Introduction
With costs dropping this fall, cards like these are becoming more appealing, sometimes the “next step-down” in a product SKU can be appealing, and this is one of those cards from ASUS. On our test bench, today is the ASUS TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 3080 Ti OC Edition Video Card Review (TUF-RTX3080Ti-O12G-GAMING). The ASUS TUF brand is a step down from the ROG STRIX branding but still constitutes custom-made cards, with custom cooling and factory overclocks geared for enthusiasts and gamers. They provide a step-up from the standard and basic video card SKUs.
If you browse ASUS’s GeForce RTX 3080 Ti GPU lineup, you will find many different cards offered. At the very top-end you will find the ROG STRIX liquid-cooled and air-cooled models, then directly down from that is the more affordable TUF series that we are reviewing today. One of the obvious advantages is that these are still based on the same GeForce RTX 3080 Ti GPUs but at lower prices. In the TUF series, there are two models available, the 12G-GAMING and the O12G-GAMING. The difference is that the O12G-GAMING is known as the “OC Edition” and has a factory overclock and a higher selectable OC mode overclock in software as well. The 12G-GAMING just runs at the reference clock for an RTX 3080 Ti, but both have the same design and cooler.
GPU Specs
Let us go over the base specs on the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti GPU. The GeForce RTX 3080 Ti has an MSRP of $1,199 and was launched in June of 2021. It is based on SAMSUNG 8nm manufacturing process and NVIDIA’s Ampere architecture. The GPU is based on GA102-225 and has 10,240 CUDA Cores, 112 ROPs, 320 TMUs, 80 Ray Tracing Cores (2nd Gen), and 320 Tensor Cores (3rd Gen). It runs at a Boost Clock of 1665MHz with 12GB of GDDR6X memory at 19GHz on a 384-bit memory bus providing 912GB/s bandwidth. TDP is 350W.
ASUS TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 3080 Ti OC Edition
The ASUS TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 3080 Ti OC Edition has a factory overclock of 1755MHz GPU Boost Clock. This is 90MHz higher than the default reference spec of 1665MHz. There is also an optional OC Mode that can be enabled in GPU Tweak III that sets the boost clock even higher at 1785MHz with a single easy click for easy overclocking. This video card also has a dual-BIOS, making it unique, with a switch that switches between the default (Performance) or the optional (Quiet) mode. This reduces the card back to reference specs and lower power and heat.
This video card has 2x HDMI 2.1 ports and 3x DisplayPort 1.4a ports, for multiple display support of 4 devices, which is good for creators. The video card measures 11.81 inches in length, 5 inches in width, and 2.04 inches in height and is considered a 2.7 Slot video card. ASUS recommends an 850W PSU and there are 2x 8-pin PCIe power connectors required.
The ASUS TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 3080 Ti OC Edition is based on a slick design and triple axial-tech fan design with TUF components, Auto-Extreme technology, and a backplate. The axial-tech fan design has three fans working in tandem using dual-ball fan bearings. The two side fans spin counterclockwise to reduce turbulence. All fans support stop mode which halts their rotation under 50c.
The heatsink is split into two separate heatsinks for your GPU and memory/VRMs. It has heatsink that supports ASUS Max Contact technology to make the heatspreader flatter for better contact with the die. The heatsink is very thick in a 2.7-slot design to provide better surface area. There is a completely separate VRAM heatsink for it and RAM.
The components on the PCB are the military-grade ASUS TUF chokes, MOSFETs, and capacitors. They are soldered onto the PCB using Auto-Extreme automated manufacturing process. The cards are subjected to 144-hour validation trial tests. The all-aluminum shroud adds robust protection to the TUF video card and has a non-nonsense industrial design. The video card supports ASUS AURA SYNC and has ARGB on the top.
