NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 4080 Migration To AD103-301 GPU Variant, What You Should Know

Now that we are past the 4070Ti launch from CES earlier this month, we can begin to look toward the future of NVIDIA products. Of course, we are still hoping there is a 4090Ti waiting in the wings, but in the meantime, NVIDIA may be trying to lower the prices of their GPUs by introducing new variants of the RTX 4070 and RTX 4080 cards.

Early last week, HKEPC posted to Twitter a list of NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4000 series cards that would be getting a change. This list included the GeForce RTX 4070, which would be bumped over to the AD104-251, which does not require a comparator circuit as the -250 flavor does. Similarly, the GeForce RTX 4080 would be changed over to the AD103-301 over the standard 300 variants. This is purported to help costs by reducing manufacturing overhead.


Since that Twitter posting, board partners have begun to confirm the change, specifically with Gainward being the first to confirm the 4080 changes. Videocardz reports that “Gainward confirms that both variants feature the same clocks, TDP, and GPU configuration” but with differences that require changes to the PCB, which should lower costs. On the 4070 side of the house, the ‘251’ variant of the RTX 4070 will require fewer parts than the ‘250’ variant and should generally lower costs for the 4070.


However, some questions have since been raised about how these changes to the GeForce RTX 4070 and 4080 will actually lower costs. HKEPC recently tweeted that on the RTX 4070 specifically, the bill of materials or BOM would only be reduced about $1. Such slim savings are generally not worth the investment of respinning silicon unless something more is going on. We cannot imagine it would translate to lower prices for consumers, at any rate. At this time, we are waiting on further comment from partners or NVIDIA itself for clarification on these changes and will update accordingly.