NVIDIA RTX 3080 Ti review: An extravagant update

NVIDIA's goal with the RTX 3080 Ti is clear. After launching the RTX 3080 last year for $699, and therefore the wildly powerful yet expensive RTX 3090 at $1,499, the chip giant is filling that pricing gap with a $1,199 card. it is also throwing a bone to loyal RTX 2080 Ti customers, who had no clear upgrade path with this latest generation of GPUs. But is it really worth $500 quite the superb RTX 3080? That depends on many factors, but mostly the dimensions of your wallet and your patience for fighting other buyers within the cut-throat GPU marketplace.

As we acknowledged when the RTX 3080 Ti was announced, it's undoubtedly the worst time to shop for a replacement video card. Manufacturers can't make enough to stay up with demand, which suggests scalpers are making a killing by quickly snapping everything up and reselling at a premium. a minimum of the RTX 3080 Ti, and its less powerful sibling the 3070 Ti, are hash limited, in order that they won't be of any use to cryptocurrency miners.

Given the state of the market, though, you'll expect to spend tons quite $1,199 if you are doing find a 3080 Ti. And things are even worse if you look to eBay and other secondary sellers, where the midrange, theoretically affordable $499 RTX 3070 is selling for upwards of $1,500. that is the price of a whole computer! But if you're willing to step into this world of madness, a minimum of the 3080 Ti may be a capable performer.

Card	RTX 3080	RTX 3080 Ti	RTX 3090
SM count	68	80	82
CUDA cores	8,704	10,240	10,496
RT cores	68	80	82
Tensor cores	272	320	328
Boost clock	1,710MHz	1,665MHz	1,695MHz
Memory	10GB GDDR6X	12GB GDDR6X	24GB GDDR6X
Memory bandwidth	760 GB/s	912 GB/s	936 GB/s
TDP	320W	350W	350W
Price	$699	$1,199	$1,499

The benchmarks tell-all: It hit 8,683 on the 3DMark TimeSpy Extreme test, 600 points more than the 3080. And it was almost 1,000 points faster than the Radeon 6800 XT, AMD's top-end $999 GPU. As for real-world 3080 Ti gameplay, I saw nearly 200fps in Destiny 2 running at 1,440p with maxed-out graphics settings. Typically, I'd have to lower graphical flourishes to get anywhere near that number, even with the RTX 3080.

None	3DMark TimeSpy Extreme	Destiny 2	Hitman 3	Port Royal (ray tracing)
NVIDIA RTX 3080 Ti	8,683	1440p: 175-195fps 4K: 130-145fps	1440p: 170fps 4K: 110fps	12,948/59.95fps
NVIDIA RTX 3080	8,009	1440p: 150-165fps 4K: 100-115fps	1440p: 161fps 4K: 98fps	11,623/53.81fps
NVIDIA RTX 3070	6,226	1440: 140-150fps 4K: 76-87fps	1440p: 151fps 4K: 83fps	8,032/37fps
AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT	7,713	1440p: 100-120fps 4K: 85-105fps	1440p: 198fps 4K: 110fps	9104/42.15fps
AMD Radeon RX 6800	6,742	1440p: 80-100fps 4K: 82-102fps	1440p: 185fps 4K: 100fps	7669/35.51fps

So sure, it's fast. But what really makes the 3080 Ti stand out from the remainder of NVIDIA's sub-$1,000 lineup is its ray-tracing performance. within the Port Royal RT benchmark, it reached 12,948 points — but most significantly, it averaged a gentle 60fps for that test. as compared, the 3080 hit 11,623 points at a 54fps average, while the 6800 XT hit just 9,104 points at around 42fps. Benchmark scores are nice for comparing performance figures, but it's framerate bumps that you're going to actually notice.


Similarly, the 3080 Ti also tackled Control's demanding ray tracing well. It reached 85 to 90 fps in 1,440p with maxed-out graphics and medium ray tracing settings. While impressive, though, that's only 5 to 10fps quite what I saw on the 3080. curiously enough, both cards delivered similar performance while playing in 4K with NVIDIA's DLSS technology, which upscaled the rendered graphics from 1,440p. I used to be ready to crank the ray tracing settings up to high and still see a gentle 65 to 70fps on the 3080 and therefore the 3080 Ti. It could just be that game isn't fully optimized for NVIDIA's faster hardware yet.


Given that the 3080 Ti is in some ways a 3090 crammed into a 3080 case, cooling might be a problem down the road. In my chilled basement office, which hovers around 20 degrees celsius (68 Fahrenheit), the new card peaked at 78c under load. That's 2 degrees quite the 3080, which wasn't too concerning, but I noticed that the fans ran louder and more often on the 3080 Ti. I'm sure many gamers won't mind as they're wearing headphones much of the time, but the warmth might be a much bigger issue for anyone during a warmer room, especially during the summer.


If heat isn't a priority, the 3080 Ti may find yourself being an inexpensive compromise for anyone who can't quite fit the huge 3090 in their PC case. At the very least, you will be ready to save a quite little bit of money. While the 3090 launched at an eye-watering $1,499, it's now going well above $2,000 in stores when it's available (which is rarely), also as for over $3,000 on eBay. Personally, even at the unicorn-like retail prices, the RTX 3080 looks like the simplest option for many high-performance gamers. you will get on the brink of the performance level of the 3080 Ti while paying significantly less.


This is the purpose where I even have to reiterate: For all that's holy, attempt to avoid buying a replacement video card anytime soon. Both AMD and NVIDIA are handling a supply crunch, thanks to rabid demand and pandemic manufacturing difficulties. it's going to be worth holding out until the top of the year until prices stabilize. If you cannot help but wait, and you're fine sacrificing cash to the capricious GPU gods, the 3080 Ti may be a powerhouse GPU that'll satisfy any demanding gamer.