Nvidia's RTX 4080 GPU suddenly breaks cover in show-all spy shot

It seems the successor to the GeForce RTX 3080 is nearly here: a flurry of new leaks around the GeForce RTX 4000 series suggest that a launch is imminent, with some sources suggesting the big reveal will be on September 20 with shipping beginning in late October or early November.

The latest leaks show fully manufactured RTX 4080s in various packaging and on pallets and, while there's some debate over the veracity of some pictures –apparently the typography seems a bit off on some – the latest images have convinced our friends at Techradar that we're looking at the real thing. If so, the next few weeks are going to be really interesting as the 4000 Series makes a last-minute entry into the best graphics cards for 2022 and beyond.

Nvidia RTX 4080: what we expect to see

Last months' Nvidia leaks suggested that the RTX 4080 is going to come with 16GB of GDDR6X with 23Gbps video memory, and that the card's TBP (Total Board Power) demand will be 340W. That's an improvement over previously rumoured specifications, which suggested that the 4080 was only getting 21Gbps VRAM. And in the current climate a 340W power demand is a lot better than the 420W suggested in earlier rumours: more power means more money going on bills instead of on new games and hardware.

We're excited by this because if the latest rumours are accurate, PC owners aren't going to need to splash out on a massive new PSU to power the latest generation of Nvidia RTX cards. And with the semiconductor shortage fading away and Bitcoin-related shortages largely a thing of the past too, these cards should be a lot easier to get your hands on than during the great GPU shortage of recent years. That's sad news for scalpers but brilliant news for the rest of us.