Introduction
NVIDIA’s “TIE” series of video cards continues today with the launch of its new flagship Ti. Announced at Computex 2021, and launched today is the new GeForce RTX 3080 Ti. We’ve got a GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Founders Edition video card to review today. MSRP will be set at $1,199 for the Founders Edition, at least, that is what the official price will be, actual street pricing will vary based on demand and supply.
For comparison, the GeForce RTX 3090 Founders Edition video card launched on September 24th, 2020 at an MSRP of $1,499. The GeForce RTX 3080 Founders Edition launched on September 17th, 2020 at an MSRP of $699. This puts the new GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Founders Edition closer to RTX 3090 pricing, and farther away from the RTX 3080 in pricing. This makes sense, based on the performance we have experienced today.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti – The New Gaming Flagship
Quite simply, the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti is a GeForce RTX 3090, stepped down. It is closer to the specification of an RTX 3090 than it is the RTX 3080. Though the board design matches the RTX 3080 design. It is based on the Ampere Architecture.
The GeForce RTX 3080 Ti is based on the Samsung 8nm GA102-225 die. It has 10,240 CUDA Cores, 112 ROPs, 320 TMUs, 80 RT Cores (2nd Gen), and 320 Tensor Cores (3rd Gen.) It operates at a Boost Clock of 1665MHz. It has 12GB of GDDR6X memory at 19GHz on a 384-bit memory bus providing 912GB/s of bandwidth. The TDP is 350W.
| GeForce RTX 3090 FE | GeForce RTX 3080 Ti FE | GeForce RTX 3080 FE | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Process/Die/Arch. | 8nm GA102-300 Ampere | 8nm GA102-225 Ampere | 8nm GA102-200 Ampere |
| CUDA Cores | 10496 | 10240 | 8704 |
| ROPs | 112 | 112 | 96 |
| TMUs | 328 | 320 | 272 |
| RT Cores | 82 | 80 | 68 |
| Tensor Cores | 328 | 320 | 272 |
| Boost Clock | 1695MHz | 1665MHz | 1710MHz |
| VRAM | 24GB GDDR6X 19.5GHz | 12GB GDDR6X 19GHz | 10GB GDDR6X 19GHz |
| Bus and Bandwidth | 384-bit 936GB/s | 384-bit 912GB/s | 320-bit 760GB/s |
| TDP | 350W | 350W | 320W |
For comparison, the GeForce RTX 3090 is based on the Samsung 8nm GA102-300 die. It has 10,496 CUDA Cores, 112 ROPs, 328 TMUs, 82 RT Cores (2nd Gen), and 328 Tensor Cores (3rd Gen.) It operates at a Boost Clock of 1695MHz. It has 24GB of GDDR6X memory at 19.5GHz on a 384-bit memory bus providing 936GB/s of bandwidth. The TDP is 350W.
A GeForce RTX 3080 is based on the Samsung 8nm GA102-200 die. It has 8,704 CUDA Cores, 96 ROPs, 272 TMUs, 68 RT Cores (2nd Gen), and 272 Tensor Cores (3rd Gen.) It operates at a Boost Clock of 1710MHz. It has 10GB of GDDR6X memory at 19GHz on a 320-bit memory bus providing 760GB/s of bandwidth. The TDP is 320W.
If the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Founders Edition looks familiar to you, that’s because this design very much is familiar. It matches the GeForce RTX 3080 Founders Design. That means it is not as wide as the GeForce RTX 3090 Founders Edition, which has a different size format. NVIDIA has managed to put the RTX 3080 Ti GPU into the same form factor as the RTX 3080 video card size. It still uses NVIDIA’s unique pass-through cooling and dual-fans that are on opposite sides in a push and pull configuration. The actual PCB is not as big as the cooler, it is much more compact.
In terms of output connections you will find three DisplayPorts and one HDMI 2.1 port. The GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Founders Edition uses NVIDIA’s custom 12-pin power connector which branches out to two 8-pin power connector connections. It requires two 8-pin power. There is a large opening on the I/O shield for air to escape.
Which one is the RTX 3080 Ti and which one is the RTX 3080? You wouldn’t be able to tell the difference until you flip it over and see which one is labeled which. They both measure 11.2 inches in length and 4.4 inches in width and are a 2-slot design.
The GeForce RTX logo is lit on top, and there is a single color light effect on the front of the video card as shown above.