Hong Kong news outlet HKEPC claims that Nvidia has prepared a new AD103 die for the GeForce RTX 4080, potentially improving the Ada Lovelace graphics card's bills of material (BOM).

The GeForce RTX 4080 ships with the AD103-300 silicon; however, HKEPC's sources allege that the graphics card will switch to AD103-301 soon. Now, Galax has started listing the brand's GeForce RTX 4080 graphics cards with the "AD103-300/301."

However, the transition from AD103-300 to AD103-301 won't likely benefit the consumer. Despite the difference in silicon, GeForce RTX 4080 GPUs based on the AD103-301 should have an equivalent level of performance to the normal AD103-300 variants. Nvidia's partners are the ones that are getting the best deal out of the new silicon.

According to HKEPC, Nvidia's upcoming GeForce RTX 4070 could leverage two different dies: AD104-250 or AD104-251. The former allegedly requires a comparator circuit for the GPU voltage, whereas the latter doesn't need one. As a result, AD104-251 has a lower PCB BOM but would likely use a different PCB.

HKPEC estimates a $1 BOM reduction with AD104-251. The AD104-250 will hit the production line first, with the AD104-251 coming shortly afterwards.

It's still being determined what has changed between the two dies or why Nvidia thought the GeForce RTX 4080 needed new silicon. Word on the street is that the new AD103-301 silicon may help lower the BOM for the GeForce RTX 4080.

We would have thought price reductions were crucial for this GPU. The GeForce RTX 4080 debuted at $1,199, and some premium custom models retail for as much as $1,899. It is still a sound card and one of Nvidia's better sellers. It seems people are prepared to shell out for this sort of spec, whatever the cost.