The GeForce RTX 3080 is a monster.
Nvidia promised that the Ampere GPU-powered RTX 30-series GPUs can be the corporate’s “greatest generational leap” ever, and it wasn’t exaggerating. The $699 GeForce RTX 3080 Founders Edition completely demolishes its predecessors in efficiency whereas working in all types of technological advances. It’s one of many best graphics card upgrades we’ve seen in an extended, very long time.
You can learn each nitty-gritty element in our comprehensive review of Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 3080 Founders Edition. But for those who don’t really feel like sifting via 1000’s of phrases of technical and testing particulars, listed here are the 5 key issues it’s good to know.
1. It’s staggeringly quick
Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 3080 Founders Edition whups on every thing that got here earlier than it. If you need to clear 60 frames per second at 4K or take a look at the bounds of a 144Hz, 1440p monitor with each visible setting cranked to the utmost, that is the cardboard you need (except you’re holding out for the 8K-capable $1,500 GeForce RTX 3090 coming subsequent week, that’s).
The GeForce RTX 3080 is over 80 % quicker than the RTX 2080 in Borderlands 3.
The GeForce RTX 3080 is over 80 % quicker than the identically priced RTX 2080 in a number of video games at 4K decision, and over 60 % quicker in the remainder. The solely sport that falls beneath these lofty marks is Grand Theft Auto V, however that’s as a result of the RTX 3080 is so quick, it’s pushing the bounds of the sport engine even when the GPU must push all these pixels at 4K. It’s 25 to 30 % quicker than even the RTX 2080 Ti, final era’s $1,200 flagship.
Brad Chacos/IDGThe GeForce RTX 3080 is over 80 % quicker than the RTX 2080 at 4K in Horizon Zero Dawn, however as you possibly can see above, “only” 62 % quicker at 1440p.
The GeForce RTX 3080 FE blows away the RTX 2080 at 1440p too. The lead truly diminishes a bit, as a result of this card being so quick that even an Intel CPU overclocked to 5GHz struggles to feed frames to it quick sufficient. It’s a superb choice for a 3440×1440 ultrawide monitor that splits the distinction between 1440p and 4K, although, as you’ll see in our follow-up testing later this week.
Brad Chacos/IDGShadow of the Tomb Raider at 4K decision with ray tracing and DLSS enabled. It simply clears 60 fps.
Say goodbye to issues about lowered decision in ray traced video games, which plagued the unique era of RTX GPUs. In the handful of ray traced video games we examined with Nvidia’s Deep Learning Supersampling (DLSS) expertise lively, taking part in at 1440p and even 4K at over 60 fps is feasible with the cutting-edge lighting applied sciences enabled.
Bottom line? The RTX 3080 screams.
2. …however most individuals don’t want it
All that mentioned, the overwhelming majority of players use a 1080p monitor, and the GeForce RTX 3080 can be an overkill buy to pair with an HD show. If you retain visible settings cranked to Ultra at 1080p with this beast, the CPU turns into the bottleneck as a rule. Yes, the GeForce RTX 3080 nonetheless maintains a sizeable benefit over the RTX 2080 at 1080p, however the general margin of victory plummets precipitously, and there’s no tangible efficiency lead in anyway in some video games.
Brad Chacos/IDGGrand Theft Auto V is CPU/engine bottlenecked at each 1080p and 1440p, so that you see related outcomes with many top-end graphics playing cards. The RTX 3080 is just noticeably quicker at 4K decision.
If you might have a 60Hz to 144Hz 1080p show, you’d most likely be higher off choosing a less expensive, however nonetheless lots quick graphics card (although you’ll most likely need to delay upgrading till cheaper RTX 30-series or next-gen Radeon rivals begin rolling out).
That mentioned, the RTX 3080 FE might give aggressive esports players an edge for those who plan on cranking down visible settings to push (ugly) frames as excessive as doable, particularly paired with a 240Hz or 360Hz monitor. The firm’s new Nvidia Reflex expertise helps you obtain even decrease latency in esports video games the place you’d drop visible settings for optimum responsiveness, in video games that help the brand new API. We haven’t examined the GeForce RTX 3080 with Reflex or a 240Hz-plus monitor but, nonetheless.
3. This smoking-fast GPU wants numerous energy
Brad Chacos/IDGNvidia’s GeForce RTX 3080 Founders Edition makes use of a proprietary 12-pin energy connection.
Pushing body charges so excessive requires compromise, nonetheless. Nvidia made technological enhancements to the Ampere GPU structure that make it extra environment friendly than previous-gen RTX 20-series GPUs, and the corporate closely optimized the Founders Edition design. That mentioned, the RTX 3080 nonetheless stresses your energy provide greater than any prior GeForce GPU.
In our whole-system energy exams, the GeForce RTX 3080 Founders Edition attracts 50 watts greater than the previous 2080 Ti flagship, over 100W greater than its direct 2080 predecessor, and an eye-opening 200W greater than the GTX 1080. Custom variations of the cardboard revealed so far are all huge and outfitted with two or three 8-pin energy connectors. They might push energy calls for even additional, particularly when overclocked. Nvidia’s Founders Edition sticks to reference speeds.
Brad Chacos/IDGWhole system energy draw. Yup, the RTX 3080 FE is hungry.
It’s worthwhile for the ludicrous efficiency on provide, in our opinion, however you could must improve your energy provide to feed the RTX 3080. Nvidia charges the entire board energy for the Founders Edition at 320W—greater than the RTX 2080 Ti’s 260W, and practically 100W greater than the RTX 2080’s 225W score. Appropriately, the advisable energy provide wattage for the RTX 3080 FE is 100W increased than the 2080’s. Nvidia says you’ll want a 750W PSU for this card.
4. Nvidia’s radical FE design is beautiful and efficient
Taming this a lot energy takes extra work that earlier than, too. Nvidia launched a completely redesigned Founders Edition cooler for the RTX 30-series, that includes a radical new “flow-through” push-pull fan design.
NvidiaThe fan on the rear of the system stays in its regular place, embedded within the shroud on the backside of the cardboard. The entrance fan strikes to the highest of the graphics card, the place you’d usually see a backplate or naked PCB. The rear fan pushes air via the rear I/O bracket in your card, whereas the top-mounted entrance fan pulls cool air up via the FE’s substantial heatsink fins and into the highest of your case, the place your case followers can exhaust the recent air out the again of your techniques.
It’s bizarre, however it works. The GeForce RTX 3080 Founders Edition tops out at 79 levels Celsius beneath load (similar to previous Founders Edition fashions), however it runs noticeably quieter. Custom variations of the RTX 3080 will nonetheless most likely run cooler. This will get the job executed very nicely, although.
Brad Chacos/IDGNvidia’s Founder’s Edition is a looker.
The Founders Edition card bristles with thick black warmth fins enshrouded by a beautiful, pewter-colored wraparound shroud. A white illuminated “GeForce RTX logo” on the sting serves as a cherry on prime. Nvidia’s graphics card is drop-dead beautiful and feels dense in your hand.
It’s not all good, nonetheless. The closely built-in design might be a nightmare to tear aside, whereas the flow-through cooler might show difficult in small-form-factor techniques. Nvidia additionally used a shortened customized PCB for its Founders Edition so it might squeeze within the distinctive flow-through cooling design. That necessitated switching to a customized 12-pin energy connector. The adapter required to attach it to a pair of 8-pin energy connectors is simply too brief, too cumbersome, and protruding from the center of the cardboard. It appears to be like ugly in your system, which is a bummer as a result of the remainder of the Founders Edition is so thoughtfully designed.
5. HDMI 2.1, Nvidia Broadcast, and different goodies
As regular, Nvidia’s providing greater than only a gaming efficiency improve with its RTX 30-series graphics playing cards. The ports obtained a considerable improve. The single HDMI port makes the soar to HDMI 2.1, which might help as much as 8K/60Hz video output over a single cable, as can the upgraded ShowPort 1.4a connections. Nvidia bolsters these applied sciences with the power to seize 8K30 HDR video utilizing GeForce Experience, in addition to AV1 decode help, which takes over video decoding from the CPU to allow 8K60 HDR streaming from YouTube and different sources.
Brad Chacos/IDGPort report
The goodies preserve coming. Nvidia Reflex goals to considerably scale back enter latency in video games that help the API, decreasing the delay between the time you click on your mouse and when your character truly strikes onscreen in esports, the place each millisecond issues. Call of Duty Warzone, Valorant, Fortnite, and Destiny 2 might be among the many first video games to help Nvidia Reflex this month. Reflex may even be enabled for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, and Apex: Legends.
Moving on, DLSS and ray tracing denoising isn’t all that tensor cores can do. The new Nvidia Broadcast app leverages that AI {hardware} to supply streamers with all types of nifty on-the-fly results, starting from the magical RTX Video noise-cancellation feature to video results that embrace adjustable background blur, greenscreen-style background alternative, and computerized head-tracking results. If they work in addition to marketed, Broadcast might be an enormous assist in giving some pro-level setup polish to novice streams—no funding in dear greenscreens or fancy webcams required.
Finally, RTX IO is revolutionary new expertise that faucets into Microsoft’s DirectStorage API to let your NVMe SSD funnel information on to your GPU, skipping the pokey CPU and system reminiscence bottlenecks. It sounds just like the drool-worthy storage tech contained in the next-gen Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 consoles. It received’t be out there in precise video games till subsequent yr on the earliest, alas, but when it takes off, this might be an enormous deal for PC gaming. Read our article on how Microsoft and Nvidia plan to kill game-loading times on PCs if you wish to know extra. (We additionally anticipate AMD’s “Big Navi” Radeon RTX 6000-series graphics cards to help Microsoft DirectStorage ultimately once they’re revealed on October 28.)
Read the complete RTX 3080 evaluation
That’s all it’s good to know for a high-level overview of Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 3080. Succinctly put: It’s insanely quick. If you’re nonetheless itching for more information, remember to take a look at our comprehensive review of Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 3080 Founders Edition, the place we dig into deep element on each side we breezed via above—and extra. We’ve additionally revealed loads of different details about Nvidia’s RTX 30-series GPUs. Hit any of the hyperlinks beneath to test it out:
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