Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Ti evaluate: On the entire a 3090, but for players

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After months of endless leaks and rumors—many improper—Nvidia’s $1,200 GeForce RTX 3080 Ti is eventually here, and it’s an absolute monster. GeForce’s original “gaming flagship,” as Nvidia calls it, blazes thru video games nearly as hasty as the ferocious GeForce RTX 3090. By halving the quantity of extremely-like a flash GDDR6X reminiscence to 12GB, this graphics card peaceable packs bigger than ample VRAM to sport at 4K resolution whereas clocking in at $300 less (though you’ll absolute self perception wind up paying more on the aspect road, because of graphics card pricing is insane appropriate now).

It’s no longer all addition thru subtraction, though. The GeForce RTX 3080 Ti weaves in performance-boosting PCIe Resizable BAR give a decide to in seize titles, which Nvidia debuted after the beginning of the genuine RTX 3080 per AMD’s rival Elegant Earn admission to Reminiscence. You’ll procure Nvidia’s original “Lite Hash Fee” expertise enabled as successfully, which cripples the cardboard’s cryptocurrency mining performance. The RTX 3080 Ti moreover leverages Nvidia’s suite of in actual fact killer tool functions, just like DLSS 2.0, the latency-lowering Nvidia Reflex API for esports video games, Nvidia Broadcast’s AI-powered instruments for streamers and video producers, the always-pleasing NVENC encoder, and more.

This is the GeForce card that deep-pocketed players must peaceable resolve on, no longer the RTX 3090. But does Nvidia’s most modern and (nearly) biggest GPU pack ample of a punch to render AMD’s $1,000 Radeon RX 6900 XT worn? Let’s decide Nvidia’s like GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Founders Edition to the take a look at bench.

GeForce RTX 3080 Ti specs, functions, and like

At the same time as you happen to make a decision a see at the spec sheet it’s easy to gape why the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti hits so laborious. Below the hood, this GPU has worthy more in long-established with Nvidia’s work-laborious, play-laborious 3090 than the $700 RTX 3080 that shares its title. Nvidia says it’s moreover as a lot as 1.5X quicker than the RTX 2080 Ti that this card replaces. 

Nvidia

Because this “Ti” refresh builds upon the Nvidia Ampere GPUs that came sooner than it in the RTX 30-sequence lineup, we won’t wade too deeply into small print here, sticking largely to necessary variations. Our GeForce RTX 3080 evaluate gets into Ampere’s nitty-gritty enhancements and tweaks.

The biggest thing to peep at is the CUDA core count, as that’s a key indicator of performance for Nvidia’s graphics cards. With a whopping 10,240 cores, the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti isn’t worthy of a reduce-down GPU—the RTX 3090 has 10,496. In distinction, the RTX 3080 wields 8,704 CUDA cores. That by myself must peaceable clue you in to how powerful the original 3080 Ti is. Our benchmarks will show it leaving the vanilla 3080 in the mud and landing appropriate next to the 3090 in uncooked gaming performance.

And fabricate no mistake: Right here is an efficient gaming card, no longer a work/play hybrid bask in the RTX 3090. Whereas that beast comes outfitted with a mountainous 24GB of lowering-edge GDDR6X reminiscence, the RTX 3080 Ti comes with a more gaming-acceptable 12GB over the an identical wide 384-bit bus. That offers the GPU a blistering 912GB/s of reminiscence bandwidth, appropriate in the assist of the 3090’s 936GBps pace—bigger than ample for top-resolution gaming, especially when paired with so worthy reminiscence ability. The vanilla RTX 3080 affords a worthy lower (but appealing!) 760GBps with its 10GB of GDDR6X and 320-bit bus.

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AMD’s rival Radeon RX 6900 XT, on different hand, packs in more uncooked ability—16GB—but of the slower GDDR6 selection across a smaller 256-bit bus, so it only has an successfully reminiscence bandwidth of 512GBps. That’s somewhat deceiving though, as AMD’s RDNA 2 architecture entails a very high bandwidth “Infinity Cache” appropriate on the GPU die itself that can take care of many frame buffer responsibilities with out desirous to catch entry to the graphics card’s reminiscence. Nvidia’s cards lack a an identical feature and count on the uncooked energy of GDDR6X over a wider bus. In apply, nonetheless, all of these high-discontinue GeForce and Radeon cards lift masses of bandwidth and performance for 4K gaming.

The GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Founders Edition physically resembles its vanilla 3080 FE counterpart bigger than the 3090, nonetheless. All RTX 30-sequence Founders Edition cards sport the an identical primary (and radical) like, with a “push-pull” configuration that functions a blower-vogue fan at the rear paired with a 2nd fan that pulls air thru the cardboard to use heat upward into your case, where your CPU cooler and case fans can take care of it. (No, that doesn’t fabricate your CPU flee hotter.)

Brad Chacos/IDG

They moreover contain Nvidia’s original 12-pin energy connector—an adapter to crawl into a pair of used 8-pin connectors is show in the sector—and a canopy like that’s fully bristling with thick steel fins that successfully turn the entire graphics card into a heat sink. It’s handsome.

Brad Chacos/IDG

You’ll moreover procure an HDMI 2.1 connection and a trio of DisplayPorts, every in a position to going thru 4K video feeds with ease. You won’t procure further functions just like customizable RGB lighting, fan headers, or a dual-BIOS swap on FE cards, nonetheless.

Nvidia differentiates the RTX 3080 Ti from the RTX 3090 here as successfully, and doubtlessly tossed its board companions a bone at some level of. The Ti’s cooler is available in the an identical two-slot like as the genuine RTX 3080. Nvidia expanded the RTX 3090 to a chonky three-slot thickness, which superbly tamed the shocking GPU. Cramming the RTX 3080 Ti—which, again, is appropriate a hair less powerful than the 3090—into the 3080’s dual-slot like ends in elevated temperatures than we ogle in either of the non-Ti items, and in incompatibility to the 3090, it’s possible you’ll maybe faintly hear the 3080 Ti working under fat load. It’s peaceable a appealing cooler, and a real one at that, but whilst you happen to bask in to contain the acceptable, you’ll peaceable must spring for the flagship—or for a top class third-celebration custom 3080 Ti with a beefier body and more cooling and energy management expertise internal.

Brad Chacos/IDG

Talking of which, the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti moreover entails Nvidia’s “Lite Hash Fee” expertise, which halves the effectiveness of mining the Ethereum cryptocurrency in half of in a give an explanation for to liberate GeForce stock for PC players at some level of this unparalleled GPU scarcity. The LHR tech is being built into all original GeForce GPUs other than the 3090, as that luxury-priced graphics card is already supposed to dominate at responsibilities that can fabricate you cash other than merely amuse. Rumors sooner than the RTX 3080 Ti’s indicate whispered that Nvidia’s Founders Edition mannequin namely lacks the LHR limiter, but that’s no longer real. The FE card’s mining effectivity is appropriate as nerfed because it’s for third-celebration RTX 3080 Tis by the likes of EVGA, Asus, MSI, etc.

Beyond that, the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti entails every little thing you catch with all RTX 30-sequence GPUs: Absolute top-in-class ray tracing, DLSS 2.0, Nvidia Reflex’s awesome latency lowering capabilities, the acceptable-in-class NVENC encoder for streaming and video advent, etc.

But ample chit-chat. Let’s catch into how the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti compares against no longer appropriate Nvidia’s different GPUs, but AMD’s shockingly potent Radeon RX 6900 XT.

Next web page: Our take a look at system, benchmarks commence up

• Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Founders Edition

  Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 3080 Ti is mainly an RTX 3090 in all but title (and reminiscence ability). It be an overwhelming graphics card for 4K gaming without a necessary passe links, however the Founders Edition cooler is no longer somewhat as spectacular in this produce and peaceable needs an monstrous energy adapter. Proper tag and availability dwell a downside at some level of the crippling worldwide GPU scarcity.

  Pros

  • Great 4K and 1440p gaming
  • 12GB of high-pace GDDR6X reminiscence
  • Absolute top-in-class ray tracing, DLSS 2.0
  • Nvidia tool: Reflex, G-Sync, Shadowplay, Broadcast, RTX IO, DLSS
  • Founders Edition like is handsome and efficient
  • PCIe 4.0, Resizable BAR, and Nvidia Lite Hash Fee tech

  Cons

  • Gigantic tag fabricate bigger vs. prior xx80 Ti items
  • Proprietary 12-pin energy connector requires monstrous adapter
  • Proper tag, availability doubtful attributable to GPU scarcity
  • Founders Edition like is no longer as efficient as on different RTX 30 items, and lacks further functions