Introduction

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 "Ampere" heralds the next generation of graphics cards today—learn everything you need to know about it in our main review of the GeForce RTX 3080 Founders Edition graphics card by NVIDIA. We asked ourselves some interesting, almost nagging questions as we were testing the RTX 3080 on our main VGA test bench based on the Core i9-10900K. Here's a PCIe Gen 4 graphics card which we're testing on our PCIe Gen 3 test bench, while a PCIe Gen 4 platform by AMD is already available and Intel's desktop platform leadership over AMD is still disputed, regardless of its gaming performance claims. In a separate article, we tested the RTX 3080 entirely on an AMD 3rd Gen Ryzen platform, across various PCIe configurations, to investigate the performance impact of Gen 4 and other PCIe configurations.



In this article, we bring you a comprehensive comparison between the Intel Core i9-10900K and AMD Ryzen 9 3900XT, two similarly priced processors, coupled with the GeForce RTX 3080. The two test beds are being subjected to a far wider selection of games than in our processor reviews, so our data should provide a broader perspective of gaming performance for each of the two platforms. We already have a general idea of how the Ryzen 9 3900XT compares to the i9-10900K when tested with a GeForce RTX 2080 Ti in its dedicated review of the processor. However, one of the questions we're trying to answer is whether PCIe Gen 4 helps the 3900XT gain on the i9-10900K. Our testing data should also give you insights into whether the Ryzen 9 3900XT suits your needs as a gaming and productivity machine combined, in which your line of work can benefit from the extra two cores.

As we explained in our 10th Gen Core processor family reviews, to get a better picture, each "Comet Lake" processor needs to be looked at from two angles, based on their power and TDP settings; the processor out of the box and untouched, and the same processor with its power limits relaxed. In many cases, such as the i9-10900, relaxing the power limits has had a transformational effect on the processor's performance. Intel made it extremely easy to do, often by simply clicking an easily found toggle in the motherboard BIOS. We hence present our i9-10900K data in stock and with the max power limit settings. Likewise, we have the Ryzen 9 3900XT both with PCIe Gen 4 x16 and PCIe Gen 3 x16. We also include the performance numbers from our VGA review rig, with the Core i9-9900K at 5 GHz as an additional data point (all non-RTX 3080 comparison GPUs and the green bar "Core i9-9900K OC").

Test System

• All games and cards are tested with the drivers listed above—no performance results were recycled between test systems. Only this exact system with exactly the same configuration is used.
• All graphics cards are tested using the same game version.
• All games are set to their highest quality setting unless indicated otherwise.
• AA and AF are applied via in-game settings, not via the driver's control panel.
• Before starting measurements, we heat up the card for each test to ensure a steady state is tested. This ensures that the card won't boost to unrealistically high clocks for only a few seconds until it heats up, as that doesn't represent prolonged gameplay.

Each game is tested at these screen resolutions:

• 1920x1080: Most popular monitor resolution.
• 2560x1440: Intermediary resolution between Full HD and 4K, with reasonable performance requirements.
• 3840x2160: 4K Ultra HD resolution, available on the latest high-end monitors.

Anno 1800

Released: 2019 — API: DirectX 12 — Engine: Anno Engine

Ubisoft's smash-hit city-building RTS franchise Anno has visited various settings across ancient and medieval ages and even peeked into the future twice. It finally unpacks the fascinating period of the Industrial Revolution, starting with the beginning of the 19th century. The gameplay retains city building and ocean combat, but adds aspects such as blueprinting, the impact of industrial pollution, and tourism. Based on the in-house developed Anno engine, the game takes advantage of DirectX 12 and can be very demanding on your system with the details cranked up, especially at higher resolutions. At lower resolutions, with high-end GPUs, the game is bottlenecked by the CPU.

Assassin's Creed Odyssey

Released: 2018 — API: DirectX 11 — Engine: AnvilNext 2.0

Assassin's Creed Odyssey presents a beautiful imagining of 5th Century BC Ancient Greece on modern gaming hardware. Set 400 years prior to the events of Assassin's Creed Origins, Odyssey places you in the middle of the Peloponnesian War fought between Greek city states in which you piece together your warrior family that's torn apart after a tragedy. The game packs a rich collection of historical and mythical characters and places from Greece of that period.

Based on the same AnvilNext 2.0 engine by Ubisoft that powers Origins and Wildlands, Assassin's Creed Origins takes advantage of DirectX 11 and is highly demanding on your hardware. Faster hardware is rewarded with better visuals.