With their 30-series video cards, Nvidia is releasing a new top model video card for gamers. A new generation means better performance in games, great new features, and of course the pressing question of whether it's time to upgrade. After a few long, tough days on the rack, we can draw our conclusions.
Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Founders Edition
Price € 719,-CUDA cores 8704
boost clock 1.71GHz
Memory 10GB GDDR6X
Connections HDMI 2.1, DisplayPort 1.4a
Dimensions 28.5 x 11.2 cm (2 locks thick)
Recommended nutrition 750 watts
Power connection 12 pin (2x 8 pin)
Website www.nvidia.com
10 Score 100
- Pros
- More efficient and faster than any other existing GPU
- Practical features for creators
- Top performance at 4K and 1440p
- Negatives
- No cheaper variants of the 30 series available for the time being
4K gaming is something we've been looking forward to for years. And not at a meager 30 frames per second like consoles do, or at low graphics settings. 4K Gaming in the very latest games, with all the graphical splendor, and then with high, smooth frame rates. Sorry console lovers, but the PlayStations and Xboxes of this world really couldn't do that. The best video card so far, the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti, costing about 1200 euros, managed to do that nicely, but in some titles it just lacked a bit of power. The recently announced GeForce RTX 3080, which will be available from tomorrow, should become the card for 4K gaming, according to Nvidia. We tested the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Founders Edition to find out if this is really the case.
Finally really good 4K Gaming
The €720 Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Founders Edition turns out to be about 25 percent faster than the fastest RTX 2080 Ti versions, making it the first video card that managed to keep all games we tested at 4K, high settings and above 60 FPS. The performance improvements compared to the once equally expensive RTX 2080 SUPER are even around 60 percent at this resolution. We have not seen such a big step forward for a long time. Really comfortable 4K gaming has suddenly become a really serious hobby.
All effects on
On a positive note, games that can use Nvidia's flagship real time ray tracing can also do so at this resolution. Ray tracing adds better visual effects, especially in terms of realistic shadows and lighting, but is extremely intensive to render. Thanks to a technique called DLSS, Deep Learning Super Sampling, RTX cards can mitigate this performance impact by rendering the game at a slightly lower resolution, and then displaying it at a higher resolution via AI. And, that technique works great. DLSS is a complex subject, but in our experience you can simply turn it on and you will never see the difference with a "real" 4K image.
Good for 1440p, overkill for 1080p
Owners of fast Quad HD monitors shouldn't complain either, seeing performance improvements around 50 percent over current RTX 2080 cards. This means that this video card plays all titles at this resolution with high frame rates. Often at 144 FPS, sometimes a lot more.
If you still play on a 1080p monitor, the added value is limited, and a video card that costs 720 euros is actually not a balanced choice. Esporters are an exception, because for them every little bit of extra performance can make the difference between winning or losing, and especially if that has an impact on income, you quickly want the best. If you really want to get the most out of a 240 Hertz or even 360 Hertz screen, then an RTX 3080 is worth the effort. That's a specific niche, though, and our advice is that "normal" gamers with lower-resolution monitors should wait for RTX 3060 and 3070 cards later this year.
Power and the new 12-pin cable
More performance often goes hand in hand with higher consumption, but Nvidia's switch from a 12nm TSMC process to an 8nm chip produced by Samsung also brings efficiency improvements. With a consumption of approximately 320 Watts, the RTX 3080 likes a sip, but it consumes much less than the RTX 2080 Ti, and that with significant performance improvements. The RTX 2080 Ti was soon at 350 Watts for a fast variant, and it does not come close to this. So Nvidia has certainly taken a big hit in terms of efficiency.
If you are looking for a new power supply, an A-quality 650 Watt power supply or higher is recommended. Our average consumption in gaming is around 420 Watt, but at times our RTX 3080 and Intel Core i9 combination consumed more than 600 Watt. High peaks, so a good diet is a must.
If you buy the Founders Edition from Nvidia, you will find a new, 12-pin power connection on it. This is not a connection that is on most power supplies, so Nvidia supplies an adapter so that you can simply use two 8-pin connections. This makes existing power supplies compatible. In the future, we expect more power supplies to integrate this new connection directly.
New features
With a new generation of video cards, some new features also follow. For example, Nvidia releases Reflex, a technique to lower the latency of your game. This means that they not only want to push higher frame rates, but that each image actually appears faster on your image. However, this is something we can only test and verify ourselves at a later date.
Broadcast is a feature that you can use immediately. With this tool it is possible to filter out background noise from your microphone. This also works great, and is useful if you have to deal with annoying background noise in your communication. Whether you're streaming game or simply having your business zoom meeting, with the Broadcast feature you can easily apply this filter. The same tool also brings extra features to your webcam, so it can remove the background as if you have a green screen, or you can simply soften the background for a calmer or less cluttered image.
Nvidia's design is also new, and especially impressive with its all-metal design. The cooler with one blower-style fan on the left, and one fan on the right that directs air directly upwards is both striking and interesting. While this layout works fine in a typical case, it won't work in all compact cases. For example, the NZXT H1, a super compact ITX tower, turned out to close the 2nd fan, resulting in a loss of performance. If you have a niche housing, pay close attention to whether the fans have room to breathe.
Conclusion
With a price of 720 euros, and a major performance improvement over the 1200 euros RTX 2080 Ti, the RTX 3080 is immediately attractive for anyone who wants the ultimate performance. It is simply the fastest video card on the market, and for the time being we don't expect that to change much. Only the RTX 3090 will top it, but it will be twice as expensive and out of reach for even the more avid gamer. Top performance, and no competition, makes the RTX 3080 the go-to ultimate video card at the moment, especially if you like to game at 4K.
If the price is still a bit too high for your taste, in October we expect the smaller brothers, the RTX 3070, and probably also an RTX 3060 or RTX 3060 Ti. If you are looking for a new video card, but an RTX 3080 is unreachable, we advise you to wait a few more weeks. The rest 30 series will probably also leave the current generation of video cards behind by a margin. The Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Founders Edition is available tomorrow via the Nividia webshop. Cards from other manufacturers with their own card design also hit the market this week.
