Conclusion
Today we evaluated the ASUS ROG STRIX LC RTX 3080 Ti O12G GAMING video card, a liquid-cooled video card with a GeForce RTX 3080 Ti. This video card represents ASUS’s premier video card offering in the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti lineup it has. This is based on the ROG STRIX model and branding and sits at the top right above the air-cooled ROG STRIX O12G GAMING that we also reviewed.
This positioning and nature of the video card don’t come cheap. But with prices finally coming back down to Earth, and availability creeping its way into existence, this is a card you don’t want to miss. The ASUS ROG STRIX LC RTX 3080 Ti O12G GAMING comes out of the box with a factory GPU Boost overclock set at 1830MHz. It has a blower-style cooling on the card itself, with a connected and pre-installed 240mm radiator and two 120mm fans with all the cabling pre-connected for an AIO solution for cooling.
Performance
To compare performance, we tested the ASUS ROG STRIX LC RTX 3080 Ti against an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Founders Edition and the competition’s AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT. The goal we wanted to find out was if the ASUS ROG STRIX LC RTX 3080 Ti would actually perform faster than the Founders Edition with its improved consistent clock speed thanks to the liquid cooling. The answer was a clear: “Yes.”
In Dying Light 2 the ASUS ROG STRIX LC RTX 3080 Ti started off strong at 4K by providing a playable gameplay experience and 4% faster performance than the Founders Edition. It was also 15% faster than the Radeon RX 6900 XT. Enabling DLSS was a real boon for performance, increasing performance by 47%. The same trend continued in Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Extraction. The ASUS ROG STRIX LC RTX 3080 Ti was more than playable at 4K and the highest settings and was 5% faster than the Founders Edition. It was a larger 28% faster than the Radeon RX 6900 XT. Once again enabling DLSS really boosted performance by a large amount, 47%.
In Forza Horizon 5 the ASUS ROG STRIX LC RTX 3080 Ti allowed a playable gameplay experience at 4K as well. It was 4% faster than the Founders Edition and 13% faster than the Radeon RX 6900 XT. In this game, CAS can improve performance by 13%. In Far Cry 6 we saw the ASUS ROG STRIX LC RTX 3080 Ti was also very playable at 4K with the highest settings and was faster than the Founders Edition and RX 6900 XT.
Cyberpunk 2077 was very demanding at 4K at “Ultra” settings and was not playable. This was true of all the video cards. However, by enabling DLSS the game did become playable, DLSS performance improvement was 50% and performance was now a lot better. However, you may still want to drop to “High” settings in this game at 4K to really make it feel smooth. The ASUS ROG STRIX LC RTX 3080 Ti was faster than the Founders and RX 6900 XT once again.
Finally, in Watch Dogs the ASUS ROG STRIX LC RTX 3080 Ti was very playable at 4K and “Ultra” settings. It was 3% faster than the Founders and 12% faster than the Radeon RX 6900 XT. DLSS also helps a lot in this game and increased the performance by 33% taking it to above 80FPS.
When we move on to looking at Ray Tracing performance, we find that overall, the performance is faster than the Founders Edition, and multiple times faster than the Radeon RX 6900 XT. However, we do have to lower the resolution in a few games to really utilize Ray Tracing.
In Dying Light 2 lowering the game to 1440p allows you to play smoothly with full Ray Tracing on the ASUS ROG STRIX LC RTX 3080 Ti. DLSS can bump this up quite a bit. The same is also true in Cyberpunk 2077, though for that game even 1440p almost isn’t enough. You really want to be using DLSS in that game to get it playable with Ray Tracing. In Far Cry 6 though, DXR Ray Tracing plays very well and is playable at 4K on the ASUS ROG STRIX LC RTX 3080 Ti. In Watch Dogs Legion the game is playable with Ray Tracing at 1440p, but with DLSS takes it up to 80FPS.
Overclocking
Overclocking was the real gem of the ASUS ROG STRIX LC RTX 3080 Ti O12G GAMING video card. First and foremost, because of the liquid cooling, the 1830MHz Boost Clock actually runs much higher and more consistent than air-cooled cards. The liquid cooling allows NVIDIA GPU Boost to clock the frequency higher than the air-cooled variant. That resulted in a 4-6% average performance uplift over the Founders Edition alone.
Thanks to the liquid cooling we were able to overclock the GPU and memory to the highest tier of overclocking heights on each component. We were even able to raise the GPU Voltage this time without negative effects. We were able to push the GPU Boost up to 1960MHz and the memory overclocks to 21.5GHz. This resulted in a memory bandwidth of over 1TB/s. The GPU overclock resulted in a clock speed of just under 2000MHz while gaming. This is at the limits of the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti GPU.
Due to the liquid cooling temperatures remained insanely cool. Out of the box the GPU ran at 50c, and with our overclock even cooler at 45c with 100% fan speeds. Even more impressive was how cool the memory modules ran, 72c compared to the Founders Edition which runs at 96c, or even the air-cooled ROG STRIX RTX 3080 Ti which runs at 82c on the memory.
Final Points
Every now and then you come across some hardware you are reviewing that just really stands out, and the ASUS ROG STRIX LC RTX 3080 Ti O12G GAMING is one of those stand-out pieces of hardware. You can tell ASUS put everything into this video card you can tell hard work and dedication were put into making this an appealing video card for computer enthusiasts and gamers alike.
But it’s not just all looks either, the ASUS ROG STRIX LC RTX 3080 Ti O12G GAMING performs, and we mean that in multiple ways. The video card performs in terms of out-of-box default performance. The liquid cooling and high GPU Boost factory overclock result in real performance advantages over a stock video card. It also does it very quietly. The video card also performs when you overclock it, with plenty of thermal headroom you are not held back from the highest possible overclocks. It can be pushed on GPU, Voltage, and memory overclocking without breaking a sweat, again very quietly.
It also performs on gaming performance, allowing 4K gaming in many games, and with DLSS that range and practical usefulness is extended. Ray Tracing is fast, and depending on the game is doable at 4K or 1440p, and throw on DLSS, and that range is also extended. Then, the video card also performs in the way it looks, as we mentioned, it’s a looker. Any way you want to slice it, the ASUS ROG STRIX LC RTX 3080 Ti O12G GAMING, performs. With prices and availability getting better, this video card just got a lot more interesting.
