NVIDIA has recently launched a new lineup of high-end graphics cards, the GeForce RTX 40. However, the high prices of these cards have disappointed many gamers. To address this issue, NVIDIA has now introduced a more affordable series of “SUPER” variants of its graphics cards. The aim is to win back those gamers who were hesitant to buy the early models due to their sky-high pricing.

The first salvo comes January 31st with the debut of the GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER, priced at a somewhat more reasonable $999 compared to the eye-watering $1,199 launch price of its non-SUPER counterpart. The new card will ship with a fully enabled AD103 GPU giving it more CUDA cores and faster 16GB GDDR6X memory for improved performance over the original model, essentially delivering RTX 4080-class frame rates for $200 less.

NVIDIA is specifically targeting the new 4080 SUPER at owners of older high-end cards like the RTX 3080 Ti and RTX 2080 SUPER, enticing them to upgrade with better performance at a similar or lower cost compared to what they originally paid. The GPU giant likely felt pressure to adjust course after the lackluster reception of the non-SUPER RTX 4080, which cut back too many features to hit its price point.

The 4080 SUPER has big shoes to fill, needing to directly take on AMD‘s competing Radeon RX 7900 XTX and 7900 XT which debuted in a similar price zone. But while competitive on paper, AMD’s cards have suffered from erratic driver performance and stability at launch, opening the door for NVIDIA to make up lost ground if they can deliver a polished product.

In addition to the 4080 SUPER, NVIDIA is preparing two other “SUPER” refreshes catering to lower price tiers: the RTX 4070 SUPER on January 17th at $599 and the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER on January 24th at $799. Both look compelling for their respective prices.

The 4070 Ti SUPER is arguably the most exciting, with NVIDIA upgrading it to a 256-bit memory bus from 192-bit and upgrading VRAM capacity to 16GB GDDR6X compared to the original model. Combined with more CUDA cores this refresh should deliver substantially better 1080p and 1440p gaming performance for the same $799 cost. Impressively efficiency remains unchanged at 285W, another leg up on AMD.

Meanwhile, the RTX 4070 SUPER gets a modest performance bump from higher clocks and more CUDA cores at the same $599 price as before. Though memory configuration is unchanged at 12GB GDDR6X, NVIDIA claims frame rates will be 15% faster than the non-SUPER 4070, putting it firmly in striking distance of the previous generation flagship RTX 3090 while using far less power.

With its RTX 40 SUPER Series NVIDIA aims to answer critiques of the astronomical prices and uneven value propositions of early RTX 40 graphics cards. Bumping performance while keeping prices in check will undoubtedly be welcomed by the gaming community, and put more competitive pressure on rival AMD.

While availability could be limited at launch, the introduction of more models catering to a variety of budgets gives customers better chances to buy one at non-scalped prices. For disappointed early RTX 40 adopters there is little recourse, but for older generation owners patient enough to wait NVIDIA’s new SUPER variants look to deliver excellent performance-per-dollar that was missing before. If the company can execute solid drivers and smooth launches, they may yet dominate this graphics generation like years past.