Nvidia’s Ampere-powered GeForce RTX 3080 chews up video games and spits out frames for breakfast, as we coated in-depth in our comprehensive Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Founders Edition review. You want a pixel-packed monitor to get essentially the most out of it, although—like a 3440×1440 ultrawide show.
Our preliminary exams of the GeForce RTX 3080 confirmed it actually flexing its muscle groups at 4K decision, the place the graphics workload is so heavy that your CPU is just about taken out of the equation. At 4K, the RTX 3080 carried out as much as a whopping 80 % quicker than its RTX 2080 predecessor in some video games. Stepping right down to 1440p, the RTX 3080 continues to dominate, however not fairly as a lot as at 4K, as a result of on the decrease decision your CPU struggles to feed frames to the ultra-fast graphics card quick sufficient. A 3440×1440 ultrawide monitor splits the distinction between the 2 extra commonplace resolutions.
Enter the implausible Nixeus EDG34S.
The 3440×1440, 144Hz Nixeus EDG34S.
I’ve had the Nixeus show in my workplace since final winter, and whereas I haven’t had time to correctly assessment it, it’s an exquisite worth. The curved 3440×1440 ultrawide hits a blistering 144Hz and nails the basics for an enticing $550 on Amazon, in comparison with higher-end ultrawide shows that may value $800 or extra. Sure, it lacks some additional goodies present in pricier choices—the EDG34S is available in price range plastic casing with no adjustability options, and it lacks many software program options—however in case you’re simply seeking to sport at a quick price on an oh-so-immersive ultrawide display screen, the Nixeus EDG34S screams. (Check out Hardware Unboxed’s deeper review if you wish to know extra.)
Officially, Nixeus has geared up this monitor solely with AMD FreeSync Premium help formally. Don’t let that dissuade you although. While the EDG34S lacks official G-Sync Compatible certification, you’ll be able to activate G-Sync manually in Nvidia’s control panel to activate adaptive sync help for GeForce GPUs. I’ve confirmed it really works like a allure. (You’ll want to make use of the monitor’s on-screen show to activate adaptive sync first, nonetheless.) That makes the Nixeus EDG34S a implausible associate for a monstrous GeForce RTX 3080 in case you’re planning to improve your show, too.
But don’t take my phrase for it. Bring on the GeForce RTX 3080 3440×1440 ultrawide benchmarks.
GeForce RTX 3080 3440×1440 ultrawide benchmarks
We benchmarked the GeForce RTX 3080’s ultrawide efficiency on the identical system used for our major GPU testing. Here’s the quick-hit data you’ll want to know:
- Intel Core i7-8700Okay processor ($300 on Amazon) overclocked to 5GHz all-core
- EVGA CLC 240 closed-loop liquid cooler ($105 on Amazon)
- Asus Maximus X Hero motherboard
- 64GB HyperX Predator RGB DDR4/2933 ($355 on Amazon)
- EVGA 1200W SuperNova P2 energy provide ($352 on Amazon)
- Corsair Crystal 570X RGB case, with entrance and high panels eliminated and an additional rear fan put in for improved airflow
- 2x 500GB Samsung 860 EVO SSDs ($70 every on Amazon)
Each sport is examined utilizing its in-game benchmark on the highest potential graphics presets except in any other case famous, with VSync, body price caps, real-time ray tracing or DLSS results, and FreeSync/G-Sync disabled, together with some other vendor-specific applied sciences like FidelityFX. We’ve additionally enabled temporal anti-aliasing (TAA) to push these playing cards to their limits when it’s obtainable.
We didn’t embrace the legendary GeForce GTX 1080 Ti, as our earlier benchmarks present it acting on a par with the RTX 2080 in most video games. It’s a hair slower in correctly optimized DX12 or Vulkan video games, as you’ll see in our full RTX 3080 assessment. Likewise, no AMD Radeon graphics playing cards have but to match the RTX 2080’s efficiency, so that you received’t discover them within the charts beneath.
Brad Chacos/IDGNow you’re taking part in with energy
Hit up our full Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Founders Edition review for extra data on our methodology and testing system. We’ll simply current the uncooked graphs and sport data earlier than providing some wrap-up ideas on the finish. I needed to take away two video games from the suite on account of wonky ultrawide help, which I’ll talk about on the finish.
Horizon Zero Dawn
Yep, Sony exclusives are hitting the PC now. Horizon Zero Dawn hit Steam with some efficiency points. The most egregious ones have by and huge been cleared up due to onerous work from the builders, and the sport topped the gross sales charts for weeks after its launch. It additionally appears to reply considerably to PCIe 4.0 scaling, which can make this an attention-grabbing inclusion after we shift to a PCIe 4.0-based system sooner or later.
Horizon Zero Dawn runs on Guerrilla Games’ Decima engine, the identical engine that powers Death Stranding. Ambient Occlusion can nonetheless supply iffy outcomes if set to Ultra, so we check with that setting at Medium. Every different visible possibility is maxed out.
Brad Chacos/IDGGears Tactics
Gears Tactics places it personal brutal, fast-paced spin on the XCOM-like style. This Unreal Engine 4-powered sport was constructed from the bottom up for DirectX 12. We love having the ability to work a tactics-style sport into our benchmarking suite. Better but, the sport comes with a plethora of graphics choices for PC snobs. More video games ought to commit such loving care to explaining what flipping all these visible knobs imply.
You can’t use the presets to benchmark Gears Tactics, because it intelligently scales to work greatest in your put in {hardware}, that means that “Ultra” on one graphics card can load totally different settings than “Ultra” on a weaker card. We manually set all choices to their highest potential settings and disable body price minimums and maximums.
Brad Chacos/IDGFun truth: The GeForce RTX 3080 FE is the solely graphics card that doesn’t generate a “Your GPU can’t handle this” warning when enabling Glossy Reflections. Only the 3080 and the RTX 2080 Ti lack that warning for Planar Reflections.
Metro Exodus
One of the perfect video games of 2019, Metro Exodus is likely one of the best-looking video games round, too. The newest model of the 4A Engine gives extremely luscious, ultra-detailed visuals, with one of the crucial beautiful real-time ray tracing implementations launched but. We check in DirectX 12 mode with ray tracing, Hairworks, and DLSS disabled for our fundamental benchmarks.
Brad Chacos/IDGStrange Brigade
Strange Brigade is a cooperative third-person shooter the place a crew of adventurers blasts by hordes of mythological enemies. It’s a technological showcase, constructed across the next-gen Vulkan and DirectX 12 applied sciences and infused with options like HDR help and the flexibility to toggle asynchronous compute on and off. It makes use of Rebellion’s customized Azure engine. We check utilizing the Vulkan renderer, which is quicker than DX12.
Brad Chacos/IDGTotal War: Troy
The newest sport within the in style Total War saga, Troy was given away free for its first 24 hours on the Epic Games Store, shifting over 7.5 million copies earlier than it went on correct sale. Total War: Troy is constructed utilizing a modified model of the Total War: Warhammer 2 engine, and this DX11 title seems beautiful for a turn-based technique sport.
Brad Chacos/IDGShadow of the Tomb Raider
Shadow of the Tomb Raider concludes the reboot trilogy, and it’s completely attractive. Square Enix optimized this sport for DX12, and recommends DX11 provided that you’re utilizing older {hardware} or Windows 7, so we check with DX12. Shadow of the Tomb Raider makes use of an enhanced model of the Foundation engine that additionally powered Rise of the Tomb Raider and consists of elective real-time ray tracing and DLSS options.
Brad Chacos/IDGGTA V
This DX11 sport that isn’t actually a visible barn-burner just like the (considerably wonky) Red Dead Redemption 2, however nonetheless tops the Steam charts day in and time out, so we deem it extra worthy of testing. RDR2 will melt your graphics card, positive, however GTA V stays so in style years after launch that upgraded variations of will probably be obtainable on the next-generation consoles. That’s endurance.
We check Grand Theft Auto V with all choices turned to Very High, all Advanced Graphics choices besides prolonged shadows enabled, and FXAA. GTA V runs on the RAGE engine and has acquired substantial updates since its preliminary launch.
Brad Chacos/IDGRainbow Six Siege
Like GTA V, Ubisoft’s Rainbow Six Siege nonetheless dominates the Steam charts years after its launch, and it’ll be getting a visible improve for the next-gen consoles. The builders have poured a ton of labor into the sport’s AnvilNext engine through the years, finally rolling out a Vulkan model of the sport that we use to check. By default, the sport lowers the render scaling to extend body charges, however we set it to 100 % to benchmark native rendering efficiency on graphics playing cards. Even nonetheless, body charges soar.
Brad Chacos/IDGFinal ideas and evaluation
After benchmarking the GeForce RTX 3080 Founders Edition at 3440×1440 in eight video games, it winds up being roughly 50 to 70 % quicker than its direct predecessor, the GeForce RTX 2080. Nvidia’s new flagship additionally beats on the previous-gen $1,200 RTX 2080 Ti flagship by roughly 15 to 30 % at ultrawide decision, regardless of costing $500 much less. The solely exception is GTA V, however that’s as a result of the GeForce RTX 3080 is so highly effective it’s pushing the engine’s limits even at this lofty decision. If you’re nonetheless utilizing a GTX 1080, it’s a titanic improve.
Yep, the GeForce RTX 3080 completely flies at 3440×1440. Those leads are lower than what the GeForce RTX 3080 accomplishes at pure 4K decision, however decrease margins of victory are to be anticipated at this decision as a result of it’s extra susceptible to changing into considerably CPU-bound. This remains to be a convincing win.
Brad Chacos/IDGTesting the GeForce RTX 3080 at 3440×1440 additionally reopened my eyes to the majesty of a high-refresh price ultrawide show. My major monitor is a 4K, 144Hz G-Sync show and it’s completely superb, however benchmarking on the Nixeus EDG34S simply felt immersive in a manner which you could’t get on a normal panel. The wide-reaching display screen engulfs your discipline of view in a pleasant manner, and the mild curve that Nixeus used on the EDG34S solely magnifies the impact.
That mentioned, testing at this decision additionally confirmed a number of the tough edges current with ultrawide gaming. We needed to nix Borderlands 3 and F1 2020 from our testing suite as a result of neither sport performed nicely with this panel. Borderlands helps a number of ultrawide resolutions, however not 3440×1440. F1 2020, in the meantime, ostensibly features a 3440×1440 setting, however I couldn’t make it stick. Selecting it made the sport default to a 4K “3840×2160 (Custom)” decision as a substitute. It seems like correct ultrawide in-game, however the precise efficiency wound up really being worse than what we noticed at correct 4K for some motive.
Ultrawide screens are gaining in recognition, however help can nonetheless be iffy for the comparatively area of interest decision. We’re heartened that 80 % of our benchmarking suite labored simply high quality on the Nixeus EDG34S, nonetheless, and you’ll’t get an expertise like this on even the best commonplace shows—or on different graphics playing cards. 3440×1440 rocks with the GeForce RTX 3080.
Check out our full Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Founders Edition review for exhaustive data on Nvidia’s new flagship, or our information to 5 key things you need to know about the RTX 3080 in case you don’t really feel like sifting by limitless graphs and technicalese. Give the $550 Nixeus EDG34S a severe look in case you’re planning on upgrading to 144Hz 3440×1440 to go together with it, however don’t need to spend extra in your monitor than your graphics card. And lastly, hit up the PC Gaming Wiki or the Widescreen Gaming Forum in case you need assistance coaxing troublesome ultrawide video games into working. They’re completely invaluable sources.
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