It's difficult to believe it's been nearly nine months since Nvidia unveiled their showtime Ampere graphics menu, the GeForce RTX 3080. Though I suppose it might also have felt like an eternity for those of you who have been trying to buy one for the past nine months.

The RTX 3080 was a truly exciting product, offering 20% better performance over the much more than expensive RTX 2080 Ti ($700 vs $1200). Although many were lucky enough to grab one, it was ever hard to go, and once the cryptomining boom hitting again, tracking one down at the MSRP has been nearly impossible.

Over the class of the following weeks and months nosotros've also received the fully unlocked version of the GA102 silicon called the RTX 3090 (which costs a cool $1500 MSRP) -- though that one never made much sense for gamers -- the RTX 3070, which is based on a nearly 40% smaller GA104 die, pregnant it's possible for Nvidia to get more of these dies out of a wafer. As well sharing the GA104 dice is the RTX 3060 Ti, probably the hardest to find of all the Ampere-based graphics cards since Nvidia has been prioritizing the higher margin RTX 3070 thanks to seemingly strong yields.

And so most recently we saw the launch of the GeForce RTX 3060, based on the 300mm2 GA106 die. It'due south meant to cost $330, simply of course you lot can't buy it, and y'all certainly can't get one for anywhere near the MSRP.

So here we are, gamers still can't buy a graphics bill of fare in mid-2021, or at least non easily and pricing remains sky high. Ideally we'd like to see AMD and Nvidia release sub-$300 GPUs -- hello GTX 1650! ... shrugs -- to somewhat convalesce the supply bug and give gamers a meliorate chance of buying a graphics card at a more reasonable toll. But instead, Nvidia is refreshing GA102 with the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti, which is a new expensive GPU that you notwithstanding can't buy.

The reasoning for this is simple, Nvidia aims to make more money as long as this GPU boom lasts. Now, if you lot don't believe Nvidia is selling GPUs directly to miners, which happens to exist our stance, and so it's AIBs and/or distributors who are selling to miners in volume. It must be great to be selling all those RTX 3090, just letting become of slightly defective GA102 silicon for less than half the price probably stings a lot correct at present.

That'due south exactly where the RTX 3080 Ti comes in, assuasive them to maximize profits of silicon that's not quite good enough to exist an RTX 3090. Rather than selling a good portion of that silicon every bit a "$700" product, they tin now extend the profit margin by roughly 70%. Yes, the MSRP of the RTX 3080 Ti is $1200.

For the attempt, Nvidia is throwing in an extra 2GB of VRAM, an xviii% increment in cores, and the wider 384-scrap retentiveness bus. Essentially you have an RTX 3090 with one-half the VRAM since we're talking well-nigh ~ii.5% fewer cores than the 3090 flagship.

Even at 4K, the RTX 3090 was on average just 13% faster than the original RTX 3080, and so you can await the 3080 Ti to be very similar to the 3090 in terms of functioning and possibly ~10% faster than the 3080. That makes the 3080 Ti every bit pointless equally the 3090 for gamers, given at the MSRP information technology should toll a niggling over lxx% more than the 3080, for maybe ten% more performance, or well across the point of diminishing returns.

That'due south probably non a smashing way to offset this review, but there's no mystery to uncover hither. Sometimes with these refreshes nosotros become an odd mix of core and memory configurations, but in this instance the 3080 Ti has basically the same memory subsystem as the 3090 with a few less cores.

With that said, permit'due south go over a few benchmarks using the Founders Edition RTX 3080 Ti carte. Please notation all benchmark results are based on AMD and Nvidia GPUs running at the official specification, so no factory overclocking. In total, nosotros've tested 12 games at 1080p, 1440p and 4K. We've also got power, overclocking and ray tracing data to go over.

It's as well worth noting that all this information is fresh, after weeks upon weeks of testing we have all our criterion data updated on the new Ryzen 9 5950X testbed, which has been configured with 32GB of dual-rank, dual-aqueduct DDR4-3200 CL14 memory. Let'southward get into the results...

Benchmarks

First up is Death Stranding at 1080p, here the 3080 Ti delivers 3090-like performance -- we're talking a i-2 fps margin -- and that ways the 3080 Ti is 4% faster than the 3080 but slower than the 6800 XT and 6900 XT.

Increasing the resolution to 1440p allows the 3080 Ti to match the 6800 XT, while information technology was again delivering 3090-similar performance. This also sees it vanquish the 3080 past a 9% margin.

At 4K, the 3080 Ti matches the 3090 exactly with 121 fps on boilerplate, making it just 2.five% slower than the 6900 XT. It was besides 13% faster than the RTX 3080.

Moving on to Lookout man Dogs Legion nosotros find more than of the aforementioned: that is to say the RTX 3080 Ti is an RTX 3090 with half the VRAM.

The 3080 Ti did skid backside the RTX 3090 at 1440p, though the margin was modest and some 12% faster than the 3080.

At 4K the 3080 Ti is 3% slower than the RTX 3090 and xiii% faster than the 3080, making information technology 5% faster than the Radeon RX 6900 XT. Of course, in a normal marketplace if you cared about value yous'd become either the 6800 XT or RTX 3080.

Adjacent we have Assassinator's Creed Valhalla, here we're looking at 96 fps on average at 1080p using the maximum in-game quality settings. This meant the 3080 Ti was simply 4% slower than the RTX 3090 and 3% faster than the RTX 3080.

At 1440p it slots right between the 3080 and 3090 with 82 fps. It'southward worth noting that while Watch Dogs Legion is an Nvidia sponsored title, Assassinator's Creed Valhalla is AMD sponsored. The Radeon GPUs enjoy of a big performance advantage in this game, for example, the 6900 XT is a massive 28% faster than the 3080 Ti.

Moving upwardly to 4K sees the RTX 3080 Ti average 59 fps, assuasive it to lucifer the RTX 3090 and 6800 XT, though it was still 11% slower than the 6900 XT. Moreover, when compared to the RTX 3080 we're looking at a mere 7% performance increase.

In Cyberpunk 2077 running at 1080p we're looking at comparable performance between the 3080 Ti, 3090 and 6900 XT. The 3080 Ti is 10% faster than the original 3080.

Then at 1440p the new 3080 Ti is viii% faster than the vanilla 3080 and five% slower than the 3090, we're as well looking at comparable performance with the 6900 XT.

Finally, at 4K the 3080 Ti was just 4% slower than the 3090 and 11% faster than the 3080 and half dozen% faster than the 6900 XT. And so similar margins to what we've seen in the previous three titles, so let's move on to expect at the 12 game average.

Boilerplate Performance

Across the 12 games nosotros tested at 1080p, the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti is... expect for it, fundamentally an RTX 3090 with half the VRAM. We're talking about two% slower on average and just six% faster than the RTX 3080. For those seeking maximum operation for low resolution competitive gaming the 6900 XT is slightly faster, offering 7% more operation on average.

At 1440p the margins grow a piddling, here the 3080 Ti is 4% slower than the 3090. That said, it's now only 5% slower than the 6900 XT, just overall for rasterization operation the Radeon GPU was a little faster in our dozen game sample while offering more VRAM.

At 4K, the 3080 Ti is able to beat the 6900 XT past a slim 3% margin. It's four% slower than the RTX 3090 and 9% faster than the RTX 3080.

Power Consumption

For testing power consumption, we're going to focus on the total system results and put the Nvidia PCAT testing on agree as we'd similar to investigate farther on some claims regarding task scheduling.

Hither's a look at power consumption in Doom and as you can see the 3080 Ti is very similar to the 3080 and 3090, slotting in betwixt the ii. In this example, the 3080 Ti was on average 6% faster than the 6900 XT, but pushed full system usage ix% higher, and then RDNA2 is slightly more efficient, though overall it'southward going to make very little departure to gamers.

AIB Cards: Asus and MSI

We have a few AIB cards on hand, so we'll accept a look at those and do some quick overclocking. Nvidia Founders Edition model appears to have borrowed the libation from the RTX 3080 every bit they appear physically identical. Whereas the 3080 featured a total board power of 320 watts, the 3080 Ti jumps up to 350 watts, for a nine% increment.

This increased power saw the superlative operating temperature rise by 2C to 77C and the fan speed by 200 RPM to 2100 RPM, and then equally far equally user experience is concerned, they're almost the same. Under these conditions the Atomic number 26 model averaged a core clock speed of 1770 MHz, which is well above the advertised GPU heave clock, but that'south how Nvidia's GPU boost works. Information technology'southward an impressive effect for a dual-slot graphics card, so deport that in mind as we take a look at the much larger AIB models.

The Asus RTX 3080 Ti TUF Gaming is a re-create of the original 3080 TUF Gaming, and that'due south a expert matter as that model was excellent. The new 3080 Ti version works remarkably well, peaking at just 64C in our stress exam with a fan speed of 2000 RPM, and hither it averaged a core clock speed of 1830 MHz.

Asus also sent over their new ROG Strix LC RTX 3080 Ti OC, which is another impressive graphics card. Last year we checked out the ROG Strix LC version of the 6800 XT, which worked very well, and the only existent criticism was the mess of cables that ran from the radiator to the graphics bill of fare. Thankfully Asus took note and has now sleeved all those cables with the liquid cooling tubes for a much neater package.

Out of the box this model peaked at 49C with a fan speed of merely 1500 RPM, which allowed for an boilerplate clock speed of 1920 MHz, or a v% increase over the TUF Gaming, while running 15C libation and quieter. Of grade, this premium model volition be much more expensive, but that'due south just par for the course when discussing liquid cooled graphics cards.

And then there'southward the MSI RTX 3080 Ti Suprim X, a gigantic air-cooled graphics card. To give y'all an idea of only how big and heavy this thing is, the Founders Edition model weighs 1365 grams and the TUF Gaming 1400 grams. The Suprim X comes in a 1930 grams measuring 332mm long, 140mm alpine and 60mm wide, it's a creature.

Despite the massive dimensions, the results were less impressive as the menu peaked at 78C, or a whopping 14C hotter than the TUF Gaming. Information technology was a bit quieter though, as the fans spun at but 1600 RPM. The cores also clocked at 1875 MHz which is a mere two.5% increase over the TUF Gaming. Overall non a bad upshot, information technology's just not particularly impressive given the weight and dimensions.

Overclocking

Here'due south a await at how the cards performed in Shadow of the Tomb Raider at 1440p, both stock and overclocked. Nosotros were only able to squeeze four% more out of the Founders Edition card, hitting 1885 MHz with the memory at 21 Gbps. The TUF Gaming was i% faster out of the box and I was able to clasp a further 3% from it, hit 178 fps on average with a cadre frequency of 1900 MHz.

The liquid cooled Asus ROG Strix LC was the near impressive, managing 178 fps out of the box and with the 1980 MHz overclock went up to 192 fps, so that'south an additional eight% functioning making information technology xiii% faster than a stock RTX 3080 Ti. Non exactly astonishing stuff, simply that'southward GPU overclocking these days.

The Suprim X was also able to match the ROG Strix LC out of the box, though it did fall short when overclocked, but this will come downwards to silicon quality, so don't read too much into the overclocking results.

Not for Gamers

The 'new' GeForce RTX 3080 Ti is essentially an RTX 3090 with half the VRAM. Normally, this could be considered good news since it's cheaper at $one,200, just actual street pricing remains to exist seen.

Some things have not changed... the RTX 3080 Ti is impressively fast, it'southward technically an first-class product, and the extra 2GB of VRAM is welcome. Only at $i,200 and with the current stock bug, it'due south a poorly-timed release that frankly makes no sense, at to the lowest degree from a gamers perspective, it changes nothing.

For a refresh, this sort of launch is to exist expected, too. But the reason we don't warmly welcome information technology is that Nvidia hasn't finished releasing Ampere, with no affordable models on offer. Later on all, they talk about trying to help gamers with hardware limiters for mining, and then plow around and release the RTX 3080 Ti, it's honestly tone-deaf, simply it is what the marketplace dictates as far every bit demand goes and how they can continue to maximize returns.