RTX 4080 12GB (non-Super) | $899 | 7,680 | 2505 MHz | 12GB GDDR6X | 716 GB/s | 285W 16-pin |
| RTX 4070 Ti Super | $599 | 7,680 | 2700 MHz | 12GB GDDR6X | 672 GB/s | 230W 12VHPWR |
| RTX 4070 Ti | $799 | 7,680 | 2700 MHz | 12GB GDDR6X | 672 GB/s | 285W 16-pin |
| RTX 4070 Super | $499 | 5,888 | 2610 MHz | 12GB GDDR6X | 504 GB/s | 230W 12VHPWR |
| RTX 4070 | $799 | 5,888 | 2610 MHz | 12GB GDDR6X | 504 GB/s | 285W 16-pin |
Compared to their non-Super counterparts, all of the new graphics cards offer better performance at significantly reduced MSRPs while requiring less power. For example, the $499 RTX 4070 Super outpaces the standard $799 RTX 4070 with identical memory configurations while cutting the power requirement by 55 watts. Gamers get substantially improved price-to-performance ratios across the board [4].
Global GPU Shortages Not Expected to Impact RTX 40 Super Availability
The new GeForce RTX 40 Super lineup comes at a time when Nvidia is prioritizing production of its data center and AI accelerator chips over gaming GPUs, resulting in global supply shortages for gaming cards [5]. However, Nvidia stated it anticipates having sufficient supply of the 40 Super series at launch, thanks in part to an ongoing collaboration with manufacturing partner TSMC to allocate capacity for the refreshed models. Shortages are still projected to persist for other gaming GPUs until later this year [6].
Super GPUs Positioned to Outcompete AMD’s Radeon RX 7900 Series
The pricing and availability of Nvidia’s new Super card lineup makes the products appealing alternatives to AMD’s recently launched Radeon RX 7900 XTX and RX 7900 XT graphics cards. The $899 RX 7900 XTX competes directly with the $799 RTX 4080 Super, while the $899 RX 7900 XT stacks up against the $599 RTX 4070 Ti Super ([7]). Reviews thus far give Nvidia’s Super cards the edge in rasterization and ray tracing performance. And while AMD still leads in frame generation capabilities, Nvidia counters with superior DLSS 3 frame interpolation [8].
With pricing low enough to compete with AMD’s offerings and availability at launch not expected to suffer from supply constraints, Nvidia’s RTX 40 Super GPUs stand poised to capture major market share among mid-range and high-end gamers. Jensen Huang stated Nvidia is excited to make such powerful graphics technology accessible to more gamers in 2023 and beyond.
What Happens Next? Even More Affordable Non-Super RTX 40 Series Cards Coming Mid-2023
Though the RTX 40 Super series targets mainstream and budget gamers better than the initial RTX 40 lineup, truly affordable cards still remain lacking from Nvidia’s next-gen portfolio. To address this gap, sources indicate Nvidia plans to announce additional non-Super RTX 40 series GPUs in mid-2023, likely including an RTX 4060 and RTX 4050, which may hit price points around $299 and $199 respectively [9]. With optimized pricing, these cards stand to finally bring ray tracing and DLSS 3 capabilities to the mass gaming market.
So in the near term, Nvidia seems concentrated on the middle and upper end of the market with the RTX 40 Super series. But mainstream and entry-level gaming still remains an open opportunity for both Nvidia and AMD to court in 2023 and 2024 as Moore’s Law enables improved performance per dollar across all market segments over time. The sheer processing power coming to reasonably affordable graphics cards promises to empower transformative next-generation gaming experiences through the latter half of the decade.
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