Nvidia RTX 3080 Ti Review ft. Gigabyte, Inno3D, Palit

1. Introduction2. Nvidia RTX 3080 Ti Founders Edition3. Gigabyte RTX 3080 Ti Gaming OC4. Inno3D RTX 3080 Ti iChill X45. Palit RTX 3080 Ti GameRock OC6. Testing Methodology7. 3DMark Fire Strike & Time Spy8. 3DMark DirectX Raytracing9. Assassin's Creed Valhalla10. Control11. Cyberpunk 207712. Days Gone13. F1 202014. Gears 515. Hitman 316. Horizon Zero Dawn17. Red Dead Redemption 218. Resident Evil Village19. Total War Saga: Troy20. Watch Dogs: Legion21. Ray Tracing - Cyberpunk 207722. Ray Tracing - Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition23. Ray Tracing - Resident Evil: Village24. Performance Summary (12-Game Average)25. Testing the AIBs!26. Clock Speed27. GPU Temperatures28. Memory Temperatures29. Acoustics30. Noise-Normalised Temperatures31. Power Draw: 1080p32. Power Draw: 1440p33. Power Draw: 2160p (4K)34. Performance per Watt: 1080p35. Performance per Watt: 1440p36. Performance per Watt: 2160p (4K)37. Total System Power Draw38. Cost Per Frame Analysis39. Overclocking40. Closing Thoughts41. View All Pages

After plenty of rumours and leaks, Nvidia officially announced the RTX 3080 Ti at virtual Computex 2021, and today reviews go live ahead of retail availability on June 3. With an MSRP of £1049/$1199, the RTX 3080 Ti is targeting those who aren't quite willing to stump up £1399/$1499 for the RTX 3090, but still want something faster than the RTX 3080.

And faster than the RTX 3080 it is. Averaged across our 12-game sample, we found the RTX 3080 Ti to be 10% faster at 4K. In fact, it is very close to the RTX 3090, proving just 2% slower on average at both 1440p and 4K. This does make complete sense though, as the RTX 3080 Ti only has two SMs fewer than the RTX 3090, while the memory and GPU are also clocked fractionally slower.

Versus its AMD competition, here we found some fairly significant swings. Against the RX 6900 XT, for instance, the RTX 3080 Ti came in anywhere from 19% slower (in Assassin's Creed Valhalla at 1440p), to 22% faster (Days Gone at 4K). Averaged across our twelve games though, the Nvidia GPU is 4% faster at 4K.

It is, for all intents and purposes, RTX 3090-level performance, never coming in more than 3% slower compared to that GPU. In fact, on several occasions the three AIB cards we also tested today were able to exceed the RTX 3090's performance thanks to their factory overclocks. That just goes to show how small the differences are between these GPUs.

As mentioned, our testing today was not limited to just the Founders Edition, but we also assessed Gigabyte's RTX 3080 Ti Gaming OC, the Palit RTX 3080 Ti GameRock OC and the Inno3D RTX 3080 Ti iChill x4. Thermals from these cards were generally solid, with the Gaming OC offering the best balance of performance to noise, with the Palit proving slightly hotter when noise-normalised, but still offering good results. We did have some trouble with the iChill X4 however, as it saw the hot spot temperature hit 97C, and it also ran the hottest when noise-normalised. *See update below.*

We also used this review to debut our new GPU power testing methodology, so if you want to see power draw figures on a per-game and per-resolution basis, you can find that starting on page 31 of this review. In a nutshell, the RTX 3080 Ti didn't quite live up to its 350W rating, instead drawing about 10W less than the RTX 3090 when testing at 4K.

That small differential, coupled with the fractional difference in gaming performance, means overall efficiency of the RTX 3080 Ti and RTX 3090 is equal. Nvidia's lower-power parts, like the RTX 3060 Ti, are more efficient, but it's always been the case that you need to squeeze out a bit more juice to get the most performance.

We also tried overclocking all four of our RTX 3080 Ti cards, with results proving pretty consistent across the board, with typical performance gains of between 4-9%. This lines up well with what we've come to expect from other Ampere GPUs, so while you can extract some extra performance, don't be expecting a radical boost to frame rates.

All in all, the fact that the RTX 3080 Ti is able to offer what is essentially RTX 3090 levels of performance, but for a £350 discount, may well seem like a positive taken in isolation. The thing I don't like about the RTX 3080 Ti however, is that is is another GA102 GPU, but this time priced over £1000. Every GA102 die going into the RTX 3080 Ti could have been a more affordable £650 RTX 3080, and I know which I think is the better deal.

In an ordinary market, with plentiful supply, it wouldn't be a problem – this situation would simply result in more choice for the consumer. Right now however, it is nigh impossible to get your hands on an RTX 3080, and the addition of another GA102 SKU certainly won't make that any easier.

Even if we do take these MSRPs at face value, I do also have to question who this GPU is really for. It seems to be aimed at the customer who wants more performance than the RTX 3080, who is unwilling to spend £1399 on the RTX 3090, but would happily still spend over £1000 for a card which is 10% faster than the RTX 3080.

Maybe there is some small group of buyers who fit that description, but the way I see it, if you’re already spending over £1000 on a GPU, value for money surely does not matter to you, so you may as well get the best of the best and go for the RTX 3090. If you do care about value, then the RTX 3080 Ti looks very poor against the RTX 3080 as it's 10% faster but 61% more expensive.

The thing is, the market is in such a state right now that any GPU will sell, regardless of pricing or supposed value. It makes complete business sense from Nvidia's perspective to do what they are doing. For gamers though, the addition of another GA102 SKU priced at over £1000 is hardly the news we wanted to hear right now.

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Update 20/07/21: Inno3D have been in touch and sent us a second iChill X4 to test, the result of which we have added into this review. The second card is a better performer, offering lower noise levels and improved thermal results, backing up our original suggestion of a mounting pressure issue with the first sample we tested. The iChill X4 still proved the hottest-running 3080 Ti we tested however, so our original conclusions stands, but the second sample we tested was a clear improvement over the first.

Nvidia RTX 3080 Ti Founders Edition

Pros

• Smart Founders Edition styling.
• Cool, quiet and compact.
• Basically as fast as RTX 3090.

Cons

• Very poor value against the RTX 3080 (based on MSRP).
• Another GA102 SKU surely means less allocation for RTX 3080.

Score:

Gigabyte RTX 3080 Ti Gaming OC

Pros

• Best performing AIB tested in terms of noise-normalised thermals.
• Dual-BIOS.
• Factory overclock puts performance even closer to RTX 3090.

Cons

• Likely to be even more expensive than the baseline MSRP.

Score:

Inno3D RTX 3080 Ti iChill X4

Pros

• Unique aesthetic.
• Factory overclock puts performance even closer to RTX 3090.

Cons

• High hot spot temperature of 97C was observed when gaming. *See update above.*
• Memory temperature also ran the hottest of the three AIB cards tested.
• No dual-BIOS.
• Likely to be even more expensive than the baseline MSRP.

Score:

Palit RTX 3080 Ti GameRock OC

Pros

• Dazzling RGB implementation.
• Dual-BIOS
• Factory overclock puts performance even closer to RTX 3090.

Cons

• Not quite as cool as the Gaming OC
• Likely to be even more expensive than the baseline MSRP.

Score:

KitGuru says: RTX 3080 Ti is a very fast GPU, but at over £1000 you may as well go all-out on the RTX 3090, or save some cash with the RTX 3080.

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