NVIDIA's top 3 Blackwell GPUs rumored to use GDDR7 - with RTX 5080 set to equal RTX 4090?

NVIDIA's next-gen graphics cards are hotly anticipated, of course, and we've just heard a bit more about how these Blackwell GPUs might be shaping up when they're ready for later this year (or one model is, hopefully).

These nuggets of info are from AGF, coming on top of other recently imparted speculation on how the RTX 5090 might be a killer of a flagship GPU for the next generation from NVIDIA.

As you can see in the above post on X (formerly Twitter), the leaker asserts that they have confirmation that GDDR7 will be used for the three top-tier Blackwell gaming dies. (Of course that's very different to actual confirmation from NVIDIA, but it's a mark of confidence - at least in theory).

Presumably this means that GDDR7 will be on board the RTX 5090, RTX 5080 and RTX 5070, with more affordable GDDR6X video RAM employed on the graphics cards below the 5070.

We have heard elsewhere (from RedGamingTech on YouTube) that NVIDIA intends to use GDDR7 throughout the entire GeForce range for Blackwell, but AGF is having none of that, evidently. Treat all of this speculation with caution, as ever.

RTX 5080 expectations

AGF also chimes in on the potential performance levels that we'll get with the RTX 5080 (a GPU we won't see this year - that'll be for 2025, only the RTX 5090 is supposedly due for late in 2024, if that turns out to be correct, but there's a fair degree of confidence behind that prediction at this point).

When asked about whether the RTX 5080 will have a decent performance uplift gen-on-gen (given that the RTX 5090 most certainly will, if AGF, and others, are on the money), the leaker replies that this isn't set in stone yet, and that where NVIDIA pitches the GPU will depend on how competitive AMD's rival RDNA 4 products are.

While it's apparently too early to say anything about exact performance - which makes sense, given that the RTX 5080 is some way further out, as mentioned - AGF gives us a ballpark of the GB203 chip being close to AD102 (the RTX 4090) for rasterization. The RTX 5080 will be faster in ray tracing than the RTX 4090, though, or so AGF believes.

The real question for us around the RTX 5080 isn't so much exactly where the generational performance leap will fall, but what price tag will be pinned on the GPU relative to that - the value proposition being the key aspect, after all. And whether NVIDIA will learn from the (many) mistakes made with the RTX 4080. (With its original price-performance ratio being a disaster, and of course the whole messy business with the rapidly 'unlaunched' 12GB version).

Time will tell, but we find it hard to be optimistic on the topic of Team Green's pricing given past form, even if Lovelace price tags have improved (somewhat) as time has ticked on.