Reddit user (opens in new tab) ascendance22 has purchased a prototype GeForce 20-series graphics card carrying the “GTX” branding on eBay. The GeForce GTX 2080 pattern seems to be a GeForce RTX 2080 with the identical Nvidia Founders Version cooler and TU104 die, as proven within the GPU-Z picture. However apparently, Nvidia disabled the RT cores on this prototype, with the GPU holding a GTX badge and missing any “GeForce RTX 2080” badging on the entrance.
The Reddit person purchased the GeForce GTX 2080 on eBay (opens in new tab) — what it was doing on eBay within the first place is anybody’s guess. Nevertheless it’s protected to say that seeing a prototype like this within the wild is extremely uncommon and is normally saved underneath wraps by Nvidia always. The eBay service provider sells these GeForce GTX 2080 as engineering samples of the GeForce RTX 2080 for $359.95 every. There have been early rumors that Nvidia was considering launching a GeForce GTX 1180, so this GeForce GTX 2080 may very well be the Turing graphics card that by no means made it to the market.
The mysterious GPU seems to be a GeForce RTX 2080 variant. The Redditor uploaded the firmware to TechPowerUp (opens in new tab) with the web site detecting the graphics card as a GeForce RTX 2080. Moreover, the Redditor’s 3DMark TimeSpy outcomes that intently match the efficiency of the usual RTX 2080 graphics playing cards. So there is no query it is a prototype RTX 2080 of some type.
This prototype proves that Nvidia was excited about launching a GTX lineup of Turing-based playing cards past the GTX 1660 Ti. It might actually make sense from Nvidia’s place. On the time of the RTX 20-series debut, Nvidia’s Turing-based structure with {hardware} accelerated ray tracing cores was a bleeding edge expertise by no means seen earlier than on the buyer market.
Because of this, help for Nvidia’s new tech was fully scarce, giving avid gamers little incentive to purchase a expertise they might solely benefit from for months or years. The identical additionally utilized to Nvidia’s DLSS expertise, which first got here out with the RTX 20-series — it had poor picture high quality on the time, with the identical lack of recreation help as ray tracing on day one.
If Nvidia went via with a full GTX 16-series lineup extending to the xx80 sequence GPU, this technique would enable avid gamers to decide on whether or not or not they wished ray tracing expertise. As well as, this might have been a possible enterprise alternative for Nvidia, as the corporate might take faulty Turing dies with rotten RT cores and disable them totally for a GTX 20-series counterpart.
This fashion, shoppers might get a Turing graphics card for a cheaper price and nonetheless retain all of the architectural enhancements Turing provided over Pascal. Sadly, that by no means occurred, to the dismay of many avid gamers. However this prototype does give us a clue that Nvidia was at the very least excited about a complete “RTXless” lineup for the Turing technology.
https://www.tomshardware.com/information/nvidias-geforce-gtx-2080-prototype-shows-up-in-the-wild