[Hardware] Buy a used graphics card and discover it's a unique NVIDIA prototype.

[#Steeven.™]

PC components often have development times dictated by the advancement of new technologies. During these times, various prototypes are presented that often never see the light of day, but now a Reddit user claims to have obtained a unique model of the RTX 2080 Ti.

The graphics cards we find on the market have a series of characteristics that define their performance. Companies like NVIDIA often create different types of components depending on the cutbacks they apply to the most powerful chips, while also taking into account aspects like VRAM.

That's why it's strange to see a graphics card with any superior features compared to the FE versions developed by the company. We usually see an increase in clock speeds for the OC models, but never in VRAM or other key performance components.

 

A unique prototype appears on a secondhand market
Sometimes, we find internet users sharing their experiences with hardware we've never seen before. This is what happened to Reddit user u/RunRepulsive9867, who commented in a post about his experience with a truly peculiar secondhand purchase.

According to the user, he found a strange model of the RTX 2080 Ti on the Facebook marketplace, a product that was selling for $500. What makes this graphics card unusual at first glance may be its design, since instead of displaying the iconic RTX 2000 format, it appears with the name GeForce GTX (the previous generation).

Curiously, it also doesn't include the silkscreen that these graphics cards have indicating the model in the center; it's completely empty. But the most interesting thing is inside, as after running some tests, the user realized that this model had 12 GB of VRAM instead of the original 11 GB of the RTX 2080 Ti.

 

What other differences does it have compared to the original RTX 2080 Ti?
When we look at the screenshot the user took of the test to check the graphics card specifications, we find something really interesting. The most basic thing we see is the VRAM, as to achieve 12 GB, the bus is modified to offer 384-bit like current models, while the original uses 352-bit.

But we also find that it has other higher specs compared to the original version: it has 96 ROPs instead of 88, as well as 288 TMUs. It also has a boost clock frequency of 1635 MHz compared to the usual 1545.

The distinctive detail of this graphics card is that it shares a great similarity with the Titan RTX; this model has the same chip and general configuration but has 24 GB of VRAM. Thus, the version this user found looks more like a model with reduced VRAM from this graphics card rather than a different version of the RTX 2080 Ti. It could even have been the prototype for a more affordable model than the Titan.

 

https://hardzone.es/noticias/tarjetas-graficas/rtx-2080-ti-prototipo-12-gb-vram/