Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Super GPUs could power PCs and laptops next year

Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Super rumor
(Image credit: Nvidia)

Nvidia only recently launched the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti, but now it’s rumored to be bringing two more high-end graphics cards to the scene in 2022: the GeForce RTX 3080 Super and the GeForce RTX 3070 Super.

VideoCardz originally reported that the two GPUs are mobile processors, rather than desktop PC cards, and will available early next year. However, this report was quote-tweeted by noted leaker kopite7kimi, who claimed the GeForce RTX 3080 Super and the GeForce RTX 3070 Super won’t just be coming to laptops.

Of course, none of this is even close to being officially confirmed, though kopite7kimi is one of the more reliable high-profile leakers out there; back in February they correctly tipped off that the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti was incoming and had dropped from 20GB or 12GB of video memory. As such, this rumor may be worth paying attention to.

Nvidia introduced “Super” branding on the previous generation’s GeForce RTX 20-series graphics cards, with models like the GeForce RTX 2080 Super and GeForce RTX 2070 Super that offered modest performance improvements over their non-Super equivalents without drastically changing the underlying tech. The GeForce RTX 30-series has been wrought with stock shortage problems since launch, but instead of focusing on its next-gen cards Nvidia could feasibly repeat the introduction of more powerful Super models.

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VideoCardz’s report suggested that both the GeForce RTX 3080 Super and the GeForce RTX 3070 Super, or at least the supposed mobile versions, could potentially use a new Nvidia GA103 graphics processor. Both will allegedly stick with the GDDR6 VRAM amounts of the existing, non-Super cards: 8GB for the GeForce RTX 3070 Super and 16GB for the GeForce RTX 3080 Super.

If there really are desktop versions coming too, they might pose quite the conundrum for anyone who’s still waiting to find GeForce RTX 3080 stock. Especially if, as many PC owners are, they’re already on a waiting list for one of the current cards: should you stay the course and hold out for the original purchase, or cancel the order and bank on being able to grab one of the newer, more powerful Super GPUs?

It would be a tough dilemma if stock shortages are still plaguing the PC hardware market in a few months’ time. It’s hard to say if it will, as there are signs pointing in opposite ways: in China, some former cryptocurrency miners are selling their graphics cards at MSRP or below, while in Vietnam one retailer has been selling extremely rare, limited edition GPUs as ready-made mining setups.

James Archer

James is currently Hardware Editor at Rock Paper Shotgun, but before that was Audio Editor at Tom’s Guide, where he covered headphones, speakers, soundbars and anything else that intentionally makes noise. A PC enthusiast, he also wrote computing and gaming news for TG, usually relating to how hard it is to find graphics card stock.