Rumours have it that NVIDIA may be making a second variant of the GeForce RTX 5070. And by second variant, we mean that the GPU brand may ship out using the bigger and more powerful GB203 silicon.
The rumour comes from hongxing2020, who posted a non-descript statement about the RTX 5070 using a GB203. In addition, they say that NVIDIA will be releasing a new driver to accommodate the “new” GPU.
For context, the GeForce RTX 5070 shipped out with the GB205 when it launched last year. The GB203 silicon is typically reserved for both the RTx 5070 Ti and RTX 5080 and rightly so, given that they are more powerful.
This isn’t an unusual move for NVIDIA, by the way. Before the RTX 5070, NVIDIA also began refurbishing its RTX 5060 with cut-down GB205 silicon, replacing the GB206 silicon that was originally used at launch for the entry-level GPU.
It seems likely that the GB203 silicon being used to produce the next batch of RTX 5070 GPUs are those which didn’t meet the requirements for the more powerful Blackwell variants. Despite the change in silicone, the card retains its original specifications, although it seems certain that some performance gains will be observed; we’ll only be able to tell if and when we get our hands on a unit.
Again, the RTX 5070 still ships out with 12GB GDDR7 running at 28Gbps; a 192-bit memory bus; has 6,144 CUDA cores; and a base and boost clock of 2.32GHz and 2.51GHz, respectively. We’ve reviewed the card, so we do recommend that you check that out if you’re thinking of purchasing the card in these fluid times.
(Source: Videocardz, X)