Nvidia RTX 3080 Founders Edition Review

1. Introduction2. The Ampere Architecture3. RTX 3080 Founders Edition4. Testing Methodology5. 3DMark Fire Strike & Time Spy6. 3DMark Port Royal7. Control8. Death Stranding9. The Division 210. Far Cry New Dawn11. Gears 512. Ghost Recon: Breakpoint13. Metro Exodus14. Middle Earth: Shadow of War15. Red Dead Redemption 216. Shadow of the Tomb Raider17. Total War Saga: Troy18. Performance Summary (11 Game Average)19. Cost Per Frame Analysis20. RTX On - Control21. RTX On - Metro Exodus22. RTX On - Shadow of the Tomb Raider23. DLSS On - Control & Death Stranding24. A Word on VRAM Usage25. Clock Speed26. Temperatures27. Acoustics28. Power Consumption29. Performance Per Watt Analysis30. Overclocking: Memory Scaling31. Closing Thoughts32. View All Pages

Here we present frame rate figures for each graphics card, averaged across all 11 games on test today. These figures can disguise significant variations in performance from game to game, but provide a useful overview of the sort of performance you can expect at each resolution tested.

Looking at these average performance figures, aside from the obvious fact that the RTX 3080 is the fastest GPU we have ever tested (until the RTX 3090 comes in, that is), it's fascinating to see how its relative performance increases as we step up through the resolutions.

At 1080p, for instance, this Ampere GPU averages 18% higher frame rates than the RTX 2080 Ti, and is 43% faster than the RTX 2080. Don't get me wrong, both are still impressive margins of victory – but the fact remains, several of our games on test today ran into significant CPU bottlenecks at 1080p.

Contrast this with the 4K figures, where the RTX 3080 is 31% faster than the RTX 2080 Ti, we can see how we really get the best out of this new card as the resolution is cranked up and we move away from any CPU bottlenecking issues.

Become a Patron!