Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Founders Edition examined

[kalniel]

so it is the 20XX Series variant 2?

We'll have to wait for the architecture deep dives, but so far it looks, like most GPUs, like an evolution of the previous rather than a completely ground up design. But that's normal, you don't throw away previous R&D until you have something better.

That said, it's definitely on a new process, and it's definitely changed with respect to pipelines and capabilities/power of tensor cores etc. so no, I wouldn't say it's like any kind of variant of a 20XX series.

[ohmaheid]

28% increase in power for a roughly similar performance bump in synthetics.
But then again, it is much cheaper than the 2080ti, and personally, I think it is triumph of industrial design.
I'm not sure RDNA2 can compete.

[mtyson]

Unboxing for those that care about such things:

[Tabbykatze]

Wasn't it already stated that Nvidias founders editions cards are [ul]not[/ul] reference?

[kalniel]

Wasn't it already stated that Nvidias founders editions cards are [ul]not[/ul] reference?

Nothing has been said about that this generation.

[blokeinkent]

Wasn't it already stated that Nvidias founders editions cards are [ul]not[/ul] reference?

The 3080 FE is definitely not reference. It's a custom board.

[kalniel]

The 3080 FE is definitely not reference. It's a custom board.

If Nvidia use one board, and partners use another, which is the reference?

[blokeinkent]

If Nvidia use one board, and partners use another, which is the reference?

The one Nvidia gave to the partners to work from. IIRC this is the first FE they've released like this but then they've only sold their own card since Pascal

[blokeinkent]

The one Nvidia gave to the partners to work from. IIRC this is the first FE they've released like this but then they've only sold their own card since Pascal

Check this article

[Tabbykatze]

Basically, Nvidia has said stuff you to their AIBs and gone their own way with their cards and given a traditional design to AIBs.

I can now see the Hexus article has been edited to remove any term of "reference".

[Spud1]

are we actually looking at something that is as impressive as we've been lead to believe,.

We won't know for sure until Monday - but the youtubers and tech reviewers who have cards so far all *imply* that it is pretty much as impressive a leap forwards as Nvidia claim. I'm sure some of it is baiting, but there is a pattern of comments from most of them that really imply it's going to be a good card.

Really curious!

[[GSV]Trig]

We won't know for sure until Monday - but the youtubers and tech reviewers who have cards so far all *imply* that it is pretty much as impressive a leap forwards as Nvidia claim. I'm sure some of it is baiting, but there is a pattern of comments from most of them that really imply it's going to be a good card.

Really curious!

I want a new card, I have money for a new card, but all this about it needing more power (250w of Turing > 320 of Ampere) CUDA cores not being as powerful hence it having/needing more, rumours about yeild issues and NVidia struggling to get capacity on 7nm so having to go to 8nm etc, makes me think this could be a huge red herring...

[Spud1]

I want a new card, I have money for a new card, but all this about it needing more power (250w of Turing > 320 of Ampere) CUDA cores not being as powerful hence it having/needing more, rumours about yeild issues and NVidia struggling to get capacity on 7nm so having to go to 8nm etc, makes me think this could be a huge red herring...

Thats fair, but I also think there is a big difference between a technical leap forward and an end user one.
For most people, and that includes me, they won't care two hoots *how* Nvidia manage to give you an extra 20-30% more FPS - just that it does. Even if the 3080 was just a highly overclocked 2080....wouldn't matter really.

I DO think they are massively over hyping the technical leaps forward, but I don't think the real world impact to consumers is being over hyped by *that* much. I'd be happy with a 30% gain in most games, with 40-50 in optimised titles - that would just about hit what I want from my next card.

[jnutt]

I want one

[DevDrake]

I want one

Me too.

But not sure I want it enough to buy it

[iworrall]

Is it just me? Or is the "FE" card (inc cooler) smaller than ANYTHING offered by the AIBs?
Other 3080s all seem to be at least 2.7 slots wide.