NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Founders Edition

[birdie]

What remains:

Reviews: custom GeForce RTX 3080 designs Availability: GeForce RTX 3080 FE & custom	17 September, 13:00 UTC
GeForce RTX 3090 FE and custom: reviews and availability	24 September, 13:00 UTC
GeForce RTX 3070 FE and custom: reviews (TBC) and availability	15 October, 13:00 UTC

8k displays are still extremely expensive and are not wildly available. Given that we have only just reached 4k gaming viability, 8k is a bit off just yet.

If you read the comments you might get the impression that almost everyone here has either a 1440p or 4K high refresh monitor, while in reality:

In other words less than 11% of people use high-res monitors and just one out of 44 has a 4K monitor.

 

[trog100]

the 3070 will be the big seller.. 2080ti performance for sensible money..

this 3080 card seems to be a 4K only card.. as a 1440.. 2080ti owner i dont feel any need to rush out and buy one..

good in one sense a tad boring in another..

trog

 

[Foxiol]

Great review as usually. Not going to get it after all, I shall wait for the Ti version, I need a few more frames for 4K 60+FPS in most games. My LG CX6LB 55" OLED 120hz is asking for more juice than this.

PS: Going for the 3090 is an option but I have to save for a few months if I want that thing. Let's see what happens.

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

Actually, it seems NVidia understated the projected performance as much of the data on offer is well over what NVidia stated.

66% average , by TPU review, and he used the old too little Vram tactics on his own RX2080 on doom eternal such that the cards memory is saturated, with ultra not extreme textures the difference is back down to an already impressive 77% the outliers in a small set of pre release demo ,inflated expectations.

There by, proving that Vram size Can limit performance given two years progress , while selling you a 10GB 4K card, the guy's a genius for sure.

 

[sam_86314]

It looks like I've found my next GPU unless AMD has something that competes (though even then, I need Cuda and RTX for 3D rendering).

I'll probably pick it up next year when prices fall. Maybe NVIDIA will get my tax return money.

 

[erocker]

Good luck to everyone within the 5-10 minute window tomorrow trying to get one of these!

 

[Lindatje]

A disappointment, no double performance compared to the 2080Super that Nvidia promised.
Very high power consumption, aib`s are even higher.

RDNA2 in October .....

 

[Parn]

10 gb for 4k will not last a few years in the future for all games. So because of the vram, I will take my chances and wait in the hope of a rtx 3080 20 GB or a rtx 3080 ti in stead. Sure that will be more expensive, but might pay out in the long run because of more vram = better future proofing.

Exactly. With 3090 at 24GB, a mid-generation SUPER refresh with doubled amount of vram is pretty much guaranteed. So 3080S 20GB and 3070S 16GB.

 

[lexluthermiester]

If you read the comments you might get the impression that almost everyone here has either a 1440p or 4K high refresh monitor, while in reality:

In other words less than 11% of people use high-res monitors and just one out of 44 people has a 4K monitor.

Exactly. For my main gaming system, I am in that 6.59% of 1440p users, but for the system I'm typing this comment on it's dual 1080p which is also counted on Steam. But there is a third system in the living room connected to our 4k TV which also has Steam on it. For reference, that is just accounting for 3 of the 9 PCs in this home. While I'm well aware that my home is in the vast minority of technology saturation in the home, most of the systems in this home are still on 1080p and no one is complaining.

Even with this new series of GPU's, few are going to move away from 1080p. That is the one conclusion W1zzard made that I disagree with. I think he underestimates that market sector just a little bit. Lots of people will be buying the 30X0 series to upgrade their 1080p gaming experience, and a massive upgrade they will get!

The thing is, it can be safely said that very few will buy the 3090 to do 1080p gaming. Then again those numbers are still incoming and yet to be publicly seen.

 

[Colddecked]

beware again: only 30% faster than 2080ti*

* For 60 percent of the price

 

[5150Joker]

beware again: only 30% faster than 2080ti

Actually less if you consider it runs at a higher max boost clock vs the 2080 Ti in this review. If you put both at the same clocks and assume equal efficiency then knock off another 5-6% from the difference between the two. The card is great IF you can get one for $699 but it’s value drops when you spend above that amount. I’ve seen ASUS asking $850 + tax for their 3080 Strix which is just hilariously stupid. Yes the official price of 2080 Ti new was $999+ but it’s been discontinued and now there’s a lot of idiots offloading them for $400-450 which is both ridiculous and a better deal than the 3080.

Also I would like to see modern BR games tested in some fashion using a 1080p 240hz display as a lot of gamers (esp esports) have gone that direction rather than 4K.

 

[birdie]

A disappointment, no double performance compared to the 2080Super that Nvidia promised.
Very high power consumption, aib`s are even higher.

RDNA2 in October .....

The RTG hype train has been excellent at overpromising until we get reviews and then the hype train derails hard. And the "let's wait" game never fails to disappoint. Too bad most people still prefer overpriced hot garbage with gimmicky tech from NVIDIA as according to Steam HW stats, the overhyped God Lisa Su bestowed RX 5000 series fails to register in the charts standing at 1.13% which is below a single card from the GeForce 20 RTX series, which is the RTX 2060 SUPER at 1.25%. It's amazing and extremely puzzling how and why the comments sections of major tech websites are flooded with AMD fans. Brand loyalty is effing stupid.

And "leaks" like this one is just disgusting: https://videocardz.com/newz/amd-radeon-rx-6900xt-leaks-in-new-photos If AMD had been confident in Big Navi they wouldn't have tried to steal the thunder from this NVIDIA release.

 

[lexluthermiester]

There by, proving that Vram size Can limit performance given two years progress , while selling you a 10GB 4K card, the guy's a genius for sure.

Ah, there's the kicker though: These are just cards from NVidia themselves. There are no limits(that have been made public) put on AIB's to require 10GB of RAM limit. I'm waiting for the 12GB or 16GB models of the 3080 from EVGA. There have always been card released with amounts of RAM that go beyond the reference designs. GTX 400s, 500s, 600s, 700s & 900s all had increased capacity RAM models made, I've had many of them.

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

The RTG hype train has been excellent at overpromising until we get reviews and then the hype train derails hard. And the "let's wait" game never fails to disappoint. Too bad most people still prefer overpriced hot garbage with gimmicky tech from NVIDIA as according to Steam HW stats, the overhyped God Lisa Su bestowed RX 5000 series fails to register in the charts standing at 1.13% which is below a single card from the GeForce 20 RTX series, which is the RTX 2060 SUPER at 1.25%. It's amazing and extremely puzzling how and why the comments sections of major tech websites are flooded with AMD fans. Brand loyalty is effing stupid.

And "leaks" like this one is just disgusting: https://videocardz.com/newz/amd-radeon-rx-6900xt-leaks-in-new-photos If AMD had been confident in Big Navi they wouldn't have tried to steal the thunder from this NVIDIA release.

Demonstrated perfectly.

 

[Lindatje]

The RTG hype train has been excellent at overpromising until we get reviews and then the hype train derails hard. And the "let's wait" game never fails to disappoint. Too bad most people still prefer overpriced hot garbage with gimmicky tech from NVIDIA as according to Steam HW stats, the overhyped God Lisa Su bestowed RX 5000 series fails to register in the charts standing at 1.13% which is below a single card from the GeForce 20 RTX series, which is the RTX 2060 SUPER at 1.25%. It's amazing and extremely puzzling how and why the comments sections of major tech websites are flooded with AMD fans. Brand loyalty is effing stupid.

And "leaks" like this one is just disgusting: https://videocardz.com/newz/amd-radeon-rx-6900xt-leaks-in-new-photos If AMD had been confident in Big Navi they wouldn't have tried to steal the thunder from this NVIDIA release.

And the reason of your rant is ....? It's a review of the Nvidia 3080 and not AMD, only thing I said is that RDNA2 is coming in October.

 

[HABO]

Sorry to bother you, but did you take a look at either reducing the power limit or manually altering the voltage/freq curve in Afterburner/similar? computerbase.de reported only a few percent less performance with a 270 W limit, and someone linked me a video of someone changing that curve to good effect on another site.

It honestly sounds like Turing, where you can't drop the voltage with the slider but can with the curve editor.

yes, in review is bullshit regarding that undervolting, its possible throught that courve setting as usual but there is not so significant power savings as I thought

 

[Krzych]

I'd love to see ANY 2080Ti run 25% faster with a ambient cooled overclock..........

On ambient you are not getting past 16-17% faster than stock FE, and thats with 380W bios flashed (so 150% PL vs stock FE) and a custom LC, unless you want to run at 60 dB. So realistically on average setup you are not getting even half way to 3080 FE. And Ampere's OC potential is still unknown since we only got 116% PL at 75C for now, this 16-17% increase for 2080 Ti is at 150% PL and 50C. Also 3080 isn't really a replacement for 2080 Ti, you didn't get $1200+ card to lie to yourself that you can get close to $700 card, you sell it and get 3090.

 

[mouacyk]

Ah, there's the kicker though: These are just cards from NVidia themselves. There are no limits(that have been made public) put on AIB's to require 10GB of RAM limit. I'm waiting for the 12GB or 16GB models of the 3080 from EVGA. There have always been card released with amounts of RAM that go beyond the reference designs. GTX 400s, 500s, 600s, 700s & 900s all had increased capacity RAM models made, I've had many of them.

Since we're throwing out Micron Density specs, why not 13GB or 13.578GB?

 

[lexluthermiester]

And the reason of your rant is ....? It's a review of the Nvidia 3080 and not AMD, only thing I said is that RDNA2 is coming in October.

He was making a comparative point while at the same time offering opinion on a point W1zzard stated.

Since we're throwing out Micron Density specs, why not 13GB or 13.578GB?

I didn't not say anything about "Micron Density specs" at all. I was talking exclusively about about on-card memory capacity.

 

[mouacyk]

I didn't not say anything about "Micron Density specs" at all. I was talking exclusively about about on-card memory capacity.

You seem to have missed the fundamentals that Micron is only producing 8Gb and 16Gb chips, for use with 32-bit memory controllers, of which the 3080 has 10 enabled of the 12 total. Hence, we got 10GB, and may possibly get 20GB in a future refresh. If you're making up numbers, please show the math.

 

[John Naylor]

Odd how people can see the same thing and come up with a different set of numbers.

1. Relative performance based upon average fps:

1080 ==> 2080 = +45%
2080 ==> 3080 = +52% ... not bad, not bad at all .... more than I expected

2. 35 dbA a bit load but not significantly different that previos FE's ... no opinion until we see AIBs

3. 80 C a bit hot, 2C hotter than the 2080 Super .... expected more. ... no opinion until we see AIBs

4. Power Consumption ... 30 watts more than 2080 Ti .in average gaming ... only 11 % ? expected a lot more for 23 % more average fps.

5. Have 0 concerns about memory ... With the rumors abou AIB versions wityh different memory configurations in play, I'm dying to see them compared. Yes, Im sure folks will be able to crank up settings in the most demanding games and show a performance difference. But when we have seen significant differences before , it's for the most part at say 18 and 25 fps were the game is already unplayable. And yes, we will be see tools used that purport to show actual memory usage n excess of what the lower VRAM offering has. But, as in the past, what we won't see is a significant number of games where the user experience, the way users actually play the game, is altered when cames are actually playable and without doing really, realy strange things.

6 I'll take 1 exception to the review conclusions "Makes little sense for gamers without a 4K monitor ". To date, I find that I more often enjoy playing better at 1440p w/ ULMB than playing at 4k with Sync. The 3080 managed to hit 120 fps in just under half the games. Won't be investing in a 4k monitor until I get to see it do 120 Hz w/ ULMB. The 3080 would drive it to 120 Hz in a bit less than 50% of games and that's enough to justify the purchase.

Nvidia scared of AMD ? ... yeah like the Ravens were scared of the "This is our year" Cleveland Browns last Sunday .... (Browns went down 38-6). Generational fps increase for nVidia @v1440p was 52% .... to match, AMD had to do 100% better than their 5700 XT and 67% better then the Radeon VII I wouldn't bet the ranch. I have no doubt that AMD has a substantial improvement coming ..... more than one couild normally expect in a single generation ... but thi looks like just too big a mountain to climb. I hope Im wrong.

 

[Tomgang]

Exactly. With 3090 at 24GB, a mid-generation SUPER refresh with doubled amount of vram is pretty much guaranteed. So 3080S 20GB and 3070S 16GB.

I hope the super/ti versions comes out fast. I have sold my 1080 TI, currently suffering on a gtx 1060 6 GB. Will have to wait for amd zen 3 and rtx 3000 card with more vram before taking the jump to a new system.

 

[shk021051]

I'll Wait for RDNA2 then decide

 

[lexluthermiester]

You seem to have missed the fundamentals that Micron is only producing 8Gb and 16Gb chips, for use with 32-bit memory controllers, of which the 3080 has 10 enabled of the 12 total. Hence, we got 10GB, and may possibly get 20GB in a future refresh. If you're making up numbers, please show the math.

Citation? Don't bother arguing because neither Micron nor NVidia have declared or disclosed that specific specification data. Additionally, pairing additional RAM dies to a controller that has a certain limit is almost trivial and comes with little performance penalty.

 

[cellar door]

@W1zzard
Thanks for a great, comprehensive review!

One that that might be useful to some users could be a table with the decode/encode support - kinda like the one you have for the general specs. Easy to read and look up the differences. Cheers