With Nvidia's next generation GeForce graphics cards set to be unveiled on September 1, rumors about Ampere-based GPUs are piling up.

The latest leaks reveal more specs for the GeForce RTX 3080 and RTX 3090, with a new entry in the Userbenchmark database flagged by VideoCardz showing the RTX 3080's maximum clock speed at 2. 1 GHz and 10 GB of video memory. Memory manufacturer Micron has also revealed that it will supply memory modules for the GeForce RTX 3090, with 12GB of GDDR6X VRAM, and Tom's Hardware notes that thanks to the 384-bit memory interface, a bandwidth of 1TB/sec Tom's Hardware points out that the system will be able to achieve a bandwidth of 1TB/s.

While these are strong specs, there is also a certain amount of confusion, as earlier rumors indicated that the GeForce RTX 3090 (possibly also called the RTX 3080 Ti) would have 20GB of VRAM. 10GB of VRAM for the RTX 3080 seems consistent with earlier rumors. It appears to be, combined with a memory clock speed of 4,750 MHz, will deliver a memory speed of 19 Gbps and a bandwidth of 760 GB/second.

For comparison, the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti, the current top-end consumer Nvidia graphics card, features a 1,545MHz boost clock speed, 11GB of GDDR6 video memory, 14Gbps memory speed, and 616GB/s bandwidth. The RTX 3080 is the first RTX 3080 to feature a 1,545MHz boost clock. Basically, the RTX 3080 and RTX 3090 thoroughly outperform older GPUs.

Even if some versions of next-generation GeForce RTX cards have less memory and slower clock speeds, the efficiency and performance gains Nvidia has achieved with the Ampere GPU architecture currently found in datacenter-grade graphics cards are not as significant as with Turing based GPUs. This is hardly surprising, but the performance gains, especially in games that support ray tracing, should make the next generation GeForce graphics cards quite attractive to PC gamers.

With the PS5 and Xbox Series X promising to support ray tracing, we can expect to see more games with high-end, demanding light source rendering techniques. This will make investing in GPUs that support ray tracing all the more compelling.

All this memory and performance will not come cheap. However, with AMD Big Navi supposedly bringing in an "Nvidia killer" graphics card, Nvidia's next-generation GPUs will likely do everything in their power to keep Team Red at bay.

However, if Big Navi delivers impressive performance at a price below these upcoming high-end GeForce GPUs, it could take Nvidia down a notch or two when Big Navi is unveiled this fall. So we will have to wait and see if AMD can truly compete with Nvidia in the high-end graphics arena.