NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Founders Edition

[evernessince]

People complaining about high GPU prices pre pandemic seem to have utterly forgotten that this decade we have had:

The competitive 7000 series bringing HD gaming performance to the $100 segment
The 290x retailing for under $300 for nearly a year
The RX 480/580/470/570/560 being fantastic budget cards for 3 years running, well into 2019.

And on the high end, you had
The $650 980ti that was an OC beast
The $700 1080ti that became a high end champion for nearly half a decade
The 3080 launching at just $700 while obliterating 2080ti performance
The 6800xt launching at $650 with more VRAM and better non RT performance.

The elevated MSRP and lack of budget cards is a VERY RECENT development that has largely occurred during the pandemic. Thinking that these price increases are permanent is hilariously short sighted. People were forecasting the doom of the PC gaming industry in 2007 too, and within 2 years the evergreen GPU lineup from AMD smashed predictions for what could be had on a budget and forced nvidia's hand, giving us the $500 flagship era.

The RX 580 / 480 / ect are still some of the best price / performance cards. That's the point, there's been zero improvement in regard to performance per dollar. Cards in the xx60 class used to cost $200, now they are $330 or $280 if want a further cut down version.

Obliterating 2080 ti performance is not impressive. 28% performance gain with single digit efficiency gains, memory size stagnation, and a massive price hike. It'd debatable which was worse, turing or Fermi. $700 only looks good in respect to the waste of sand that was turing. The 3080 guzzles down power to boot and an complete lack of improvement to VRAM sizes over 2 generations, save for the crazy priced 3090 and oddball 3060. The 30xx series doesn't hold a candle to pascal.

The MSRP increased as only as "recent" as 2016, when Nvidia increased pricing on the 10xxx series by $50 across the board (which impacts budget cards more than higher end ones). Then they promptly made a massive increase with Turing. Mind you this is in addition to other things Nvidia has been doing to increase profits, like staggering top end GPU releases to milk people at the top and keeping VRAM amount on cards down. The pricing increase was ignored by many for Pascal because the performance and efficiency gains. Pricing continued to climb after that though, despite future generations not warranting Pascal level pricing, let alone the garbage that we got with turing.

Those other examples aren't really relevant. They don't dubunk or even touch upon the topic of video card pricing trending upwords as of the last 6 years. I own a 1080 Ti and owned a 980 Ti. Neither of those card's prices excuse the pricing trend we are discussing.

As for "citation needed", have a review from anandtech for the launch of the 8800 ultra, instead of some garbage wikipedia entry:

New Ultra High End Price Point With GeForce 8800 Ultra

www.anandtech.com

From that article:

"The NVIDIA GeForce 8800 Ultra is an utter waste of money. "

No one is forcing you to buy these expensive cards, and their presence will not stop budget cards from existing anymore then the existence of the bugatti veyron means you cant buy a honda civic.

Classic Tu Quoque argument. Whether or not someone is forcing anyone to buy these cards does not change the points presented in favor of the argument being made against increasing GPU prices.

The comparison is also illgocial. All car prices on the market did not increase when each Bugatti was released. In the GPU market though video card prices did in fact increase across the board with the 10xx and 20xx series. This would be like charging $15,000 more for entry level cars each time a new model is released. That would more then piss off a majority of drivers. In addition, the xx80 ti card isn't the bugatti. Bugatti is top of the top. The 3080 Ti / 2080 Ti aren't even the top of the stack for Nvidia's consumer cards, let alone it's higher end professional cards. Technically no one is forcing you to buy a Car either, see how that works? Just insensitive.

With modern process nodes running at capacity, the priority is going to be on higher end cards until supply improves and prices drop. Not to mention the continuing supply issues from the pandemic, from labor shortages to electronics supply restrictions. Pieces used to make the fans for cards, the capacitors on cards, ece are all in short supply.

As I pointed out earlier, these pricing increases and lack of improvements to the budget category vastly predated this pandemic.

And no amount of "well you cant get budget cards right now but these consoles are only $500" is going to convince people to A. abandon the library of PC games they have already acquired and B. invest in a closed platform that appeals to a different market, especially when C. those consoles are in JUST AS SHORT OF SUPPLY as GPUs are. Good luck buying consoles right now for anywhere near MSRP.

Again, I specifically addressed this in my 2nd sentence of my last comment:

"The problem is the pricing increases of GPUs in general and the complete lack of any improvements in the budget market, not temporary pricing during the pandemic. The pandemic is a separate problem that inflates prices across the board."

If both consoles and video cards drop down to MSRP, consoles are a heck of a lot more appealing.

I'm not so sure people have to abandon their library of PC games either or whether that's such a big deal to many people if they do. To a person who only has a PC that might be a big deal but for a person whom already has a PC and console, they may simply curtail their PC spending. Unless they sell their PC they wouldn't have to give up their game library anyways.

PC has a large overlap with consoles, it's called gaming. People will still need machines to do school / work but those kind of tasks can be handled by a cheap desktop or increasingly chromebooks / mobile devices. There's a percentage of PC users that can't switch off the platform but the vast majority are much more free to switch than you imply here. You are coming at this from a PC enthusiast's perspective where you are so ingrained in the ecosystem that you can't see how the market could shift.

Budget cards will return. Supply will normalize eventually. IDK why people are so insistent that everything has changed permanently forever when the pandemic isnt even over yet and its effects will continue for some time afterwards. Just wait. Go outside and take a break from the PC, or play the literal decades of backwards compatible games that will run toaster GPUs. You may find you dont need a high end GPU to enjoy gaming.

People aren't insistent that everything HAS changed permanently. People are noting the price increases and they are either A) considering a move to consoles IF conditions don't improve B) Giving their opinion on where the market WILL be. You are creating an alternative argument that's an inflated version in your head and then debating that argument which no one has said. AKA a strawman.

If you believe that Budget cards will return then you should not be here debating against people complaining about GPU pricing. Your comments are only fostering an environment that encourages companies to keep prices high and/or increase them further. You are trying to dismiss people's opinions by saying that no one is forcing them to buy or that we should be thankful Nvidia / AMD ever deemed to grace us with budget cards of years past. You believe that budget card will return but don't want to be apart of the solution.

 

[nguyen]

Good news is 3080 Ti are slight cheaper than 3080 in my country, bad news is they are all 2000usd+

 

[Dr. Dro]

Good news is 3080 Ti are slight cheaper than 3080 in my country, bad news is they are all 2000usd+

They arrived here in Brazil ranging from 16,299 BRL (~$3300 USD), for the basic Zotac Trinity to 18,999 BRL (~$3750 USD) for the Gigabyte Aorus Xtreme in our country's largest tech e-commerce, KaBuM, which is where I purchased my 3090 on launch day for 13,339 BRL last year... single most expensive thing I have ever owned, by the way... afforded only by pure chance and the fact I was able to sell my Radeon VII to a miner for a nearly 100% profit on it, and he bought it smiling... I kinda regret it now, tbh.

With the exchange rates from September 24, 2020 of 1 USD x 5,65 BRL, - that turns out to be around ~$2300 USD if my quick math serves me right, which is exactly where an $1600 (back then) MSRP product would be accounting for import taxes and duties. That means that these newer 3080 Ti cards are up to $1450 USD pricier than what I paid on my card - and they're also an inferior model. Utter insanity.

 

[Mussels]

[Cries in Au]

 

[Legacy-ZA]

No thank you, $3750 for a ZOTAC? Bwhahahahahahahaha.

 

[altermere]

The first phase was release and relatively quick sold out everywhere on normal operations.

The second phase was AIBs only making the highest tier cards. Only the FTW Xtreme Suprim top end available and none of the lower end ones. So, 3090 only and no 3080. Only 3070 and no 3060Ti, etc.

The third phase was increased prices citing the tariffs.

The fourth phase, we are now in, is sell a prebuilt system with the GPU in it but if you factor in all the costs, it is close to the scalper prices for the GPU. Plus, there's 1-3 month custom order wait time because no one has reasonably priced prebuilts in stock. Newegg also aggressively started bundling.

I don't know what the next phase it. Some even say the fifth phase is starting with prebuilts slowly creeping their prices up and dumping Intel systems or old Ryzen builds.

Either bite the bullet and get it now and tune everything out. Or, sit this one out and just forget about it.

 

[mechtech]

[Cries in Au]

$1500-$2500 here in the great white north (Canada) w/o the 13% tax.............I would buy a few appliances before a vid card.

 

[WikiFM]

@W1zzard Why the raytracing charts in Control have DLSS activated on AMD cards?

 

[W1zzard]

@W1zzard Why the raytracing charts in Control have DLSS activated on AMD cards?

My scripts failed at making the charts :/ this is fixed now, thanks!

 

[Chrispy_]

I don't know what the next phase it. Some even say the fifth phase is starting with prebuilts slowly creeping their prices up and dumping Intel systems or old Ryzen builds.

We've been in the fifth phase for 6 months already - I've seen plenty of Ampere cards paired with a 2700X or 9600K just to clear out previous gen motherboards and CPUs.

 

[human_error]

We've been in the fifth phase for 6 months already - I've seen plenty of Ampere cards paired with a 2700X or 9600K just to clear out previous gen motherboards and CPUs.

They've been bundling them with gaming chairs and all sorts of nonsense over here (UK).

 

[Deleted member 205776]

I can quite easily drop my power consumption on my 3070 down from 240w to 180w with a performance loss of ~3%, 1980Mhz down to 1910Mhz for a much lower power consumption

I can easily drop my power consumption on my 3070 down from 240w to 180-200w with a performance loss increase. From 1995 MHz stock to 2100 MHz undervolted.

The 3070 is honestly a very efficient card. Reason? Not having the hot power hungry mess that is G6X.

Undervolt and OC your Ampere cards people...