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 is 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
Boostclock 1.71 GHz
Memory 10 GB GDDR6X
Connections HDMI 2.1, DisplayPort 1.4a
Dimensions 28.5 x 11.2 cm (2 locks thick)
Recommended nutrition 750 watts
Power supply connection 12 pin (2x 8 pin)
Website www.nvidia.com
10 Score 100 
- Pros
- More efficient and faster than all other existing GPUs
- Practical features for creators
- Top performance at 4K and 1440p
- Negatives
- For the time being, no cheaper variants of the 30 series are available
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 graphic splendor, and then with high, smooth frame rates. Sorry console enthusiasts, but the PlayStations and Xboxes of this world really couldn’t do that. The best video card so far, the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti, which costs around 1,200 euros, was able to do that nicely, but was still just a little short of power in some titles. The recently announced GeForce RTX 3080, which will be available from tomorrow, should become the card for 4K gaming, according to Nvidia. We have the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Founders Edition tested to find out if it really is.
Finally really good 4K gaming
The 720 euro Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Founders Edition turns out to be about 25 percent faster than the fastest RTX 2080 Ti versions, and is therefore the first video card that managed to keep all the 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 on this resolution. We have not seen such a big step forward for a long time. Really comfortable 4K gaming has thus become a really serious hobby in one fell swoop.
All effects on
It is also positive that the games that can use Nvidia’s flagship, real time ray tracing, can also do this at this resolution. Ray tracing adds better visual effects, especially in terms of realistic shadows and lighting, but is very 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 rendering it at a higher resolution via AI. And, that technique works very well. 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, they see performance improvements around 50 percent over current RTX 2080 cards. With that we see this video card playing 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 720 euro video card 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 it. That is a specific niche, however, 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 together with higher consumption, but Nvidia’s switch from a 12nm TSMC process to an 8nm chip produced by Samsung also brings efficiency improvements with it. With a consumption of approx. 320 Watts, the RTX 3080 likes a sip, but it consumes far less than the RTX 2080 Ti, and that with significant performance improvements. The RTX 2080 Ti was soon against the 350 Watt for a fast variant, and it does not come close to this. Nvidia has certainly made a big impact 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 Watts, but at times our RTX 3080 and Intel Core i9 combination consumed over 600 Watts. So high peaks, making good nutrition a must.
If you buy the Founders Edition from Nvidia, you will find a new, 12-pin power supply connection on it. This is not a connection that is on most power supplies, so Nvidia supplies an adapter so that you can simply place two 8-pin connections on it. This means that existing power supplies are compatible. In the future, we expect more power supplies to integrate this new connection immediately.
New features
With a new generation of video cards, some new features will follow. For example, Nvidia releases Reflex, a technique to reduce the latency of your game. That means that they not only want to push higher frame rates, but that each image actually appears on your image faster. 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 are streaming game or simply holding your business zoom meeting, with the Broadcast feature you can easily apply this filter. The same tool also brings extra features to your webcam, for example it can remove the background as if you have a green screen, or you can simply soften the background slightly for a calmer or less cluttered image.
Also the design of Nvidia is 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 upwards is both striking and interesting. While this format works fine in a typical case, it won’t be in all compact enclosures. 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 euro, and a big performance improvement over the 1200 euro RTX 2080 Ti, the RTX 3080 is immediately attractive to anyone looking for ultimate performance. It is simply the fastest video card on the market, and for the time being we do not 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 of the moment, especially if you like to game at 4K.
If the price is still a bit too high for your taste, we expect the smaller brothers, the RTX 3070, and probably also an RTX 3060 or RTX 3060 Ti in October. 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 of the 30 series will probably also leave the current generation of video cards behind by a margin. The Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Founders Edition is out tomorrow via the Nividia webshop available. Cards from other manufacturers with their own card design are also on the market this week.
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