How Much Is A 3080 Ti Worth

TechRadar Verdict

The Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Ti is an absolute monster of a graphics carte, delivering RTX 3090-level gaming performance at a lower price. Withal, the high starting price may still be a turn off for budget-conscious folks that just want to get some PC gaming in.

Pros

+
Excellent performance
+
Beautiful graphics bill of fare
+
Aforementioned size as RTX 3080
+
Good thermal performance

Cons

-
Very expensive
-
Power-hungry

Whatever other year and the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Ti would exist a welcome sight. Nine months separate the launch of the 3080 Ti and the non-Ti version of the RTX 3080. And, though that's the usual time frame for a refresh, it's a foreign fourth dimension to stick to that schedule. While Nvidia surely has justifications for going ahead with this mid-generation refresh, the globe of GPUs along with most everything else tech-related, has been turned upside down.

Right now, consumers have been struggling to go agree of the best graphics cards, no matter if they're Nvidia or AMD. The global silicon shortage has made supply extremely express and hard to come by. So, anyone in the market for a new GPU has to either argue with scalpers charging double the price or store lotteries for the small chance of getting one. And, these conditions are not platonic for the release of a new GPU, especially i that costs $i,199.

If, by chance, you're able to get your hands on a RTX 3080 TI, you won't be disappointed. It is a powerhouse, taking the RTX 3090 and halving the VRAM for a more consumer-oriented card. Though we're expecting to also meet a 20GB version of the 3080 Ti in the near hereafter, this version of the bill of fare can hands run just about any game out there at a 4K resolution at 60 fps. Even in more normal times, it'southward not the easiest GPU to recommend. It's not that much more powerful compared to the RTX 3080 but it is much more expensive.

Cost and availability

The Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Ti is bachelor June three, starting at $one,199 / £1,049 / AU$1,949. Prices for the RTX 3080 Ti will probably vary wildly from that minimum price, and third-party versions of the GPU will probably sell for much higher.

Given that the RTX 3080 launched in September 2020 for just $699 (£649, about AU$950), you're paying at least twice as much for the RTX 3080 Ti. Given that this GPU has just 2GB more VRAM and 17% more CUDA cores, that 100% toll mark-up might be hard to consume correct now.

Although, this graphics card does deliver pretty much the same level of performance equally the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090 at $300 cheaper (at to the lowest degree going by MSRP), so it might exist worth grabbing if you had your eyes on Nvidia's top-end graphics card.

Chipset and features

Just like the rest of the Nvidia GeForce RTX 30 series, the RTX 3080 Ti is built on the Nvidia Ampere architecture, and brings with information technology the same improvements as the residuum of the lineup. There is something new to the table, however.

As with the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 that launched in March 2021, the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Ti has a hardware-based hash rate limiter that should limit the entreatment to cryptocurrency miners. We don't test mining operation at TechRadar, so nosotros can't speak to how constructive this limit actually is. Simply given that the hash rate limiter on the RTX 3060 was accidentally bypassed by Nvidia's own commuter update, nosotros'll simply have to wait and see how well this actually dissuades miners from ownership this graphics menu in bulk.

Beyond that, the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Ti is actually quite a flake beefier than the original RTX 3080, and that largely falls to core count and memory bandwidth.

Because, sure, the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Ti does take more VRAM, with 12GB of GDDR6X compared to 10GB of the stuff on the original card, only it's also on a faster 384-bit retentivity bus. That means you get 912 GB/s of retentiveness bandwidth on the RTX 3080 Ti compared to the RTX 3080's 760 GB/southward. With faster VRAM, not to mention just more than memory, the RTX 3080 Ti should be even more skilful at 4K gaming in the futurity.

The RTX 3080 Ti is directly up more powerful, as well. The GPU has 10,240 CUDA cores across lxxx compute units, compared to the RTX 3080'south eight,704 CUDA cores. That'southward a 17% increment in core count, only don't await a strict 17% performance increment - more than on that later on.

You're as well going to get admission to Nvidia'south whole suite of software features, and it'southward not just limited to gaming.

The i we are even so in dearest with is Nvidia Broadcast, which is ostensibly designed for streamers and content creators, but we find that it is incredibly useful in just day-to-mean solar day life. We utilize it a lot when we're taking meetings, or fifty-fifty simply hanging out with friends in Discord, especially because it filters out most of the New York Urban center street noises outside our street-facing apartment window.

Of course, you also get access to Deep Learning Super Sampling, or DLSS. This tech uses the Tensor cores – the RTX 3080 Ti has 320 of those – to upscale a lower resolution to your native resolution. The idea is that DLSS will let you turn on more of the shiny graphics options, then you don't accept to cede image quality just to striking a decent framerate, especially at loftier resolutions like 4K.

Design

The Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Ti nosotros reviewed is Nvidia'southward Founders Edition, and, well, information technology looks like the rest of the RTX 30-series Founders Edition cards. The graphics bill of fare has an bonny black and gunmetal gray colorway. Yous'll aso run into Nvidia and RTX 3080 Ti branding etched into the metal. That'southward not something you'll notice in one case yous really have the graphics carte in your PC, but it'southward a nice touch.

The RTX 3080 Ti is the exact same size and weight as the original RTX 3080, which ways it's iv.four inches thick and 11.two inches long, and so it should fit in most cases.

There are ii fans on the RTX 3080 Ti and but like the RTX 3080 and RTX 3090, in that location'south one on the front and one on the back. This fan configuration pulls air through the front of the bill of fare, it'll go through the carte du jour, and become out through a fan on the back of the card, probably shooting the hot air through the top of your case.

It's an extremely effective method of cooling the RTX 3080 Ti, and even with a top power consumption of 350W, the RTX 3080 Ti peaks at but 78.9C. That is a lot higher than the RTX 3090's 72C peak temperature, even though that card has the same level of ability consumption.

But it'due south actually impressive that Nvidia was able to go that shut in thermals, considering that it was able to shrink the cooler dorsum downwardly to a dual-slot blueprint, rather than the giant triple-slot RTX 3090 Founders Edition.

Finally, Nvidia has of form included the 12-pin ability connector. Information technology does mean that you're probably going to have to use an adapter to power the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Ti, but of grade, Nvidia has included an adapter in the box.

(Image credit: Infogram; Future )

Performance

Test system specs

This is the organization we used to examination the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Founders Edition:

CPU:Intel Cadre i9-11900K (8-cadre, up to 5.3GHz)
CPU Cooler:Cooler Master Masterliquid 360P Silver Edition
RAM:64GB Corsair Dominator Platinum @ iii,200MHz
Motherboard:MSI MEG Z590 ACE
SSD:ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro @ 1TB
Power Supply:Phanteks RevoltX 1200
Instance:Praxis Wetbench

The Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Ti is basically as fast every bit the RTX 3090 in PC games, even despite the fact that it has half the VRAM. So, the RTX 3080 Ti is what you should buy if you lot want the best gaming operation you tin get right now, and don't really need to be running Blender or Resolve all the fourth dimension.

And when we say that the performance is exactly the same, we're not really exaggerating. Beyond our entire suite of benchmarks, the RTX 3080 Ti is usually within 1-ii fps of the RTX 3090. The biggest departure between the two is in Dirt 5 at 1440p, where the RTX 3080 Ti gets 139 fps to the RTX 3090'southward 146 fps. Simply if y'all're playing Dirt five, you're probably not going to notice that five% performance difference.

The Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Ti also beats the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT in all merely two tests: Burn Strike Ultra and Assassins Creed Valhalla. Simply even and then, at 4K the RTX 3080 Ti delivers the same performance equally the RTX 3090, and so y'all're getting extremely skillful performance either fashion.

In the rest of the games though, the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT is between 7-26% slower than the RTX 3080 Ti, so Assassins Creed Valhalla is definitely not the norm. This would commonly be enough to brand us flatly recommend the RTX 3080 Ti over the Radeon RX 6900 XT, just if we're only going off of MSRP, Nvidia's Graphics bill of fare is an extra $200. So, you're going to want to make sure that the RTX 3080 Ti is worth that actress cost.

For pretty much any game that you're looking to play, the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Ti is going to be able to max information technology out at 4K, and that'due south including all the fancy ray tracing effects you lot've probably been hearing about.

Buy it if…

Don't purchase information technology if...

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Jackie Thomas (@jackiecobra on Twitter) is TechRadar's The states computing editor. She is fatty, queer and extremely online. Computers are the devil, but she but happens to be a satanist. If you demand to know anything nearly computing components, PC gaming or the best laptop on the market, don't be afraid to drib her a line on Twitter or through email.