Just three months ago, NVIDIA released the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti, which is designed to one-up the RTX 3080 to fight AMD's highly successful Radeon RX 6800 XT and RX 6900 XT. Another reason for the new model is that NVIDIA wants to switch their whole lineup to LHR (Low Hash Rate) GPUs, which operate at reduced speed for GPU mining to make them unattractive to miners, so that gamers can buy them more easily. Compared to the RTX 3080, the RTX 3080 Ti comes with 17% more cores, 8,704 vs. 10,240. At the same time, NVIDIA has increased the memory bus width to 384-bit, matching the RTX 3090. VRAM has also received a bump, from 10 GB to 12 GB, a good PR move of little effect on real-life gaming. Gainward's RTX 3080 Ti Phantom GS is a factory overclocked card that ticks at 1725 MHz, which is a 60 MHz increase, or 3.6% over the NVIDIA Founders Edition baseline clocks.

Averaged over our 22-game-strong test suite at 4K resolution, the Gainward RTX 3080 Ti Phantom GS ends up 2% faster than the RTX 3080 Ti Founders Edition—comparable to other "medium" custom designs. The top models from ASUS, MSI, and EVGA achieve 7%, 5%, and 4% more than the Founders Edition. So all these cards are essentially relatively close in their performance characteristics. An important win for the RTX 3080 Ti Phantom GS is that it beats the AMD RX 6900 XT by 7% and matches the much more expensive RTX 3090. The RTX 3080 is 11% slower. AMD's Radeon RX 6800 XT is 13% behind. Against last generation's RTX 2080 Ti flagship, the performance uplift is 50%.

With those performance numbers, RTX 3080 Ti is the perfect choice for 4K gaming at 60 FPS and above. It's probably the only resolution you should consider for this beast because we've seen some CPU-limited titles at even 1440p—for 1080p, it's definitely overkill. On the other hand, if you have a strong CPU and 1440p high-refresh-rate monitor, the 3080 Ti could be an option. The added performance of the RTX 3080 Ti will also give you more headroom in case future game titles significantly increase their hardware requirements, which seems unlikely considering the new consoles are out and their hardware specifications will define what's possible for the next few years.

There's no big surprises with raytracing performance; the RTX 3080 Ti is basically 10% faster than the RTX 3080 and nearly as fast as the RTX 3090. The underlying reason is that there has been no change in the GPU chip or GPU architecture. Still, compared to AMD Radeon RDNA 2, NVIDIA's raytracing performance is better. The new game consoles use AMD graphics tech, though it looks to me like recent game releases intentionally go weak on the amount of raytracing for the "I haz raytracing" badge while still achieving decent performance on the AMD-powered consoles. For example, Resident Evil Village has support for raytracing, but uses only very limited RT effects, which cushions the performance penalty incurred by Radeon cards, and the same is happening on F1 2021; only recent patches have improved the RT quality. It'll be interesting to see whether this trend continues in the coming months or the only option for serious raytracing will continue to be NVIDIA GeForce.

Gainward's thermal solution is very decent. It's a triple-slot, triple-fan design that uses six heatpipes to achieve good temperatures of 78°C under load, which is comparable to most other RTX 3080 Ti cards. Memory temperatures are very good, too. Noise levels are higher, though. With 42 dBA, the fan is definitely audible under full load, but isn't annoyingly loud. Other RTX 3080 cards don't do much better here. AMD's offerings, on the other hand, especially the RX 6800 XT and RX 6900 XT reference designs, are whisper-quiet even when fully loaded. Gainward offers a dual-BIOS feature on their card. The second "quiet" BIOS runs a more relaxed fan curve, which allows the card to go 3°C higher in temperature. In return, you get improved noise levels that are now down to 39 dBA, which matches the NVIDIA RTX 3080 Ti Founders Edition almost exactly. In a direct comparison with the heatsinks on other air-cooled RTX 3080 Ti models, the Phantom GS achieves a good third place: better than the NVIDIA FE, Palit Gaming Pro, and Zotac AMP Holo, but slightly behind the MSI Suprim X and EVGA FTW3. Just like on all other Ampere cards, fan stop is a mandatory capability. In idle, during desktop work, internet browsing, and light gaming, the Gainward RTX 3080 Ti will turn off its fans completely for the perfect noise-free experience.

I feel what's holding the card back in terms of thermals and noise is that Gainward has bumped up GPU voltage a bit, which of course helps with stability at the factory OC, but also costs efficiency. They also increased the card's power limit to 400 W, same as the best RTX 3080 Ti models. This allows the card to boost higher for longer, but also operates it with lower efficiency. Overall, with a typical gaming power draw of 386 W, the Phantom GS uses 10% more power than the reference card sitting at 354 W, which of course means the cooler has to work harder to get rid of the excess heat. Overall energy efficiency of the Gainward RTX 3080 Ti is not very high compared to other Ampere cards, even lower than some Turing-generation cards. For overclockers, it's nice to see that Gainward has given us a good manual adjustment power range of up to 440 W, which is definitely comparable to the top cards from MSI, ASUS, and EVGA; however, I still wonder, why not give us more? The card has three 8-pins, so it should be able to pull up to 525 W in theory.

At current marketing conditions, the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti can be found for $1750, which is a lot of money and way above the MSRP of $1200. That having been said, you get an amazing graphics card that can handle everything you throw at it at 4K. It's also substantially cheaper than the $2300 RTX 3090, which really isn't much faster despite 24 GB VRAM and slightly more shaders. Noteworthy alternatives besides the RTX 3090 are the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT, which currently goes for $1700, so basically as much, with better efficiency but worse RT performance, and then there is the RTX 3080, which is 10% slower and costs $1400, which is 20% less. Gainward's RTX 3080 Ti Phantom GS is a solid option as long as you can find it for a reasonable price, whatever that means in the current market. Personally, I'd be willing to spend $50 above the current baseline price. Last but not least, possibly the strongest competition for GeForce and the PC gaming market overall comes from game consoles, which can be found for well under $1000 and will play all the new games, although with slightly worse graphics. That said, the money saved can buy you a 4K TV and a lot of games.

I'm giving the Gainward RTX 3080 Ti Phantom GS our "Recommended" award because it's a solid card that's worth considering if you're in the market for an RTX 3080 Ti and can live with the currently inflated prices.