The issue of “shrinkflation,” where the price of an item remains constant while the quantity or quality decreases, has now made its way to Nvidia’s RTX 4070 graphics card. The latest update to this GPU involves a significant change: the replacement of the 12GB GDDR6X memory with the slower GDDR6 standard. Although this might sound like a major downgrade, the actual effect on performance is relatively limited. The new GDDR6 memory will result in a minor reduction in memory bandwidth, with speeds dropping from 21Gbps to 20Gbps, as reported by VideoCardz.com.
Other essential components of the RTX 4070, such as the graphics processor and its clock speed, will remain the same, so the overall impact on performance should be minimal. Nvidia is not updating the product SKUs for these new cards but will label them as “GDDR6” to reflect the change in memory type. For users specifically seeking the enhanced performance of GDDR6X, typically found in higher-end Nvidia GPUs, finding the previous version may involve a bit more searching and diligence.
Nvidia has justified this move by claiming that it will improve supply chain efficiency and meet the high demand for these GPUs. However, this change appears to primarily benefit Nvidia and its manufacturing partners rather than consumers, who may see no tangible improvement despite paying the same price. As graphics card prices often fluctuate significantly by the time they reach the retail market, any change in MSRP may be negligible, leaving consumers facing the reality of paying the same amount for a product with slightly reduced specifications.