Fair enough. Not very surprising though. We're talking about base clocks. 1% - 3% is not much to whine about let alone make a mountain out of molehill over, especially when you can use a utility to OC and get that back plus more.
I don’t know — at the point when a sales rep admits that it’s a lower-end design, I think that means it’s a lower end design. Not really news, although bottom-barrel nvidia cards usually perform on par with FE cards. Still, for once I (partially) agree with
@lexluthermiester — 1-3% is practically a margin of error. I’d be behooved not to correct you, though — even when OC’d the Zotac card performs worse than an FE overclocked, as some reputable reviewers have shown. Unlike the FE's 370W power limit, the Zotac card is limited to 336W.
In any case, you're right -- the performance difference is mostly negligible in the real world (unless you overclock). It's not at all unusual for AIBs to release different tiers of cards, and it's not like ASUS or Gigabyte released their high-end cards at launch (and MSI if there's a lightning). *shrug*
Relatively, the Zotac doesn’t overclock well and is slower than the FE OOB. It also seems to be missing some components that the FE has. It’s Zotac news for Zotac fans, and some frustrations for buyers who just wanted a "reference" PCB. Maybe the delay means they’ll go the extra mile with Amp! this round, but given the 3080's limitations I doubt it.
Hmm, should I listen to people with technical credibility, or ask a sales rep?
No random user anywhere qualifies. You need uh... qualifications. Paper or otherwise. Hard to find but very useful in debates to use people that have those. 10/10, would recommend.
Depends, are you looking at getting a job in sales, or asking technical questions about computer parts?
Depending on your answer, one may be more suitable than the other.
If you'll read the source in question before making assumptions, it was reviews like this one that got people upset:
Zotac's GeForce RTX 3080 Trinity comes with up to five years of warranty and a large triple-slot, triple-fan cooler. In our review, we saw excellent noise levels that are much better than the Founders Edition, and it runs cooler as well. A very solid card for $699.
www.techpowerup.com
Couple that with "issues" like these and you might see why early adapters are a bit miffed:
https://www.reddit.com/r/EKWB/comments/iv1ugg