NVIDIA’s RTX 3080 Ti card with higher memory that never reached the market
ChintzyPC tested an RTX 3080 Ti 20GB pre-release card that appears to use GA102-250 with a 20-chip memory layout and a 320-bit bus, needs an unofficial driver patch to behave normally, and benchmarks closer to RTX 3080-class results than retail RTX 3080 Ti in gaming-focused tests.
Each time I write about this card, I use it as an example that some rumors do turn out to be true. We knew NVIDIA was developing RTX 3080 and RTX 3080 Ti cards with 20GB of memory, based on leaks from shipping manifests and certification databases. However, NVIDIA has never acknowledged that this card exists.
ChintzyPC told us he not only obtained the card, but also took it apart and tried to get it running. What stands out in the latest report is how close the hardware looks to a retail product at first glance. The user says it arrived with a box, which is uncommon for pre-release hardware that often circulates without full retail-style packaging. At the same time, the teardown points to a non-standard design that does not match retail RTX 3080 Ti boards.
Source: ChintzyPC
According to the user’s notes, the GPU is labeled GA102-250 and the board uses a 3090-like front-and-back memory layout, with ten GDDR6X modules on the front and ten on the back. The post also claims the memory interface is 320-bit rather than the retail RTX 3080 Ti’s 384-bit bus, which would align with ten active memory controllers. The PCB is described as a hybrid design that resembles a cut-down 3090-style layout while omitting the NVLink section.
It is also worth noting that we have seen retail custom RTX 3080 Ti 20GB cards in Russia. They were reportedly ready to ship and sell, but never reached the market through official channels. They appear to have been sold unofficially instead.
The user reports that standard GeForce drivers did not fully enable normal operation. He instead used a patched driver approach tied to the GitHub project “NVIDIA-patcher,” which explicitly lists “RTX 3080 Ti 20 GB” among supported targets. This is unofficial, and the post indicates it was required to get normal 3D behavior in games and benchmarks.
In benchmarks, the user says gaming-oriented synthetic results landed closer to RTX 3080 performance than a typical RTX 3080 Ti. He attributes that gap largely to reduced bandwidth from the 320-bit configuration, plus a 350W power limit. Reported 3DMark results include Speed Way 5042 stock and 5403 overclocked, Steel Nomad 4863 stock and 5155 overclocked, and Port Royal 13105 stock and 13947 overclocked. The same post claims heavier compute and rendering workloads caused system crashes within seconds, limiting the practical value of the extra VRAM for workloads that would benefit most from it.
Source: ChintzyPC/TechPowerUP
