Hot on the heels of Nvidia’s RTX 30 series announcement, third-party manufacturers revealed their upcoming line-ups with plenty of familiar brand names making a return. Par for the course with Nvidia’s staggered launches, we’ve barely scratched the surface on what’s to come, as Videocardz.com uncovers models from Asus and Gigabyte that have yet to be revealed to the world.
So far, Asus has already announced that it’s giving the RTX 3070, RTX 3080, and RTX 3090 the flagship ROG Strix and TUF treatments. Its Dual series, however, currently only includes the RTX 3070, with the smaller heatsink and two fans more suited to the lower power draw. Gigabyte, on the other hand, has lifted the lid on its Aorus Xtreme, Aorus Master, Gaming OC, and Eagle OC models of RTX 3080 and 3090, with no RTX 3070 in sight.
The new model names listed on the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC) website are likely just placeholders for the time being, with no guarantee of seeing the light of day. But, if we’re lucky, they show what could be; from Mini ITX variants, to watercooled models, and those with a greater overclock.
The first EEC listing reveals that Asus Turbo cards are making a comeback, implementing its blower-style cooler across all three SKUs. Since these coolers are known for their weaker airflow, it remains to be seen how effective blowers will be on the RTX 3080 and 3090.
Asus is also looking at splitting its ROG Strix and TUF GPUs into two categories: TOP and Advanced. Naturally, TOP cards are expected to provide the highest clocks available, while Advanced models will sit between the best and base clocks. Dual cards will instead be separated by standard, EVO, and Mini ITX versions.
Moving into more ambiguous territory is the mention of the new EK and KO series. Neither of these codenames have been used by Asus before, with EK speculated to refer to Expedition cards. Given that Expedition GPUs usually carry the ‘EX’ moniker, it’s possible that these could be watercooled variants in partnership with EKWB, but we won’t know until Asus officially announces what it has in store.
Gigabyte is more certain on its watercooled approach, with the second EEC listing showing the company’s tried and tested W AIO series and WB water block series of GPUs to be released at a later date. The manufacturer is also planning its own Turbo series, likely with blower-style coolers. According to the list, W, WB, and Turbo models will initially be exclusive to the RTX 3080 and 3090.
That’s not to leave the RTX 3070 hanging, as the GPU is listed under the enthusiast Aorus brand, Gigabyte’s mainstream Gaming and Eagle brands, and its content creator-focused Vision series, which will likely sport a similar black and white theme as accompanying motherboards.
Until these graphics cards are announced, it’s worth remembering that these are just model numbers that might never make it to market. Still, some of these are a safe bet when compared to past releases and current trends.