ASUS announced their GeForce RTX 3080 Noctua just a week ago, leading up to Computex. Since Computex is pretty much a digital-only event this year, I suspect the company seized the opportunity and made their big announcement some time before the show to get better media attention. I am glad to have not traveled to Computex since it gave me the time to review this beast of a card.

Taking up four slots, the GeForce RTX 3080 Noctua is easily one of the biggest cards I've ever tested, which is a total non-issue with SLI being a thing of the past; that is, unless you're building an SFF PC, of course. The vast majority of desktop cases will fit this card without a problem, as ASUS made sure to keep height and length reasonable while making the most out of four slots for thickness. Part of the reason why the card is so thick is that full-size retail Noctua fans are used—the excellent NF-A12x25 fans at that—which take up more space than the fans usually installed on graphics cards.

Averaged over our 25-game strong test suite, at 4K resolution, we find the RTX 3080 Noctua 2% ahead of the NVIDIA RTX 3080 reference design. While any gains are welcome, I feel like a bit more would have been nice. Compared to the Radeon RX 6800 XT, the ASUS RTX 3080 is 4% faster, while the Radeon RX 6900 XT is 3% faster than the RTX 3080. NVIDIA's RTX 3090 is 11% faster but also much more expensive. Both GPU vendors recently refreshed their lineups to where the Radeon RX 6950 XT is 10% faster than the ASUS Noctua card and the RTX 3090 Ti 21% ahead.

Fundamentally, this is still an RTX 3080 10 GB, so nothing has changed in its positioning. The card is extremely fast and will achieve more than 60 FPS in nearly all titles at 4K resolution. Just one generation ago, people dreamed of such performance levels. With the Ampere generation, NVIDIA improved their ray tracing technology, which gives them a performance advantage compared to AMD's Radeon 6000 Series. The differences are getting smaller in newer titles though, as AMD is putting all its force behind improving developer relationships so they optimize ray tracing effects for AMD hardware. This does mean ray tracing looks less spectacular because it's designed to be less demanding on hardware. Still, if your focus is 100% on ray tracing, you want an NVIDIA GeForce 30-series graphics card. On the other hand, and considering that ray tracing isn't a huge game changer yet, you should consider cards from both camps, at least for the near future.

ASUS has chosen to release their RTX 3080 Noctua with 10 GB of VRAM, which I think is the right choice. Still, a lot of people will wonder why the company didn't opt for the 12 GB RTX 3080 design released earlier this year. While 12 GB certainly future-proofs things and will make you feel better, memory isn't free, and I'm not convinced spending another $100 or so would be worth it. It definitely is not worth it from a Performance per Dollar standpoint. I've tested the RTX 3080 12 GB and found that in nearly all games, there's no difference in performance as the VRAM size is already large enough. No doubt, you can probably find one or two edge cases where 12 GB vs. 10 GB has an advantage, but I'm not sure if that is enough. On the other hand, the ASUS RTX 3080 Noctua is clearly positioned as a premium version of the RTX 3080 designed to attract buyers willing to pay the premium for low noise and excellent cooling performance, so these same people would probably be willing to spend even more money for the warm feeling of having a 12 GB card, although I can't be sure, so let me know what you think in the comments.

The unique selling point of the ASUS RTX 3080 Noctua is its thermal solution based around the high-quality fans from the Austrian company. Even the first glance shows that this is a Noctua card—the signature tan and brown color scheme is hard to miss. In terms of noise levels, the ASUS card is a revelation at only 23.4 dBA; the card is so quiet it's almost at the limits of my noise-testing capability. I'm testing in a quiet neighborhood with all other computers shut off and no running fans or AC, and the card is still almost inaudible. Basically, you have to stand next to the system on an open bench and concentrate on the card to somewhat discern its noise. As soon as you start moving, your clothes will make enough noise to overpower what little sound the card puts out—absolutely incredible! Often, low noise means compromising on temperatures, which is not the case with the RTX 3080 Noctua to further sweeten the deal. We measured temperatures of only 67 °C under full load, which is better than most RTX 3080 cards—I've tested 10 models to date. No doubt ASUS found a great balance between noise levels and temperatures, which of course is much easier to achieve if you have so much cooling performance available. In my opinion, there's no reason to use the dual BIOS feature to activate the "Performance" BIOS. At 30 dBA, its noise levels are still good, but you only reduce temperatures from 67°C to 58°C in return, which doesn't gain you anything other than a +15 MHz boost bin from NVIDIA's boost clock algorithm due to slightly lower temperature.

In terms of power consumption, we're not seeing any surprises with the RTX 3080 Noctua. As expected, power consumption is slightly increased over the NVIDIA Founders Edition, but there really is no huge loss in efficiency as on the RTX 3090 Ti and some RX 6950 XT models. While overclocking is not a primary focus of this card, I still feel ASUS could have given us more in terms of the power limit and adjustment range. The default power limit is 340 W (20 W higher than the FE), and the manual adjustment range only goes to 375 W (vs. 370 W on the FE). Given the Performance BIOS really doesn't offer anything tangible in its current state, it would have been nice if ASUS had increased the power limit on that BIOS—the card's VRM could easily take it, and it would give people an actual "performance" option besides the default "quiet" BIOS setting. I'm sure the card would have still been super quiet.

Originally I posted the review without pricing information, and assumed a price point of $1100. ASUS has just reached out to me and confirmed that the MSRP for the RTX 3080 Noctua OC is set to $950 in the United States. Considering that RTX 3080 cards can be found for around $900, a $50 increase is VERY reasonable. Just buying the fans alone will basically set you back that much. In our Performance per Dollar section, I've plotted a few additional price points so you can get a better feel for where the card sits in terms of value. Spending an extra $50 to get the quietest high-performance card on the market is a total no-brainer for me. It's probably worth even more to people who want to get whisper-quiet 60 FPS at 4K. This promise is what will sell many of these cards, no doubt. I'm a sucker for low noise and have to admit I'd be tempted, even at a higher price offset. The RTX 3080 doesn't exist in a vacuum though, and many good alternatives are available. For example, the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT ($1,000) and RX 6950 XT ($1,100) offer higher performance, have slightly better efficiency, but worse RT performance. NVIDIA's RTX 3080 12 GB sells for around $1,000—not for me, but if you think you must absolutely have 12 GB, it's definitely an option. Last but not least, there's the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti which offers 12 GB VRAM too, but also comes with a higher GPU core count and clocks to almost reach RTX 3090 levels of performance for $1,150—I'd consider that. But neither of those offer the unbelievable noise levels of the ASUS RTX 3080 Noctua.