GeForce RTX 4070 prototype with 10GB of VRAM emerges, thankfully we got 12GB

GPU images and GPU-Z screenshots have emerged for the GeForce RTX 4070 10GB that could have been. The unreleased prototype from NVIDIA features 10GB of VRAM on a slower 160-bit memory interface. The 'for reals' GeForce RTX 4070 launched in April 2023 and features 12GB of VRAM on a 192-bit interface, with a total memory bandwidth that is 20% faster than what we see here.

However, the AD104-275 chip in this unreleased GeForce RTX 4070 10GB prototype features 7,168 CUDA Cores - more than what is found in the actual GeForce RTX 4070 (5,888 CUDA Cores) and in line with the GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER that was released earlier this year.

Interestingly, this prototype also features faster Base and Boost Clock speeds compared to the retail GeForce RTX 4070 - 2355/2520MHz versus 1920/2475MHz.

It'll be interesting to see this prototype benchmarked across a wide range of games, as we'll see how much of an impact faster memory and more VRAM capacity has. We guess that the performance between the two would be similar or within a small percentage in most situations.

We're glad NVIDIA launched the GeForce RTX 4070 with 12GB of VRAM. This, coupled with Ada's next-level efficiency and the GPU's excellent performance, makes for one of the most compelling options for the current generation of graphics cards. Modern PC games require more memory for hardware-intensive ray-tracing and 4K textures; the more VRAM, the better.

We can see why NVIDIA developed a version of the GeForce RTX 4070 with 10GB of VRAM. This would have put it on par with the GeForce RTX 3080 10GB while increasing the overall capacity compared to its previous-gen counterpart, the GeForce RTX 3070.