Conclusion
In this review, we took the EVGA GeForce RTX 3080 12GB FTW3 ULTRA GAMING for a ride on our test bench to see how the RTX 3080 12GB GPU compares against its close cousins and its AMD competition. Our conclusion today includes both remarks on the marketing position of the GPU family and our thoughts on the EVGA GeForce RTX 3080 12GB FTW3 itself.
Gaming Performance
1440p
The EVGA GeForce RTX 3080 12GB FTW3 ULTRA GAMING performed well against the competition, generally performing faster than the RTX 3080 10GB variant of itself and better than the ASUS TUF RX 6800 XT. The RTX 3080 Ti variant outperformed it across the board by a small margin, but overclocking handed the lead to the EVGA GeForce RTX 308. It provided a solid 1440p gaming experience with all of the image quality knobs turned up to 11 (except for Ray Tracing). If you’re rocking a 1440p monitor, the EVGA GeForce RTX 3080 12GB FTW3 ULTRA GAMING will do just fine for your gaming needs at this time.
4K
Moving up to 4K provided a similar set of performance rankings as we saw at 1440p – the EVGA GeForce RTX 3080 12GB FTW3 ULTRA GAMING trailed only the RTX 3080 Ti until we overclocked it. Across the board, the EVGA GeForce RTX 3080 12GB FTW3 ULTRA GAMING provided a good 4K experience except for within Cyberpunk 2077.
Ray Tracing and DLSS
When Ray Tracing was added to the testing equation at 1440p, the EVGA GeForce RTX 3080 12GB FTW3 ULTRA GAMING kept on ticking by providing a good playing experience across all of the games, except for, of course, Cyberpunk 2077. DLSS was icing on the cake to improve frame rates but overall wasn’t necessary to enjoy the experience.
When we dialed it up to 4K, performance was sandbagged to the point where DLSS was needed to provide a good gaming experience in most games, however, Dirt 5 and Far Cry 6 were both passable at 4K with Ray Tracing.
Power and Temperature
The EVGA GeForce RTX 3080 12GB FTW3 ULTRA GAMING maintained its cool at 72.3 degrees Celsius with its default configuration and dropped to 60.3 degrees Celsius when overclocked and its fans set to full blast.
The EVGA GeForce RTX 3080 12GB FTW3 ULTRA GAMING munched on the power like the Cookie Monster munches on cookies, using a total of 408W of total board power while gaming, out munching its competition across the board. Overclocking only increased power draw by 38W.
Overclocking
The EVGA GeForce RTX 3080 12GB FTW3 ULTRA GAMING entered the match with a factory overclock that gave it a running start compared to the GeForce RTX 3080 Founders Edition. We were able to take it to the next level and stabilized it at an average 2115MHz and 22.2GHz memory. That makes the observed core clock 210MHz and the memory 3.2GHz faster than the stock EVGA GeForce RTX 3080 12GB FTW3 ULTRA GAMING clocks.
The overclock allowed the EVGA GeForce RTX 3080 12GB FTW3 ULTRA GAMING to pull ahead of its EVGA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti FTW3 ULTRA GAMING cousin in each of the games and scenarios that we tested.
Final Points
The RTX 3080 12GB GPU
There are a few things to unpack with this GPU release, but it appears to be consistent with the direction of micro-segmentation that NVIDIA has been doing with its RTX 30 Series product lines as time has gone on. Before the RTX 3080 Ti arrived, the gap between the RTX 3080 10GB and RTX 3090 was already fairly small – in some cases, a well overclocked RTX 3080 could approach RTX 3090 speeds (assuming VRAM did not become an issue).
Yet, NVIDIA cranked out the RTX 3080 Ti and placed it in between with the RTX 3080 Ti splitting the difference between the 3080 and 3090 at stock, and when overclocked, the RTX 3080 Ti can reach RTX 3090 performance levels.
Great, we now have 3 cards within the swinging range of performance, so enter the RTX 3080 12GB GPU giving us a total of four contenders that are not very well differentiated between each other on performance, and aren’t all that far apart on-street pricing either.
From a performance perspective, the RTX 3080 12GB GPU provides the same gaming experience as the 3080 Ti, as well as the RTX 3080 10GB GPU (except in the corner cases where VRAM is a limiter – rare in today’s games). Given how hard all three GPUs are to find on the market, I’d keep an eye out for any of them that fits a price you’re willing to pay and you’ll have a good gaming experience as a result.
The EVGA RTX 3080 12GB FTW3 ULTRA GAMING
To wrap things up, and focusing on the product reviewed, the EVGA GeForce RTX 3080 12GB FTW3 ULTRA GAMING is a solid contender from EVGA. It performed within striking distance of its GeForce RTX 3080 Ti based cousin and then outperformed it once we overclocked it to 11. While the change from white trim to silver translucent trim gave us fits in the photobooth, it’s a classy add-on to go with the RGB bling.
When comparing the EVGA GeForce RTX 3080 12GB FTW3 ULTRA GAMING to its RTX 3080 10GB variant, it outperforms it across the board by a fairly small margin, just like its RTX 3080 Ti variant outperforms it by a small margin. When comparing it to the ASUS TUF RX 6800 XT OC, the EVGA GeForce RTX 3080 12GB FTW3 ULTRA GAMING slaps it around with a large trout. Ray tracing with DLSS enabled is playable at 4K in most games that we tested.
With all things considered, if you have a split second to buy a 30 Series GPU and you get the EVGA queue notification into your inbox, then the EVGA GeForce RTX 3080 12GB FTW3 ULTRA GAMING is absolutely worth making the purchase and enjoying your upgraded gaming experience.
