Nvidia after a gap of two years has launched its next-gen graphics card that pushes the limits further for game developers and also brings maturity to its RTX series of cards.
The first-gen RTX cards were met with some criticism as they reduced the frame rates in games with RTX support. Also, the pricing was also higher in comparison to the GTX cards that the company launched before that.
But at the same time, RTX helped push the visual quality to give a more realistic environment, lighting, shadows, and environment details.
The previous flagship graphics cards – RTX 2080 Ti and the RTX 2080 were based on the Turing architecture and manufactured using the 12 Nm TSMC manufacturing process.
The new RTX 3080, 3090, and 3070 are based on Ampere architecture and are based on the 8 Nm manufacturing process from Samsung.
Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080
Amongst the new cards, we will discuss the GeForce RTX 3080 Founders Edition and other cards from other board partners.
The RTX 3080 comes with 28 billion transistors and gives some serious uplift to the Ray Tracing and AI accelerated DLSS (Deep Learning Supersampling).
The GeForce RTX 3080 is a beautifully crafted card with a slightly thicker and longer design than the RTX 2080 or the 2080 Ti.
There are two fans – one is located on the front side while the other one on the rear side that works on the new unique hybrid cooling system.
In this twin-chamber design, the upper fan acts like the Blower and exhausts the air through the back of the case. The rear fan brings in the cold air and keeps the graphics card cool.
The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 was officially launched on 17th September 2020.
The company claims to deliver the performance twice as fast as the RTX 2080. We will explore if it does what Nvidia promised at the launch.
The RTX 3080 is meant for 4K Gaming at 60 frames/sec.
The total power consumption is reported to be 320W, which is pretty high in comparison to the RTX 2080Ti (250 Watts). You will require a 700 Watts PSU to run the GPU and other PC hardware without getting into trouble.
It features 10GB of GDDR6X VRAM running at a 9500MHz frequency rate with 760GBps memory speed.
The GPU contains dedicated cutting-edge Ray Tracing hardware for more immersive illumination and shadows. It has 2nd Gen Ray Tracing Cores and 3rd Gen Tensor Cores with faster Cache Memory.
Moving towards the Specs – let’s compare the RTX 3080 with the RTX 2080 and RTX 2080Ti:
| SPECIFICATIONS | RTX 3080 | RTX 2080 | RTX 2080Ti |
| Architecture | Ampere | Turing | Turing |
| Process | Samsung 8N | TSMC12FFN | TSMC12FFN |
| Manufacturing Process | 8 nm | 12 nm | 12 nm |
| Die Size | 628.4 mm2 | 545 mm2 | 754 mm2 |
| Transistor Count | 28 Billion | 13.6 Billion | 18.6 Billion |
| NVIDIA Processing Cores | 8,704 | 2,944 | 4,352 |
| GPU Boost clock | 1.71 GHz | 1.71 GHz | 1.54 GHz |
| GPU Base Clock | 1.44 GHz | 1.51 GHz | 1.35 GHz |
| Ray Tracing Cores | 58 (2nd Gen) | 46 | 68 |
| Tensor Cores | 272 (3rd Gen) | 468 | 544 |
| VRAM | 10 GB GDDR6X | 8 GB GDDR6 | 11 GB GDDR6 |
| Memory Interface | 320 Bit | 256 Bit | 352 Bit |
| Memory Speed | 19 Gbps | 14 Gbps | 14 Gbps |
| Board Power | 320 Watts | 215 Watts | 250 Watts |
| Power Connectors | One 12-Pin | 6-Pin + 8-Pin | 2 * 8-Pin |
| PCIe Interface | 4.0 * 16 | 3.0 * 16 | 3.0 * 16 |
| Digital Resolution | 7680 * 4320 pixels | 7680 * 4320 pixels | 7680 * 4320 pixels |
| Connectors | HDMI 2.1, 3 * Display port 1.4a | HDMI 2.0b, Display port 1.4 | HDMI, 3 * Display Port, USB Type-C |
| Multi-Monitor | 4 | 4 | 4 |
| Length | 285 mm | 266.7 mm | 267 mm |
| Width | 112 mm | 116 mm | 116 mm |
| Price in India | INR 71,000 | INR 68,500 | INR 1,19,999 |
Performance and Benchmarks of NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080:
The company claims that the RTX 3080 is 2X faster than that of the RTX 2080, which created a lot of hype and panic among the existing RTX 2080 owners.
Now, let’s check out some of the results from different game titles at 4K comparing RTX 3080, RTX 2080Ti, and RTX 2080:
| Game | RTX 3080 | RTX 2080Ti | RTX 2080 | RTX 3080 Vs 2080 |
| Shadow of the Tomb Raider | 87 | 67 | 52 | 60% |
| Death Stranding | 107 | 83 | 66 | 62% |
| F1 2020 | 129 | 95 | 75 | 72% |
| Horizon Zero Dawn | 73 | 51 | 40 | 83% |
| Metro Exodus | 124 | 92 | 73 | 70% |
| Resident Evil 3 | 104 | 80 | 59 | 76% |
| Hitman 2 | 88 | 68 | 52 | 69% |
| Doom Eternal | 189 | 140 | 111 | 70% |
However, based on several independent reviews the RTX 3080 is around 60-70% faster than the RTX 2080.
It is highly impressive!
It may not be 100% faster than a 2080 but it is a monster when it comes to gaming.
The graphics card performs well on 4k resolution and does superbly in the modern titles such as Control, Middle Earth-Shadow of War, and Battlefield 5.
Control: With DLSS disabled, RTX 3080 offers more than 60fps, which is impressive!
Middle Earth – Shadow of War: By fixing the resolution at 4K, Graphics Settings to Ultra, TAA enabled, and other settings at High, it was pleasant and playable at 86fps.
Battlefield 5: This game is all about reflections, so by enabling features such as puddles, vehicles, and explosives for which the RTX 3080 manages up to 100fps on FHD and 65fps at 1440p.
Comparing the Benchmark data for RTX 3080 VS RTX 2080 VS RTX 2080Ti:
| Games | RTX 3080 | RTX 2080 | RTX 2080Ti |
| 3DM Fire Strike (1080p) | 42761 (100%) | 28597 (67%) | 34030 (80%) |
| 3DM Fire Strike (1440p) | 21260 (100%) | 13685 (64%) | 16405 (77%) |
| 3DM Fire Strike (2160p) | 10862 (100%) | 6669 (61%) | 8010 (74%) |
| 3D Mark Time Spy (1440p) | 17819 (100%) | 11498 (65%) | 14030 (79%) |
| 3D Mark Time Spy (2160p) | 8863 (100%) | 5268 (59%) | 6503 (73%) |
| Port Royal (1440p) | 11412 (100%) | 6925 (61%) | 8590 (75%) |
Folks at Hardware Cannauks did some benchmarks for Video Editing using the RTX 3080 Vs 208o Ti using the Adobe Premiere Pro.
The results showcase there is little to no benefit currently for using the new Nvidia GPU for video editing.
Heat and Temps
One of the observations for the RTX 3080 is the increased power requirements that also tend to produce more heat. Considering the 70 Watts increase in the power requirements it will also generate up to 25% more heat than the RTX 2080Ti.
Here are the on-load temps recorded when gaming at 4K.
Price and Availability
The Nvidia RTX 3080 Founders edition is available for Rs. 71,000 in India and $699 in the US. Due to the heavy demand, the RTX 3080 is out of stock at the moment but Nvidia has promised that the GPU will soon be back in stock.
What about the other board partners? There are hardly any cards available online at the moment.
Based on my conversation with some of the retailers at the Lamington Road and Nehru place the price will be between Rs. 77,000 to Rs. 87,000 when the cards are in stock.
The Nvidia RTX 3070 will cost close to Rs. 51,000 for the founder’s edition and the RTX 3090 will cost Rs. 1,52,000. The RTX 3070 and 3090 will go on sale in India in October.
Written By – Heena Makwana
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