If you have $1,100 to spare and want to impress at LAN parties, a unique, never-released GeForce GPU is currently available for purchase. The GPU is an MSI GeForce RTX 3080 Ti with 20GB of VRAM, a model that was produced but never officially launched. The RTX 3080 Ti that was released had 12GB of VRAM, an improvement from the 10GB RTX 3080. However, this 20GB model was scrapped by Nvidia, and this is the only known instance of it being sold. It functions like a regular GPU, making it a potential investment for collectors of GPU rarities.
The GPU is currently listed for sale on Facebook marketplace in Australia. The current owner hasn't disclosed how they acquired the card, but assures that it works well, despite a few scuffs from the previous owner. They have provided screenshots of it running 3DMark, GPU-Z, and MSI Afterburner as evidence of its functionality. The GPU is an MSI Suprim X model with a triple-fan cooler and 20GB of GDDR6X memory. This memory capacity would have been substantial for PC gaming in 2021, but not unprecedented, as the RTX 3090 had 24GB. The original plan was to pair the 20GB of 19Gb/s memory with a 320-bit memory bus, which would have been a downgrade for the RTX 3080 series, as the 12GB Ti version that was launched had a 384-bit memory bus.
The way the GPU achieved 20GB of VRAM is noteworthy. The official 12GB RTX 3080 Ti has 12 memory modules of 1GB each. To reach 20GB, one 64-bit memory controller would have had to be disabled to allow for a 320-bit bus on the card. This would have allowed it to use 10 2GB modules, compensating for the narrower memory bus with higher-clocked memory. This was not the case for this card, which may have led Nvidia to prioritize memory bandwidth over capacity, as 12GB was deemed sufficient for gaming in 2021.
Interestingly, Nvidia allowed at least one of its partners to produce some of these cards before deciding to halt their release. In September 2022, when EVGA ended its partnership with Nvidia, it claimed that Nvidia kept its partners uninformed about new GPU pricing until it was publicly announced, complicating the planning of new GPU launches. It's surprising that a company like MSI was allowed to manufacture a GPU before Nvidia had decided to sell it, although this is speculative.
As of now, the GPU is still for sale. However, in 2023, if you're willing to spend over a thousand dollars on a GPU, you'd be better off with an RTX 4080 or Radeon RX 7900 XTX. Despite the 20GB memory being more than the RTX 4080's 16GB, a newer GPU would offer better performance due to the Ada Lovelace architecture compared to Ampere. Nonetheless, it's a valuable collector's item and reasonably priced.