Nvidia's GeForce GTX 1080 Ti might be back in production

Buying a GPU right now is a real feat. Apparently though, sending in an old GPU for RMA could yield a brand new, 2021 model Nvidia GTX 1080 Ti. Yes, brand new versions of these four-year-old Pascal graphics cards may have been spotted, cards that we had all assumed where no longer being manufactured having been superseded by the RTX 2080 et al. And that could mean the GTX 1080 Ti is another old card making a comeback.

In this, the age of the great GPU drought, times are tough. It seems each attempt made by manufacturers to alleviate the GPU stock pressures has been met with either backlash or downright failure. Thanks to intensely rising demand for tech over the course of the pandemic, alongside increased profitability of cryptocurrencies and component shortages galore, the dream of landing a GPU any time this year, for anything near MSRP, has been placed firmly onto the backburner for the majority of prospective buyers. 

But there may be a light at the end of the tunnel. As hinted through a forum post on Quasar Zone (via NotebookCheck) Nvidia could indeed be resurrecting the GTX 1080 Ti. We've had the promise of the GTX 1650 making a comeback on desktop, but the GTX 1080 Ti is a more tempting prospect, though as a four year-old GPU it's one which remains a rather damning indictment of the state of the graphics card industry. 

The original post outlines the story of a user who returned their GTX 1080 Ti EVGA SC—still under warranty—only to receive a newly manufactured one in return. After the post was spotted, harukaze5719 tweeted confirmation that the serial number the OP sent over points to the card as a 2021 model.

We thought the company might have just had some extra stock left over from before the cards were discontinued, but EVGA appears to have gone back to manufacturing. If true, this is most certainly good news.

We're talking about a GPU with performance numbers just shy of the Turing based GeForce RTX 2080 and the more recent GeForce RTX 3060 Ti. With 3DMark Timespy average scores of 10009 (11117 for the RTX 2080, 11857 for the RTX 3060 Ti) the GTX 1080 Ti is still a super relevant card today. It may mean you have to forgo the effervescence of DLSS and ray tracing, but with base clock speeds of 1.56 GHz and the potential to tune it up to 1.67 GHz, these cards could take on even the heaviest AAA games today. 

Maybe not on full settings, and 1440p is going to be the best option, but still this little refresher could spell serious benefits for the market.

There is still no concrete evidence that the actual GP102 GPUs themselves are still being manufactured, and harukaze5719 has been awaiting photographic evidence from the forum post's OP for four days, but no updates have come through yet. Sus. But, a glint of hope for the revival of these classic GPUs still holds fast.

And yes, we are using 'hope' in the loosest possible terms. It just feels so strange, and wrong, that we're having to regress back three generation to resurrect old cards just so people can get a look in.