Nvidia’s RTX 3080 graphics card is an exceptional performer that excels both for games and professional media workstations, making it an excellent mid-tier option in their current lineup of GPUs.
This system’s large cooler occupies two expansion slots, but its metal backplate prevents any frame flex and offers another double-wide slot for upgrades.
Performance
The RTX 3080 is an exceptional powerhouse. We’ve tested it multiple times this year and found it capable of running 4K games with high settings and stable framerate. It marks an immense upgrade over the previous generation of cards from Nvidia, making good on its promise with Turing architecture.
This card should be considered by PC builders of all stripes as an excellent addition. Although less powerful than its RTX 2080 Ti counterpart in Nvidia’s lineup, this one still delivers significantly better performance overall in nearly all situations.
Support for Ray Tracing and DLSS has also been added, giving more opportunities for visual quality enhancement in various titles. 2019 should see several key games support both technologies such as Cyberpunk 2077, Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War and Watch Dogs Legion among others.
The RTX 3080 excels at content creation workloads too, scoring an outstanding SPECviewPerf score of 157 and 493 respectively in 3dsmax-07 and maya-06 tests respectively – giving it an edge over its nearest competition and more than double the performance of its predecessor, the RTX 2070. Note however, that with its 320W TDP consumption requirement, you will require a sufficiently-powered PSU.
Cooling
The RTX 3080 may not be quite as large as its sibling, the RTX 2080 Ti, but it still takes up two and a half PCIe expansion slots and features a custom cooling system with metal back plate and three fans – each boasting red LED lights to add some flair.
The metal backplate not only adds visual appeal, but it also protects the card from dust, dropped screws, drill shavings, abrasion and moisture resistance/corrosion protection. Furthermore, this moisture proof and anti-corrosion finish makes the RTX 3080 suitable for environments with high humidity or salt spray that could otherwise shorten its lifespan or cause permanent damage.
One significant shift is that cooling hardware has now adapted by adding one fan on either side of each card for improved airflow, instead of blowing air straight out through your case like traditional blower coolers do. This feature should help maintain cooler temps for both your motherboard’s CPU cooler and rear case fans, and help keep everything operating optimally.
The RTX 3080 GPU is powered by a 12-pin power connector capable of pushing up to 320W at maximum load – this requires a power supply unit with sufficient capacity.
Design
The RTX 3080 is an eye-catching graphics card. With its pennant shape and new cooling shroud, its design stands out as superior to previous GPUs with their boxy shapes and loud fans. Furthermore, this GPU stays cool and quiet even when overclocked – perfect for creating the centerpiece of your build!
The card features an inward-indented design to allow it to breathe when stacked with other cards, increasing airflow and heat dissipation. A vapor chamber, long-winded heat pipe and black metal frame help dissipate heat to keep its GPU operating cool.
Galax offers three versions of its powerful RTX 3080 graphics card, including a pink one (which unfortunately we were unable to test). All models come factory overclocked at 1,755MHz; further overclocking can be accomplished using Galax’s 1-Click OC utility. Cooling comes from two 92mm RGB LED fans at either end as well as an 80 mm spinner in the center.
Nvidia rated their RTX 3080 with an impressive 320W TDP, which places it smack dab at the sweet spot for high-end gaming PCs. As such, a robust power supply will be necessary if it’s to run demanding 4K gaming at near max settings without breaking a sweat – prompting some premium gamers to consider AMD’s forthcoming Big Navi as it promises top ray-tracing performance at lower costs than Nvidia’s offering – although Nvidia still has plenty of time to cement its place as leader of high-end gaming, especially since support remains largely dormant in most popular esports titles today!
Value
The RTX 3080 may no longer be cutting edge, but its second-generation ray tracing and DLSS upscaling still give it the edge over AMD Ada architecture cards. This high-fidelity GPU should easily drive most modern titles at 4K resolution with decent frame rates while offering great upgrades from its predecessor, the GTX 1070.
Nvidia’s 3080 offers excellent value if you can find it on sale, reaching 60 frames per second at both 4K and high-refresh-rate 1440p, something most gamers struggle with older graphics cards.
2024 is still offering several 3080s at MSRP or near MSRP prices, though most affordable models will likely come from secondhand or ex-crypto mining models – you should be able to secure one for about $500.
The ideal RTX 3080s feature excellent factory overclocks and some form of cooling, like those offered by Gigabyte’s Aorus RTX 3080 Xtreme 10G which features a higher factory overclock of 1,905MHz peak boost than its vanilla version; Zotac Trinity OC on the other hand boasts lower factory overclocking but operates more quietly due to its larger cooling design.
