Nvidia reportedly compensating partners after RTX 4080 12GB's last-minute cancellation

pcgamer.com:

Following the cancellation or 'unlaunch' of the RTX 4080 12GB(opens in new tab), Nvidia has reportedly offered to reimburse its AIB manufacturing partners for any packaging that's already been printed, though whether that's in full or in part remains unclear.

With the new GPU's launch originally expected next month, at least the first batch of RTX 4080 12GB cards will have been manufactured, packaged, and likely already sitting in warehouses waiting to go out to retailers. There's going to be a whole lot of logistical gymnastics needed to pull those back and sort them out.

Gamers Nexus(opens in new tab) (via Videocardz(opens in new tab)) confirmed that two different Nvidia AIB partners are going to have the RTX 4080 12GB's packaging «collected and destroyed, or sent to recycling centres.»

«From what we understand Nvidia is subsidizing the boxes, or at least part of them,» Steve Burke notes. 

But the changes that partners will need to make don't just end with packaging. Not only will it involve reprinting the boxes and restickering the serial numbers on each card, the GPUs' vBIOS may also need to be flashed to incorporate the new name.

Burke suggests it might be more awkward to change the name for Founders Edition cards, though Nvidia has stated from the outset that there will be no FE card for RTX 4080 12GB.

Part of the whole issue with the RTX 4080 16GB and 12GB cards was that they weren't just the same GPU with a different memory configuration, but a completely discrete slice of silicon.

The 16GB card launching on November 16 will run on the AD103 chip, while the RTX 4080 12GB was supposed to sport a third-tier AD104 GPU. From the beginning that looked a lot like it should have been an RTX 4070-class chip(opens in new