The Nvidia Ampere cards for us PC gamers are getting closer and closer, and the number of leaked information is growing. Over the weekend, there was a report from Chinese forum Chiphell showing off a potential (ugly) design for a Founders Edition (FE) version of the GeForce RTX 3080 card.

Igor's Lab released some details about both the leaked RTX 3080 shroud design and the memory configuration of the different cards that will appear at launch. These will likely be the RTX 3090 Ti, RTX 3080 Ti, and RTX 3080. Two different Ti cards will be available at launch, with a completely new naming scheme.

To me, it looks like a trio of super-expensive, enthusiast-class graphics cards, and we'll have to wait a while for more affordable options to appear. We may also learn a bit about how the competition is faring. [AMD's Big Navi and RDNA 2 GPUs sound like they could genuinely compete with Nvidia's high-end cards, so don't be surprised if Nvidia deploys shock and awe tactics with the goal of knocking AMD down from the start. However, AMD could make a major announcement this time around.

Both companies are aiming to bring out a new generation of graphics cards, top halo GPUs, around Sept. Ish. And both companies are going to do everything in their power to make sure their cards are at the top of the pile. I am genuinely excited about both the technology coming later this year and the inevitable pricing and configuration shenanigans that both AMD and Nvidia will engage in around launch.

Super fun.

But yes, Igor Wallossek suggests that the leaked image over the weekend is likely the first confirmed photo of the Nvidia Ampere Founders Edition shroud. This is because, according to his sources, an internal investigation has been launched to determine the source of the leaked cooler shot. Apparently the focus is on the contract manufacturers of the FE cards: Foxconn and BYD.

He also said that Nvidia is looking to make some changes to the shroud in the next three months before launch to give the lie to the published images, and that the leaks will likely change the design.

But it is his other information about the FE cards that has me intrigued and a little concerned about the wallet-crushing nature of these GPUs. With a completely new architecture and a new manufacturing process, I was expecting a slight price jump over Turing, but according to Wallossek, the manufacturing price for just the Founders Edition shroud is about $150.

This means that the FE card will undoubtedly be far more expensive than the other versions, and its cooler adds another layer of premium pricing to the equation. It will also reportedly use a completely different PCB than the boards shipped to Nvidia's graphics card partners, including MSI, Asus, and Gigabyte The Founders Edition PCB will be used for all three cards at launch, and the cooler design will have There is a cutout to accommodate this. The boards shipped to manufacturers will reportedly have a more traditional rectangular PCB design.

However, whatever PCB is used, it is likely that each of the three new cards will be based on the same GA 102 GPU. This differs significantly from the Turing announcement, where three separate graphics silicon was used for the RTX 2080 Ti, RTX 2080, and RTX 2070. Interestingly, Wallossek also claims that Nvidia will use GDDR6X video memory in various configurations, which has not yet been announced.

Of course, all of this must be taken along with the required levels of sodium chloride. It will be interesting to see what the "X" ultimately means, especially since, as of this writing, neither Samsung, SK Hynix, nor Micron have announced subsequent versions of GDDR6 memory. I am guessing 18 Gbps, but in any case it is expected to be part of the standard GDDR6 specification.

The GA102 is rumored to have a full spec of 7,552 CUDA cores, which is unlikely to be seen outside of professional cards or Titan AMP/Ampere/RTAmpX. However, with TBP levels of 350W and 320W respectively, it is still going to be a vastly more powerful GPU inside an RTX 3090 Ti or similar

. Also, as mentioned before, everything will probably be quite fluid until the next generation of GPUs from AMD and Nvidia are released. Competition is going to be fierce this year, and it will surely be a fireworks show.